<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The comparative, differential phenomenology of play and games has a critical political point. A mainstream discourse identifies – more or less – sport with play and game and describes sport as just a modernized extension of play or as a universal phenomenon that has existed since the Stone Age or the ancient Greek Olympics. This may be problematical, as there was no sport before industrial modernity. Before 1800, people were involved in a richness of play and games, competitions, festivities, and dances, which to large extent have disappeared or were marginalized, suppressed, and replaced by sport. The established rhetoric of “ancient Greek sport”, “medieval tournament sport”, etc., can be questioned.</p><p>Configurational analysis as a procedure of differential phenomenology can help in analyzing sport as a specific modern game which produces objectified results through bodily movement. This analysis casts light not only on the phenomenon of sport itself, but also on the methodological and epistemological challenge of studying play, movement, and body culture.</p></abstract>

The comparative, differential phenomenology of play and games has a critical political point. A mainstream discourse identifies – more or less – sport with play and game and describes sport as just a modernized extension of play or as a universal phenomenon that has existed since the Stone Age or the ancient Greek Olympics. This may be problematical, as there was no sport before industrial modernity. Before 1800, people were involved in a richness of play and games, competitions, festivities, and dances, which to large extent have disappeared or were marginalized, suppressed, and replaced by sport. The established rhetoric of “ancient Greek sport”, “medieval tournament sport”, etc., can be questioned.Configurational analysis as a procedure of differential phenomenology can help in analyzing sport as a specific modern game which produces objectified results through bodily movement. This analysis casts light not only on the phenomenon of sport itself, but also on the methodological and epistemological challenge of studying play, movement, and body culture.

Efficiency Play, Games, Competitions, Production – How to Analyze the Configurations of Sport?

Physical Culture and Sport. Studies and Research

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The comparative, differential phenomenology of play and games has a critical political point. A mainstream discourse identifies – more or less – sport with...

Efficiency Play, Games, Competitions, Production – How to Analyze the Configurations of Sport?

Published Online: Dec 01, 2016

Page range: 5 - 16

Received: Oct 03, 2016

Accepted: Nov 24, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/pcssr-2016-0024

Keywords
configurational analysis, differential phenomenology, historical relativity, basis and superstructure, modernity, riding, space, time, energy

© 2016 Henning Eichberg, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Efficiency Play, Games, Competitions, Production – How to Analyze the Configurations of Sport?

Published Online: Dec 01, 2016

Page range: 5 - 16

Received: Oct 03, 2016

Accepted: Nov 24, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/pcssr-2016-0024

Keywordsconfigurational analysis, differential phenomenology, historical relativity, basis and superstructure, modernity, riding, space, time, energy

© 2016 Henning Eichberg, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
configurational analysis, differential phenomenology, historical relativity, basis and superstructure, modernity, riding, space, time, energy