Review: [untitled] Author(s): Robert A. Stebbins Source: The Canadian Journal of Sociology / Cahiers canadiens de sociologie, Vol.

13, No. 3 (Summer, 1988), pp. 350-352 Published by: Canadian Journal of Sociology Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3340872 . Accessed: 03/09/2011 17:27
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crises the capitalism; second"statesocialist"societies;andthethirdwiththe (different) are is which,theauthors believe,affectbothsystems.Theirpointof departure that"there fundamental differencesbetween the countriesof EasternEuropeand the Western or world,"andtheyfirmlyrejectanynotionof "convergence" the thesisthatcommunist societies are merely "statecapitalist" versions of capitalism.For all the differences betweenWesterncapitalistsocieties,theyremainessentiallycapitalist"if only because themotiveunderlying production goodsandservicesis, as ever,thequestforprofit the of and capitalaccumulation," whereaseconomic activityin "statesocialist"societies is centrallyplannedanddirected,in a systemwherethe predominant of the meansof part productionis under state ownershipand control,with political rule exercised by "a the organisedsingle partywhich controlsthe bureaucracy, police and hierarchically militaryforces." The crisis which affects capitalist societies, the authorssuggest, has primarily economic sources, ranging from the difficulty of maintainingan adequaterate of countriesin the "thirdworld." to profitability competitionfrom newly industrialized However,theyalso arguethatthelegitimacyof thepoliticalsystemin Western capitalist "the societieshasnotbeensignificantly erodedby economiccrisis,notwithstanding level of resentment, frustration discontent and and withinneighbourhoods commuexpressed nities." In "statesocialist"societies, on the otherhand,the crisis, in the authors'view, is primarily political,in so far as "thereare no mechanismsanalogousto the corporatist institutionswithin capitalismfor strikingcompromisesbetween differentstrataand is interestgroups; thereis only theparty-state itself,"andthe"party-state" dominated by a powerfulandwell-entrenched No bureaucracy. doubt,a secondeditionwill needto take will accountof whatMrGorbachev havebeenableto achievein theSovietUnionby way of reform,"liberalisation" "democratisation." and The authorsare fairly pessimisticaboutthe capacityof either system to generate radicalsolutionsto theirrespectivecrises; and they guardedly theirhopes on the pin "new"social movementswhich have arisenaroundsuch issues as "theenvironment, uses of science and world developmentand the alternative peace and disarmament, is Theirconcludingchapter the weakestpartof the book;butthis does not technology." reservations mayhaveaboutthisorthat one detract fromthevalueof thework.Whatever text or this formulation argument, book is probablythe best introductory availablein studyof the capitalistandcommunistsystems. Englishfor the comparative

Science Department Political of York University

Miliband Ralph

Norbert Elias andEric Dunning, Quest Excitement: Sportand Leisurein for Process. Oxford:Basil Blackwell (OxfordUniversityPress), the Civilizing 1986, 313 pp., $48.75 cloth.
writtenby Withthe exceptionof the preface,writtenby Dunning,andthe introduction, which togethertotal 62 pages, this book is largelya collection of the authors' Elias, eitherjointly or separately. Still, most of these workscome previousarticlesproduced

