More than just a game?: a subcultural journey through the 'sport' of rock paper scissors

Abstract

As a newly emergent sport, Rock .Paper Scissors (RPS) has been an under-researched area of study in the sociology of sport. Individuals who are involved with RPS in one capacity or another can be seen to have entered into a contested terrain that challenges previously conceived notions of sport, lifestyle sport, subculture, and 'adulthood'. The result is a complex negotiation of play (in the most pure and child-like sense of the term) and sport both at the theoretical level between resistance and incorporation, and in the lived experiences of those involved in the RPS subculture. This can be seen while RPS subculture members negotiate with and reconcile ideas (and ideologies) of sport, play, and the notion of 'rejuvenile'. Using a cultural studies perspective, multiple methods were used (including semi-structured interviews, and observation) to understand the unique characteristics that have come to define and distinguish the sport of RPS and its respective subculture.