Abstract
In this article a study of sport spectatorship in Canada is presented, along with an argument for reconsidering the employment of quantitative methodology in the critical study of social inequalities in sport. Both Bourdieu's theoretical position on class distinction and sport and his methodological approach (the statistical analysis of survey data) are adopted in this study. Our multivariate analysis of the 1992 General Social Survey of Canada (n=9815) afforded controlled tests of hypotheses on the effects of income and education on both amateur and professional sport spectatorship. The findings showed, in general, positive relationships between socioeconomic status and attendance at both professional and amateur events. The effects of income and education work independently, however, and differ according to gender and whether spectatorship was at professional or amateur events. An ancillary set of findings showed that residents of western Canada spectate more at amateur sport than those in eastern Canada. Building on Bourdieu's findings that there is a class-based distribution of leisure preference in France, it was concluded that there are clear socioeconomic and regional imbalances in sport spectatorship in Canada, although further research is needed to more fully disentangle the effects of economic and cultural factors.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
