Social peripheralism is the explanation of social events emphasizing peripheral human functions, such as acting through influence of multi-layered social interaction, rather than single stratum interactions.  A common phrase of describing social and symbolic interaction is that “the world is a stage” (Shakespeare).  Goffman takes that a step further by defining front- and backstage performances.  “Front” stage is when the performer acts in front of a present audience.  “Back” stage is when the audience is not there.  I’d like to take Goffman’s theory a step further… to the periphery of social interaction.

Youth sports provide a perfect opportunity to study social peripheralism.  I assume that the minority of soccer moms actually believe their son or daughter will grow into the next David Beckham or Mia Hamm.  Yet, parents still urge their children to participate in youth sports for secondary, or peripheral, reasons.  Such reasons may be to acquire leadership skills, social networking, or simply introducing their child to a social situation.  Anther reason might be to improve health and well-being.

The quest to acquire more peripheral benefit from youth sports participation is a plight of socially conscious parents.  Many popular American sports, like football and basketball, teach basic leadership skills and increase the frequency of healthy aerobic activity.  And still, there are a wide variety of unique opportunities for youth to participate in very refined opportunities where the likelihood of going pro is even less than in the more popular sports.  One of these outlier sports is break dancing, a hip-hop culture expression that began in the late 1970′s in America and continues today.

I assume that middle class parents in suburbia who place their children in these breakdancing classes do not have expectations that their child will continue to the professional ranks.  However, they still encourage their children to participate.  Conversely, a greater majority of impoverished inner-city youth see major league sports as a way out of the ghetto and up the social latter.  Why is participation on urban youth football teams so different than suburban youth breakdancing crews?  The answer is discoverable through developing a theory of social peripheralism – the explanation of social events emphasizing peripheral human functions as opposed to directly visible benefit.