The “Jock Body” and the Social Construction of Space: The Performance and Positioning of Cultural Identity

Abstract

This article draws on data generated from a 3-year ethnographic study of “jock culture” at one university setting in England to illuminate the ways that specific kinds of bodies are located in social space so as to construct a range of identity positions that facilitate the maintenance of this culture over time. These positions are as follows: the jocks, sport scholars, also-rans, anti-jocks, wannabes, and the non-jocks. The analysis revealed how individuals negotiate an embodied identity within a network of power relations, with the performing jock body occupying the most highly visible, yet taken for granted, central space around which all other bodies are positioned according to their ability to meet the combined sporting and social requirements of this culture. The findings have significance for how we understand the ways in which bodies and space are reciprocally constituted along with the dilemmas this poses for individuals within a cultural setting.

Keywords

jock culture body space identity ethnography

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