Simon,
Yes, but I dont think there is anything [much] to be gained by
isolating sport in this. Sport is a manifestation.
David Crouch
cultural georgaphy
Anglia University
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On Fri, 4 Jun 1999 12:51:05 +0100 (BST) Simon Batterbury
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> On Geographers and sport.
>
> A personal rumination.
>
> I could never grasp the notion that coming
> first, winning, and triumphing were what sport was all about. I was quite
> happy running about for 45 minutes in an energetic and friendly sort of
> way. If there was any competition, it was only personal - to run faster or
> further than last time. Same in academia - chasing success too
> vigorously requires too many dubious shortcuts, and too much pushing
> others aside. Pushing yourself on, and cooperating with others, is much
> more satisfactory I think.
>
> Later in life, what continues to trouble me is
> a) the pernicious effects of the competition drive - this is a social
> and psychlogical characteristic, which finds a handy outlet in organised
> competitive sport. It also accounts for some of the ageist and gender
> stereotyping that my sister and others referred to yesterday. It excludes
> a majority.
> b) silly money in sport - transfer fees, poaching, buyouts, stadium costs.
> I think anybody of a leftist pursuasion with interests in a less
> capitalist system, will be troubled by this commodification of a fairly
> basic and unproblematic form of social interaction between human beings.
> In Africa I found
> identification with a 'team' takes peoples' minds off grinding poverty and
> other problems they face. Here and in the US it is the Murdoch deals and
> ridiculous salaries I have trouble with, not that people enjoy sport and
> want to keep fit.
> c) representation of sport. The media are quite capable of hyping sporting
> achievement more than, say, encouraging critical discussion on Yugoslavia.
> Sports pages in my paper are just wasted ink, at least in our household.
> Most radio and TV interviews with sports personalities are inane, and
> frequently caricatured by the interiewers themselves. Yet sporting heroes
> are elevated to demigod status. Only twice in my life have I been to a
> 'stadium' event. The second was to see Chicago vs Philadelpia play
> basketball. Michael Jordan did his usual leaping about. Inspiring, but his
> prowess is given most of its power by a social construction - how many
> people would have been amazed by such acheivement if he had remained
> outside a bloated and overpaid professional system, that appears on TV
> every night, shooting hoops in the neighbourhood? And have he and his
> colleagues really used their success and money to act as good citizens?
>
> I never know who is playing in the British Cup Final, and I care even
> less. I appreciate 90% of the British population do not feel this way. But
> if you are renting a sports channel to watch the game, buying expensive
> tickets or a soccer uniform, or misbehaving on the terraces you are
> complicit in a sporting machine that is feeding the pockets of too many
> corporate interests - in the media and sports management.
>
> Sorry if this
> seems like snobbish anarchism - but the task starts with teaching children
> that winning is not all, and that being 'gutted' when your team loses is a
> passing phenomenon.
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> SOON ADVERTISING SEVERAL JOBS - KEEP YOUR EYES ON OUR WEBSITE
>
> Dr Simon Batterbury
> Dept. of Geography & Earth Sciences
> Brunel University
> Uxbridge Middx. UB8 3PH, UK
>
> http://www.brunel.ac.uk/depts/geo
> tel +1895 274000 fax +1895 203217
> [log in to unmask]
> -----------------------------
>
----------------------
David Crouch
Anglia Polytechnic University
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