The paper provides a critical review of the development of Soccer Sociology in Europe over the last thirty years. It argues that Soccer Sociology has been preoccupied with issues of “hooliganism” and violence around soccer, which are both badly studied and over studied.
It argues that the recent, apparently new, emphasis on ‘identity’ and ‘fandom’ mainly represents a translation of the debate about violence, and contains many of the same analytical faults, especially in wrongly equating “the fan” with young male supporters.
Various specific texts are examined to illustrate these general faults. The paper also argues that the concentration on “hooliganism”, and now “identity” which English researchers have exported to much of the rest of Europe, has mean that European Soccer Sociology has neglected many very important problems within European soccer. Financial arrangements in soccer, youth training and development, the way that soccer merchandise is actually consumed by those who buy it, women and soccer, and so on have not been given the attention they deserve, while a rash of new writing on soccer as a business mainly address the wrong questions with poor methodologies.
The paper pleads for a change in the traditions of the themes of Soccer Sociology so that it can become more significant as a branch of social analysis.

View full abstract

The purpose of this paper was to examine the political economy and sociocultural significance of the 2002 world-Cup in South Korea. The paper assumed that there are political, economic, and sociocultural implications and consequence resulting from the world-Cup; thus the study
(a) investigated, described, and interpreted whether the interests and values of the State are being permeated through the World-Cup;
(b) indentified, assessed, and interpreted the implications to the civil society. The result shows that the linkage between sport and power, and contradictory nature of such relationships is manifested through the World-Cup.
The political economy of the World-Cup, like the political economy of other aspects of capitalist societies, shapes and molds social relations that are marked by power, profits and conspicuous consumption on the part of the Sate, while not necessarily meeting the needs and interests of the civil society. Finally, the paper suggests that the civil society publicizes the promotion of the ‘sport for all’ to extend the consequence to the World-Cup on the part of the civil society.

View full abstract

The purpose of this study is to cite a perspective of Japanese supporter cultures. The paper provides a critical review of the sociological studies about hooliganism in Britain, especially by the ‘Leicester School’ and I. Taylor. And it also discusses the studies of R. Giulianotti and S. Redhead in popular culture studies describing the transformation of hooliganism in the 1990's. In this paper, the needs underlying reciprocation are emphasized in theories and fieldwork to describe supporters' living experiences in Japanese context.
From the fieldwork at Urawa, the cultural context of the supporters is over-concerned with the supporters' representations and memories, masculinity, the Urawa geography, passion and disappointment at the stadium and a moment of resistance. Such elements are complexly connected with historical incidents. The people's lives as supporters are comprised of a variety of elements in everyday life simultaneously combined, before appearing in the open as a single force.

View full abstract

At “tachiai” in professional Japanese wrestling “Sumo, ” two sumo wrestlers facing each other rise to grapple by mutual accordance of mind. This would move against the flow of objective rationalization underlying judgement in modern sport. Here is a character of Sumo that can't be entirely attributed to pure sport, but is rather an aspect of performing arts of Sumo.
Rising to grapple by mutual accordance of mind is nothing but rising in mutual agreement. It is produced by throwing their rhythm of breathing each other while coordinating their rhythm of breathing each other. Breathing in “tachiai” is not only about that of the opponent, but also about one's own. Therefore, “tachiai” integrates the antinomy between alignment and competition. Harmony that is produced through mutual coordination alone can't hold depth. When the individuality of two wrestlers is displayed perfectly by throwing their rhythm of breathing mutually, true agreement comes into existence. It is an extremely profound harmony.
“Tachiai” of Sumo would be grasped as culture which integrates two antipodal forms of relation—alignment and competition—into one mode of action.

View full abstract

The purpose of this paper is to clarify what gambling is today. It has been shown that gambling is a natural act of man. However little is known about the meaning in present-day context. So, what we are concerned about here is how modern-day gamble is analyzed through horse racing and race-goers.
The narrative in horse racing is created through predictions. The “narrative” is spun by the horse racing media. Recently, the number of the new race-goers has increased. They tend to gamble on horses in spite of the “narrative” having been created. The race-goers see horse racing through a “screen.” Yet this is their reality of horse racing.
To sum up the major characteristics of the race-goers, they have and use an original way of interpreting numerous bits of information. The forecasting process is a never-ending interpretation of the question “what am I?” Hence one can say that gambling is a way of distinguishing between subject and object.

View full abstract

This study describes the controversy concerning the essence of sports in the early Showa Era (the sports-controversy). Our principal aims are to clarify problems that the popular view called “the Japanese sports ideology” contain, and construct our viewpoint from the history making process of gleaning knowledge about sports in Japan. The latter is especially useful for understanding our unconscious view frame. Therefore, we focus on the early Showa Era when the word “sports” began to spread in Japan.
In the sports-controversy, Educationalists and Enjoymentaists argued about the essence of sports. The former thought that the value of education is more important than the value of enjoyment in sports. In this context, terms like “Bushido spirit” were used. On the other hand, the latter thought that the value of enjoyment is more important than the value of education. Their claim was that sports didn't only have educational value but a unique value, with this being the most important value sports have (“Sports itself”).
Our study shows that the popular view has three problems. First, “Victoryism” and “spiritual trainingism” said the homogeneity in the Japanese sports ideology was a focal point in the sports-controversy. Second, the conclusion that Japanese have never thought of sports as play is beside the point. Third, there is a possibility that the concept of “Japanese” is a mirror of ideas spread by Japanese scholar.

