Abstract
Mind-sports are a relatively under-explored area within the sociology of sport, especially the internationally played game of bridge. In this qualitative sociological study of tournament bridge, we examine the formation and performance of elite bridge player identities through interviews with 52 US and European players. Drawing on symbolic interactionism and Goffman specifically, the paper explores elite players’ social interaction across frontstage and backstage contexts, considering the performativity of self, impression management and values of character. The paper advances the sociology of mind-sport, contributing new insights into how identity is (per)formed by elite players as embodied social interaction within the bridge interaction order. We propose a recursive and layered model of identities across the self, partnership and community. The partnership element is particularly unique to the bridge sports world, which represents an interesting case for the sociological study of international mind-sports.
Highlights
Mind-sports are a relatively under-explored area within the sociology of sport, especially the internationally played game of bridge
Our findings demonstrate that whilst elite players of the ‘mind’ sport bridge are predominantly engaged in using intellectual skills competitively, they do require physical skills to improve their performance, which is acknowledged as part of their elite identities
Social interaction is at the heart of the mind-sport bridge
Summary
Mind-sports are a relatively under-explored area within the sociology of sport, especially the internationally played game of bridge. We adopt a symbolic interactionist approach, using Goffman to explore how identities in elite bridge are formed and performed This is based in interpretative sociology, which emphasises how people in everyday human interaction are continuously interpreting, negotiating and shaping their social relations and environments (Giulianotti, 2015). Whilst outwith the scope of this paper, we argue as Kobiela (2018) does for chess, that in order to advance the acceptance of ‘mind-sports’ there needs to be more consideration of the ‘thought, stamina, emotional investment and practice’ that is involved in playing a competitive mind-sport We contribute to these debates by researching how bridge functions as a mind-sport conceptualised within an inclusive definition of sports whilst focusing on identity formation and performativity. The winning partnership is the one that scores the most points during a specified number of deals that make up a match
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