Physical Education and Social Transformations: Nation-states, globalization and cleaved habitus (1870 – 1914)

Physical Education and Social Transformations in the World which is coming (FIEP Opening conference - Part two)

Nation-states, globalization and cleaved habitus (1870 – 1914)

What world is coming at the end of the 19thcentury? When do states proclaim the obligation of physical education for the people? The masses enter politics. Liberal ideas influence the century. Political liberalism and the creation of nation states. 

Economic liberalism and the invisible hand of the market. Industrialization in Europe. The world of workersbetween misery and resistance. The army to defend the nation-state. Colonial domination to conquer raw materials.

Monarchical sovereignty disappears in favor of nation-states, led by the conquering bourgeoisie. The nation becomes the ideal. A community of citizens shares the idea of freedom.

Borders are defined and defended. The state marks its grip on the population. A process of social integration. The visible hand of the nation-state works. Accumulation of capital. Wild urbanization. The bodies provide the energy to production. Training and military service are compulsory. 

The visible hand of the state is also the conquest of territories. Internationalization of the economy. Colonial expansion. This is the first globalization. International competition, national fragmentation. Then the collapse in 1914.

What habitus for the masses of the nation-state? Two transformations. One symbolic revolution.

Germany is under the authority of the Prussian state. The national movement of Jahn, Fichte and Arndt. Empire and German unity. Social State of Bismarck. Health care. Bourgeoisie conquering. 

The country dominates the markets Powerful labor and socialist movement. But, unity against the peoples. Nationalism. Militarism. The Pan-German League claims the development of the German race.

First transformation. Prussia, German unification and Jahn's Military Gymnastics. Fichtian and nationalist ideology. But, a temporary ban. Mass health is a priority. Then, foreign importation.

Rothstein imports Swedish Ling Gymnastics. Cognitive structures change. Sweden versus Germany. Anatomy versus ideology. Body versus apparatus.

However, outdoor and apparatus are lacking in the show of German strength. The Spiess system imported from Switzerland. Mandatory bar exercises. Jahn versus Ling. Apparatus versus simplicity. Nation versus Europe.

A second transformation in London. Military and naval supremacy of Victorian England. Empire, reservoir of the economy. Industrialized First Nation. Consequences of urbanization on hygiene. The working masses are struggling. The elite direct industrialization and colonization.

The habitus reserved for the masses is controversial. Importation of Jahn's Turnen. But, German nationalism is not very Victorian. Hungarian doctor, Roth, opposes the therapeutic values of Swedish gymnastics.

Social structures change. Martina Bergmann-Osterberg is supported by the state. Swedish gymnastics enters girls' schools. Military exercises are removed.

Cognitive structures are opposed. Civil society versus army. Swedish femininity versus German masculinity. Science versus ideology. Body versus apparatus.

First cleavage of the habitus. The Turnen hardly applies to the masses. Ling's gymnastics promotes better social control. But, in the working-class neighborhoods this gymnastic is unsuitable.

Our first symbolic revolution is at Rugby inthe County of Warwickshire. Sport in private English boarding schools. Boys and girls of high society and the bourgeoisie. Children of the masters of industrialization and colonization. 

A belief in the survival of the fittest. Social Darwinism. The adversity is the opportunity for hard clashes during spontaneous games.

Innovation, quickly transformed into symbolic revolution. Break in the lives of residents. Break in the body techniques. Regulated violence. Thomas Arnold introduces rules and codification.Cognitive structures change. Discipline versus brutality. Arbitration versus disturbance.

Diffusion of "muscular christianity". A way of forging the character of the students. Physical strength versus stunting. Male versus female. English versus foreigner.

The symbolic revolution leads to an evolution of social structures. Sport, its organization, its rules spread in society. Revolution touches the empire. Cricket and hockey, etc. means of pacification, but spaces of sociability.

Then, first globalization of sport. With resistances. In Germany, football is considered an English disease. Handball versus football. Right attitude versus performance. Apparatus versus ball.

In the Victorian nation state. Contradictory coincidence between the gymnastics of the masses and the sport of the aristocracy. Cleaved habitus for the maintenance of distinction and social order. 

In the Bismarckian nation state. Contradictory coincidence between nationalist Turnen and English sport. Cleaved habitus for the diffusion of the German ideology.