Caged Morality

Moral Worlds, Subculture, and Stratification Among Middle-Class Cage-Fighters

Bibliographic Data

ID4245296
AuthorsCorey M Abramson (0000-0001-6306-6910), Darren Modzelewski
Year2011
Volume34
Issue1
Pages143-175
Publication date2011-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueQualitative Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0162-0436 • E-ISSN: 1573-7837
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s11133-010-9175-8
OpenAlexW2087332845
LanguageEN
Citations received39
References cited84

Social scientists have long been concerned with how and why marginalized groups create and participate in subcultures. There has been significantly less work examining how those with access to conventional status and success participate in subcultures, often despite significant economic and social costs. The result has been lopsided theorizing that neglects much of the positive, affective, and moral appeal of subcultures at all levels of stratification. The participation of middle-class men and women in the rapidly growing world of cage-fighting speaks to this longstanding issue in the existing literature. We find these individuals participate in a sporting subculture that involves bodily, interpersonal, and professional sacrifices because they feel it gives them the ability to viscerally realize the widely shared American ideals that form the core components of their "moral world." The subculture holds particular sway over its members because they feel that its ideals, status hierarchies, and daily practices more directly embody the deeply embedded principles of middle-class morality and habitus than other elements of their lives

Appeal · Cross-cultural psychology · Cultural capital · Habitus · Middle class · Morality · Political science · Social science · Social stratification · Sociology · Subculture (biology · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Law · Psychology · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social Psychology · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access