View full abstract

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to examine the Kata training performed in a martial art class from an immanent viewpoint, and in doing so, to overcome the mind-body dualism found in conventional sociological theories of the body. This paper is based on fieldwork performed from May 1999 through August 2000 (underway at time of writing), at a relatively small-scale martial art class, the S School. It consists of one instructor, M, and a total number of approximately 30 students.
S School is characterized by its emphasis on Kata training. Contrary to ordinary notions of Kata, it is not a mechanical repetition of a predetermined move, nor does it lack competition between the two performers. In Kata training, first M shows the class a technique, by performing it on each of the students, then the whole class makes teams of two, and performs the same technique in turn.
M performs each technique differently according to the posture and positioning of each opponent, and also encourages the students to do the same. For this reason, techniques are shown and practiced solely as individual transpositions, as opposed to normative movements. The dispersive nature of training is compensated by a reflexive process in the agent, which is initiated by the use of special advisory words such as “Karada No Sen” (literally, “body line”). Since this process could not be understood as the functioning of either Mauss's body technique or Bourdieu's habitus, it opens possibilities for a new theory of the social body.

View full abstract

Despite the fact that recent sociology has developed a series of arguments about global sport, little attention has been given to the study of the impact on developing countries of the expansion of global sport. In order to consider the significance and the problems of global sport in developing countries, this paper deals with the case of the Republic of Vanuatu in the Melanesia region.
When we examine the ongoing debate on sport and globalization, there is no disagreement on the recent tendency towards sport diversification. However, as there are many phases of global sport around the world, it would be unwise to generalize on global sport without in-depth field research in developing countries.
This essay concludes that there is a need to create a reservoir of ethnographic research, which pays special attention to understanding the impact of global sport on developing countries.

View full abstract

When we study audiences who watch high school baseball game on TV, It is useful to apply the concept of Verisimilitude.
Steve Neale makes two useful distinctions, helpful in understanding the working of reference in genre. First, he distinguishes between Verisimilitude and realism. Verisimilitude refers not to what may or may not actually be the case but rather to what the dominant culture believes to be the case, what is generally accepted as credible, suitable. Neale distinguishes between Cultural Verisimilitude and Generic Verisimilitude. Whereas Generic Verisimilitude allows for considerable play with fantasy inside the bounds of generic credibility, Cultural Verisimilitude refers us to the norms and common sense of the social world outside the fiction.
Watching a high school baseball game on TV, audiences underlie varying signifying practices. Parents who have sons in high school know that high school baseball is close to Generic Verisimilitude. But, they watch it as Cultural Verisimilitude. High school girls also know that high school baseball is close to Generic Verisimilitude, yet they watch it as Cultural Verisimilitude. On the other hand, a certain type of high school boys watch it as Generic Verisimilitude.

View full abstract

Sometimes those who take sport for a cultural industry criticize it for its cultural imperialism. The saying, “Since Judo has been internationalized and ‘sporterized’ it has lost its spirit of martial art, ” is a typical criticism for cultural imperialism in sport. And sometimes those who interpret sport as the heritage for all humankind believe that it can reduce cultural conflict and unite all of us. Both of these contrastive opinions, from my point of view, have grown out of a same phenomenon observed from different angles. Such ‘a same phenomenon’ means globalization that is going to change our whole life from micro to macro level.
F. Jameson once said that our mind facing globalization couldn't have mapped yet the network of internationalized and de-centered communication, with which each of us is intermingled as a subject. The mentioned contradiction about sport refers to this confusion. I agree that the character of a cultural practice called sport has been determined by globalization, but occasionally the former can influence the later. Historically, since the beginning sport has been a forerunner of ‘new social movements’ that breed subjects to resist totalitarianism of the Social System.
This paper will show how the cultural practice called sport should be, how it could provide the chance to go beyond the differences which make people struggle with each other, and not repress the diversity of human beings.

View full abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze why kick-boxers are “still fighting” even when put at risk and afflicted with pain. Fieldwork at a boxing gym, among other places, has revealed information on this subject by focusing on the physical work-out process involving an ascetic lifestyle and hard training. The approach employed in this analysis was as follow:
To analyze
1) a self-discipline process carried out on the boxer's body through observation in a boxing gym. The process focused the boxer's weight and subduing his desire.
2) a linkage between the kick-boxer's ascetic lifestyle the social context in which he lives.
3) Why they are “still fighting” based on the above two items.
The result of this study clarified that the coherence in the boxer's body-schema reflected the experience of a lacking social life and growing feeling of “dry-out” which are spawned when reducing weight and/or subduing desire. Furthermore, thought continuing to practice an ascetic lifestyle, the boxers come to want to still fight, as well as maintain their identity by acting their dry-out desire to fight.

View full abstract