Sport as a vocation: The effects of injury on the socialization processes involved in the production of sporting elites

Abstract

This article deals with the construction of the sporting expertise of high-level athletes by focusing on the socialization processes which take place while athletes are injured. The analysis uses results from qualitative research based on interviews and ethnographic surveys in several training centers exclusive to French top-elite athletes. Various socialization contexts (both in sport and outside of sport) were observed in order to understand how injuries can affect the symbolic marking and the symbolic imprisonment processes which go together with the development and the maintenance of high-level vocations. The results show that the effects of injuries are equivocal: when the conditions of symbolic imprisonment remain strong during the time of care and rehabilitation, and when the close circle keeps on nurturing the marks of election, the chances of maintaining sports vocations are high. In contrast, when injuries strongly weaken the signs of election and when the socialization contexts are more heterogeneous, sporting vocations are likely to decline significantly.