Negotiations of Being and Becoming

Minority Ethnic Rugby League Players in the Cathar Country of France

Bibliographic Data

ID2377932
AuthorsKarl Spracklen (0000-0002-6390-9022, Leeds Beckett University, corresponding author), Cliff Spracklen (XIII Actif, UK)
Year2008
Volume43
Issue2
Pages201-218
Publication date2008-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Review for the Sociology of Sport (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1012-6902 • E-ISSN: 1461-7218
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1012690208095378
OpenAlexW2103112397
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited42

This article is based on new empirical, qualitative research with minority ethnic rugby league players in the southwest of France. Drawing on similar research on rugby league in the north and the south of England, the article examines how rugby league, traditionally viewed as a white, working-class male game (Collins, 2006; Denham, 2004; Spracklen, 1995, 2001) has had to re-imagine its symbolic boundaries as they are constituted globally and locally to accommodate the needs of players from minority ethnic backgrounds. In particular, the article examines the sense in which experiences of minority ethnic rugby league players in France compare with those of their counterparts in England (Spracklen, 2001, 2007), how rugby league is used in France to construct identity, and in what sense the norms associated with the imaginary community of rugby league are replicated or challenged by the involvement of minority ethnic rugby league players in France. Questions about what it means to be (provincial, national) French (Kumar, 2006) are posed, questions that relate to the role of sport in the construction of Frenchness, and in particular the role of rugby league (and union

Ethnic group · Football · League · Media studies · Negotiation · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Gender Studies · Law · Physical Education and Pedagogy · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society

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Open DOISci-HubOpen Access