Mondains and oblates. Body trajectories in high-level sport

Abstract

Most of the scientific literature concerning former high-level athletes is devoted to their professional retraining. There are comparatively few empirical studies dealing with their body representations and practices. Based on Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical framework, this article presents the results of an interview survey with 30 former high-level athletes. It shows that their relationships with their bodies result from their specific body trajectories, marked by family socialization and social background, sports socialization, injuries, and the possession of different forms of capital. In contrast to mondains, who have relatively stable body trajectories, oblates are marked by less homogeneous socialization and see their body trajectories divided between a form of personal dissatisfaction on the one hand and a feeling of saturation with their sport on the other.

A Bourdieusian Approach to Pain Management and Health in Professional Cricket

“…Additional qualitative enquiry showed that family and sporting peer socialization (e.g., pressure from coaches) influenced the decision to use painkillers, that athletes justified their use by arguing that the substances did not remove all pain, and that their competitors were using painkillers. The influence of family is important as attitudes towards the body and physical activity will have been influenced by socialization during childhood learnt from family members (Longchamp et al, 2023;Shilling, 2004).…”

“…For example, in medicine, the 'professional culture' is sustained when senior staff explain 'correct' interpersonal behaviour to trainees and through new staff imitating superiors, leading to a habituation of behaviours over time via repetition (Vaidyanathan, 2015). The analytical separation of primary and secondary socialization can disguise the possibility that career socialization begins before employment as other environments shape dispositions towards appropriate work (Lahire, 2019;Longchamp et al, 2023). In sport, this is evident when athletes learn the expected norms and behaviours of an elite athlete or coach in their working environment but may have found their way to a sporting career due to previous familial socialization (Pitney et al, 2002).…”

“…For Bourdieu (1986), cultural capital could be embodied manifesting in differing orientations between classes towards how the body is used (e.g., instrumentally for work or recreationally for pleasure) and presented (e.g., body language and pronunciation). For instance, Longchamp et al (2023) demonstrated how family class and socialization impacted professional athletes attitudes the body as a tool, with working class athletes being more likely to prolong their career and mitigate injury through medication use. Shilling (1991Shilling ( , 2004) extended Bourdieu's view on the interplay between embodied cultural capital and physical capital arguing that "'the physical' is too important to be merely seen as a component of cultural" (1991, p. 654) and should be treated as a form of capital in its own right.…”

“…Medical professionals in sport are tasked with promoting the health of their patients (i.e., athletes) in an environment defined by physical sacrifice and risk-taking (Safai, 2003). The primary role of health preservation was therefore paradoxically seen by some athletes as incompatible with a long career, consistent with the findings of Longchamp et al (2023).…”