Revisiting Relations between the Sexes in Sport on the Island of Ireland

Abstract

This chapter examines aspects of social relations between the sexes in sport. Based originally on research published in 2005, here it is revised and updated to take account of subsequent developments within and beyond the academy. These include advances in women’s involvement in sport in the past eight years or so that have some significance for the purposes of the present analysis. During this time further contributions to the corpus of work on figurational sociology (and its application to sport) were also published. Taken together, these are the theoretical building blocks and empirical foci for the purposes of the present discussion. The chapter originates from a distinctly Eliasian conceptualization of interdependence. Drawing on the notion of homines aperti—that is, on the idea of an ever-larger circle of people in modern societies with whom any single individual is connected, no matter how momentarily—Elias spoke of:

the “conveyor belts” running through individuals’ lives growing “longer and more complex”, requiring us to “attune” our conduct to the actions of others, and becoming the dominant influence on our existence, so that we are less “prisoners of our passions” and more captive to the requirements of an increasingly complex “web of actions”, particularly a demand for “constant hindsight and foresight in interpreting the actions and intentions of others.” (cited in Van Krieken 1998, 4)