Sport, Professionalism and Pain: Ethnographies of Injury and Risk

by Howe *DO NOT USE*; P. David

• ISBN13: 9780415247306
• ISBN10: 0415247306
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2003-12-29
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This exciting new study explores ethical dilemmas in the relationship between sporting performance, sports medicine and the health of the athlete. The author argues that global processes of commercialization and professionalization within contemporary sport have magnified the demands for increased levels of bodily performance, and that the commodification of sporting performance has influenced the balance between risk, pain and injury in sport. Drawing on cutting-edge ethnographic case-studies, including elite rugby union and the Paralympic Games, the author develops a new theory of the link between medicine, the body and culture, and asks whether the athlete or the administrator has more control over the body of the sportsperson.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	x
Acknowledgements	xi
Introduction	1	(10)
PART I The cultural nexus: sports medicine and the commercial body	11	(60)
Investigating sports medicine: medical anthropology in context	13	(20)
The beginnings of sports medicine	14	(8)
Forms of sports medicine	22	(2)
Medical anthropology and sport	24	(3)
The development of chemical performance-enhancement	27	(4)
Public use of sports medicine	31	(1)
Summary	32	(1)
Amateur pastime to professional spectacle	33	(21)
Amateur versus professional	34	(2)
Professionalism and Welsh rugby	36	(11)
Television and the commercialisation of sport	47	(3)
Why sponsors want sport	50	(2)
Summary	52	(2)
Sporting bodies: mortal engines	54	(17)
The body and social theory	54	(12)
Pain and the body	66	(4)
Summary	70	(1)
PART II Pain, injury and the culture of risk	71	(56)
Pain and injury: signal and response	73	(17)
The concept of pain	74	(5)
Medical practice and the nature of pain	79	(6)
Positive pain and training	85	(2)
Pain in relation to risk	87	(1)
Summary	88	(2)
The importance of injury in the commercialised world of sport	90	(17)
Two types of injury	91	(3)
Regulating sports injury	94	(1)
Mismanagement and misdiagnosis	94	(3)
Time	97	(3)
Absence from participation due to 'illness'	100	(3)
The impact of politics and commercialism on injury treatment	103	(3)
Summary	106	(1)
Risk culture as a 'product'	107	(20)
Risk and culture	107	(2)
The risk of using illicit drugs	109	(2)
Lay knowledge, socialisation and risk	111	(4)
Elite-participant social networks	115	(2)
Risk and the ideal body	117	(3)
'Imperfect' bodies	120	(1)
The risk cycle	121	(4)
Summary	125	(2)
PART III Theory into practice	127	(54)
Distinctive community: the Welsh rugby club	129	(19)
Injury statistics: a comparison of evidence	130	(4)
Injury in Valley Rugby Football Club	134	(7)
Talk of pain and injury at Valley RFC	141	(5)
Summary	146	(2)
Elite distance runners	148	(16)
Cultural context	149	(1)
Structuring the season	150	(2)
Zatopekian pain	152	(3)
Pain threshold	155	(4)
Management of injuries	159	(4)
Summary	163	(1)
Bodily dysfunction: the Paralympics as an arena for risk	164	(17)
Cultural context	165	(3)
Classification	168	(2)
Managing classified bodies	170	(2)
Technology	172	(2)
Medicine and the impaired body	174	(3)
Impairment, pain and injury	177	(2)
Summary	179	(2)
Conclusion	181	(9)
Appendix I Changes in the laws of rugby union: amendments to the laws of the game to be implemented in the Northern Hemisphere from 1 September 1996	190	(1)
Appendix II Changes in the laws of rugby union: amendments to the laws of the game effective as of 4 November 1996	191	(3)
Appendix III High-risk situations in rugby union	194	(3)
Appendix IV Pain relief	197	(1)
Appendix V Contents of the medical kitbag as used at Valley RFC	198	(1)
Notes	199	(4)
Bibliography	203	(17)
Index	220