The Sociology of a Boxing : By Analyzing a Structure of a Boxing Gym

ボクシング ノ シャカイガク ジム ノ コウゾウ ブンセキ オ モチイテ

イケモト, ジュンイチ

Ikemoto, Junichi

オオサカ ダイガク ダイガクイン ニンゲン カガク ケンキュウカ シャカイガク ニンゲンガク ジンルイガク ケンキュウシツ

Sociology, Anthropology and Philosophy, Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University

英語

ジム

都市貧困

国際比較研究

Boxing, Gym

Urban poverty

International comparative studies

Recently, in sports and urban sociology, a considerable number of studies have been made on boxing. Unlike earlier studies, this paper analyzes the production of boxing subcultures by focusing on the relationship between gyms and their environments. It confirms that the gym is a very important institution for analyzing boxing subcultures and makes the following points: 1) Focusing on the relationship between boxers in the gym and young men in the ghetto, this chapter reviews how the recruitment system in the ghetto works to reproduce the low status of boxers. 2) The relationship between the gym and the street, this reviews that motivations for entering the gym include protection from street violence and getting a place to show off masculinity. These functions make the street and the gym symbiotic opposites. 3) By focusing on the relationship between the gym and the ring, this chapter makes clear that boxing has aspects of social service and exploitation, they are made by the boxer farming system and boxers' everyday working life. Finally, this paper criticizes past boxing studies have not reflected relationship between urban poverty and boxing. It insists cross-cultural analysis is indispensable to a new flexible perspective on boxing.

英語