gnovis Journal Spring 2014 Volume XIV, Issue 2 • •
Looking at connections between innovation and sport:
How sporting cultures identify and manage new technologies
Emily Goldsher-Diamond New York University
Abstract
The contemporary public perception of sport as heavily regulated by sets of established rules, thanks in part to popular media coverage of binding expedited decisions handed down within a 24 hour timeframe by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) during the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, can perpetuate the view that cultures of sport are orderly and negotiations within them are neat; however, this is far from the case. The view of sporting cultures as beholden to top-down regulation occludes many of the practices that embed techniques and technologies within sporting cultures. This paper seeks to explore the space often concealed by the dominant narratives that privilege governing bodies in sport, spaces that simultaneously deny agency to the multiple actors and artifacts implicated in the history of sporting technology. The project draws examples from preexisting studies on mountain biking, ultimate fighting, pole vaulting and speed skating in order to identify the processes within each sport that end up designating an object as a technology, motivations for management of that technology and the practices that eventually do or do not lead to adoption of the technology within the sport. This exercise will lead to the final section of this paper, a framework-in-progress outlining potential routes through which barefoot running, Vibram FiveFingers and other minimalist running shoes might eventually be adapted by one or more running cultures. This is partially a corrective endeavor, revealing more complicated running cultures that incorporate lived experience, and a speculative project that might aid other scholars in making connections between innovation and sport that attend to and are embedded in deeply social fields of practice.
The Hastings Center, a bioethics and public policy research institute, published a report in 2010 entitled "Making Sense of Fairness in I. Introduction Sports," that emphasized, "the rules of sports are arbitrary in the sense they could be oth- he contemporary public perception of erwise, and, in practice, sports modify their sport as heavily regulated by sets of es- rules in response to changes in equipment, tac- Ttablished rules, thanks in part to popular tics and athletes’ abilities" (Murray, 2010). Ac- media coverage of binding expedited decisions counts like The Hastings Center report help handed down within a 24 hour timeframe by reframe the discourse around sport cultures the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) during where public understanding might imagine rul- the 2008 and 2012 Olympics (Thomas, 2008), ings in sporting cultures moving from the top can perpetuate the view that cultures of sport down, an alternative critical discourse reveals are orderly and negotiations within them are a structure that, if anything, tracks the medi- neat; however, this is far from the case. In fact, ation of rules in sporting cultures as moving sporting rules are quite flexible and tend to be horizontally, or even from the bottom up. mediated according to each individual sport. The view of sporting cultures as beholden
1 gnovis Journal Spring 2014 Volume XIV, Issue 2 • • to top-down regulation occludes many of the strangely conceived of as a particularly ’natu- practices that embed techniques and technolo- ral’ sport, has been largely left out of the many gies within sporting cultures. For example, to scholarly forays into the history of technology say that only wooden bats are used in Amer- in sport. Knowing this, the following will draw ican major league baseball because the Ma- examples from preexisting studies on moun- jor League Baseball (MLB) banned aluminum tain biking, ultimate fighting, pole vaulting and bats would obscure the history of innovation speed skating in order to identify the processes and contestation that led to an MLB ban (Gel- within each sport that end up designating an berg, 1998). This paper seeks to explore the object as a technology, motivations for manage- space often concealed by the dominant narra- ment and the practices that eventually do or do tives that privilege governing bodies in sport, not lead to adoption of the technology within spaces that simultaneously deny agency to the the sport. This exercise will lead to the final multiple actors and artifacts implicated in the section of this paper, a framework-in-progress history of sporting technology. Calling upon outlining potential routes through which bare- the social construction of technology (SCOT) foot running, Vibram FiveFingers and other approach favored by notable Science and Tech- minimalist running shoes might eventually be nology Studies (STS) scholars Trevor J. Pinch adapted by one or more running cultures. Min- and Wiebe E. Bijker will help highlight that imalist running has been chosen for two main "the developmental process of a technological reasons that render it a pressing object of study: artifact is described as an alternation of varia- 1) minimalist shoes in running are a growing tion and selection. . . [and] that the ’successful’ trend, with a 4 million dollar increase in sales stages in the development are not the only pos- between 2012 and 2013 despite decreases in sible ones” (Pinch and Bijker, 1984). In other running shoe sales overall in the same times- words, SCOT provides a framework through pan (Larson, 2013); 2) Because of the contro- which relevant social groups (RSGs) can be versy around minimalist running shoes, which identified, and their respective competing in- has been debated in popular media like the terpretations of the technology in question will New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the remain in view even after the "successful" sta- BBC and the Wall Street Journal1, and by engi- bilization of a technology’s meaning. If the neers and runners. This is partially a corrective "successful" meanings of technology are the endeavor, revealing more complicated running ones most attended to because they are decid- cultures that incorporate lived experience, and edly neat and uncomplicated, the following a speculative project that might aid other schol- pursues the messy stages, meanings and prac- ars in making connections between innovation tices left out of “linear models used explicitly and sport that attend to and are embedded in many innovation studies" (Pinch and Bijker, in deeply social fields of practice. In order 1984). to serve as a resource for future work in the Not one to leave the black box of technol- fields of communications, sport studies and sci- ogy untouched, my paper attempts to trace ence and technology studies, I have provided the process through which a selection of sport an analysis that is both attuned to discursive cultures designate an object as a technology, practice and engaged with the flows of techno- the motivations behind managing new tech- logical adaptation. nologies and what practices manage new tech- Though each sport has its own cultures and nologies in these sporting cultures. I began sets of rules, I will also speak of sport as a this paper looking to identify how running cul- singular culture. This in no way indicates a tures identify and manage new technologies; generalization or uncritical usage on my part; however, through the course of my research rather, I consider sport to be a kind of culture it quickly became clear that running, being bound by certain fundamental understandings, 1See McDougall, 2011; Reynolds, 2013; Gage, 2013; Wallack, 2011; Futterman, 2012.
