Sociocultural Factors in Post-Industrial British Sport

This set of flashcards covers vocabulary relating to the sociocultural changes in 19th-century Britain and their impact on the development of modern sport.

Industrial Revolution

A period during the 1800s characterized by steam-powered machines, technological development, and the emergence of a new class structure.

Cholera Epidemic of 1832

A health crisis caused by cramped, unhygienic urban living spaces that resulted in the deaths of $32000$ people.

Cruelty to Animals Act (1835)

Legislation influenced by the RSPCA that banned baiting sports in Britain.

Rational Recreation

The name for sports in Post-Industrial Britain that were regular, codified, respectable, and often played in purpose-built facilities.

Popular Recreation

Sports of Pre-Industrial Britain characterized by being local, violent, occasional, and having simple, unwritten rules.

P U R E F A R C

An acronym for Rational Recreation characteristics: Purpose-built, Urban, Regional/National, Exclusive, Fair play, Amateur/Professional, Regular, and Codified.

The Football Association (FA)

An organization formed to codify soccer, which eventually allowed professionalism due to the Working Class needing payment for time off work.

Lawn Tennis

A game developed for middle-class suburban gardens that helped remove Victorian stereotypes by allowing women to participate with men.

Amateurism

Participating in sport for the love of the game without payment, a status associated with 'gentlemanly conduct' and upper-class values.

Professionalism

Competing in sports for pay, typically associated with working-class individuals such as the 'Pros' in cricket or football.

Broken-time payments

Compensation provided to working-class players in the north of England for wages lost while playing sport.

1895 Rugby Split

The division of rugby into League (professional) and Union (amateur) codes due to disputes over payments.

Taunton Royal Commission (1868)

An inquiry that identified the lack of schooling for women and instigated a drive for women's rights in education and sport.

Education Act of 1870 ('Forster Act')

The legislation that established a national system of state education in Britain.

Education Act of 1891

Legislation that helped create free education for the masses, increasing literacy and the ability to understand complex sports rules.

Industrial Patronage

The provision of recreational and sporting opportunities by factory owners to create a healthy and productive workforce.

Half-day Saturday

An agreement for reduced working hours that allowed workers time to participate in or spectate at sporting events.

William Clarke's All England XI

A touring cricket team that used the development of the railways to play local teams across the country.

Fergus Suter

A stonemason known as the first professional footballer who accepted wages to play in England during the late 1870s.

Sheffield Wednesday

A sports club named after the Wednesday afternoon holidays granted to shop workers in lieu of working on Saturdays.