Numbers, quantification, and the culture of sport

Andrew Baerg

Chapter 2 in Handbook on Sport and Culture, 2025, pp 21-34 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter explores the constitutive nature of the number for culture before then moving into how the number contributes to a normative culture of quantification for sport. The chapter begins by exploring how the number operates constitutively in communication to render communication mobile, immutable, presentable, legible, and combinable. It then speaks to how the number has been deployed in the context of neoliberalism to foster a form of self-government articulated to responsible accountability. The chapter then applies this theoretical context to illustrate how numbers shape the athletic quantified self and contribute to a culture of sport heavily mediated by quantification. As the primary example of how this culture works, the chapter concludes with a discussion of cycling data and quantification.

Keywords: Quantification; Neoliberalism; Quantified Self; Numbers; Latour; Responsibility; Strava (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035339976
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