‘The man in the middle’: mixed martial arts referees and the production and management of socially desirable risk

IF 8 2区 医学 Q1 HOSPITALITY, LEISURE, SPORT & TOURISM Qualitative Research in Sport Exercise and Health Pub Date : 2022-01-18 DOI:10.1080/2159676X.2022.2027810
A. Channon
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引用次数: 3

Abstract

ABSTRACT Mixed martial arts (MMA) competition involves one-on-one, full-contact fighting, most often held within the spatial confines of a steel cage and in front of a paying audience. The spectacular entertainment value of this sport, as well as its intrinsic psychological appeal to competitors, is steeped in risk. While the perspectives of athletes and fans on this issue are reasonably well-researched, little is known about a crucial third party in the production and maintenance of risk in competitive fights: that of the referee. In this paper, I attempt to bridge this gap by arguing that referees’ work is centrally important in the construction of socially desirable forms of risk. Specifically, their role involves protecting fighters’ bodies from the damaging excesses of the action which otherwise constitutes the sport’s raison d’être in the eyes of competing athletes and paying fans; but at the same time, this action is something which referees themselves both facilitate and promote. As such, this work sees referees navigate a core tension residing at the heart of MMA, as with other high-risk sports: how and when to define dangerous action as either desirable or undesirable; as exciting or excessive. The paper concludes by highlighting some wider contextual factors shaping referees’ work, which may bear consideration in future studies of the production of risk in sport.
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“中间的人”:综合格斗裁判和社会期望风险的生产和管理
综合格斗(MMA)比赛包括一对一的全接触格斗,通常在一个钢铁笼子的空间范围内进行,并在付费观众面前进行。这项运动惊人的娱乐价值,以及它对竞争对手的内在心理吸引力,都充满了风险。虽然运动员和球迷在这个问题上的观点得到了相当充分的研究,但我们对竞技比赛中产生和维持风险的关键第三方——裁判——知之甚少。在本文中,我试图通过论证裁判员的工作在构建社会期望的风险形式中至关重要来弥合这一差距。具体来说,他们的角色包括保护运动员的身体免受过度伤害,否则就构成了这项运动在竞争运动员和付费粉丝眼中être的理由;但与此同时,这种行为也是裁判自己促成和推动的。因此,这项工作看到裁判员在MMA的核心位置上进行导航,就像其他高风险运动一样:如何以及何时将危险动作定义为可取或不可取;令人兴奋的或过分的本文最后强调了影响裁判工作的一些更广泛的背景因素,这些因素可能会在未来的体育风险产生研究中得到考虑。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
10.60
自引率
10.20%
发文量
36
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