This chapter explains the changes in how GAA administrators and activists sought to attract and i... more This chapter explains the changes in how GAA administrators and activists sought to attract and integrate Irish people, mainly young people, into the association over the decades. Since the foundation of the GAA through to the 1960s, GAA administrators relied heavily on social constraints to achieve this. From the 1960s, the emphasis on social constraints subsided relative to self-restraints. One manifestation of this was a greater focus on the individual needs and motivations of younger people in Ireland. Another aspect of this was a process of diminishing displays of superiority towards other sports. These changes were impelled by changing social and psychological processes concerning people in Ireland more broadly.
Relevancia teórica y empírica de los documentos en la sociología del deporte guracional Documents... more Relevancia teórica y empírica de los documentos en la sociología del deporte guracional Documents and detachment in the gurational sociology of sport
The International Journal of the History of Sport, 2013
In this paper we explain how and why a specific ethos of amateurism was portrayed and embodied by... more In this paper we explain how and why a specific ethos of amateurism was portrayed and embodied by various groups comprising the Gaelic Athletic Association in Ireland throughout its history. Interestingly, the discourse pertaining to amateurism has at times been de-amplified, instead being superseded by the vilification of professionalism. Since the 1970s, both amateurism and professionalism have been imbued with new meanings and interpretations by different social groups comprising the organisation. In tandem with this, both the discourses of professionalism and amateurism have been increasingly amplified. We explain how the structure of competitive and cooperative interdependencies, the we-identifications, tensions and insecurities generated by these, between groups at different levels of integration – social class, national, inter-organisational and intra-organisational – underpin these social developments.
This article illustrates how the figurational sociology associated with Norbert Elias provides an... more This article illustrates how the figurational sociology associated with Norbert Elias provides an alternative theoretical framework for explaining the relationship between, ‘individual-organization-society’ and organizational change, and in so doing transverses what is conceived as a false dichotomy between structure and agency. Through an historical case study of the Gaelic Athletic Association in Ireland, the ‘individual-organization-society’ relationship is conceptualized as overlapping figurations and organizational change is explained as figurational dynamics—the shifting social interdependencies between the individuals and groups comprising an organization, between that organization and other organizations, between social groups on a higher level of integration and competition. In tandem with this, the article illustrates how changes in the sources of power and identity are connected with these figurational dynamics.
Social developments and related dynamic relationships connected with the sports–media complex is ... more Social developments and related dynamic relationships connected with the sports–media complex is a recurrent focus of sociological investigation. However, in explaining developments in the relationship between sports associations and media organizations the specific structure of power relations between them and other related organizations is often given primacy. We argue that this negates how changes in people’s social habitus – how people think feel and act – are interconnected with and critical to such explanations. Consequently, in this article we apply the theoretical frame of figurational sociology to demonstrate how the gradual development and expansion of specialist communications and media functions in a national sports organization were impelled by several intertwined social processes, including changes in people’s social habitus. Our empirical case study is based on one of the largest sporting and cultural organizations in Ireland, the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). We...
This article examines the development of different forms of spectator violence in terms of the so... more This article examines the development of different forms of spectator violence in terms of the socio-temporal structure of situational dynamics at Gaelic football matches in Ireland. The nature of violent encounters has shifted from a collective form based on local solidarity and a reciprocal code of honour, through a transitional collective form based on deferred emotional satisfaction and group pride, towards increasing individualization of spectator violence. This occurs due to the shifting objects of emotional involvement. As the functional specialization of the various roles in the game is partially accepted by spectators, the referee becomes the target of anger. Violence becomes more individualized as ‘mutually expected self-restraint’ proceeds within the context of relative state pacification beyond the field of play and the formation of a less volatile habitus. We use Elias’s figurational perspective on violence over the micro-interactional approach of Randall Collins, but s...
Drawing on teaching manuals, government reports and school inspectors’ reports from the 1830s up ... more Drawing on teaching manuals, government reports and school inspectors’ reports from the 1830s up to the early twentieth century, this paper traces the changing conceptual and social distance between childhood and adulthood in Ireland. Using Norbert Elias’s figurational approach, it is argued that children became increasingly involved in both unplanned civilising processes and deliberate civilising missions framed by state functionaries, religious elites and pedagogic experts. Young children were civilised in the broader context of unintentional, but ordered social processes developing over the course of the nineteenth century. While both pupils and teachers were at first addressed and depicted in similar ways, a growing social and cultural differentiation between adult and child gradually developed. This is related to the increasing status of teachers, their position as civilising agents of the state, and the gradual acceptance by elites that Irish teachers of humble social origins had become more emotionally self-controlled.
This chapter explains the changes in how GAA administrators and activists sought to attract and i... more This chapter explains the changes in how GAA administrators and activists sought to attract and integrate Irish people, mainly young people, into the association over the decades. Since the foundation of the GAA through to the 1960s, GAA administrators relied heavily on social constraints to achieve this. From the 1960s, the emphasis on social constraints subsided relative to self-restraints. One manifestation of this was a greater focus on the individual needs and motivations of younger people in Ireland. Another aspect of this was a process of diminishing displays of superiority towards other sports. These changes were impelled by changing social and psychological processes concerning people in Ireland more broadly.
