Play as Entertainment, Sociology of

Sociological Studies

As it is often remarked, classical sociology did not pay a great attention to play, except for some intuitions by the German sociologist and philosopher Georg Simmel, whose vision of play is consistent with his characteristic [Page 510]focus on the sociability of human beings, on social interaction and on human expression. While not recognized as very prominent for the field of play studies, another scholar belonging to the classical age, the French sociologist Émile Durkheim, offered, however, a vision of entertainment that can be regarded as a hidden, classical root for the analysis of play and entertainment.

In his work The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, Durkheim held the vision that religious practices (i.e., rituals) do not simply fulfill the function of creating social solidarity. When represented in public within the context of cooperation and assembly with other people, they also entertain the participants. Yet the relevance of Durkheim's insight does not rest simply on the assumption that entertainment, as the socially shaped product of some collective or individual activity, has a religious origin. Durkheim's vision of ritual as a separate and bounded activity is paradigmatic for the analysis of all the other (more secular) practices that detatch participants from their ordinary life, play included.

Durkheim's work had a great influence (whether it was explicit or not) on Roger Caillois's approach to play and games. Many other scholars—within and without the Durkheimian tradition—seem to share his basic assumptions too, from sociologist Erving Goffman to anthropologist Victor Turner, to play theorist Brian Sutton-Smith. Entertainment, from this analytic point of view, must be conceived of mainly as the outcome of any social activity permeated by play, as it is remarked by one prominent student of performance, the theorist and dramaturge Richard Schechner.

These studies usually conceive of the analysis of play as embedded in a wider theory of performance and symbolic action, thus stressing the relevance of the cultural elements that shape play and are conditioned by it. Whether they use play as a metaphor for action, or are interested in the analysis of play per se as a way to understand deeper and more general processes of social life and human expression, they seem to pay attention to the role of play in society and group life, to its forms of expression (mostly ritual-like), and to its function and achievements (the creation of identity, communal solidarity, amusement for its own sake).

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