Micro-sociology of sport: interaction rituals of solidarity, emotional energy, and emotional domination^*

Abstract

Close micro-observation has been facilitated by use of videos and body instrumentation for purposes of athletic training and game strategy. Such technologies also allow researchers to examine the crucial details of what happens on and around a sports field. Micro-sociology of sports draws on, and contributes to, Interaction Ritual theory of the emotional dynamics of solidarity, and the micro-sociology of violence. Sport and violence model each other: first, because sport as play-fighting or substitute for war, involves similar mechanisms of winning and losing; and second, violence breaks out on field and around it, in tune to rhythms of the game. The micro-interactional details of focus of attention, energy, rhythm (and their lack), and above all moments of emotional domination, are key processes in all the above.

Keywords:

• Sport; violence
• emotional domination
• micro-sociology

Disclosure statement

The author reports no conflicts of interest. The author alone is responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Notes on contributor

Randall Collins is Professor of Sociology at University of Pennsylvania. His publications include Violence: a Micro-Sociological Theory (2008, Princeton University Press); Interaction Ritual Chains (2004, Princeton University Press); and most recently, Does Capitalism Have a Future? (with Immanuel Wallerstein et al., 2013, Oxford University Press; translations in German, French, Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Arabic). His analyses appear regularly on ‘The Sociological Eye’ http://sociological-eye.blogspot.com.