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International Review for the Sociology of Sport
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The Sociology of Sport Reassessed in Light of the Phenomenon of Zygmunt Bauman

Tony Blackshaw

Sheffield Hallam University, UK

This paper offers a critical reassessment of the sociology of sport through the work of Zygmunt Bauman. After suggesting that some of the chief protagonists in the sociology of sport have become resistant to new bold points of view, I provide a brief intellectual sketch of Bauman's project and offer a thumbnail introduction to his sociology of postmodernity. I go on to suggest that most classical sociological approaches in sport tend towards doctrinairism and in the context of this debate discuss figurationalism, as it is paradigmatic of the sociology of sport. Drawing on Bauman's sociology of intellectuals, two related characterizations of figurationalism are critically discussed which relate to its historically distinctive roles in the sociology of sport. Thereafter I offer a critical comparison of figurationalism mark two with Gary Armstrong's apocalyptic interpretive position and suggest that neither offers an appropriate model of intellectual inquiry for the sociology of sport to pursue as they each reflect the two extremes of the continuum across the intellectual activity in our field of study. I conclude with some proposals that suggest a theory of the proselytizing role of intellectuals in `liquid' modernity and an alternative vision for the sociology of sport.

Key Words: Zygmunt Bauman • figurational sociology • integrated and apocalyptic intellectuals • legislators and interpreters • `liquid' modernity • proselytizing intellectuals • sociology of post-modernity

International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Vol. 37, No. 2, 199-217 (2002)
DOI: 10.1177/1012690202037002005
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