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Abstract
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Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the claims made for the potential of sports such as cricket to reduce social conflict and engender peace.
Design/methodology/approach - The use of an Eliasian sociological perspective to analyze historical documentary sources and contemporary media analyses of narratives of the role of violence and its regulation in cricket.
Findings - Violence and its regulation interweave with the broader development of cricket and remain central concerns in status conflicts between competing social groups involved in the game. This ranges from evidence of an increasing internalization of expectations regarding the regulation of violence to the stratification of social groups according to beliefs about differing uses of and attitudes towards violence.
Originality/value - This paper provides the first long-term analysis of violence trends in relation to cricket, and provides clarification of some problematic aspects of Elias' sociological framework. |