Part of
Moving Bodies in Interaction – Interacting Bodies in Motion: Intercorporeality, interkinesthesia, and enaction in sportsEdited by Christian Meyer and Ulrich v. Wedelstaedt
[Advances in Interaction Studies 8] 2017
► pp. 113–145
The focus of this paper is on what constitutes cooperative intercorporeality and what constitutes antagonistic intercorporeality in the context of rugby union, a sport that involves frequent heavy body contact. This focus is explored through the lens of how professional rugby union referees control the enactment of this professional sport on the field. The paper investigates how referees in rugby union use talk and other action (e.g. whistle, body movement and positioning in space, gesture) in controlling professional matches, that is, “doing refereeing”. It explores the construction of cooperative and antagonistic intercorporeality through a multimodal analysis of the organization and negotiation of refereeing by referees and players.