Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Sport subculture'

As an area of academic and popular interest it is generally acknowledged that migrant British players and coaches were instrumental in football's global diffusion and that different technical and tactical emphases developed according to particular geographical locations and cultural milieu. As the twentieth century unfolded the trend reversed with increased inward flows of elite foreign playing and coaching labour into the upper tiers of UK football, challenging the distinctive and erstwhile dominant occupational culture of the English game. This study examines this process of sub-cultural adaptation. It is principally concerned with critical evaluation of the dynamics of occupational culture modification and any resultant tensions evidenced between expatriate and indigenous coaching talent and other interest groups operating within the higher echelons of English professional football.

Cette recherche combine les acquis de la sociologie urbaine et ceux de la sociologie des sports. Elle analyse les logiques et modalités des pratiques ludo-sportives, à la fois auto-organisées et urbaines. Ces pratiques sont non seulement dans la ville mais sont d‟abord de la ville. Elles s‟inscrivent pleinement dans le « faire lieu » au sein des espaces publics urbains. L‟enquête concerne quatre communautés pratiquantes à Paris : spéléologie urbaine, base-jump urbain, street-golf et parkour. Inspirée par une démarche socio-anthropologique, la méthodologie de recherche oscille entre un engagement (immersion au sein des communautés) et une distanciation (analyse et écriture réflexive). Avec une population constituée de trente-quatre pratiquants, nous analysons précisément le caractère éminemment sous-culturel (subculture) de ces communautés très minoritaires. Regroupés autour de représentations et de valeurs élaborées au sein du groupe, les pratiquants s‟approprient les architectures urbaines pour les modeler et les réaménager selon leurs propres logiques d‟actions. Ainsi, les modalités de pratique révèlent une motricité développée au contact des lieux urbains pratiqués. La combinaison des actions de type ramper/marcher/courir, voler/sauter et être en mouvement ou à l‟arrêt sont des modalités de pratique valorisées par ces déambulations ludo-sportives
This research combines the benefits of urban sociology and the sociology of sports. It analyzes the logical and practical modalities of fun sports, both organized and self-urban. These practices are not only in the city but are first “from” the city. They are fully in line "to place" in urban public spaces. The investigation involves four communities practicing Paris urban spelunking, base-jump Urban street golf and parkour. Inspired by a socio-anthropological research methodology varies between a commitment (immersion in the communities) and distancing (analysis and reflective writing). With a population of thirty-four practitioners, we analyze precisely the highly sub-culture (subculture) of these very small minority communities. Grouped around representations and values developed within the group, the ownership of the practice architecture for modeling and rearrange according to their own logic of action. Thus, the modalities of practice reveal a motor developed in contact with the prevailing urban places. The combination of type crawl / walk / run, fly / jump and be in motion or at standstill arrangements are enhanced by the practice of wandering sports games

Sports have recently been incorporated into international development agendas in a bid to 'empower' women and foster gender equality. Considered a masculine domain, sports are argued to empower women by challenging the status quo and their 'traditional' positions in societies. This thesis examines the use of sport in an athletic training camp for female distance runners located in Arusha, Northern Tanzania. Like other similar camps throughout East Africa, this training camp provides financial support for athletes, recruited from isolated rural areas, to live and train full time in the city. The camp was founded and is run by a Tanzanian couple, known as Gwandu and Mama Gwandu, but it has recently begun receiving financial support from an American development organisation. The director of this organisation, Karl, aims to empower the young women training in the camp by enabling them to use their sporting talent to further their education. This directly contradicts Gwandu and Mama Gwandu's goals, however, and they strive to enable the girls to improve their lives by earning money from running. The girls themselves perceive running as a unique opportunity to migrate to Arusha and distance themselves from their natal villages. The idea of earning money from running is secondary, for the girls, to the aspiration of settling permanently in the city. Although running provides a common link between the goals of the development organisation, those of Gwandu and Mama Gwandu, and those of the female athletes themselves, the overlap between these goals is only partial. Pragmatic constraints in each case mean the goals remain always unattainable and partially unachieved, and are continually readjusted to fit changing constraints and perceptions of what is possible. In discussing the different aspirations held by those involved in the training camp, this thesis highlights the multiple ways in which notions of 'modernity' can be understood and enacted. Modernity is a central theme in contemporary African anthropological literature, as is the notion of 'multiple modernities', often used to refer to the culturally diverse interpretations of the meaning of modernity and subsequent efforts to 'become modern'. Using key authors including Ferguson (1999), Snyder (2002; 2005) and Schneider (1970), this thesis argues that, drawing on different influences to enact different cultural styles, the girls, Gwandu and Mama Gwandu imagine and perform 'modernity' in different ways. Gwandu and Mama Gwandu are shown to draw on notions of maendeleo to construct a localist cultural style, which they attempt to enforce on the athletes in the camp. By contrast, the girls are argued to draw inspiration from what they perceive as the 'city' lifestyle maintained by Malkia – one of Tanzania's most successful female athletes – to construct a cosmopolitan cultural style they gradually gain performative competence in throughout their time in the camp. While both visions emphasise the importance of urbanisation, Gwandu and Mama Gwandu's localism condemns particular practices they conceive of as characteristic of "city life", including the value placed on commodities and modes of consumption that is central to the girls' cosmopolitanism. The clash between Gwandu and Mama Gwandu's goals and those of the girls is most pronounced at the beginning of their time in the camp. The girls’ compliance with camp rules increases with their time spent in the camp, as their vision increasingly overlaps with that of Gwandu and Mama Gwandu. I argue that the clash between their goals is once again pronounced after the girls have left the camp, and attempt to perform the cosmopolitan cultural style in which they have increasingly gained competence during their time in the camp. This discussion raises questions about the ways in which women can be 'empowered' through sports such as running. I argue that it is not running itself that empowers women like Malkia but, rather, the opportunity running affords them to acquire the material resources required, to perform the cosmopolitan style towards which they aspire.

