Teamwork in sport: a sociological analysis

The importance of creating and maintaining a working order and solidarity among sports teams is one of the more taken-for-granted assumptions among participants and observers. Even so, delineating the dynamics of its importance, especially in regard to teamwork and insider knowledge (or secrecy) remains unexplored. This paper attempts to fill this gap by employing classical sociological concepts from Durkheim, Mead, and Goffman to discuss the practical and sociological importance of teamwork. We examine two internationally successful Icelandic sport teams to show how the prosocial aspects of teamwork, secrecy, and backstage behavior, keep teammates bonded to each other and to the culture in which they become embedded. Our analysis also highlights the importance of collective representations, organic solidarity and the dynamic processes involving self-presentation, ideoculture and negotiation of meaning.