"The meaning of sport is gendered-but not always as we might be imagining. A Performative Feel for the Game goes beyond taken-for-granted gender hierarchies. Through a cultural analysis of Norwegian handball, Trygve Broch teaches us how narratives, historical myths and welfare policies intermingle with processes of democratization, showing how sport is not reducible to power and inequality. A multifaceted social and existential sphere is thereby opened up. This is an exciting and intriguing read that will generate a lively debate among sport sociologists."

-Anna Lund, Associate Professor of Sociology, Stockholm University, Sweden

Applying a cultural sociology of performance, this book interrogates how the meaning of sport intersects with gender. Trygve B. Broch points out uncertainties in the causal arguments made by key figures in the cultural studies tradition, instead advancing a meaning-centered study of sports as involving botha social and an athletic performance. Sports not only reflect or reverse social realities, but capture and keep our attention when we use and experience them as a means to reflect on social life, injustice, and hierarchy. More specifically, blending approaches from media studies with ethnography, Broch explores the women-dominated sport of handball in Norway, a country that considers gender equality a basis of democracy. As such, the analyses here show how broadly available meanings about sameness and equality are mediated and experienced through a performative feel for the game.

Autorentext

Trygve B. Broch is Associate Professor at the Department of Public Health and Sport Sciences, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway. He is also a Faculty Fellow at the Center for Cultural Sociology, Yale University, USA.

Klappentext

"The meaning of sport is genderedbut not always as we might be imagining. A Performative Feel for the Game goes beyond taken-for-granted gender hierarchies. Through a cultural analysis of Norwegian handball, Trygve Broch teaches us how narratives, historical myths and welfare policies intermingle with processes of democratization, showing how sport is not reducible to power and inequality. A multifaceted social and existential sphere is thereby opened up. This is an exciting and intriguing read that will generate a lively debate among sport sociologists."

Anna Lund, Associate Professor of Sociology, Stockholm University, Sweden

Applying a cultural sociology of performance, this book interrogates how the meaning of sport intersects with gender. Trygve B. Broch points out uncertainties in the causal arguments made by key figures in the cultural studies tradition, instead advancing a meaning-centered study of sports as involving both a social and an athletic performance. Sports not only reflect or reverse social realities, but capture and keep our attention when we use and experience them as a means to reflect on social life, injustice, and hierarchy. More specifically, blending approaches from media studies with ethnography, Broch explores the women-dominated sport of handball in Norway, a country that considers gender equality a basis of democracy. As such, the analyses here show how broadly available meanings about sameness and equality are mediated and experienced through a performative feel for the game.

Zusammenfassung

Applying a cultural sociology of performance, this book interrogates how the meaning of sport intersects with gender. Trygve B. Broch points out uncertainties in the causal arguments made by key figures in the cultural studies tradition, instead advancing a meaning-centered study of sports as involving both a social and an athletic performance. Sports not only reflect or reverse social realities, but capture and keep our attention when we use and experience them as a means to reflect on social life, injustice, and hierarchy. More specifically, blending approaches from media studies with ethnography, Broch explores the women-dominated sport of handball in Norway, a country that considers gender equality a basis of democracy. As such, the analyses here show how broadly available meanings about sameness and equality are mediated and experienced through a performative feel for the game.

Inhalt
Chapter 1: Sport, Meaning and GenderThe challenge of the critical theorist: gender as perspectiveMeaning making and sport: play and game theoryWhat is Handball? A one-stop shopA cultural sociology of sport: using culture as perspectiveMethodologyOutline of the book
Part IChapter 2: Media, sport enchantment and genderThis one's for the record books: Game dynamics and story tellingEntering enchantment: Sensing the myth-making vortexTranscending time and object: Handball and Viking warriorsChapter 3: Enchanted fusion: bringing together game play and genderThe generative grammar: cognitive simplifications shaping sportThe Bang: codes generating vocabularies and iconic consciousnessThe first sex of Norwegian handball: the Iconic Women WarriorThe second sex of Norwegian handball: playing catchup?Part IIChapter 4: Socialization, sport felicity and genderThrowing like a handball girl part I: performances shaping materialityThrowing like a handball girl part II: sensations of the meaningful universeBeing snill on the handball court: when the match gets underwayThe gendered significance of the smileChapter 5: Throwing like a handballboy: enchanted flows of powerRe-immersion in youth: teens and parents in dreaming disarrayAgency and choreography: carving out stages for serious playThe size of a handballboy: corporal materiality and meaningMoral guardian of his rational actors: individual flows in cultureChapter 6: By way of conclusion
A cultural sociology of sport