Le roller derby est une discipline sportive américaine, apparue en France en 2009. Sa diffusion en Europe est notamment liée au film Bliss qui contribue à la popularisation de cet ancien sport, recréé en 2001 aux abords des milieux musicaux alternatifs du Texas. Le roller derby s’implante en France à partir d’un modèle de pratique carnavalesque, à travers lequel les équipes se plaisent à détourner les codes du sport mainstream. De plus, celles-ci tendent à s’organiser initialement autour de la logique punk do it yourself (DIY), qui consistent à refuser les logiques capitalistes en privilégiant l’autogestion. Dix ans après l’apparition de cette pratique en France, ce travail de thèse en sciences du sport entend comprendre la structuration du roller derby face au modèle sportif « traditionnel », mainstream. À partir d’une approche sociologique et ethnographique, il s’agit d’interroger la manière dont le roller derby français parvient à se structurer en dehors des cadres dominants. Le constat d’une euphémisation évidente des marqueurs subversifs et l’adoption des codes du milieu sportif fédéral suggèrent l’inscription dans la pratique dans un processus de sportivisation. Pourtant, celle-ci n’est pas ici synonyme d’une récupération par les instances sportives. Cette normalisation de la pratique prend place, au contraire, au sein même des équipes. En mobilisant les cadres de l’interactionnisme symbolique, cette recherche met en lumière le rôle joué par les actrices de la pratique au cours de cette sportivisation et les manières dont celle-ci négocient un cadre de pratique articulé entre détournement et appropriation du modèle sportif dominant. L’enjeu principal est ainsi de montrer le passage d’une pratique dite « permissive » à un sport « inclusif ». Si les joueuses défendent aujourd’hui leur place sur les terrains du sport mainstream, l’affichage d’une inclusion des minorités de genre s’est progressivement substitué aux marqueurs – carnavalesques – de subversion des codes sportifs. À mesure que les équipes quittent les « marges » du sport pour investir ses institutions, la subversion laisse place à l’inclusion, comme un ultime insigne de distance vis-à-vis du centre du milieu sportif. Néanmoins, des équipes continuent de résister au poids du modèle compétitif. À celles qui s’emparent de nouveau du DIY comme d’un moyen d’organiser autrement la pratique sportive (sans hiérarchie, de manière horizontale), d’autres choisissent de privilégier le folklore comme mode de résistance à l’homogénéisation de la pratique
Roller derby is an American sports discipline that emerged in France in 2009. Its spread in Europe is notably linked to the film Bliss, which contributes to the popularization of this ancient sport, recreated in 2001 in the alternative music scenes of Texas. Roller derby establishes itself in France based on a carnival and permissive practice model through which the teams hijacked the mainstream sport. Furthermore, teams initially organized around the punk do-it-yourself (DIY) logic, which involved rejecting capitalist logic and favoring self-management. Ten years after the emergence of this practice in France, this sports science thesis aims to understand the structuring of roller derby in relation to the "traditional," mainstream sports model. Using a sociological and ethnographic approach, the aim is to examine how French roller derby managed to structure itself outside dominant frameworks. The observation of an obvious euphemization of subversive markers and the adoption of codes from the federal sports environment suggest the incorporation of the practice into a sportification process. However, this is not synonymous with a takeover by sports authorities here. On the contrary, this normalization of practice takes place within the teams themselves. By mobilizing symbolic interactionism frameworks, this research highlights the role played by the female practitioners during this sportsification and how they negotiate a practice framework articulated between the diversion and appropriation of the dominant sports model. The main challenge is to show the transition from a so-called "permissive" practice to an "inclusive" sport. While female players now defend their place on mainstream sports fields, the display of inclusion of gender minorities has gradually replaced the carnivalesque markers of subversion of sports codes. As teams are leaving the margins of the sport to enter its institutions, subversion gives way to inclusion, as a final marker of distance from the core of the sports environment. Nevertheless, some teams continue to resist the pressure of the competitive model. Some embrace DIY as a means of organizing sports practice differently (without hierarchy, but horizontally), while others choose to prioritize folklore as a mode of resistance to the homogenization of practice

