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Performances and negotiations: A case study of a wrestling referee

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Abstract

The experience of a wrestling referee is examined in terms of the performances and negotiations that take place. The author concludes that the role of referee sheds considerable light on the process of normative negotiations. The referee is responsible for maintaining social order in tenuous social situations. The audience's vision of the “idealized” sporting contest can never be realized. It is the referee's job to personally take on the inconsistencies and ambiguities of reality and to ritualistically transform the actual contest into the ordered contest they all desire.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Queens College, CUNY, 11367, Flushing, NY

    Charles W. Smith

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  1. Charles W. Smith
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Smith, C.W. Performances and negotiations: A case study of a wrestling referee. Qual Sociol 5, 33–46 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01006417

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01006417

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