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patterns of consumption and normalizing the consumer society.

While Rojek (1992: 8) recognizes that this cultural studies approach is

useful because of its recognition of leisure and sport as deeply rooted

social processes, he also attacks this approach as being too deterministic and overtly concerned

with class and capital. In addition, he quite

rightly points out that all the case studies and fi eldwork, despite their

location within British cultural studies, have been centred on England

and English society, failing to recognize the cultural differences that

exist elsewhere, for example between Scotland and England.

Rojek places himself within another process paradigm, that of the

fi gurational sociology approach to the study of sport and leisure

(Dunning and Rojek, 1992). Drawing heavily on the work of Norbert

Elias, the fi gurational sociologists view society as a series of interlocking and dependent groups

whose interplay is in a constant state of

development and change. In other words, they place the individual at

the centre of a series of confi gurations which, as they move outwards,

become more complex, with no one factor overtly determining the

relationships between the individual and society, but a multiplicity of

factors and social groups such as the family, schooling, housing and

such like all infl uencing the individual.

Rojek argues that much of the difference between the cultural

studies approach and the fi gurational sociologists has been overemphasized. He acknowledges thata fundamental difference between the two

approaches centres on the figurational sociologists assertion that all

social science research should aspire to the conditions of detachment,

a methodology of self-consciously distancing oneself from the object of

study (Rojek, 1992: 28), rather than what Rojek views as the politically

motivated drive of cultural studies. However, he concludes that:

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The common respect for history, the common emphasis on the historical and social dimensions of

the natural and the obvious, the common

application of cultural diversity and richness these are not insignificant

common denominators. (Rojek, 1992: 28)

There is much of value in this assertion. However, the fundamental difference between the

approaches as to the location of power in society

remains. Cultural studies researchers are accused of overemphasizing

class as a determining factor in social relations, while figurational sociologists are accused of

underplaying its centrality.

In addition, the subjectivity of the researcher in any research

process and his/her ability to detach themselves from that work