Historiskt sett har idrotten i Sverige utövats dels efter ett amatörideal i syfte att bekämpa ohälsa, dels efter eget idrottsintresse. Idrotten har sedan den etablerade sig, följt samhällsutvecklingen och anpassat sig därefter. När amatörregeln togs bort på 60-talet genomgick idrotten en förändring mot professionalisering vilket bland annat innebär att anställda inom professionella idrottsorganisationer erhåller ekonomisk ersättning för deras arbete och utövarna kunde tjäna pengar på sin idrott. Idrotten utvecklades i samhället och kommersialisering blev ett fenomen som har gett bestående inslag inom idrottsvärlden, där det nu återfinns flera kulturella värdegrunder som består av ideell, professionell och kommersiell idrott. Syftet med studien är att undersöka om de olika kulturella värdegrunderna kan förenas inom en idrottsorganisation och om det då uppstår några problematiska situationer, spänningar, när de förenas. Studien är en kvalitativ fallstudie där tre semistrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts. Resultatet utgick ifrån Schein’s organisationskultursmodell samt de kulturella värdegrundernas identiteter och visade på att organisationskulturen formas och integreras av ideell, professionell och kommersiell idrott samt att det uppstår spänningar när dem förenas i en organisation. I detta fall blir den professionella och kommersiella verksamheten mer dominerande i organisationskulturen.
Historically, sports in Sweden have been practiced either according to an amateur ideal for the purpose of combating ill-health or and in accordance with the athletes own sports interest. Since its establishment, sport has followed social development and adapted accordingly. When the amateur rule was removed in 1967, the sport underwent a change towards professionalization. It is primarily sports organizations that compete at the highest level and with a focus on team sports that have embraced this professionalization. The professionalization meant that employees in sports organizations were paid a salary and that the athletes could make money from their sports. Development in sport has since continued in line with society and commercialization has become a phenomenon as well as a lasting element that has taken over parts of the power in the sports world. This has created different cultural values ​​in sports.  We now talk about non-profit -, professional - and commercial sports. This study investigates whether these values ​​can work together within an elite organization and what tensions may arise between them. The study is a qualitative case study in which three semi-structured interviews have been conducted. The analysis was based on Schein's organizational culture model, which focuses on the levels of artifacts, espoused beliefs and values ​​and basic underlying assumptions. The result showed that organizational culture is shaped and integrated by the different cultural values.

En France, certains supporters de football se revendiquent ultras ou hooligans et mettent en scène leur sentiment d’appartenance. Ces entités, qui regroupent majoritairement de jeunes hommes, apparaissent de façon embryonnaire à la fin des années 1970 en France et plus certainement au milieu des années 1980.Cette thèse analyse l’émergence et le développement des groupes de supporters radicaux de football. Il s’agit ici d’interroger le phénomène dans la durée, de « contextualiser » son avènement et son développement en France.En outre, grâce à un corpus de sources endogènes, les pratiques supportéristes sont étudiées, le fonctionnement hiérarchisé des groupes est objectivé et les systèmes de valeurs de ces subcultures sont explicités.À travers cette recherche doctorale, c’est aussi la régulation du phénomène qui est questionnée. En effet, certaines de leurs pratiques culturelles se heurtent à des interdits sociaux et la médiatisation des violences supportéristes fait de la gestion de cette « jeunesse dangereuse » un nouvel enjeu politique
In France, certain types of football supporters claim to be “ultras” or hooligans by displaying the feeling of belonging. These entities, which primarily include young men, started to appear embryonically in France at the end of 1970s, but then more certainly in the mid-1980s.This thesis analysis the raising and development of hardcore football fan groups. In particular, it questions such phenomenon over time, contextualising its advent and development in France.Furthermore, based on a collection of endogenous resources, this work studies the supporters’ habits, it defines their groups sexualised and hierarchical functioning, and it explains the system of values within this subculture.This PhD research work also questions the regulation of this phenomenon. Indeed, going some of their cultural habits against social prohibitions, and being supporters’ violence increasingly covered by media; the management of this so-called “dangerous youth” has become a new political challenge

