Fast-track fisticuffs? An ethnographic exploration of time and white-collar boxing

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2378554
AutoresEdward J Wright (0000-0002-1774-4191, University of Nottingham, autor correspondente)
Ano2020
Volume55
Fascículo4
Páginas437-452
Data de publicação2020-06-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoInternational Review for the Sociology of Sport (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1012-6902 • E-ISSN: 1461-7218
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1012690218815139
OpenAlexW2902524175
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas4
Referências citadas45

Whilst white-collar boxing at first appears to be named according to the social class of its practitioners, this paper will argue that this initial appearance is misleading. Based on the analysis of 32 interviews and six months of ethnographic data collection at a boxing club in the English Midlands, it argues that white-collar boxers do not recognise the classed connotations of the term white-collar, to which sociologists tend to be accustomed. Within this lifeworld, white-collar has become a temporal signifier, referring to a version of the sport in which participation is for beginners and limited to eight weeks, culminating in a public boxing match in front of a large crowd. This eight-week participation model is outlined and identified as being drastically different from other forms of boxing, which are emblematic of modernity. White-collar boxing therefore provides entry into a wider discussion on the social construction of time. Acceleration and condensation of time are routinely discussed in this field, and it is suggested that a conceptual split between condensed and accelerated time allows for this white-collar boxing to be understood. Ultimately, white-collar boxing is theorised as the condensed reproduction of the idealised career of the professional boxer

Aesthetics · Art · Athletes · Club · Collar · Ethnography · Media studies · Modernity · Political science · Sociology · Track and field athletics · Anthropology · Engineering · Gender Studies · Law · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sport Psychology and Performance · Sports, Gender, and Society