2 gnovis Journal Spring 2014 Volume XIV, Issue 2 • • like competition, mastery and physical achieve- and in most cases, reproduction. For example, ment. The use of sport in this paper can be "clunkers" were just bicycles built out of junk compared to the habitual use of "finance" and parts until groups used one model to manufac- "media" in other contexts to denote a large ture mountain bikes in the 1970s (Rosen, 1993), culture that contains many smaller cultures. I tennis players were just protecting their hands will also use "technology" and "innovation" in- with gloves or cloth until outdoor courts intro- terchangeably at points, as the introduction of duced the racket in the seventeenth century, one (technology) always constitutes the other and golfers favored damaged golf balls until (innovation) even if the introduction or change manufacturers discovered the aerodynamic ad- is not permanent or successful. For example, vantages of textured golf balls in the 1890s (Gel- the adaptation of sport-decision aid software berg, 1998). At first glance, this process appears Hawk-Eye by Federation Internationale de to be about just manufacturing and not about Football Association (FIFA) is a technology artifacts entering the sociotechnical milieu, but and an innovation. Thus I will follow Stephen in each example, it was only after reproduction J. Kline’s broad definition of technology in his or distribution that these artifacts attracted the 1985 essay, "What is Technology:" attention of other athletes, coaches and govern- ing bodies. The thing becomes a technology Usage 1 Hardware (or artifacts) Possible because it is publicly acknowledged as such vis- denotation: non-natural objects, of all kinds, a-vis attaining Karl Marx’s commodity fetish manufactured by humans. state (K. Marx, 1867), imbued with magical qualities (of robustness on bike trails, of spar- Usage 2 Sociotechnical system of manu- ing the hand harm on the court, of making facture Possible denotation: all the elements a ball fly farther and straighter), and in most needed to manufacture a particular kind of cases, acquiring an exchange value that does hardware, the complete working system includ- not correspond to its use value. The shift from ing its inputs: people, machinery; resources, artifact to technology, located within spaces and legal, economic, political and physical created by reproduction or distribution, is the environment. collision of a new artifact with preexisting ex- pectations of that artifact’s material capabilities. Usage 3 The information, skills, processes In this way, the act of reproduction or distri- and procedures for accomplishing tasks Possi- bution is a direct response to a spike in usage, ble denotation: knowledge, technique, know- but we must also contextualize the act of repro- how, or methodology in the usual sense of duction or distribution as but one part of the these words. process that designates artifacts as technologies within sport. Usage 4 A sociotechnical system of use If the process is ordered as innovation by is a system using combinations of hardware one person, then the recognition of and con- and people (and usually other elements) to tinued innovation by many persons, and then accomplish tasks that humans cannot perform reproduction or distribution followed by me- unaided by such systems-to extend human diation/management, then this process is not capacities. unlike the notion of multiple discovery in the history of science (Simonton, 1979; Lamb and Easton, 1984). Multiple discovery, as an alterna- II. How are artifacts designated tive to the idea of the heroic or singular scien- as technologies in sport? tist, offers a framework to think about scientific innovation that accounts for the possibility that Within sport, it seems as if artifacts are iden- invention takes place across distributed sites tified as technologies after an increase in use, and within different groups of people, but on
3 gnovis Journal Spring 2014 Volume XIV, Issue 2 • • a similar timeline. The number of multiple III. What motivates the way new discoveries usually has a great deal to do with technologies are managed in the acknowledgment and development of the sport? innovation at hand. Not only does multiple discovery occur in sport, but it is a key force in In historian of sport and kinesiologist J. Nadine attracting the attention that eventually leads to Gelberg’s article, "Tradition, Talent and Tech- reproduction or distribution and mediation. nology: The Ambiguous Relationship Between Using multiple discovery as a helpful Sports and Innovation," the author suggests model for thinking about the ways technologies that new technology is managed by sporting come into being in sport does not mean that cultures, especially by governing bodies that these technologies arrive fully formed; in fact, deal with policy, according to "how technol- ˘ ´ this is where SCOT can be especially useful. ogy affects a sport’AZs safety, cost, and image" The technologies have both social and material (Gelberg, 1998). On one hand, this is a good components. Using SCOT to locate the social place to start, as Gelberg smartly recognizes meanings allows this maneuver to include the that all sport involves risk (and sometimes risk array of meanings held by different RSGs that is part of the appeal), cost, and in the case weave in and out of a technology’s develop- of professional sport, public image. But on ment. If we look at golf balls, we might see that the other hand, these concerns are incredibly hobbyist golfers make nothing of the dented simple, envision a top-down approach, and golf ball, the amateur golfer might have an do not encompass the manifold negotiations inkling that the dented golf ball is better than a undertaken in order to develop and execute new golf ball, and the professional golfer might management strategies in sport. I am not deny- only use dented golf balls. The manufacturer ing that safety, cost and image are central con- might think a dented golf ball is a new revenue cerns; instead, I hope to access a richer and stream, and the United State Golf Association contextualized analysis that attends to safety, (USGA) might just be formulating a strategy cost and image while also engaging the specific to manage the new dented golf balls as they actors and institutions that carry out practices become more popular. Without SCOT, our ac- of management, integration and rejection. count would only represent the meaning after But what of the conditions of production? stabilization. Thus, if we take production and If we unpack cost a bit further, questions of mediation to satisfy the requirements of stabi- access come to the forefront. New technolo- lization, all