Snowboard media producers attempt to create subculturally relevant videos that connect with the audience. Videos provide the opportunity to report and document snowboarding activity, highlight new developments and provide visibility to prominent participants and associated businesses. Being a well-known and esteemed snowboarding participant is advantageous to being a producer, as it provides an identifiable cultural capital and implies a trustworthy ‘by-riders-for-riders’ philosophy. Connecting with the viewers is vital, as the audience plays a role in the distribution of videos by sharing and endorsing them through their social networks. Motivating factors in audience media sharing, also known as media spreading, include status seeking, improving credibility, personal satisfaction and personal expression. Snowboarding was founded on anti-mainstream and anti-commercialism beliefs, which means that incorporating advertising and promotional messaging could negatively impact on audience connection. Yet, filming and producing snowboarding videos is difficult and expensive. Advertising represents an opportunity to attract funding and support to assist with production costs and, ultimately, provide profit. In order to accommodate advertising into their videos, producers are sometimes required to compromise their standards. This compromise represents a threat to audience connection. Producers believe that high quality, innovative snowboarding action footage provides the best opportunity to wow the audience. Various forms of advertising, including stealth marketing, sponsored journalism, and hybrid messaging, are often displayed in the moments between action footage shots, but advertising compromise can also affect action footage, particularly on client-funded projects. How advertising is incorporated can also depend on the industry the advertiser operates in. Alcohol brand advertising is identified as highly restrictive due to legal implications and public perceptions. Advertisers from businesses strongly related to the snowboarding subculture are more aware of their competitors’ presence in videos, which can cause conflict. Ski field support can be varied, despite high levels of visibility in the videos.

This dissertation uses social movement theory to analyze the emergence, activities and development of subcultures and small groups. The manuscript is comprised of an Introduction followed by three journal articles and one book chapter.  The introduction discusses: 1) the concept of theoretical extension whereby a theory developed for one purpose is adapted to another; 2) it identifies the social movement theories used to analyze subcultures and small groups; 3) it describes the data used in the analyses included here. The data for this work derives from two distinct research projects conducted by the author between 2002 and 2012 and relies on multiple sources of qualitative data. Data collection techniques used include fieldwork, archival research, and secondary data. Paper I uses resource mobilization (RM) theory to analyze the origin, development, and function of White Power music in relation to the broader White Power Movement (WPM). The research identifies three roles played by White Power music: (1) recruit new adherents, (2) frame issues and ideology for the construction of collective identity, (3) obtain financial resources. Paper II gives an overview of the subculture of Freestyle BMX, discussing its origins and developments—both internationally as a wider subcultural phenomenon, and locally, through a three-year ethnographic case study of a subcultural BMX scene known as “Pro Town USA.” Paper III conceptualizes BMX as a social movement using RM theory to identify and explain three different forms of commercialization within this lifestyle sport in “Pro Town.” The work sheds light on the complex process of commercialization within lifestyle sports by identifying three distinct forms of commercialization: paraphernalia, movement, and mass market, and analyses different impacts that each had on the on the development of the local scene.  Findings reveal that lifestyle-sport insiders actively collaborate in each form of commercialization, especially movement commercialization which has the potential to build alternative lifestyle-sport institutions and resist adverse commercial influences. Paper IV refines the small group theory of collaborative circles by: (1) further clarifying its concepts and relationships, (2) integrating the concepts of flow and idioculture, and (3) introducing a more nuanced concept of resources from RM. The paper concludes by demonstrating that circle development was aided by specific locational, human, moral, and material resources as well as by complementary social-psychological characteristics of its members.

