Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Sportisation And Values Of Competition : The Case Of Yo-Yoing, Ho Wang, Danny Kwong

Bachelor of Social Sciences – Senior Theses

Yo-yoing was a popular pastime in the 90s. It has now developed as a sport with standard rules. This research locates competitive yo-yoing within the sociology of sports, specifically, it builds on the lifestyle sports literature. I understand yo-yoing as a lifestyle sport, serious leisure, and subculture. I argue that competition is a site of meaning-making in competitive yo-yoing and delineate the community’s response to sportisation through interviews with 15 yo-yo players in Hong Kong and an examination of a Netflix documentary on yo-yo. The findings suggest 2 implications: a re-visit to the anti-competition discourse among lifestyle sports, and, a …