Negotiating Work and Play on and Off the Soccer Field

“Play may be paradox to play theorists, but to good friends, it’s a sure thing.” After Trevarthen Since at least the 1930’s theorists have explored the ambiguity and paradox that surrounds play. Our study investigates how playful activity is nested within everyday life. Specifically, we examine the rhetoric and activity of work and play in the context of youth soccer teams using a combination of non-participant observation and depth interviews with parents and children. Emergent from the data is a paradoxical relationship between work and play as negotiated within teams and families in the context of children’s sport participation. Consumers experience the tensions inherent in play and work and navigate the boundaries of this paradox by consuming within the confines of positively viewed collectives.

Citation:

Tandy Chalmers, Linda L. Price, and Patricia Kennedy (2006) ,"Negotiating Work and Play on and Off the Soccer Field", in AP - Asia-Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 7, eds. Margaret Craig Lees, Teresa Davis, and Gary Gregory, Sydney, Australia : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 72-72.