Sport, Professionalism and Pain: Ethnographies of injury and risk doc

[...]... the professionalisation of sports medicine and the impact it had on the transformation of amateur 4 SPORT, PROFESSIONALISM AND PAIN rugby to a professional concern (Howe 1997) as part of the rites of passage of an amateur anthropologist This research led me to examine more fully the importance of pain and injury in the world of club athletics and the Paralympic movement Because of my personal commitment... the club and the sport Risk culture, as the product of pain and injury, is the focus of Chapter 6 In particular, this chapter explores issues related to the socialisation that is part and parcel of elite sporting culture, and how this frequently makes the INTRODUCTION 9 acceptance of risk an inevitable consequence of professional participation in sport The acceptance of risk and the development of lay... understanding of the phenomena of pain, injury and risk Research by Waddington (1996, 2000) and Hoberman (1992) was helpful in contextualising the social importance of sports medicine In fact, it is the title of Hoberman’s work Mortal Engines (1992) and his discussion of the body as an engine that first enabled me to conceptualise my personal experience of sports injury and risk, and that led to many of the... examination of distinctive types of injury and how they are regulated in the context of the everchanging social environment surrounding sport This is followed by a consideration of the importance of time in the management and treatment of injury As pressure on both the sporting participant and the medical treatment staff increases, time away from the field of play due to injury is an important issue and may often... harm and risks to which their bodies are exposed Part II of the book deals more specifically with the concepts of ‘pain’, injury and risk In Chapter 4 the conceptual distinction between ‘pain’ and injury is articulated Specific types of pain are also explored, and a discussion of the treatment of pain and how it may be alleviated follows Importantly, in this chapter the positive aspect of pain... understanding of how modern practical sports medicine effects the treatment of ills, and what impact this can have on the habits of a sporting environment The treatment of injury at the time that it occurs has changed less than it has in the sports medicine clinic, and therefore the initial treatment of injury in sports like rugby and football has changed less than in athletics, 22 SPORT, PROFESSIONALISM. .. process of transformation to professionalism have different approaches to the management of pain, injury and risk The provision of sports medicine is, in a sense, a tool used by sports administrators and club officials to fasttrack elite sporting performers (often prematurely) back into competition In spite of the cultural differences, however, all three cases illustrate the fact that in an era of elite... highlights why academic discussions of pain, injury and risk in the context of sport must be contextualised within the literature regarding the body as a social object The living body is central to 8 SPORT, PROFESSIONALISM AND PAIN much of this exploration (Williams and Bendelow 1998), and throughout this book, paying direct attention to the concept of embodiment of sporting practice is fundamental to the... been transformed by their use of sports medicine in the context of professionalism and commercialisation The cases of rugby union in Wales, distance runners and Paralympic athletes evidence how elite sporting cultures have distinctive ways of dealing with pain and injury Most notably, while professional rugby players have medical support close at hand during both games and club training sessions, distance... commercialised sport, should a serious injury occur, time away from training and competition may mean the loss of wages Documenting how this time away from the ‘field of play’ is used may go some way to increasing our understanding of how specific sporting cultures deal with the hardship of pain and injury By using diachronic case studies, a more complete picture of elite sporting performers’ health and livelihood, . Sport, Professionalism and Pain: Ethnographies of injury and risk Sport, Professionalism and Pain considers these and other pertinent concerns as it questions whether, in the world of modem sport,. of Sport in the School of Sport and Leisure at the University of Gloucestershire. Sport, Professionalism and Pain Ethnographies of injury and risk P.David Howe LONDON AND NEW YORK First published. body and social theory 53 Pain and the body 65 Summary 69 PART II Pain, injury and the culture of risk 70 4 Pain and injury: signal and response 71 The concept of pain 72 Medical practice and