Toward a new conception of sport : Herbert Marcuse's theory of play

The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to criticize the main social theories of sport offered to date by both the Right and the Left, and (2) to develop a new theory of sport based on Herbert Marcuse's notion of play. Conservative theories, I argue, idealize sport by claiming it resides in a separate realm of freedom, above and beyond the political and economic constraints of everyday life. By contrast, the New Left argues that sport is preeminently a social practice, and thus insist on a strong linkage between sport and everyday social reality. The main criticism I will advance against both theories is that they fail to realize that the realm of sport can neither be explained as an autonomous realm of freedom separated from the realm of necessity, nor solely as a simple product of the economic and social relations of society.

An alternative approach to the study of sport, I argue, is suggested by the German social philosopher and theorist Herbert Marcuse who insisted that cultural endeavors such as sport can be best understood in terms of their complex and manifold relation to other related activities. Just, then, as Marcuse conceived of "unalienated labor" as a curious admixture of work and play, a similar case can be made that sport be construed as a distinctive amalgam of play and sport. Such a conception of sport, I conclude, preserves its autonomous standing without insulating it from the rest of social reality, and at the same time presents an alternative understanding of sport against which its current degraded status can be critically assessed.