Sociological Analysis of Professional Footballers' Formation: Identity and Socialization in High-Level Sports Environments

Extract

[...] Once again, the relationship with schooling often proves to be a blocking point in this appropriation, which reveals a growing gap in the symbolic value given to academic success between the child and their family environment. In this regard, the article highlights the crucial importance of the training center in this matter, which reveals that integration is often conditional on the parents' adherence to the sports project as well as the training center's ability to ensure the quality of the traditional education provided. - The impact of the social environment on the pressure that can be exerted on the adolescent. Thus, the article reveals a gap in perception of these profiles depending on the environment. [...]

[...] To do this, the author begins with a literature review of existing elements on this subject or related elements. In this context, he notes the characteristics of this type of environment and notably the notion of uncertainty and its impact on the socialization processes. Furthermore, the particularly 'enveloping' nature of this type of organization is also noted, whose intensity tends to involve it in a significant part of the individual's socialization tools in addition to the traditional triple constraint of school, family and friendship that weighs on adolescents. [...]

[...] Children from popular backgrounds carry a stronger symbolic burden and are designated the need to limit jealousy towards their socialization space, particularly extra-familial when those from more affluent environments do not have this injunction. Conversely, it is non-conformity and especially the need to find references that seems the most difficult for young people from more favored backgrounds less accustomed to this type of socialization. [...]

[...] The 'big problems' that follow The or the big problems that follow from the study essentially concern two axes: - The question of the relationship to work, and notably the question of symbolic spaces and their impact on the appropriation of events by individuals. The symbolic relationship of individuals to the environment will vary very strongly depending on their socialization biases. We note, in particular, to what extent the internalization of a certain number of values from childhood and by the family environment (competition, for example) is an essential factor. The question of family mobilization also plays an important role, bringing individuals closer to other professional environments. [...]

[...] It is possible, as a preliminary observation, to note that one of its major and general conclusions is the importance of integrating common reference frameworks from a young age in the socialization systems specific to this environment. Thus, if it is possible to consider that the environment of high-level sports and football in particular is carrier of particular variables, it is also interesting to note the persistence of certain elements of socialization specific to the "ordinary" adolescent. Several results can thus be highlighted:" - The "vocation" as a legitimate mode of engagement particularly reinforced by the environment of training centers. [...]