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and The on from journals anthologies. finalchapter Dunning's sport widelyscattered as a malepreserve is anunpublished conference Elias'sessayon sportand paper. an of as violence(which includes extended example fox hunting partof thecivilizing here a the of compilation process) appears forthefirsttime.Thus, bookprovides handy a number thecollaborative efforts thesetwoeminent of of sociologists. What newandasvaluable thepapers, thepreface introduction. knit is as are and They the in and and form theoretical philosophitogether papers, present compact theauthors' bear in in calviewsasthese onsport leisure particular sociology general. title and and The of thebookcaptures, as as can, perhaps accurately anyphrase theessenceof theentire book. who of when latter appointed theUniversity the at was Dunning, wasa student Elias's of Leicester, with He the of openshis preface a reviewof thesociology sport. laments of as of and attention, neglect sport aphenomenon worthy serious extended sociological eventhough close lookat it reveals importance society.There a in its followsa short of Eliasandanoutline hissociological of Elias hadalong-standing has biography theory. in interest therelationship between violence thecivilizing and an that process, interest and in stems,in part,fromhis German-Jewish background his experiences Nazi For is withina synthetic Germany. Eliasthe studyof thisrelationship to be pursued that a that the framework, is, within framework eschews compartmentalizasociological tion andfragmentation the discipline's of and specialities the usualone- andtwodimensional that over Rather conceptions havesprung in sociology thepastcentury. up one should human in their natural habitat reference all important with to study beings of ones (e.g.,norms, modes instincts, aspects theirlives, notjustcertain sentiments, This which distinguished theanalytic is from production). synthetic approach, approach thatstresses factors variables, be sensitive empirical and must to observations. A keyconcept thistheory in or"the of interdependent web who isfiguration, people arebonded eachother several to on levelsandindiverse to ways" 10).Itis similar the (p. ideasof socialnetwork. thenotion figuration broader; includes results But of is it the of theactions interdependent astheseactions of to various people converge form emergent such stratification axes crises war and of ratios, phenomena aspower systems, of tension, theeconomy, lastbutnotleasttheinstitutions sport leisure. and of and such Moreover, are within context history. the of phenomena to be examined A second concept Elias'stheory that development. a society in is of As key develops itbecomes more The civilized. levelof development toward civilization bemeasured can inconcrete terms a"triad basic of controls": bytheextent a society's of control over (1) by natural its over and events, bytheextentof control interhuman (2) connections, (3)bythe extentof learned individual self-control. is in the thirdtypeof control Elias's It that in interest Freudian becomes evident. theory Elias elaborates this framework his introduction. on in Moder societies,when with Greece Rome, and to havetended followtheEnglish models of compared classical in more less froms pleasurable nonetheless of but sport adopting regulated, violent highly skill has civilized as games competitive requiring physical andexertion. Sport become havethe societieswithinwhichit is played.The implication is thatthereis a here influence civilizing of the and in tendencies between sport nonsport reciprocal spheres a civilizing society.
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knownas cyclesof violence.Heretwo or All thisoccursbecausetherearefigurations moregroupsfindthemselvestrapped a relationship mutualfearanddistrust. in of There is a tendency,however,for these cycles of violence (andnonviolence)to become less in howtoresolvetheirdifferences more of learn deadlyasmembers theconflicting groups in peacefulways. A parallelreduction violencecycles canbe observedin sport,notably in the historicalchangesin sportsactivitiesin the EnglishandFrenchupperclasses. In such an explanation, is obviousthatone cannotview sportas an independent it social or institution limit one's inquiryto sportalone. in Forthereduction violenceto succeed,peoplemustlearnself-control. civilizing The of in includesgrowth self-control thepopulation. self is controlled, The however, process to rulesof the game,or in otherareasof life, theroles of by submitting the agreed-upon for on parliament example.Self-controlrests on childhoodsocialization, the developmentof the superego,for humanslack instinctiveself-controls. Thus, in civilized societies sportand leisureoffer a sense of the excitementof the earlierinternecine risk battles,butdo so withminimum to life andlimb.Thisin itself is a majorsocial functionin advancedsocieties, since the controlof impulsesproduces noticeabletension in the individualmember.Sport,whetherspectatoror participant, allowsa sociallyacceptable, releasefromthesetensionsin minimally destrucpatterned tive ways. In Freudian termsmembersof the society sublimate. The Elias-Dunning thesis is a refreshing, holistic approach the understanding to of and leisure in moder society, but one which incorporates social psychological sport considerations well. Human as formation relationships, of socializainteraction, primary tion, and other microsocial processes are not overlooked. The subsequentpapers demonstrate strengthof their perspectivethroughdetailedexaminationsof such the as folk football,sport The violence,andmasculine subjects identitythrough sport. reader comes away fromthis book with a profound sense of one of Dunning'scentralbeliefs: formsanareaof considerable socialsignificance" 4-5). Theneglect arguably "sport (pp. of it andleisuredemonstrate too well a hypocritical all streakin sociology,expressedin the claim thatsociologistsobjectively studysociety. of University Calgary RobertA. Stebbins

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