The Contribution of Eric Dunning to the Sociology of Sport

The Foundations

Bibliographic Data

ID5830698
AuthorsStephen Mennell (0000-0003-0207-5172, corresponding author)
Year2006
Volume9
Issue4
Pages514-532
Publication date2006-07-24
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCulture Sport Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1461-0981 • E-ISSN: 1743-0445
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17430430600768728
OpenAlexW1978062023
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited23

Eric Dunning and Norbert Elias were both keen sportsmen from their respective youths, but it was their meeting at the University of Leicester that arguably turned both of them into sociologists of sport. This essay recounts the beginning of their contributions to the field, stressing the indissoluble links between their writings on sport, the theory of civilizing processes, and what came to be know as 'figurational sociology'. It concludes by emphasizing that Dunning's writings have not been confined to the sociology of sport, but also include major contributions to sociological theory - notably his early debates with John Goldthorpe over the 'convergence thesis', Popper, and developmental sociology - and to the study of race relations. Notes [1] CitationElias, The Civilizing Process , 170-1. [2] Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement, 1. [3] Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement, 59ff. [4] Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement, 41. [5] Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement, 41. [6] Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement, 71. [7] Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement, 92-3. [8] Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement, 65ff., 96. [9] Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement, 50-1. [10] Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement, 42. [11] Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement, 43. [12] Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement, 69. [13] Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement, 66 [14] Elias, The Civilizing Process, 171. [15] Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement, 43. [16] Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement, 140. [17] Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement, 175-90; CitationDunning and Sheard, Barbarians, Gentlemen and Players , 21-45. [18] Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement, 183. [19] Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement, 179-81. [20] CitationRedfield, 'The Folk Society'. [21] Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement, 180. [22] That question was, at any rate, the way in which Elias broached the issue with me in one of our earliest meetings in the early 1970s. [23] Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement, 24. [24] Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement, 40. [25] Citationde Tocqueville, Democracy in America ; CitationHabermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere . [26] Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement, 150-74. [27] Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement, 160. [28] Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement, 161. [29] Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement, 163. [30] Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement, 297n. [31] Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement, 157. [32] See also Dunning, 'Power and Authority in the Public Schools'. [33] CitationPerkin, The Origins of Modern English Society , 280. [34] CitationStokvis, Strijd over Sport ; CitationR. Stokvis, 'Debates on Sport', 95-8. [35] Even the Spanish bullfight, now regarded by many people as still less civilized - in the colloquial sense - than foxhunting, has shown long-term civilizing tendencies, according to CitationDriessen ('Civiliseringstendensen in het Spaanse Stierevecht'). Driessen argues that besides civilizing pressures, the cultural mechanism of ritualization also played a part. Nevertheless, he says that since the eighteenth century bullfighting has developed increasingly towards professionalization, specialization, differentiation, sequestration in permanent bullrings, and more restrictive regulation. All of these developments, he says, can be interpreted as part of the civilizing and state-formation processes. The present stylized form in which the bullfighter allows the bull's horns to pass close to his almost motionless body demands very great self-control. [36] Stokvis, 'Debates on Sport', 96. [37] CitationDunning and Rojek, eds. Sport and Leisure in the Civilizing Process . [38] So much is Eric Dunning a team player that Sport Matters was his first - and so far only - sole-authored book. [39] CitationDunning and Hopper, 'Industrialisation and the Problem of Convergence', 163-86. [40] CitationGoldthorpe, 'Social Stratification in Industrial Society', 97-122. [41] CitationElias, 'The Retreat of Sociologists into the Present'. [42] CitationGoudsblom, Sociology in the Balance . [43] CitationDunning, 'The Concept of Development'. [44] CitationDunning, 'In Defence of Developmental Sociology'. [45] CitationPopper, The Poverty of Historicism . [46] CitationGoldthorpe, On Sociology . CitationDunning, 'Goldthorpe's View of Sociology'. [47] CitationDunning and Mennell, '"Figurational Sociology": Some Critical Comments on Zygmunt Bauman's: "The Phenomenon of Norbert Elias"'. [48] CitationDunning, 'A Response to J.R. Robinson's "The Civilising Process"'. [49] CitationDunning, 'Some Comments on Jack Goody's "Elias and the Anthropological Tradition"'. [50] CitationDunning, 'Some Comments on Norbert Elias's "Scenes from the Life of a Knight"'. [51] CitationElias, 'Towards a Theory of Social Processes'. [52] CitationElias, 'On the Sociology of German Anti-Semitism'. [53] CitationElias, The Germans . [54] CitationDunning, 'Dynamics of Racial Stratification'; Citation'Race Relations'; Citation'The Figurational Dynamics of Racial Stratification. [55] CitationDunning et al., 'Violent Disorders in Twentieth Century Britain'; CitationE. Dunning et al., 'Violence in the British Civilizing Process'. [56] CitationDunning, 'Power and Authority in the Public Schools'. [57] CitationElias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement , 59. [58] See for example CitationC. Wouters, 'Formalization and Informalization: Changing Tension Balances in Civilizing Processes', and Citation'Developments in Behavioural Codes between the Sexes

Sociology of sport · Sociology and Norbert Elias · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society

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