Excitement and Representation: Toward a Sociological Explanation of the Significance of Sport in Modern Society

Abstract

It is suggested that sport is not only popular but also plays a highly significant part in the lives of many. One explanation focuses on the analysis of the tension excitement generated by sporting encounters. Particular emphasis is placed on the work of Elias and Dunning, who suggest that in societies at a late stage in the “civilising process,” affect-control is strongly established, so that people's expressions of sentiment are strongly restrained. Excitement in such societies is thus to be found not so much in real-life situations as through mimetic or “imitative” excitement, which resembles that produced in critical situations in real life, but in a safe and pleasurable way. A second approach draws on a variety of theoretical perspectives, although the contributions derived from Emile Durkheim's later work on the sociology of religion are prominent. The argument is advanced that sports encapsulate symbolically the social natures, relations, and identities of the collectivities that generate them. Spo...