Motor Racing 1894 - 1949 - a brief history

 Safety in Formula One from 1950 including:

 Timeline

 The Professionalization of Drivers & Formation of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association

 Masculinity and the perception of risk

 The Formation the Formula One Constructors' Association

 Commercialization and Safety

 The Formation of the Grand Prix Medical Service

 Newspaper analysis: The Times newspaper reporting of fatalities 1950 - 97

 The Media and the Safety Issue

 A Summary of Conclusions and Thoughts

 Women in Motorsports including:

 Women in Motorsports Timeline

 Women Working in Motorsports

 The Representation of Women in Motorsports

Theories I Employed

Feminism

As with many theories, feminism both overlaps with other sociological approaches and is divided into a number of categories. Some of these categories include:

  • Marxist feminism
  • Radical feminism
  • Liberal feminism

I found the liberal feminist perspective useful when considering safety in motor racing.

Liberal feminism

Liberal feminism stresses that neither sex benefits from gender inequalities - e.g. women often lack educational and sporting opportunities and men may have reduced involvement in child rearing. Of course some groups may benefit from such gender inequalities, for instance, the exploitation of women's unpaid domestic work.

Liberal feminists do not believe biological reductionism is the reason for women's subordination but believe it is due to individuals being socialized into gender roles and cultural ideals of gender characteristics. Gender roles and definitions include the characteristics popular perception deems to be 'feminine' and 'masculine'. Feminine is often represented as being homely, nurturing, weak, beautiful, graceful whereas masculine is represented as strong, brave, competitive, assertive and tough. Being socialized into a 'masculine' role may also include the fear and dislike of 'effeminate behaviour' and homosexuality. Liberal feminists note these gender perceptions are formed, reproduced and reiterated by male hegemony - the cultural and ideological domination by men by persuasive means. Liberal feminists note women are not a homogenous group - women are not all the same, different women come from different cultural backgrounds and have different needs and desires.

I found this perspective particularly useful when considering how pain, risk and injury were viewed in motor racing and whether any acceptance of risk and injury was linked with gender definitions of masculinity.

Figurational Sociology

Figurational sociology has developed from the work of Norbert Elias and attempts sociological synthesis and synthesis of sociology, psychology and history.

Elias studied the development of European societies from the middle ages. He found that since this period there has been a more or less continual refinement of people's manners. This involved people internalizing norms regarding behaviour and manner. Previous actions which were once acceptable such as spitting at the dinner table, became unacceptable. Elias connects these changes with the changing balance of power within European medieval society onwards which involved the formation of states and their monopolies on the right to impose taxes and the use of violent force. The states monopoly on violence, involving the formation of armies, made life generally less violent and people began to internalize a taboo of violent and symbolically violent acts. Elias termed these many changes as 'The Civilizing Process'. It's important to note Elias doesn't use the term 'civilizing' in a judgmental way as it is so often used in everyday life. 'Civilizing' isn't used to mean society has become 'better' - Elias uses the term in a detached way to emphasis the processes involved in changing people's norms and behaviour.

Figurational sociology emphasizes that humans form chains of interdependent relationships. Individuals and society cannot be separated - individuals are bound together on many level and in many ways. Relationships inherently involve aspects of conflict and co-operation with a balance of power which may change direction in given circumstances. The power inherent in these relationships may be in many different forms - co-ercive, economic, charismatic. As areas of social life become more specialized the chains of interdependency lengthen, for example, the specialized division of labour - work has become increasingly specialized. To imagine this in a simplified way consider food; once people hunted for food themselves, later food was provided by a farmer, then there may be a 'middle-man', farmer-shop-customer and so on. From the late nineteenth century during industrialization the chains of interdependency increased and work became increasingly specialized and routinized. One effect of these processes was the decreasing time for leisure for the majority of people, notably the workers. Figurational sociologists suggest such processes, notably industrialization removed and/or altered the nature of the risk of life and increases the monotony of life, limiting opportunities for spontaneous behaviour. It is suggested sport is one way of relieving such monotony and generating pleasure tension-excitement. It is important to stress that the tension-excitement generated by sport is pleasurable though in certain circumstances it may surpass that threshold.

This approach is very enlightening when considering safety in motor racing. At the heart of the Civilizing Process is the concept of people's control and perception of violence and bloodshed. Accidents in motor racing may be perceived as 'horrific' and 'violent' so as people's threshold of repugnance has lowered does this affect people's perception of safety in motor racing? Does spectating motor racing produce feelings of pleasurable tension-excitement and are the risks and occurrences of accidents involved in the generation of such feelings? Have the chains of interdependent relationships within motor racing increased and is there evidence of an increasingly specialized division of labour? What are the power balances between motor racing participants and has the issue of safety ever been a factor in the power relations of groups?

I found the following books helpful in understanding feminism and figurational sociology:

Bibliography (or Go to my Book Reviews Page)

Jennifer Hargreaves - 'Sporting Females' Routledge 1994 A feminist view of female sports participation Buy this book at Amazon.co.uk Today!

Norbert Elias & Eric Dunning - 'The Quest for Excitement in Leisure' Blackwell 1986 Essays on figurational sociology applied to the sociology of sport. Go to my Sociology Book Reviews Page for reviews of similar titles

Jonathan Fletcher - 'Violence & Civilization: An Introduction to the Work of Norbert Elias' Polity Press 1997 A look at Norbert Elias and the Civilizing Process and violence. Go to my Sociology Book Reviews Page for reviews of similar titles

(c)RH PR 2007