Sport,Technique and Violence: The Technical Modes for Generating Sport Violence |
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Authors: | Luc Robène Dominique Bodin |
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Institution: | 1. Université de Bordeaux, Bordeaux 33000, Franceluc.robene@u-bordeaux2.fr;3. Université Européenne de Bretagne (Rennes 2), Rennes 35000, France |
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Abstract: | Norbert Elias makes technical progress one of the markers of the state of civilisation. It is from this viewpoint that we would like to return to the question of sport, a fundamental part in Elias' civilising process, which also constitutes, a contrario, one of the most ambiguous aspects of ‘technical progress’ and its relation to violence, to the articulation of a double abuse of instrumental rationality. On the one hand the infinite improvement of human possibilities (records, performance) which leads to the recognised risks of exploitation and the ultra-sophisticated controlling of athletes (extreme pressure, over-training) as a corollary of the temptation to over-stimulate athletic potential as a result of the uncontrolled use of victory techniques (cheating, doping, violence). On the other hand, the stakes involved in the production of a vast spectacle with ideological, sociopolitical and socio-economic overtones which lead to technological manipulations. Both these tendencies overlap, and furthermore cannot be isolated from, a more general context of the technification of the social, at the heart of which instrumental rationality constitutes the first example of violence. This three-fold observation constitutes the basis of the argument set out in this paper. |
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Keywords: | Elias civilising process technique rationality violence |
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