Le Marché du tennis : la construction sociale des échanges sportifs

The market in tennis. The social construction of exchanges in sport

• Auteur / Autrice : Anne-Marie Waser
• Direction : Pierre Bourdieu
• Type : Thèse de doctorat
• Discipline(s) : Sociologie
• Date : Soutenance en 1991
• Etablissement(s) : Paris, EHESS

Mots clés

Mots clés contrôlés

Sociologie

Tennis

Résumé

Cette these vise a eclaircir le processus du choix des partenaires de tennis dans un club qui occupe une position intermediaire dans l'espace du tennis a strasbourg. Si le tennis est devenu une activite accessible a des groupes sociaux qui jusque-la en etaient exclus, sa diffusion s'est accompagnee d'une differenciation des pratiques : les differences entre les classes sociales se sont en quelque sorte reconstituees au niveau des manieres de pratiquer ce sport et au niveau des lieux - les clubs - ou il se pratique. L'etude de trois clubs de strasbourg permet la comparaison entre trois types de publics que differencient aussi bien leur mode de recrutement que les normes de sociabilite et les regles sportives auxquelles ils doivent se soumettre. L'etude des differents marches de partenaires montre que les joueurs se choisissent selon des proprietes sociales, meme si leurs choix sont justifies par des criteres sportifs, les proprietes sociales se retraduisant dans le style meme du jeu. On ne peut comprendre completement le processus qui est au principe du choix des partenaires et la legitimite du capital sportif qui organise l'espace de clubs d'un lieu donne sans revenir aux conditions historiques et sociales dans lesquelles le tennis a ete importe et s'est developpe en france. Le fonctionnement du marche du tennis ne repose pas sur des principes de competition sportive pure, mais resulte des luttes entre les differents promoteurs ayant interet a l'acceptation de regles du jeu apparemment fondees sur la competence sportive.

This work tries to make clear the process in which tennis partners choose each others in a club which has a middle posit ion in the space of tennis in strasbourg. As tennis has become an activity accessible to social groups who were previous sly excluded from it, so its diffusion has been accompanied by a differentiation of practices. The differences between the social classes have in a sense been reconstituted at the level of ways of practising the sport and of the places - the clubs - where it is practised. A study of three clubs in strasbourg makes it possible to compare three types of pu blic which are differentiated as much by their mode of recrutment as by their norms of sociability and the sporting rules with which they have comply. The study of the different markets in partners shows that players choose each other according to social properties, even if their choices are justified by sporting criteria, with social properties being translated into the very style of play. One kannot fully understand the process which initiates the choice of partners a nd the legitimity of sport capital which organises the space of clubs in a given place without looking back on to the historical and social conditions in which tennis was imported and has developped in france. The functioning of the marke t in tennis is not based on pure sport competition principles, but is the result of the struggles between the different promoters who are interested in making the rules of a game apparently based on sport ability accepted.