I am my sport: Sport
and Social Identity
what is the most important thing to
remember about defining sport?
Today’s 1 minute paper:
what symbolic meanings have your family or
friends given to sport?
social identity?
1
What is
2
Symbolic
interactionism
Sporting Meanings
3
Rookie mistakes and
sporting (sub)cultures
4
Sporting Careers
Becoming entangled/detangled
from sport
Identity
The things you have in
common with others
belonging
The things that
differentiate you from
others
A sense of personal
location
But it is not stable
Identities are plural and
changeable
Social identities: the
meanings attached to
social roles,
memberships, social
categories
Self is formed in interaction with
society
Charles Cooley: “looking
glass self”
Erving Goffman: social life
a theatrical performance
- need backstage area to
prepare for next
performance
Self-presentation contrived
for audience even if not
physically present
Alan Klein: socialisation of
Dominican baseball players
in baseball academies for
US
“It’s very prestigious
playing in the the States.
Everybody knows you
now. They follow you.
But unfortunately, in the
Dominican Republic when
a player gets released,
you wouldn’t believe the
shame. You’re worthless.
You’re a failure. If you
don’t make it, it’s like
you broke the dream”
Symbolic Interaction Theory
Life is a process of ongoing activity
- definition or interpretation
To pursue plans, humans construct
a meaningful definition of their
situation and act on the basis of
this definition
“In order to understand the actions of
people it is necessary to identify
their world of objects” Herbert
Blumer
Objects of the world not brute
facts but mental constructions
Is a bus an object or a mental
construction?
status” (178)
Crossett, T. (1999)“Fans, status and the gift of golf” In J. Coakley &
P. Donnelly (eds.) Inside sports, Routledge: London
“By asking for an autograph, the fan pays tribute to the athlete. The
athlete repays with an autograph, material evidence that the fan was
in the presence of the athlete - a gift of status” (178)
Symbols of sport social groups
Symbols part of shared stock of
meanings specific to every
social group
We are part-time citizens in a
variety of “small life worlds” in
which we feel “at home”
Sporting groups provide “at
homeness”
“Outside world” perceived dimly
Significance of others constructed through
the use of symbols
Behaviour
Importance of
becomes
language – e.g.
symbolic when
words
for
people ascribe
waves in surfer
meaning to it
slang
Meaning
becomes basis Are there
of their actions specific words
associated
Actors must
interpret other with the sport
people and
worlds you
their actions
belong to?
Rookie mistakes
Rock
climbing and
rugby
sporting
subcultures
Impression management
- rookies need to learn
to control expressions of
fear
Boastful or precocious
novices often given “the
treatment” - taken on
frightening climbs
“It was quite obvious that
they weren’t climbers
because they had a
complete rack [of
equipment] each and all of
the chocks were threaded
upside down! I watched
them for a while and they
just walked up and down,
stopped and had a drink,
and every now and again
they would put the rope
down and chalk up [their
hands] as if they were going
to do a climb. Then they
would pick up their gear
and move on.
Unbelievable!”
I.D.
How does the film suggest that the central
figure develops an identity of a football
hooligan?
Can we apply the concept of a “looking
glass self” to explain the characters in
the film?
I.D. Film Trailer
in the wapping home end
Tiger Woods child
prodigy on the Mike
Douglas show
How do young athletes
develop a sporting
identity?
Taylor Phinney racing cylist - son of
professional racing Davis Phinney
and Olympic racing cyclist and speed
skater Connie Carpenter-Phinney
How do young athletes stay in
sport?
Ten years on are English Schools Amateur Athletics finalists still involved in
sport? From “Bridging the Gap” (England Athletics, 2011)
A sporting career
Process of
interpretation
inherent in all
interactions
Stevenson, C. (1999)
“"Becoming an
international athlete:
making decisions about
identity.
Careers of international
athletes - introductions
to sports a process of
“sponsored recruitment”
by parents, siblings,
friends, coaches
Become entangled in role
as consequence of
personal relationships,
commitments and
obligations, reputations
and identities
The process of becoming an elite
athlete
Sponsored recruitment
‘Coerced’ recruitment
Key features of sponsorship
• Importance of family/friends…
• Value sponsor placed on sporting
identity
• Gender
Choosing a sport
– Possibilities for success
– Role identity recognised by self and other as
desirable
Commitment
Entanglements
Relationships
Commitments and obligations
Reputations and identities
Commitment entails conscious, selfreflexive work to develop desirable
identities.
Sporting identity as process:
becoming an athlete
Did your involvement in sport
follow Stephenson’s account of
entanglements, commitments
and identities? Did you make any
rookie mistakes? Did you have
your own subcultural values,
language, clothing, behaviours?
Could this also account for why
some young people are turned
off sport?
Are all meanings equal?
Are we asked to prefer some
meanings over others?
Who controls meaning-making?
Do we make our own meanings, or
are they thrust upon us?
Classic sociological debate: social
structure Vs individual agency
Ideology
and
Discourse
Ideologies are sets of
beliefs that are taken
for granted in society
They appear to be true
but actually serve to
support the interests
of a dominant group,
e.g. the privileged
classes
Discourses are ways of
talking about issues
that constrain the
limits of what can be
thought or said
Louis Althusser (1918-1990)
Ideological State
Apparatuses
Family, media, education
… sports?
Interpellate or “hail”
individuals
Like a policeman shouting
“Hey you!”
When you turn in
recognition you
become subject to his
meanings and
definitions
1 minute paper
what symbolic meanings have your family or
friends given to sport?
1
Considered the relationship between
sport and social identity
2
Used concepts from symbolic
interactionism to illuminate
sport
3
Identified language and rookie
mistakes as a way of thinking about
meanings in sporting cultures
4
Begun to analyse personal sporting
biographies in the light of
Stevenson’s ideas about the social
construction of the sporting career