that is committed to history is that gies are not just at cost to the sport if they are the dented (or dimpled, as we know it today) adopted, but they potentially drive the cost golf ball is the best kind of golf ball because it of participation up to a point where some in- is more aerodynamic. terested athletes would not be able to afford to play. Questioning cost even further might While SCOT does help sustain more inclu- reveal that in some instances, like we will see sive, nonlinear narratives of development, it in the case of the mountain bike, production does not account for the material component was not a welcome development. There are of a newly designated technology. By material, also other political economic questions that I mean to look at the conditions of production arise from looking at conditions of production. around a newly designated technology and the Looking back to golf balls, how might the inte- institutional mediation and management of a gration of the dimpled golf ball have changed newly designated technology. Both of these if its production meant that an entire RSG of concerns will be addressed in the following caddies that supplied special dented golf balls section, which provides an overview of mo- was put out of work after golfers could buy tivations behind sport management and the dimpled golf balls in a sport shop? And what integration or rejection of new technologies. if its production was not sanctioned by the
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USGA? Even if it was produced and available moving forward. widely to consumers, if the USGA banned the So far, we find that the practices of man- dimpled golf ball from competition, we can agement and integration are both material and assume it would fall out of favor, at least with social. Cost, safety and image are crucial mo- professional golfers. Asking after cost is not tivations, but they do not provide a complex enough, but looking at the materiality of cost, enough rubric for tracking a technology’s me- as well as the RSGs implicated in issues of cost, diation and potential integration. Following is a useful way to anticipate how a technology the conception of rules as both arbitrary and will be managed. individually mediated, perhaps another way Notice that the issue of institutional man- to contextualize a discussion of what moti- agement and integration or rejection remains vates the management of new technologies in unanswered. This is potentially the most com- sport is to look toward external goods and plicated aspect of this inquiry, because the of internal goods as put forth by bioethicist M. the various kinds of institutions within sport Schermer in "On the Argument that Enhance- (governing bodies, professional teams, profes- ment is Cheating." Though Schermer is specif- sional associations, amateur teams and spon- ically discussing biotechnology, I believe her sors, just to name a few) and because framing argument can be applied to technology more the question, "what motivates institutions to generally. Schermer says that sport has two manage new technologies in sport?" assumes motivations: winning external goods (money, that the actors under the umbrella of these in- prizes, status) and internal goods (standards of stitutions, from athletes to staff, are necessarily excellence, virtue, courage), and that technol- even open to the idea of innovation. Here I ogy can induce situations that threaten internal turn to French sociologist Patrick Trabal’s ar- goods, but preserve external goods (MacIntyre ticle, "Resistance to Technological Innovation in Schermer, 2008). For example, if the Na- in Elite Sport," as it offers the useful concept of tional Football League (NFL) football players "social resistance to the introduction of an in- started wearing special "smart" padding that novation" (2008). When looking at institutions made it safer for them to tackle or even fight, in sport, it is important not to dismiss poten- there might be an uptick in malicious or other- tial social resistance. For example, Trabal finds wise unsportsmanlike tackles; therefore, there that despite rowers being especially resistant is a loss of internal goods, like virtue and excel- to innovation (due to being results-oriented lence, but players still reap external goods in and skeptical of unproven technology), they the form of salaries and endorsements. Consid- are often forced to use new technologies by ering that internal/external goods are regularly coaches, or even by the National Canoe and called upon in the argument against biotechno- Kayak Federation (NCKF). A technologically logical enhancement in sport, it is reasonable deterministic view might not emphasize poten- to say that the drive to preserve internal goods tial social resistance to innovation, but taking it is also a motivation for the management of new into account here allows Trabal to connect ath- technologies in sport. lete disapproval with sanctioned NCKF inno- If the motivations for management of new vations: "the project was decided upon without technologies in sport are largely related to consultation or involvement of the actors, those safety, cost, public image, social resistance and whose vocation it is to test and use the new the preservation of internal goods, what prac- [technology]" (Trabal, 2008). The material prac- tices take place in sport to attend to these con- tice of management here is heavily informed cerns? The following sections will look at cases by the social-the athletes do not want to use a from mountain biking, ultimate fighting, pole new technology because the NCKF sanctioned vaulting and speed skating in order to track it without their input. So perhaps it is not some of the practices that manage new tech- useful to oppose the material and the social nologies in sport. Doing so will yield a selec-
5 gnovis Journal Spring 2014 Volume XIV, Issue 2 • • tion of practices that may help conceptualize attained "closure by redefinition of the prob- how barefoot running might develop among lem" (Pinch & Bijker in Rosen, 1993). Yet the running cultures. bike frame continues to change even today, and technical problems are continually resolved by new problems. IV. Mountain biking Rosen also looks to mountain bike cul- In his article, "The Social Construction of tures, identifying thematic repetition in ad- Mountain Bikes: Technology and Postmoder- vertisements (pastoral nostalgia and techno- nity in the Cycle Industry," sociologist and logical progress) and among bikers (sustain- cycling development coordinator for the En- ability, discovery, adventure, technology), find- glish Regions Cycling Development Team Paul ing that "cultural resonance. . . rather than ear- Rosen details the development of the moun- lier off-road adaptations are socially a suc- tain bike. As I have already mentioned, the cess" (Rosen, 1993). Bikers found a comfort- mountain bike grew from groups of people in able place between pastoral and technological the 1970s building their own "clunkers" out of ideals, leading to the social success touted by Schwinn bikes. Following SCOT, Rosen says Rosen. Similarly, mountain bike production that different clunker groups gave way to peo- shifts from Fordism into "remote control man- ple seeking "AIJthe˘ standard Marin County ufacturing. . . disintegrated and geographically conversion" (Rosen, 1993), the only clunker dispersed. . . production [tailored] to the needs model "that could survive what is now an in- of specialist market niches" (Rosen, 1993). All famous ride in mountain bike folklore, the of this, Rosen says, has to do with "shifts in Repack run, a steep drop on the slopes of Western culture towards modernity that are Mount Tamalpais" (Rosen, 1993). In 1977, the embodied in mountain bikes. . . comprising not Marin County group started manufacturing im- just an economic revival, but a significant shift proved Schwinn frames, and by 1979, similar in the structure of power relations within the models were being mass-produced by the com- industry" (Rosen, 1993). pany MountainBikes. Around the same time, There are several practices in the Rosen arti- Schwinn introduced the Clunker Five, which cle that can be identified as crucial to the intro- Rosen says was unsuccessful. By 1982, three duction to and management of the mountain other companies were also selling their own bike in the cycling world. First, we see that version of the mountain bike. early on in the initial clunker phenomenon, Rosen also recounts a controversy over that the mountain bike frame was superior to frame geometry between two RSGs, downhill other bikes for rough terrain. Building the riders and logging country riders. The needs mountain bike is simply better suited to moun- of each group being quite different meant there tain bike trails than regular bikes. In this way, were contestations over the development of the building the mountain bike also made biking bike frame - steeper angles in the frame bene- safer for mountain bike riders. . . A˘ Ttheˇ frame fited uphill riders, but longer head angles with geometry is designed to absorb vibrations and less steep angles elsewhere benefited logging keep the rider upright even during steep down- country riders. This tension continued from hill rides. Second, by building the frames them- the mid 1980s to the early 1990s, when several selves, and later bypassing Schwinn in favor manufacturers using "proportional geometry" of smaller companies, mountain bike manufac- allegedly stabilized the frame geometry. But turers were initially able to keep costs from be- Rosen emphasizes that the technology was far coming prohibitive, which limited the number from stabilized, as the use of proportional ge- of barriers to access for early adopters. Third, ometry continued to be used in name only-the problems in mountain biking are solved inter- design continued to change. Rosen returns nally by the introduction of new problems–this to SCOT to conclude that the mountain bike is not particularly good for the design and pro-
6 gnovis Journal Spring 2014 Volume XIV, Issue 2 • • duction of the bikes, but it certainly bolsters the subdue a competitor already on the ground- continued development of the mountain bike. and thus rounds and time limits were abol- Fourth, careful marketing locates the mountain ished. But by 1995, a lack of time limits lead bike in a comfortable space between pastoral to excessively long matches that bored audi- and technological ideology, avoiding both anxi- ences. Because of this problem, the UFC en- eties over technological progress and oversenti- couraged fighters to learn ’finishing moves’ mental nostalgia for the pre-technological past. culled from Greco-Roman wrestling and ju- Finally, using a mode of production that bet- jitsu. Solving this problem led to another prob- ter matches the principals of ideal consumers lem, where fighters held opponents in finishing makes it more likely that bikers will purchase moves for upwards of 15 minutes. Because fin- mountain bikes and also reinvigorates the cy- ishing moves didn’t shorten matches enough, cling industry. These five practices were crucial the UFC reintroduced time limits. But finish- to the introduction and eventual integration of ing moves were already integrated into hybrid the mountain bike into cycling cultures. UFC style, and many matches ended in stale- mates because opponents could anticipate fin- ishing moves. Downey’s account continues to V. Ultimate fighting point out that to end stalemates, UFC enforced stricter time limits that made it necessary for In his article, "Producing Pain: Techniques "fighters to chase victory with more active tac- and Technologies in No-Holds-Barred Fight- tics and to impress judges with their ’aggres- ing," Australian cultural anthropologist Greg siveness,’ as defined by the audience" (Downey, Downey details the history of innovation 2007). within the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), beginning with the first UFC broad- The strategic change in fighting styles led cast in 1993. Like running, Downey finds to an uptick in ratings and revenues for the that fighting was "assumed to be natural or UFC, so more changes were put in place that primitive. . . [but] effective fighting tactics did catered to an audience hungry for aggression: not emerge instinctually from contestants" fighters were not allowed to wear padding, (Downey, 2007). The fact that traditional or cups or wear fabric Judo gis. UFC said these "natural" fighting tactics were found ineffec- changes served technological purposes (grap- tive within the parameters of UFC matchups pling, which was being discouraged because it established a pressing need for innovative tech- extended match times, was easier when fight- niques. As a result, the decade following the ers wore clothes), but the changes also served 1993 inaugural UFC broadcast was especially to "skew the fights’ dynamics for audience con- ripe for "fighting techniques [that] proved li- sumption" (Downey, 2007). Similarly, the UFC able to rapid innovation and demanding of initially barred fighters from wearing gloves, extensive training" (Downey, 2007). as barehanded fighting was more attractive to Coming out of a partnership between a audiences; however, Downey points out that Brazilian jujitsu academy and a marketing ex- barehanded fighting is incredibly dangerous ecutive, the UFC used trial and error to pick for contestants (a strong punch can break all and choose from fighting styles, eventually fo- the small bones in the hand) and was there- cusing on ground grappling, sparring and pre- fore impractical, injuring scores of fighters and cision techniques that produced the most pain threatening match schedules. By introducing and were best suited for the camera. These and, after a time, requiring contestants to wear hybrid techniques are why UFC and simi- gloves, fights were made safer than ever before; lar leagues are sometimes also referred to as however, "gloves did not just make punching "mixed martial arts." Downey finds that the more effective; they changed the way the body specific mix of fighting techniques meant early could be employed so that fighters could freely rounds were unusually short-it was easy to a punch" (Downey, 2007). Downey says this "al-
7 gnovis Journal Spring 2014 Volume XIV, Issue 2 • • lowed the production of what looked like de- different time limitations or lack thereof. Third, cisive violence" (Downey, 2007), which greatly the UFC regulated equipment and clothing in pleased fans. order to make matches safer and more interest- The Octagon, the UFC enclosure, has also ing for fans, while the fighters adjusted their undergone a process of innovation since 1993. training to include lightweight boxing gloves in Designed to look crude, Downey says that the order to make punching more efficient. Fourth, Octagon’s original form was meant to "solve the Octagon was developed by the UFC to max- several technical problems, including safety, imize visibility (for the camera and the audi- visibility and the need to create ’neutral’ space, ence) and minimize injury, while UFC fighters a forum that supposedly did not favor a par- learned fighting techniques that took advan- ticular fighting style" (Downey, 2007). Before tage of the Octagon’s technical features. These exclusively using the Octagon, UFC experi- four practices generally emphasize public im- mented with a pit-style enclosure (too difficult age and safety, so it is reasonable to desig- to film) and a cable ring modeled after box- nate these two concerns as priorities for the ing (contestants could fall through the ropes), UFC and its competitors. It is also reason- but eventually found chain-link to work best able to consider these four practices as twofold, for filming, to preserve the field of vision for split into practice by the UFC and response- the audience and to emphasize the unchecked as-practice by UFC fighters. This pattern chal- savagery so crucial to the UFC brand. But the lenges the top-down model of management in Octagon was far from neutral; instead, fighters sport, as the UFC and UFC competitors are held onto the fence for stability and pinned op- co-constitutive of the practices that manage ponents to the fence for leverage. The Octagon innovation in ultimate fighting. helped develop the "ground and pound" tech- nique, where one fighter would immobilize VI. Pole vaulting his opponent against the fence and use short, quick and dangerous shots to win the fight. To In their article "Flopping, Klapping and Gene address these issues, the UFC instituted a se- Doping: Dichotomies between ’Natural’ and ries of correctives, including switching out the ’Artificial’ in Elite Sport," sport philosophers chain-link for mesh and changing the rules to Ivo Van Hilvoorde, Rein Vos and Guido de limit "inactive" fighter time, which meant one Wert recount the histories of the ’Fosbury flop’ fighter could not pin his opponent to the same in pole vaulting and the introduction of klap- spot for an extended period. The UFC then in- skates into speed skating. The following sec- stalled Octagons in other locations where UFC tion will focus on pole vaulting in order to matches were held or where they encouraged draw out some of the practices that manage UFC training. and integrate new technologies in pole vault- There are several practices in the Downey ing. Until the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, elite article that can be identified as crucial to the in- pole vaulting generally saw athletes compet- troduction and management of techniques (hy- ing using one of two forms, either the ’scissors’ brid fighting, finishing moves, the "ground and or the ’Western roll.’ The ’Western roll’ was pound") and technologies (lightweight gloves, initially met with disdain from pole-vaulting the Octagon) in the UFC. First, UFC officials officials "because people said this was diving developed a hybrid style of fighting that was rather than jumping over the bar" (Hilvoorde, especially tailored to broadcast, which then Vos and de Wert, 2007). But George Horine’s prompted fighters to learn the UFC hybrid 1912 world record using the ’Western roll’ gave style in order to remain competitive. Second, way to a broader acceptance of the technique, the UFC calibrated match times according to as both the ’Western roll’ and the ’scissors’ had audience reaction, while the fighters calibrated jumpers going over the bar feet first, which was their fighting techniques to take advantage of the only acceptable form until the Olympics
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threw out the feet first rule in 1935. The ing section of the Hilvoorde, Vos and de Wert ’scissors’ and the ’Western roll’ were the so- article crucial to the identification and adap- cially acceptable jumping techniques within tion of the Fosbury flop. First, pole vaulting pole-vaulting cultures and athletes trained with cultures adopted the ’scissor’ and the ’West- these techniques in mind. The authors of the ern roll’ as two acceptable jumping techniques. article identify these two techniques as being Second, Fosbury’s very public flop caught the perceived as the "natural jump," and its exe- attention of other actors within pole vaulting. cution helped maintain the internal goods of Third, debates emerged over the flop’s efficacy, the sport; namely, the skill necessary to retain naturalness, difficulty and safety. Third, the the ’scissors’ or ’Western roll’ form through the flop’s development coincided with a shift in entire duration of the jump. materials used for landing pits, making the In 1968, Olympic jumper Dick Fosbury dis- flop safer. Fourth, more jumpers switched to played the controversial technique that came the flop model because it was easier to learn. to be known as the ’Fosbury flop’ while win- These four practices, crucial to the flop’s suc- ning the gold in Mexico City. The flop had cess within pole vaulting, generally empha- Fosbury’s entire body going over the bar in size concerns over the preservation of internal a straight line, an approach that supporters goods, public image, safety and accessibility. claimed to be biomechanically advantageous but was not confirmed as such in the debates VII. Speed skating that followed the flop’s debut. Those critical of the technique focused on its ’unnatural’ ap- The Hilvoorde, Vos and de Wert article also cov- pearance, a critique the authors connect to it ers the introduction of klapskates into speed simply being unknown prior to 1968. It was skating. Klapskates, different from traditional no more ’unnatural’ than the ’Western roll,’ skates in that "a hinge beneath the ball of the but the flop represented a potential de-skilling foot between the shoe and the blade allows the (Hilvoorde, Vos and de Wert, 2007) because it foot to rotate while the blade remains gliding required less discipline during execution; how- on the ice" (Houdijk in Hilvoorde, Vos and de ever, that also meant the flop was easy to learn Wert, 2007), officially debuted in Nagano dur- and amateur jumpers began favoring the flop ing the 1998 Winter Olympics. The authors over more difficult forms. recall that competitive speed skaters resisted The flop also generated worry over poten- the klapskates because they required re-skilling tial vertebral injury, fueling the anti-flop pole- (skaters literally had to relearn how to skate), vaulters. In fact, the flop was perfectly safe, and because they were introduced secretly not because the technique was particularly right around the Olympics, which was con- safe, but that new technology-sand landing sidered a rather inopportune time for skaters pits were replaced by rubber and cork made all not using the klapskates. Klapskates were only jumping safer around the time the flop debuted given to the Dutch team, though rival coaches (Hilvoorde, Vos and de Wert, 2007). Technol- scrambled to acquire the technology for their ogy did not create the flop, but it is reasonable own skaters. Because The Dutch team dom- to say that new landing materials were crucial inated the Olympics in Nagano, klapskates for propagating the flop. Thanks to the soft and were perceived as being the best equipment safe landing pit, the flop joined other ’natural’ available, so other skaters felt they absolutely techniques. Furthermore, as the new landing had to have klapskates to remain competitive, pits replaced sand pits, it was no longer impor- even though they were quite scarce at the time. tant to even learn a technique that had jumpers The Dutch team’s success spurred ac- landing on both feet. This is another way the cusations of "unfairly augmented perfor- flop dominated other pole vaulting techniques. mance. . . [by] machines on ice" (Hilvoorde, Vos There are several practices in the pole vault- and de Wert, 2007), with opponents of the klap-
9 gnovis Journal Spring 2014 Volume XIV, Issue 2 • • skate arguing that the ability once required of those that did not support the klapskates ral- the athlete was now transferred to the new tech- lied around ideas of ’natural’ athletic perfor- nology. Governing institutions US Speedskat- mance. Fifth, the klapskates were made widely ing and the International Skating Union (ISU) available and thus were rendered familiar and both attempted to ban the klapskate because non-threatening within speed skating. These they constituted an unfair advantage; however, five practices, central to the rise of klapskates, the ISU, not looking to alienate Netherland’s in- generally emphasize issues of preservation of stitutionally and commercially powerful speed internal goods, accessibility and social resis- skating teams, compromised by "stating that tance. all energy expended during a race must orig- inate from the metabolic work of the skater" VIII. Considering "natural" in (Hilvoorde, Vos and de Wert, 2007). sport By allowing the klapskates in competition, ISU triggered a general need for re-skilling A thorough, critical discussion of what consti- within speed skating cultures. The integration tutes ’natural’ in sport is not within the scope of the klapskates and the subsequent re-skilling of this paper, but because of its recurrence in among skaters did not just change the tech- literatures relevant to this topic, the following nological landscape of speed skating; rather, section will briefly pause to examine a few it also created a zone of ambiguity around ways ’natural’ is understood in certain sport- the internal goods of the sport. The differ- ing cultures. Doing so will help contextualize a ent RSGs within speed skating offered com- framework-in-progress for integrating barefoot peting interpretations of the klapskate: klap- running into running cultures. Because run- skaters valued the spirit of innovation and the ning is often conceived of as somehow ’natural,’ challenges of re-skilling, while non-klapskaters and barefoot running, while treated as a tech- continued to value ’natural’ athletic excellence nology in this analysis, is also in some regards without what they considered to be techno- a return to a more ’natural’ technique, a better logical enhancement. Ultimately, the Hilvo- understanding of the complicated collisions of orde, Vos and de Wert found that the klap- ’natural’ with sport cultures will certainly be skate was integrated into speedskating after useful moving forward. "the unfamiliar [klapskates] became familiar In sport, techniques that can be traced back and accepted. . . because of its superiority over to a supposed pre-technological age are most traditional athletic methods. . . [and] after ac- often subject to curious negotiations of nat- cessibility was guaranteed for all competitors" ural and unnatural. If anything is clear from (2007). Downey’s account of ultimate fighting, it is that There are several practices highlighted in "simplistic evolutionary accounts. . . assume a the speed skating section of the Hilvoorde, Vos kind of ’natural’ human, bodily endowed with and de Wert article that were crucial to the ’instinctual’ social, sexual or violent skills, of adaption of the klapskate. First, the Dutch which we have little evidence" (Downey, 2007). team swept the Nagano Olympics using the In Downey’s case, the ’instinctual’ skills he new technology, demonstrating the klapskate’s looks to separate from "simplistic evolution- technical superiority in a public setting. Sec- ary accounts" are fighting techniques used in ond, the klapskates were released around a the UFC that are actually the result of years of time where most, if not all, professional speed innovation and training. Running is another skaters would be engaged with new techno- skill that can be perceived as ’instinctual,’ but logical developments within speed skating. runners undertake rigorous training programs, Third, the ISU modified their rules to per- sometimes even at the high school or college mit skaters to use klapskates. Fourth, skaters level. In the case of Hilvoorde, Vos and de that supported the klapskates re-skilled and Wert, both the Fosbury flop and klapskates are
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unreasonably separated from the techniques ture, these opportunities are greatly restricted. that preceded them by the notion that technol- Running is not just considered ’natural’ be- ogy is unnatural; however, what this reason- cause some find running to be ’instinctual,’ but ing ignores is the technology and training that it is also connected to the ’natural’ through no- goes into ’scissor’ and ’Western roll’ jumps and tions of the sublime. If running in nature - like speed skating. Those ’natural’ technologies are the pastoral - is idealized as sublime, then it too just as implicated in sociotechnical systems of is susceptible to the uncritical generalizations development as the ’unnatural’ technologies that color depictions of the pastoral. Sociolo- they oppose. gist Mike Michaels, in his article "These Boots are Made for Walking...:Mundane Technology, Setting up binaries that divide ’natural’ and the Body and Human-Environment Relations," ’unnatural’ is an unhelpful exercise that ignores points to the fact that accessing the sublime a technology’s history and development. It is is a process. Michaels says, "in the process of even possible to argue that the tension between putting oneself in the position of experiencing the two is potentially artificial, as the ’natu- the sublime, one also ’does’ consumption, dam- ral’ is very rarely truly untouched. Leo Marx, age, standardization, disembeddedness and MIT’s Kenan Professor of American Cultural so on, and innumerable more or less subtly History, provides a helpful way for thinking nuanced versions of these" (Michaels, 2000). through the relationship between ’natural’ and Along these lines, running is a ’doing,’ and ’unnatural’ in The Machine in the Garden: Tech- thus must be understood to include the "innu- nology and the Pastoral Ideal in America. The merable more or less subtly nuanced" practices book plumbs encounters between the pastoral that go along with even touching a foot to the (’natural’) and the machine (technology, ’un- ground. natural’) in American history, largely through a literary lens. As with sport, the pastoral is often put in opposition with the machine, or IX. Barefoot running the machine somehow sullies the pastoral. To allay some of this tension, Marx introduces the The recent rise of minimalist Vibram FiveFin- "middle state." Engaging notions of liminality gers running shoes has brought barefoot run- and development, the middle state in Marx ning into the forefront of debates within run- is the garden - a space not divorced from the ning cultures. Barefoot and minimal shoe ’natural,’ but greatly influenced by technology. running has long been a controversial stream The bucolic American landscape becomes the within running cultures because it challenges garden through practices of refinement that the dominant running shoe model, but the take place via new technology. In Marx’s mid- FiveFingers’ commercial success means that dle state, "the pastoral ideal remained of ser- addressing the barefoot phenomenon is more vice long after the machine’s appearance in the pressing than ever. In 2010 alone, the barefoot- landscape. It enabled the nation to continue style running shoe industry made 1.7 billion defining its purpose as the pursuit of rural dollars (Billhartz Gregorian), but growing sales happiness while devoting itself to productiv- have not helped the FiveFinger be taken seri- ity, wealth and power" (2000). In this way, the ously as a piece of legitimate running equip- middle state is also a useful space in which to ment that offers a potential advantage over locate sport: technology (the ’unnatural’) can other types of running shoes. The following improve or spur development in sport, but the section will attempt to provide a framework- use of technology in no way devalues the hu- in-progress for the integration of barefoot and man athlete; instead, technology may present minimal shoe running into running cultures athletes with opportunities to refine their abili- using innovations in mountain biking, ultimate ties or strategies. Yet it is important to note that fighting, pole-vaulting and speed skating as if a technology is not integrated into sport cul- a guide. I do so in order to demonstrate the
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repetition of certain discursive strategies when against Vibram FiveFingers over personal in- it comes to the adaptation of new technologies jury from the shoes and deceptive claims about in sport, and to underline the importance of the shoes’ ability suggest that perhaps the re- historical and social contexts within the realm skilling needed to benefit from the FiveFingers of innovation. I will identify some practices shoes is more like the re-skilling speed skaters already being employed by barefoot runners had to undergo to use klapskates. Many top and manufacturers and suggest other practices skaters fell in the rankings after klapskates that might advance their agenda. were introduced because it was quite difficult FiveFingers’ site says that barefoot running to adjust to the new technology. With this in "is synonymous with freedom and exploration" mind, it is reasonable to say that FiveFingers and uses the language of the sublime ("focus on might benefit from making the re-skilling pro- running for the pure joy of connecting to your cess easier somehow, or that the difficulty of body and your environment in a new way") in re-skilling for barefoot running might be an order to connect the FiveFingers technology to insurmountable barrier to entry for some. ’natural’ ideas about running. But FiveFingers Safety is an issue for barefoot running also promises to make runners’ feet "stronger that extends far beyond the re-skilling process. and healthier" and that FiveFingers shoes will Whether or not barefoot running is even safe, help customers "rediscover the vast potential let alone advantageous, remains unknown. of your feet. . . two of the body’s most beauti- Multiple studies have been published in the fully efficient mechanisms." The FiveFingers last decade (Lieberman et al., 2010) with con- site has an entire section dedicated to biome- tradictory findings, with some saying that bare- chanics, calling on the language of technol- foot running might decrease running-related ogy to create associations between running on impact injuries and other saying that barefoot FiveFingers and expectations of the power of running increases the probability of impact in- modern technology. The practice of calling on juries and non-impact injuries. Claimants of ’natural’/sublime and technological archetypes decreased impact injuries generally emphasize in marketing was successfully employed by that barefoot running can be conducted safely mountain bike manufacturers, and FiveFingers’ only after a long period of systematic adjust- use of similar tactics has been quite effective ment or on certain kinds of trails and tracks. so far if sales are considered an adequate mea- Because of barefoot running’s capacity for in- sure of success. A useful practice to augment jury, it might be beneficial for FiveFingers to this rhetoric might be to more pointedly use look toward pole vaulting. The Fosbury flop language that echoed some of running’s inter- was safe particularly because the landing pits nal goods, like discipline, perseverance and were changed to softer materials; therefore, if self-reliance. FiveFingers encouraged customers to seek out In order to be used safely, barefoot and min- trails and tracks that would make barefoot run- imalist shoes require a re-skilling on the part of ning safer, the rate of injuries from FiveFingers the runner. Vibram offers complex instructions may decrease and barefoot running would be through their websites so new customers can less controversial. An even more extreme ver- acclimate to barefoot running techniques. By sion of this practice would be for FiveFingers to doing so, the FiveFingers are more accessible to subsidize the construction of barefoot running- runners; otherwise, the bizarrely shaped shoes friendly tracks, not dissimilar from the way might be considered too odd or intimidating that the UFC installed Octagon fighting arenas for curious runners to try them out. The re- in and around the US. skilling process is approached by FiveFingers I consider these practices to be a framework- as if barefoot running was like the Fosbury in-progress because there remains plenty of flop: easy and quick to learn, and easy to exe- interpretive flexibility in barefoot running. In cute. However, the multiple lawsuits pending other words, barefoot running is still devel-
12 gnovis Journal Spring 2014 Volume XIV, Issue 2 • • oping, and the technology caught up in it - [2] Bijker, Wiebe. "How is technology made? Vibram FiveFingers, biomechanic studies, engi- ”That is the question!”’ Cambridge Journal neered track materials - will continue to change of Economics. 34, 63-76. 2010. Print. as well. Hopefully the practices described in this section illuminate potential avenues for [3] Bramble, Dennis M., and Daniel E. Lieber- barefoot running to integrate into mainstream man. "Endurance Running and the Evo- running cultures, though whether or not that lution of Homo." Nature 432.7015 (2004): will happen is yet to be seen. 345-52. Print. [4] Butryn, Ted M., and Matthew A. Masucci. "Endurance Running and the Evolution X. Conclusion of Homo." Nature 432.7015 (2004): 345-52. Print. While this paper has reviewed the process of identifying a new technology in sport cultures [5] Collins, Harry, and Robert Evans. "Sport- and the practices that aid a new technology’s decision Aids and the "CSI-effect": Why integration, this project lacks the ethnographic Cricket Uses Hawk-Eye Well and Tennis material necessary to truly attend to the embod- Uses It Badly." Public Understanding of Sci- ied, subjective experiences of the actors that en- ence 21.8 (2011): 904-21. Print. liven the processes and practices of sport. That [6] Downey, G. "Producing Pain: Techniques is not to say that thinking about technology and Technologies in No-Holds-Barred within sporting cultures is not useful; rather, Fighting." Social Studies of Science 37.2 that an ethnographic account of an artifact be- (2007): 201-26. Print. coming a technology-accepted-by-sport, as it exists to athletes, sporting officials, manufac- [7] Futterman, Matthew. "Running-Shoe turers and fans, might provide a better context Revolutionaries." The Wall Street Jour- for some of the seemingly arbitrary parameters nal. Dow Jones & Company, 26 Oct. of sporting cultures. 2012. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
References [11] Hietanen, Aki, and Tapio Varis. "Sport and International Understanding: A Sur- [1] Barry, Patrick. (2008). "Finding the Golden vey of the Structure and Trends of Inter- Genes." Science News. 174.3: 16-21. Print. national Sports Cooperation." Current Re-
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search on Peace and Violence 5.2/3 (1982): the Body and Human-Environment Rela- 75-112. Print. tions." Body & Society 6.3-4 (2000): 107-26. Print. [12] Kline, Stephen J. "What Is Technology?" Ed. Robert C. Scharff and Val Dusek. Phi- [20] Munasinghe, Lalith, Brendan O’Flaherty, losophy of Technology: The Technological Con- and Stephen Danninger. "Globalization dition : An Anthology. Malden, MA: Black- and the Rate of Technological Progress: well, 2003. 210-13. Print. What Track and Field Records Show." Jour- nal of Political Econonmy 109.5 (2001): 1132- [13] Lamb, David. and Susan M. Easton, Mul- 149. Print. tiple Discovery: The Pattern of Scientific Progress, 1984 Beatty, Nevada: Avebury [21] Murray, Thomas H. “Making Sense of Fair- Publishing. Print. ness in Sports,” Hastings Center Report Vol. [14] Larson, Peter. “2013 Running Shoe 40, No. 2 (2010): 13-15. Print. Sales Data: What Do They Tell Us [22] N.p.: n.p., n.d. Vibram FiveFingers. About What Runners Are Wearing?,” Vibram USA. Web. 15 May 2013. Sec- Runblogger.com. 19 May. 2013. Web. tions: Barefoot Running Education,
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Studies Cast Doubt Comments. N.p., 5 [33] Trabal, P. "Resistance to Technological In- June 2013. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
[29] Schermer, M. "On the Argument That En- [35] Van Hilvoorde, Ivo, Vos, Rein and de Wert, hancement Is "cheating"" Journal of Medi- Guido. “Flopping, Klapping and Gene cal Ethics 34.2 (2008): 85-88. Print. Doping: Dichotomies between ’Natural’ and ’Artificial’ in Elite Sport.” Social Stud- [30] Simonton, Dean Keith. "Multiple Discov- ies of Science, Vol. 37, No. 2 (Apr., 2007), ery and Invention: Zeitgeist, Genius, or pp. 173-200. Print. Chance?." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 37.9 (1979): 1603-1616. Print [36] Wallack, Roy. May 9, "Gear: Shoes for Not-quite-barefoot Running." [31] Tenner, Edward. "The Technological Im- Los Los Angeles Times, perative." The Wilson Quarterly (1976-) Angeles Times. 09 May 2011. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. 19.1 (1995): 26-34. Print.
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