Technology at the service of natural performance: cross analysis of the Oscar Pistorius and Caster Semenya cases
Drawing from the pragmatic sociology initiated by Boltanski and Thévenot, this study bears on the moments of tension between nature`s dispositions and technology`s possibilities in sporting events. It is based on the premise that the deep meaning of sport competitions and their staging are best perceived when strange or foreign forces (an overly `bouncing` prosthesis, an overly masculine body) comes and undermines the reality tests which constitute the events. Through a cross-analysis [in the sense lent to this term by Passeron and Revel], of two athletes whose sporting achievements generated debates - Oscar Pistorius and Caster Semenya - we will underline the fundamental role of technology, which consists in instituting, in secret, reality that is always more significant from a sporting standpoint.
© Copyright 2018 Sport in Society: Cultures, Commerce, Media, Politics. Taylor & Francis. All rights reserved.
| Subjects: | |
|---|---|
| Notations: | technical and natural sciences sports for the handicapped |
| Published in: | Sport in Society: Cultures, Commerce, Media, Politics |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2018
|
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2016.1273633 |
| Volume: | 21 |
| Issue: | 4 |
| Pages: | 689-704 |
| Document types: | article |
| Level: | advanced |