ABSTRACT
Throughout at least the last quarter of the twentieth century the notion of sub-cultural theory was formative in discussions of sport, culture and society. The formation of subcultures as a collective solution or resolution to problems of blocked aspirations of certain sections of society was widely used in discussion of youth sport, violence and sport and the much wider usage of the way in which hegemony operated through sport. In this sense sport was framed as a site of popular resistance and cultural struggle. While the politics of state involvement in sport continued to dominate much of the politics of sport literature at the time the question of sport’s capacity to provide resistance to what was then a debate about sport and capitalism rested very much upon the role of sport in civil society and its capacity to define itself as a credible social alternative.
