‘Just a sport made up in a car park?’: the ‘soft’ landscape of Ultimate Frisbee

Abstract

Consideration of the sporting landscape within which an activity takes place is an aspect that is often taken for granted but close inspection can reveal a wealth of information that is easily found, waiting to be decoded (Cosgrove 1989). Such information is important because it allows the values ascribed to the landscape to become more clearly visible (Lewis 1979). This study examines the sport of Ultimate Frisbee and uses a modified framework devised by Meinig (1979) to analyse different ‘views of the sports landscape’. An ethnographic approach was used and data were gathered through participant observation, the conducting of interviews and the examination of documentary evidence. Findings indicate that since the formation of a new governing body in the UK, greater standardisation of the sporting landscape has become apparent, however, spatial, temporal and constitutional boundaries within Ultimate Frisbee remain ‘soft’ and continue to be indicative of the sport's origins and ‘the alternative sports movement’ of the 1960s (Bale 1994).