Academic literature on the topic 'Cyclisme – France – Sociologie'

From its origins in 1903 as a parochial national cycle race, the Tour de France is today undeniably among the greatest annual sporting spectacles in the world. Since 1954 it has systematically extended its appeal beyond France’s national borders, regularly staging a grand départ from other European cities. The Tour de France also attracts an estimated 12 million spectators lining the route over the race’s 3-week duration every year, is watched by a reputed 1.5 billion global television audience across more than 188 countries and, therefore, is implicitly involved in a complex production of transnational discourses about sport. This article analyzes the 2014 ESPN documentary Slaying the Badger and proposes a reading which situates the representation of Greg LeMond (the first and, to date, only officially recognized American to win the Tour de France) and his turbulent rivalry with teammate and mentor French cyclist Bernard Hinault within wider social contexts. Focusing on the discourse of “Americanization,” the article also critically examines the meanings of socioeconomic forces that began to transform not only the international composition of the peloton but also the cultural significance of the Tour de France from the 1980s onward.

Cycling in public spaces is both a mobility and a physical activity underpinned by considerable issues, but women practice significantly less, particularly during adolescence. A few studies have sought to study this phenomenon but mainly on the basis of social psychology theories. Based on 84 semi-structured biographical interviews conducted in France, this article aims to discuss their findings using gender, mobility and socialization sociology. We first show how a ‘feminine’ socialization to risk taking, body aesthetics, sport, street and mechanics is an obstacle to cycling during adolescence, especially in the working-class environment and all the more so in spatial contexts with strong norms of male appropriation of public space. We then show how the fact of having cyclists in one's social environment and a sporting inclination plays an important role in limiting the risk of abandonment. By highlighting processes of reinforcement of gendered bodily and spatial inclinations, our results shed light on the links between the socio-construction of inequalities in accessing public space and of inequalities in accessing physical activities. Furthermore, they encourage the study of bicycle socialisation in an intersectional way and suggest the interest of studying the links between urban, ecological, health, sport and mobility socialisations.

Ce travail étudie les processus sociaux à l'oeuvre dans la structuration d'un espace cycliste d'élite français. La problématique renvoie principalement aux rapports de force qui opposent l'Etat au champ économique pour le contrôle légitime de l'élite sportive. La thèse avancée souligne que les règles économiques qui ont historiquement déterminé le développement du cyclisme dominent les principes de fonctionnement de cet univers. Dans ce cadre, le cyclisme amène à dépasser la vision d'une organisation du sport dont la cohérence et l'efficacité s'appuient sur la seule puissance publique, et renverse le regard quant aux conditions de détection et de formation des élites, d'accès au marché du travail et de régulation de celui-ci. Au-delà de l'objectivation des structures qui fondent ce sport, ce sont les conditions autorisant l'émergence des vocations de cycliste professionnel et leur contribution à la genèse d'un habitus de coureur qui sont au coeur de l'étude.