The small sporting heritage: between public good and collective memory

Abstract

This article analyzes the small sporting heritage. It is not limited to a classic view of sporting heritage, centered on architecture or art objects associated with sport. It aims to include everyday objects, serial objects that have a symbolic and social rather than commercial value. In order to fully understand the issues associated with this specific category of "small heritage", the article recalls some general characteristics of the concept of heritage. Examples illustrate the interest on small heritage by characters of the world of sports. The small sporting heritage, constituted by everyday sporting objects and often neglected by heritage institutions and museums, constitutes a great social wealth that must be valued for its relation to the athletes themselves. Since we here consider heritage a social resource instead of a collection of prestigious objects, ethnography allows us to empirically identify situations in which sportspeople value the small heritage linked to their practices. This is the case, for example, when groups of sportspeople organize exhibitions or collections in museums and archives. An important theoretical issue related to the association of the notions of heritage and sport is to better understand the ways in which the boundaries between public and private are articulated and shifted. Sporting heritage makes it possible to understand the historical changes in methods of organization and appropriation of sports practices. By establishing a strong link between sport, public goods and collective memories, the concept of sporting heritage opens up a reflection on the construction of identities through sport.