Filby, Michael Paul (1983) A sociology of horse-racing in Britain : a study of the social significance and organisation of British horse-racing. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis presents a sociological analysis of the organisation and
significance of thoroughbred horse-racing in Britain. It focuses on both the
internal world of racing and the relationship between racing and the wider
society. It argues that such an approach is necessary for an appreciation of
the full meaning of horse-racing as a social institution. The study finds two
major points of articulation between racing and wider social processes: first
in terms of the role of racing in elite sociability and structuration; and
second in terms of its location in working class culture, particularly as it is
mediated through the working class betting tradition. The precise linkages,
continuities and changes within these areas are explored in order both to
amplify and qualify the conventional observation of a coalescence of interests
in racing between otherwise sharply differentiated social strata. The analysis
points to the conclusion that while the symbolic legacy of this observation
may be strong, the evidence for this symmetry and its pervasiveness is now
more tenuous and its implications for the general process of class
identification heavily circumscribed. The analysis of the discrete world of
horse-racing concentrates first upon the social production of the racehorse as
reflected through the position of the stable worker. Evidence is presented
which both casts doubt on received images of this process and indicates some
erosion of the distinctive cultural output of racing which has customarily
attracted a benign curiosity in outsiders. Secondly, attention is focused on
developments in the control and administration of racing. In particular, the
emergent role of the state in this process is shown to have reverberated
through both the production and regulatory sectors of the industry, provoking
a profound dislocation in the exercise of power. Such intervention is also
demonstrated to have reacted upon the production and consumption of
betting, precisely the activity which provided the original rationale for
intervention in racing. While there are important elements of continuity in
the organisation of racing, the thesis expresses the view that racing has
passed over a watershed in the last two decades which in time may prove to
have eroded its distinctive contribution to British society.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GV Recreation Leisure S Agriculture > SF Animal culture
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Horse racing -- Great Britain
Official Date:	December 1983
Dates:	Date Event December 1983 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Sociology
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Extent:	528 leaves
Language:	eng

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