The Meaning of Amateurism
- 1 March 1985
- journal article
- Published by Human Kinetics in Sociology of Sport Journal
- Vol. 2 (1) , 77-86
- https://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.2.1.77
Abstract
This paper defends the amateur ideal of athletics. It suggests that the hypocrisy which surrounds the amateur ideal is not due to a fault in the ideal itself, but is rather a symptom of commercial pressures upon sport. The defense of the amateur ideal does not necessarily involve a return to aristocratic privileges. The amateurist vision of “pure sport’ ’ provides a worthy ideal embodying the true meaning of sport as an end in itself. The paper shows the fate of amateurism in a market society to be one of betrayal of the utopian and emancipatory potential of sport.Keywords
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