Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

A Sociology of the World Rally ChampionshipThe Sense of Place in Rallying

A Sociology of the World Rally Championship: The Sense of Place in Rallying [The second promotional arena of the WRC is place. While teams come and go, many places have a long history of drama and action that makes them eligible for an elevated position in the sport’s collective memory. By recapitulating Rally Monte Carlo’s history in the context of the development leading up to the establishment of a world rally championship in 1973, I will look at how place identity is understood in times of sporting transformation. Human geographer, Edward Relph notes in Place and Placelessness that ‘identity of place is comprised of three interrelated components, each irreducible to the other — physical features or appearance, observable activities and functions, and meaning or symbols’ (Relph, 1976, p. 61). On one hand, an entangled view of place like Relph’s is well recognised as a cultural asset in the WRC community. David Richards, one of the main architects behind the new promotional strategies that emerged around 2000 (see Chapter 2), put it this way:I believe it is possible for the WRC as a global brand to sit alongside individual events that have their own national identity. In fact, I believe it is important that national events retain their own identity, as this is one of the key attributes of the WRC as opposed to many other sports which take place in a consistent environment.1] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

A Sociology of the World Rally ChampionshipThe Sense of Place in Rallying

Loading next page...
 
/lp/springer-journals/a-sociology-of-the-world-rally-championship-the-sense-of-place-in-zNhenjAE70
Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan UK
Copyright
© Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited 2014
ISBN
978-1-349-48771-4
Pages
86 –115
DOI
10.1057/9781137405449_4
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[The second promotional arena of the WRC is place. While teams come and go, many places have a long history of drama and action that makes them eligible for an elevated position in the sport’s collective memory. By recapitulating Rally Monte Carlo’s history in the context of the development leading up to the establishment of a world rally championship in 1973, I will look at how place identity is understood in times of sporting transformation. Human geographer, Edward Relph notes in Place and Placelessness that ‘identity of place is comprised of three interrelated components, each irreducible to the other — physical features or appearance, observable activities and functions, and meaning or symbols’ (Relph, 1976, p. 61). On one hand, an entangled view of place like Relph’s is well recognised as a cultural asset in the WRC community. David Richards, one of the main architects behind the new promotional strategies that emerged around 2000 (see Chapter 2), put it this way:I believe it is possible for the WRC as a global brand to sit alongside individual events that have their own national identity. In fact, I believe it is important that national events retain their own identity, as this is one of the key attributes of the WRC as opposed to many other sports which take place in a consistent environment.1]

Published: Oct 24, 2015

Keywords: Cultural Asset; World Championship; Motor Sport; Service Park; Motor Racing

There are no references for this article.