Den brukne neses estetikk. En bok om boksing

Sammanfattning: This thesis is about boxing. More precisely it is about the meaning of boxing. And since it is about the question of meaning, it is also about the question of culture. This thesis aims to identify the system of meaning produced in the inside of the culture of boxing. Put differently, the objective has been the laying bare of the internal construction of the cultural form that boxing is. The empirical data has been gathered through participant observation or, as it is termed in the thesis: full-contact sociology. The field studies alluded to hereby have been conducted over a period of three years in two different boxing clubs in Södermalm, Stockholm. One of these clubs was for amateurs, the other for both amateurs and professional boxers.The thesis consists of three sections: one empirical, one theoretical and one existential. In the first section, a detailed account of the empirical material is presented. The second section is a multidimensional reconstruction of the culture of boxing. These sections make up the thesis in an argumentative sense. In the third section, three specific aspects of the culture studied are discussed - solitude, pain and death. This is done in order to criticize the practice of interpretation meaning in sociology.