This thesis is an ethnographic analysis of surfing and the surfing culture on Australia’s Gold Coast (Queensland, Australia). In such a touristic region, the mild climate, warm water and the quantity and quality of waves have attracted many surfers, that have created a real surfing legacy. Surfing here contributes to shape the landscape and has become an integral part of the cultural heritage and of a socially constructed idea of “a life in the Gold Coast style”. Therefore, in the process of definition of the local surfing culture, both local and more wide questions are involved. Firstly, the particular relation with the beach and the ocean Australian people have historically developed deeply influence the way surfers enjoy riding the waves. Secondly, an “imagined” sense of Australian-ness rooted on the colonial history of the country is reflected and reproduced in the local surfing environment. Finally, surfing actively participate to the co-construction of the gender categories and attributes (especially those linked to masculinity). In this thesis, surfing is conceived as an “ordinary passion” into which practitioners invest their time and resources in order to give a deeper meaning to their lives. As happens to the consumption practices which are based on a free individual choice, surfing reflects the “character” and values of those who show their commitment to it. In this way, it constitutes a cultural “frame” in which the surfers’ gestures make sense. The thesis is divided in 7 chapters. Chapter 1 is a critical review of the existent scientific literature on surfing. In Chapter 2, surfing is conceived as a hybrid bodily practice that cross the boundaries between “sport” and “game”, “sport” and “performance”, “sport” and “dance”, and so on. Chapter 3 is about the methodologies adopted for this research. Moreover, a broader reflection on reflectivity and the body in the ethnographic study of sporting activities is proposed. The socially and culturally ways through which in Australia and on the Gold Coast particular “modality of enjoyment” of the beach and the sea have been historically produced are investigated in Chapter 4 and 5, that also describe the way these modes of appreciation inform surfing culture on the Gold Coast. In Chapter 6, a view of the surfer as an athletic, contemporary version of the “romantic hero” is discussed. On the Gold Coast, this image also epitomizes some of the main features attached to the Australian “character” and identity. Chapter 7 describes how this reciprocal relationship between the surfers’ image and an idealized Australian identity has built a mainly manly and white sporting culture, organized around two ambivalent but coherent principles of social relations: on the one hand, the reciprocity between the surfer and the ocean that offers him so much “fun”; and, on the other hand, the competition among surfers to establish the priority on the line-up (that is, to establish who has the right to enjoy that reciprocity with the sea and who is instead excluded from it).

Questa tesi è un’analisi etnografica del surf e della “cultura sportiva” che esso alimenta nella regione/città della Gold Coast, all’estremità sud-orientale dello Stato del Queensland, in Australia. In questa area turistica dal clima mite e costantemente battuta dalle onde, infatti, il surf ha trovato un’accoglienza particolare, ed è diventato parte integrante del paesaggio, segnando l’identità del luogo e contribuendo a definirne il patrimonio. In questo processo, nella «surfing culture» della Gold Coast hanno trovato espressione istanze locali così come questioni di più ampio respiro, come il rapporto col mare e con la spiaggia che in Australia ha storicamente assunto una rilevanza sociale particolare, un’idea di identità nazionale fondata su moderatamente aggiornati principi coloniali e la co-costruzione delle categorie e degli attributi di genere (e in particolare di quelli legati alla mascolinità). A partire da una concezione delle pratiche sportive come “passioni ordinarie” e come “pratiche di consumo”, vale a dire come attività cui ci si dedica per vocazione e che danno di conseguenza vita a un sistema di senso entro il quale i nostri gesti prendono valore, ho ripercorso le traiettorie culturali secondo le quali il surf diventa qui particolarmente significativo per i suoi praticanti. La tesi si divide in sette Capitoli. Nel Capitolo 1 si è cercato di offrire una panoramica critica introduttiva sulla letteratura esistente sul surf. Nel Capitolo 2 ho cercato di proporre una visione comprensiva del surf in quanto disciplina ibrida, che non può essere ridotta, se vogliamo renderne conto, a una sola delle categorie epistemologiche attraverso cui simili attività sono state lette, come quelle di “sport”, di “gioco”, di “danza”, di “performance”, eccetera. Nel Capitolo 3 vengono trattate le metodologie adottate e cerco di riflettere criticamente sul mio posizionamento sul terreno. Il Capitolo 4 e il Capitolo 5 analizzano le modalità socialmente e culturalmente orientate secondo le quali in Australia, e sulla Gold Coast in particolare, si sono storicamente costituiti peculiari “modelli di apprezzamento” del mare e della spiaggia, che contribuiscano a orientare l’esperienza dei surfisti. Nel Capitolo 6 vengono descritti i modi e le strategie attraverso i quali il surfista in Australia è diventato una sorta di incarnazione contemporanea dell’eroe romantico, nonché, allo stesso tempo, un’espressione emblematica di alcune delle caratteristiche associate con l’idea di un “carattere” e di un’identità “tipicamente” australiani. Il Capitolo 7, infine, cerca di chiarire come di fatto questa associazione tra surf e “australianità” dia vita, soprattutto sulla Gold Coast, a una cultura sportiva prevalentemente maschile e quasi esclusivamente bianca, organizzata attorno a due principi fondamentali: quello della reciprocità (nei confronti delle onde e dell’oceano), e quello della competizione con gli altri surfisti per stabilire la priorità e l’ordine di avvicendamento sui picchi.

