The meaning of sport. Why sports matters?

The meaning of sport

Origins of sport

In 776 BC the city of Olympia inaugurated the tradition of reuniting all the city-states within Greece. Olympics were sacred festivals honoring Zeus and therefore wars had to stop for the duration of the games. A safe passage was guaranteed to every athlete in their journey home.

The meaning of sport

Origins of sport

The truce imposed by the Olympic Games served the purpose of reducing the hostilities in the Mediterranean Sea. And that was good for business.

The meaning of sport

Origins of sport

Greeks had wide acceptance of violence

“Whether of not the victor of one Olympiad sent his javelin farther than the one thrown four years earlier seems to have been a matter of indifference. Similarly, the winner of the discus thrown at the Panathenaic festival may or may not have outdistanced the winner at Nemea or Pergamum”

Allen Guttman (1978)

The meaning of sport

Origins of sport

A prize-winner athlete was considered a national hero and could return home and live the rest of his life out of the gifts he received

The meaning of sport

Origins of sport

Sport was a central part of the Greek

education.

We regard Socrates or Plato as great thinkers

but they were also considered great athletes by their contemporaries

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/opinion/sunday/platos-body-and-mine.html

The meaning of sport

Origins of sport

In 393 AD the Roman Emperor Theodosius I banned the Olympic Games. As pagans festivals, they were believed to contradict the teachings of the Christian Faith

The meaning of sport

Origins of sport

In 1896 Baron de Coubertin reinstated the Olympic Games

The meaning of sport

Sport as a religion

1. the stadium as the Sacred land2. Social groups stratified in the terrace3. Sacred calendar4. Sacred numbers and tokens5. Superstition6. Trophies, cups: elevation7. Offering the victory to God

Origins of sportSport and Religion

1. the stadium as the Sacred land

2. Social groups stratified in the terrace

3. Sacred calendar

4. Sacred numbers and tokens

5. Superstition

6. Trophies, cups: elevation

7. Offering the victory to God

The meaning of sport

Origins of Modern Sport

Some scholars (Brohm, Bourdieu, Dunning) point out that, contrary to common thinking, sport is not “as old as the world”

19th Century

21st Century

“Sports restore to mankind some of the functions which machines have taken away from him”

Adorno (circa 1972)

The meaning of sport

Origins of Modern Sport

In the UK, public (boarding) schools designed a method to educate the children of the bourgeoisie

http://www.amazon.com/Quest-Excitement-Leisure-Civilizing-Process/dp/0631146547

The meaning of sport

Origins of Modern Sport

Sport was a leisure activity for social control. Insurrection and sexuality in adolescents were to be uprooted.

The meaning of sport

Origins of Football

Before the 19th century some games already resembled the game of football

The meaning of sport

Origins of Football

In 1848 the Cambridge Rules were redacted. By that time, each town had its own set of rules for playing football

The meaning of sport

Origins of Football

In 1863 Ebenezer Morley, an English solicitor, wrote a letter to a newspaper, The Bell’s Life, proposing a meeting in order to negotiate a common set of rules

The meaning of sport

Origins of Football

On 26 October 1863 representatives of a number of football clubs gathered at the Freemason’s Tavern in Covent Garden, London. They created the Football Association (FA).

The meaning of sport

Origins of Football

Many clubs originated in the workplace. Workers from the factories team up to form football clubs

Arsenal FC (Royal Arsenal)- 1886 Manchester United FC (Lancashire and Yorkshire

Railway)- 1878

The meaning of sport

Can we draw a parallel between sport values and current society?

1. Success through effort2. Meritocracy3. Healthy life4. Competitiveness5. Regulated violence6. Progress7. Star system, “the best suited ones”8. The “allowed” emotions9. Everything can be quantified

Why Sport Matters

1. Success through effort

2. Meritocracy

3. Healthy life

Enemy Rival

4. Competitiveness

“Sport is the capitalistically distorted form of play”

Allen Guttman (1978)

Would you rather support a winning team or an amusing team?

5. Regulated violence

“The first laws ever to be voluntarily embraced by men from a variety of cultures and backgrounds are the laws of sports”

Ali Mazrui (1976)

“Sport works as a legitimating tool of the establishment. Sport is always conciliatory, never rebellious. The legitimating function comes from its optimistic ideology which believes in an uninterrupted, ascending and lineal progress”

JM Brohm (1993)

“Sport is one of the strongest factors removing the element of play from bodily activity. A child which practices a sport is no longer playing but is taking his place in a world of serious matters, sanctioned by authority”

JM Brohm (1976)

6. Progress

7. Star system

8. The ‘allowed’ emotions

“Pleasure is, so to speak, nature’s vengeance. In pleasure men disavow thought and escape civilization”

Horkheimer and Adorno (1972)

9. Everything can be quantified

The meaning of sport

Why Sport Matters

Final questions

Can we talk about the ‘sportivization’ of our society?

“Claims to identify among football fans are often charged with moral imperatives about “true”, “life-long”, “real”, “genuine” support. Football fans like to see themselves as active participants in the drama of elite-level performances. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why football has, in our time, evolved into a dominant embodiment of civic pride and identity in Europe, South America, Africa and large part of Asia”

Thore Roksvold and Roy KrØvel (2012)

Do you think FC Barcelona supporters would claim Barça to be their ‘primary social identity’? Rather than “being Catalan”?

Do you think Green Bay Packers’ supporters would claim “being a Packer” their ‘primary social identity’? Rather than “being

American”?

“The sports spectacle is a key factor for the “fascistization” of the masses (parades, flags, anthems, salutes…). People get used to the military and police repressive apparatus, always present in sports contests”

JM Brohm (1993)

Sport: “A quest for excitement in unexciting societies”

Norbert Elias and Eric Dunning (1970)