This thesis focuses on the skateboarding industry in China as both a youth subculture and a cultural industry. I am investigating the transition between the two and examining how the emerging skateboarding industry operates through detailed analysis of the feelings, motivations and meanings attributed to it by its participants and the emerging strata of cultural workers. In order to achieve this research objective, this thesis has positioned the analysis in a triangle of forces between the development of Chinese skateboarding culture, the emerging skateboarding cultural industry and government interventions. This ethnographic study takes into account distinctive characters in the development of Chinese skateboarding communities that signify continuities inside contemporary Chinese youth cultures. I argue that such continuity is still embedded in the organisation of the Chinese skateboarding industry as a cultural industry, in both subcultural and corporate entrepreneurial practices. Moreover, this thesis contributes to ongoing discussions in the field of not only cultural studies but also of the political economic analysis of cultural/creative industries by examining the dynamic incorporations at play between the commercial and governmental forces at the centre of current debate around the inclusion of skateboarding in the Olympic Games, and the consequences of the sportisation of skateboarding in mainstream economic structures. Last but not least, this research captures the working conditions of the cultural labourers who are at the forefront of shaping and reshaping the Chinese skateboarding industry.

Title: Skateboarding - sport or lifestyle Objectives: The aim of the thesis is to examine connections, relationships and results, why are skateboarders prefering this activity and to describe them objectively within the majority culture to understand their thoughts. We will try to describe, what are the main differences between them and the rest of the society and how it is important to their own identity. Methods: We gained needed quantity of information from 6 skateboarders, with the aid of qualitative method - semi-structured interview. The data picking was taking place from April to July 2015. From the gained information we analysed behaviour patterns, motives, motivation and thought of the skateboarders. Results: Skateboarders never think about definitions, have no interest in somehow categorizing skateboarding. Some skateboarders immediately identify with the fact that skateboarding is their lifestyle, some of them gradually realize that skateboarding lifestyle can be for their way of life considered, others argue that they would skateboarding lifestyle imagine more intensive than how they do it. Nevertheless they admit, that their life can probably be closer to something that could be called the lifestyle of skateboarders. So that a man could confess lifestyle, activity must be operated...

The thesis tries to process a topic of bodybuilding phenomenon in the wider context of the ideal body formation in modern age. Bodybuilding is understood as a specific socio-cultural phenomenon closely tied to a modern society and its historical development. Beyond the bodybuilding the work also deals with an analysis of the contemporary social body theory with focus on the domestic discourse and subsequently also with an analysis of discursive formation modern physicality from the Enlightenment till the 20th century. The main focus is put on the understanding of changes characteristic for the modern society in context of the modernisation project continuity. The objective is to describe a history of bodybuilding within the outlined process of modernization, as well as to compare various alternative conception of the ideal of physicality in the "Fordism Modernity", where a special attention is focused on the analysis of bio political discourse in Communist dictatorship. The remaining part processes a historical development of the bodybuilding movement in Czechoslovakia, where the main emphasis is put on placing the Czechoslovakia bodybuilding into the postulated concept, including individual historical events. Key words: Social history; Bodybuilding; Social Theory; History of the Body; Subculture;...

Lifestyle sport has become a significant sociological phenomenon, with millions participating worldwide. Using windsurfing as a case study, this thesis focuses on core members of this subculture to discover their motivations for involvement and the degree to which they are willing to sacrifice other areas of their lives in order to participate. The thesis explores the contention that this level of sacrifice amounts to resistance to the dominant consumerist culture of our society. The study examines the way subculture members manifest an embodied critique of urban experience that takes place outside of that environment in natural spaces, using time that consumerist imperatives would have them in the earn-spend spiral dictated by that ideology. It does this through a twelve month ethnographic study, with the author as a complete participant, then as a participant observer, completing formal interviews with a number of selected core members of the subculture. Through interviewing and observation it became clear that it is only possible for subculture members to participate through the consumption of considerable quantities of the material objects associated with the activity. This means that participants are resisting consumerist culture through the consumption of consumer goods. This contradiction goes to the heart of the ways that consumerist ideology co-opts resistant behaviour. The study shows that windsurfers are resistant to consumerism in a number of ways. The rejection of traditional sporting values, the use of time in opposition to dominant practices, the rejection of wealth as the primary measure of success, and resisting cultural expectations are all manifestations of this resistance. The niche visual media of the subculture creates a dreamworld of natural perfection and freedom. The way that the visual culture mediates the paradox central to my thesis is by valourising a lifestyle, and those who adopt it, rather than selling consumer goods.