Regulating full contact martial arts and combat sports: how governmentality as an analytical framework informs practices of the governing of sports

Abstract

The governing of sport has recently shifted from self-regulation towards various forms of joint regulation. This study uses the concept of governmentality to analyse practices of governing full contact martial arts and combat sports (FCMACS) in the Netherlands to answer the question of how the concept of governmentality informs the current and future governing of FCMACS. Dean’s methodological guidelines were used in the analysis of the consensus and contradictions in the rationalities and related technologies of power (regimes of practices) expressed in the regulation of FCMACS. According to the study’s respondents, future practices of the governing of FCMACS must enact equitable restrictions for all gyms and fight events and highlight the social value of FCMACS to facilitate them gaining the same status as regular sports. Such change requires practices of governing that combine authority and mediation with a climate open to self-regulation.