Negotiations of Belonging: Habermasian Stories of Minority Ethnic Rugby League Players in London and the South of England

Abstract

Kevin Hylton (2005) and Ben Carrington (2004) have recently challenged sport and leisure researchers over the paucity of critical studies on the way in which sport and leisure construct racialised identities (cf. Carrington and McDonald, 2001). This paper takes up that challenge by analysing rugby league in England through a Habermasian lens. The sport of rugby league, like all modern sports, has changed over the last thirty years due to the pressures of commodification, globalisation and the transition to postindustrial and postmodern identity formations (Denham, 2004). Previous research on rugby league has shown that the game in England is associated with an imaginary community of white, northern, working-class men (Long et al., 1995; Long and Spracklen, 1996; Spracklen, 1995, 1996a, 1996b, 2001, 2005). This paper examines this previous work and compares it with new qualitative research that explores the negotiations of belonging faced by minority ethnic players in London and the south of England. Using a Habermasian framework to analyse identity formation in late modernity, the paper concludes that while there are similarities in the way in which men use rugby league to construct masculine identity, issues of exclusion and racism remain significant in the experiences of these players.

Keywords:

• identity
• ‘race’
• masculinity
• imaginary community
• London
• Habermas