Les loisirs sportifs dans les quarters populaires: Modalités de pratiques et rapports au corps

Abstract

The sports leisure activities of the working class are mostly connected, in the socio-anthropological literature, with connoted practices (football, combat sports, walking⋯) and with physical representations based on strength. Our comment aims at identifying the variety of the practices and the body representations in the popular districts today by insisting on the processes of individualization in the mass cultures. Our analysis leans, on the one hand, on the statistical studies on sport in the popular districts and, on the other hand, on the investigation through questionnaires and qualitative survey in Franche-Comté. Actually, the complexification of the behaviors of the leisure activities integrates the popular vestiges while stating an extension of the practice modes, competitive or not, and profiles of physical representations, differentiating strength, withdrawal, exhaustion, shape and conquest. This variety essentially depends on sex and on working occupations.