Bourdieu recycles the example of the soccer game from Merleau-Ponty to point to the way that we are not immersed in this constant state of calculation regarding our actions, but instead our actions emerge from an embodied experience of the game.
When I was trying to reconcile Bourdieu’s way of thinking with his critique of rational choice theory I thought about this example a lot. In particular it only seems to capture a certain set of experiences. Yes, in a soccer game there is little time (resources) to go into any extended thought about the actions you should take. If one were to do so then the game would quickly pass you by and any thought put into action would be lost.
But there are other games. For example, what about chess? If we were to use this example, would we come to different conclusions? As it should be and probably is obvious, I believe so. Chess is a primary example of a game in which an extreme amount of thought about the ramifications of particular actions are put into each movement, sometimes considering hundreds of possible iterations into the game’s future.
So, what is it that is different about these games? Soccer, on the one hand, is not parsed out into moves the same way that chess is. Instead, soccer is a synchronous analog game where numerous agents interact at once. Chess, on the other hand, is an asynchrounous digital game that can be stretched out over months or even years.
I am not trying to argue for the use of one game example over the other — they both have their place. And Bourdieu does admit that there are occasions when individuals do engage in the type of activity that falls under the countenance of rational choice theory. But at a minimum I do not feel that Bourdieu pays heed enough to the role of iterative games in our daily experience.
Perhaps the best metaphor is something that lies somewhere between soccer and chess — such as Foucault’s agonistic war metaphor — which, in many senses, is yet another game.
One question I must further consider is the role that the body plays, in terms of providing regulatory sensations, in each of these games, and how this comes to bear on the way that we play and experience each of these games.