From Discourse to Golf Course: The Serious Play of Imagining Community Space

Abstract

This study examines the Web-based promotional discourse of the American golf community in an effort to highlight the intimate relationship between material and social space. It is argued that golf communities represent uniquely imagined spaces in which identity is worked and power is wielded. In examining specificities of the physical space that the residents share, the requirements for accessing and/or belonging to the golf community, and in particular the marketing strategies employed by community developers, an attempt is made to bring into relief the broader themes that underlie formative American ideologies of nature, individualism, democracy, and class privilege. A rhetorical analysis of Web-based appeals to prospective golf community members reveals a complex negotiation of American core values, underpinned by significant tensions concerning purity, exclusivity, freedom, and control.