(2019). Surfers Paradise. Un’etnografia del surf sulla Gold Coast australiana. (Tesi di dottorato, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, 2019).

Surfers Paradise. Un’etnografia del surf sulla Gold Coast australiana

NARDINI, DARIO
2019

Abstract

This thesis is an ethnographic analysis of surfing and the surfing culture on Australia’s Gold Coast (Queensland, Australia). In such a touristic region, the mild climate, warm water and the quantity and quality of waves have attracted many surfers, that have created a real surfing legacy. Surfing here contributes to shape the landscape and has become an integral part of the cultural heritage and of a socially constructed idea of “a life in the Gold Coast style”. Therefore, in the process of definition of the local surfing culture, both local and more wide questions are involved. Firstly, the particular relation with the beach and the ocean Australian people have historically developed deeply influence the way surfers enjoy riding the waves. Secondly, an “imagined” sense of Australian-ness rooted on the colonial history of the country is reflected and reproduced in the local surfing environment. Finally, surfing actively participate to the co-construction of the gender categories and attributes (especially those linked to masculinity). In this thesis, surfing is conceived as an “ordinary passion” into which practitioners invest their time and resources in order to give a deeper meaning to their lives. As happens to the consumption practices which are based on a free individual choice, surfing reflects the “character” and values of those who show their commitment to it. In this way, it constitutes a cultural “frame” in which the surfers’ gestures make sense. The thesis is divided in 7 chapters. Chapter 1 is a critical review of the existent scientific literature on surfing. In Chapter 2, surfing is conceived as a hybrid bodily practice that cross the boundaries between “sport” and “game”, “sport” and “performance”, “sport” and “dance”, and so on. Chapter 3 is about the methodologies adopted for this research. Moreover, a broader reflection on reflectivity and the body in the ethnographic study of sporting activities is proposed. The socially and culturally ways through which in Australia and on the Gold Coast particular “modality of enjoyment” of the beach and the sea have been historically produced are investigated in Chapter 4 and 5, that also describe the way these modes of appreciation inform surfing culture on the Gold Coast. In Chapter 6, a view of the surfer as an athletic, contemporary version of the “romantic hero” is discussed. On the Gold Coast, this image also epitomizes some of the main features attached to the Australian “character” and identity. Chapter 7 describes how this reciprocal relationship between the surfers’ image and an idealized Australian identity has built a mainly manly and white sporting culture, organized around two ambivalent but coherent principles of social relations: on the one hand, the reciprocity between the surfer and the ocean that offers him so much “fun”; and, on the other hand, the competition among surfers to establish the priority on the line-up (that is, to establish who has the right to enjoy that reciprocity with the sea and who is instead excluded from it).
BARBERANI, SILVIA
surfing culture; Gold Coast; etnografia; sport; identità
surfing culture; Gold Coast; ethnography; sport; identità
M-DEA/01 - DISCIPLINE DEMOETNOANTROPOLOGICHE
Italian
1-lug-2019
ANTROPOLOGIA CULTURALE E SOCIALE - 74R
31
2017/2018
open
(2019). Surfers Paradise. Un’etnografia del surf sulla Gold Coast australiana. (Tesi di dottorato, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, 2019).
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10281/241201
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