Using ethnography, this study focused on a series of conversations with 47 young people from different social and geographical locations in an attempt to gain greater insight into how the consumption of sport and sport-related commodities are enmeshed in young men and women's struggle toward identity formation. From this exploration, there were three fundamental and inter-penetrating themes that emerged. First, the participants validated their sports consumption habits by describing the functional attributes of the commodities they consumed, namely comfort, quality and look. This served to defend against inferences suggesting that they may be conformists mindlessly shopping according to the social seduction of the sign. Second, choice within the sphere of sports consumption was repeatedly cited as a moment of empowerment and individuality whereby the participants, anxious to characterize themselves as rational and autonomously consuming individuals, were comfortable articulating and demonstrating their own creativity and character. Finally, the Other was essential to the self in the process of presenting one's own identity or the identity of a group in and through sports commodities, boundaries were established and re-established by way of a ceaselessly evolving depiction of the Other. In conclusion, for the young people involved in this study, sport and its related commodities play a crucial role in the complexities of peer relations and the ever-evolving process of identification and identity formation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/8972 |
| Date | January 2000 |
| Creators | Norman, Moss Edward. |
| Contributors | Rail, Genevieve, |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 172 p. |
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