ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the development of modern sport and, in so doing, illustrates how Elias’s concepts of sportization and civilizing processes can be used. Following a discussion of the importance Elias placed on studying social life processually, the chapter outlines the twin concepts of sportization and parliamentarization and illustrates how these are fundamental to an account of the early development of cricket. Secondly the chapter shows how sportization also, subsequently occurred in conjunction with modernization processes and how expanding networks of interdependency necessitated a greater accommodation of interests and standardization of sports rules. The chapter concludes with a re-affirmation of the interplay between key Eliasian concepts such as civilizing processes and functional democratization.