Abstract
Indian Prince Ranjitsinhji wrote one of the earliest studies of the sporting craze in England in 1897. He marveled at the transformative capacity of sport in British society and in the process described the development of novel social organizations. In the 1920s, German sociologist Herman Schmalenbach would describe such organizations as bunds (or communions). This paper exploreS the connection between sports and communions in different international contexts, arguing that the unique characteristics of these communions enabled them to weave sports into the fabric of society and embed them in the minds of citizens around the world. Neither an opiate of the masses, nor a source of political revolutionary consciousness, sports communions were able to lodge themselves in societies with very different political cultures and flourish in them all.
Presenters
Robert GreggProfessor of History and Dean, School of General Studies and Graduate Education, Stockton University, New Jersey, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Sporting Cultures and Identities
KEYWORDS
COMPARATIVE,CULTURE,POLITICS,HISTORY,POWER
