Violence, competition and the emergence and development of sports: reflections upon the Stokvis-Malcolm debate

As sociologists of sport involved in teaching and researching the broad area of theemergence and development of modern sport we have been captivated by therecently reinvigorated debate in the International Review for the Sociology ofSport (IRSS) concerning the place of violence-reduction in the socio-genesis ofsports. In this brief review of the debate between Dominic Malcolm and RuudStokvis — and, by extension, that between figurational sociologists of sport anda figurational sympathizer — we present a selective summary and critique of thelatest phase in a lively and productive discussion regarding the emergence anddevelopment of modern sporting forms. We do so in the belief that stimulatingthis kind of dialogue in the IRSS is not only worthwhile in itself, but also holdsout the promise of making a significant contribution to our understanding of thedevelopment of modern sport in the form of a refinement of existing explanations.Before addressing the core of the debate between Stokvis and Malcolmand, a decade earlier, Stokvis (1992) and Elias and Dunning (1986), we providea short summary of their respective positions.