Relevancia teórica y empírica de los documentos en la sociología del deporte guracional Documents... more Relevancia teórica y empírica de los documentos en la sociología del deporte guracional Documents and detachment in the gurational sociology of sport
The International Journal of the History of Sport, 2013
In this paper we explain how and why a specific ethos of amateurism was portrayed and embodied by... more In this paper we explain how and why a specific ethos of amateurism was portrayed and embodied by various groups comprising the Gaelic Athletic Association in Ireland throughout its history. Interestingly, the discourse pertaining to amateurism has at times been de-amplified, instead being superseded by the vilification of professionalism. Since the 1970s, both amateurism and professionalism have been imbued with new meanings and interpretations by different social groups comprising the organisation. In tandem with this, both the discourses of professionalism and amateurism have been increasingly amplified. We explain how the structure of competitive and cooperative interdependencies, the we-identifications, tensions and insecurities generated by these, between groups at different levels of integration – social class, national, inter-organisational and intra-organisational – underpin these social developments.
This article illustrates how the figurational sociology associated with Norbert Elias provides an... more This article illustrates how the figurational sociology associated with Norbert Elias provides an alternative theoretical framework for explaining the relationship between, ‘individual-organization-society’ and organizational change, and in so doing transverses what is conceived as a false dichotomy between structure and agency. Through an historical case study of the Gaelic Athletic Association in Ireland, the ‘individual-organization-society’ relationship is conceptualized as overlapping figurations and organizational change is explained as figurational dynamics—the shifting social interdependencies between the individuals and groups comprising an organization, between that organization and other organizations, between social groups on a higher level of integration and competition. In tandem with this, the article illustrates how changes in the sources of power and identity are connected with these figurational dynamics.
Social developments and related dynamic relationships connected with the sports–media complex is ... more Social developments and related dynamic relationships connected with the sports–media complex is a recurrent focus of sociological investigation. However, in explaining developments in the relationship between sports associations and media organizations the specific structure of power relations between them and other related organizations is often given primacy. We argue that this negates how changes in people’s social habitus – how people think feel and act – are interconnected with and critical to such explanations. Consequently, in this article we apply the theoretical frame of figurational sociology to demonstrate how the gradual development and expansion of specialist communications and media functions in a national sports organization were impelled by several intertwined social processes, including changes in people’s social habitus. Our empirical case study is based on one of the largest sporting and cultural organizations in Ireland, the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). We...
This article examines the development of different forms of spectator violence in terms of the so... more This article examines the development of different forms of spectator violence in terms of the socio-temporal structure of situational dynamics at Gaelic football matches in Ireland. The nature of violent encounters has shifted from a collective form based on local solidarity and a reciprocal code of honour, through a transitional collective form based on deferred emotional satisfaction and group pride, towards increasing individualization of spectator violence. This occurs due to the shifting objects of emotional involvement. As the functional specialization of the various roles in the game is partially accepted by spectators, the referee becomes the target of anger. Violence becomes more individualized as ‘mutually expected self-restraint’ proceeds within the context of relative state pacification beyond the field of play and the formation of a less volatile habitus. We use Elias’s figurational perspective on violence over the micro-interactional approach of Randall Collins, but s...
Drawing on teaching manuals, government reports and school inspectors’ reports from the 1830s up ... more Drawing on teaching manuals, government reports and school inspectors’ reports from the 1830s up to the early twentieth century, this paper traces the changing conceptual and social distance between childhood and adulthood in Ireland. Using Norbert Elias’s figurational approach, it is argued that children became increasingly involved in both unplanned civilising processes and deliberate civilising missions framed by state functionaries, religious elites and pedagogic experts. Young children were civilised in the broader context of unintentional, but ordered social processes developing over the course of the nineteenth century. While both pupils and teachers were at first addressed and depicted in similar ways, a growing social and cultural differentiation between adult and child gradually developed. This is related to the increasing status of teachers, their position as civilising agents of the state, and the gradual acceptance by elites that Irish teachers of humble social origins had become more emotionally self-controlled.
This paper examines arguments about balances between civilising processes and offensives using th... more This paper examines arguments about balances between civilising processes and offensives using the history of Irish primary-level education as an empirical case. Drawing largely on teaching manuals and primary school curricula from the mid-nineteenth century up to the end of the twentieth century, this paper traces the changing conceptual and social distance between childhood and adulthood in Ireland. If we focus too much on civilising offensives rather than processes, we lose much of the explanatory power of figurational sociology. Transformations become depicted as the outcomes of intentional plans, rather than compromises or unintended consequences of dependencies between people. In Ireland, children became increasingly enmeshed in both unplanned civilising processes and deliberate civilising offensives framed by pedagogues and experts. However, these recurring attempts at civilising young children occurred in broader, ordered, but largely unintentional social processes developing over generations. While both ‘children’ and ‘adults’ were initially addressed in quite similar terms, their identities and subjectivities gradually diverged, such that the division between these social categories became clearer. This has been a non-linear set of processes primarily due to the successive escalation and partial resolution of social conflicts in different forms.
Drawing from Eliasian figurational theory and data obtained in Ireland during a 3-year participan... more Drawing from Eliasian figurational theory and data obtained in Ireland during a 3-year participant observation of both the live and online spaces of the scene, we argue that control, both individual and social, plays a vital part in shaping heavy metal figurations. We focus on the role of the subcultural code in integrating participants into the scene, enabling the enactment of cathartic rituals, and its importance in signifying hierarchy and the distribution of subcultural capital. In particular, we place emphasis on bodily forms of control and emotional self-steering and we consider how the management of aggression in heavy metal subculture is indicative of wider civilizing processes. Such findings are considered within the context of previous consumer culture theory research that has called for studies that incorporate broader socio-historical perspectives.
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