Sport, Work and the Professional Cyclist in Belgium, 1907-40
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4493845 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Knut, Stijn Knuts (KU Leuven), P Delheye (0000-0002-0936-8528, Research Foundation - Flanders) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 79 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 154-176 |
| Publication date | 2015-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | History Workshop Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1363-3554 • E-ISSN: 1477-4569 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/hwj/dbu022 |
| OpenAlex | W2040056191 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 2 |
This article looks at the social dynamics of the sport of bicycle racing as an occupation in Belgium before World War Two. Racing was the country’s most popular and professionally organized sport during this period, and a skilful athlete could earn a lot of money in it. Hence, becoming a bicycle racer was an aspiration of many in the lower classes, the sport’s core public and practitioners. This growing number of working-class riders challenged existing conceptions of work and social relations in a period witnessing the rise of a ‘mass’ society. Paid to play, racers did a ‘funny kind of work’, while their lower-class origins but huge popularity led in some circles to anxiety that the social order would be endangered. After analysing the occupation’s defining practices, we identify some crucial issues in the social perception of the bicycle racer. Firstly, riders – by their uncouth behaviour and clothing – were often seen as loutish ‘roughnecks’, a threat to the morality of the masses. Secondly, riders who diverged from what was expected from them in terms of sportive performance, or who went on strike and set up trade unions, caused friction with other stakeholders in the sport. As a counterweight, in the sport press and Belgium’s national cycling union a discourse developed in which racers provided better role models for the lower classes – they were respectful, humble and hardworking men attaining social success through sport.
Aesthetics · Clothing · Period (music) · Political science · Politics · Popularity · Public opinion · Public relations · Sociology · Work (physics) · Engineering · Law · Physical education and sports games research · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,09 |
| Citation span | 2015 - 2015 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |