Hockey Talk: a Textured Description of Morality and Ethics in a Sporting Context
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Hockey Talk: A Textured Description of Morality and Ethics in a Sporting Context by Patrick Bondy Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia April 2021 © Copyright by Patrick Bondy, 2021 Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... v Chapter 1: Introduction - Shifting ice ...................................................................................... 1 Considering historical ‘change’: A sketch of hockey history .................................................... 2 The Cherry incident ................................................................................................................. 6 The study and research methods ............................................................................................ 10 My subjectivity in the rink ..................................................................................................... 19 Chapter 2: Studying talk around sport, morality and ethics, and ethnicity and race .......... 25 How to study talk in and around sport .................................................................................... 26 Normative approach ..................................................................................................... 26 Thick description approach ........................................................................................... 39 Textured description approach ....................................................................................... 26 Moving forward: an integrated approach to hockey talk ......................................................... 42 Chapter 3: Morality and ethics in hockey talk ...................................................................... 44 Constancy .............................................................................................................................. 52 Progress ................................................................................................................................. 57 Keeping texture: Simultaneous moral trajectories .................................................................. 62 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 64 Chapter 4: Hockey talk about fighting and violence ............................................................ 65 Fighting and violence to carry on tradition and bond with others ........................................... 66 Fighting in hockey as perennial .......................................................................................... 72 Fighting as a barrier to a better game ..................................................................................... 73 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 82 Chapter 5: Hockey talk about incidents which feature race ................................................ 83 “Kick him out!”: An observed incident .................................................................................. 83 Black perspectives ................................................................................................................. 87 White perspectives ................................................................................................................. 92 Textures of Whiteness: Subaltern White? ........................................................................... 97 East Asian perspectives ......................................................................................................... 99 Mixed-race and multiracial perspectives .............................................................................. 102 Revisiting the “Kick him out!” incident ............................................................................... 108 ii Chapter 6: Revisiting “You people” and the Cherry incident ............................................. 112 A poor choice of words ........................................................................................................ 113 An offensive speech act ....................................................................................................... 116 Textures of a national incident ............................................................................................. 124 Chapter 7: Conclusion - Textured Insights, Normative Reflections from Hockey Talk .. 126 Bibliography .......................................................................................................................... 134 Appendix A: Consent form for minor-age hockey players .................................................. 149 Appendix B: Consent form for parents/guardians of minor-age hockey players ............... 153 Appendix C: Consent form for adult players ....................................................................... 157 Appendix D: Consent form for adult fans (inclusive of parents) ........................................ 160 Appendix E: Interview guide for hockey players ................................................................. 161 Appendix F: Interview guide for adult fans ......................................................................... 165 Appendix G: Observation guide for structured observations at arenas ............................. 170 Appendix H: Promotional flyers to be put up at arenas ...................................................... 173 Appendix I: Table of games observed .................................................................................. 175 Appendix J: Table of interview participants ........................................................................ 181 iii Abstract Across societies, morality and ethics manifest in many social arenas. Sports, and especially national sports such as ice hockey in Canada, are no exception. There is little consensus on the meaning of on- and off-ice actions, though, as hockey players, parents, fans, and others use multiple moral and ethical frameworks in ways that can conflict. Currently, disagreement exists particularly over the meaning of violent action, including fighting, and the meaning of action where a person’s ethno-racial identity may be a factor at play. Drawing on ethnographic research collected during the 2018-19 and 2019-20 hockey seasons, including 80 interviews and 84 structured observations, this thesis describes hockey people’s talk. It argues that hockey people rely on moral trajectories to structure their talk so that certain actions, inactions, speech, and silence become good and right things to do, or not do. The thesis argues that White identity in hockey is particularly heterogeneous, and that common disagreements about the meaning of action exist among all ethno-racial groups. Studies of ethno-racial subjectivity ought to take this into account. The findings in this thesis contribute to the fields of hockey and sports, morality and ethics, as well as ethno-racial identity and Whiteness Studies. iv Acknowledgements Thanks to the God the Creator, God of grace. Thanks to God of my life, who has worked in my life, and who has used people powerfully in my life. Thanks to my parents, for loving me, raising me, and giving me freedom to pursue my interests. Thanks to my siblings, for being company to me. Thanks especially to my brother Terry, for pulling me out of a dark place and into light. Thank you to early teachers – Mary Gliserman and Daniel Schwabauer, for giving me an early taste of writing. Thanks to Jessica Gliserman, for giving me an early taste of the social sciences. Thanks to all who made my early days in Halifax and at Dalhousie positive. Thanks to Dr. Jerry White, to Danita and Jacobus Steyn, to Adventure By Bus which became Trips By Transit, and to the Deanery Project. Thanks to Dr. Lindsay DuBois and Dr. Liesl Gambold for teaching introductory anthropology courses that introduced me to the discipline. Thanks to all the roommates I ever had in Halifax – Isaac Berry, Ryan Perry, Brittany Harman, Emma Yeo, Bekah Smith, Corey Giles, Myriam Alexanian, Brandon Arsenault, Josiah Pittman, Paul Bendevis, Thomas Gadd, Johnny Richards, Josh Swain, and Sam Kamminga. Thanks for being a Godward community, holding the twin calling of loving one another and the wider world. Thanks to neighbours – living alongside you was a great joy and privilege. Thanks to all the SOSA faculty, for welcoming me and stimulating my interests in anthropology. Thanks to Brian Howell, Dan Birtles, Stephen James, and everyone else I met at AAA Christian Anthropologists Network meetings. Even our sparse interactions have been an encouragement to me. Thanks to Howard Ramos, for drawing me into the ‘Hockey Project’ team. Thanks to Lloyd Wong for allowing my participation in the project. It has been a remarkable opportunity. Thanks also to Martine Dennie for working alongside me in the project, encouraging me, and thinking about hockey in ways that have stimulated my own thinking. Thanks to my MA committee, including Dr. Howard Ramos, Dr. Liesl Gambold, Dr. Martha Radice, and Dr. Laura Eramian for the first eight months. You were supportive, helpful, and made this work better than it would have been