Work and Sport: A current debate. Review from the Frankfurt School

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between work, leisure time, and sports practice in Mexico through a critical review of the Frankfurt School’s theoretical framework on the administration of the world. It is argued that capitalist rationality, as conceptualized by Horkheimer and Adorno, subjectively configures workers in such a way that the time devoted to the reproduction of labor power, including physical and sports activity, becomes subordinated to the productive and instrumental logic of capital. From the perspective of Critical Theory, the culture industry does not merely administer leisure time; it colonizes bodily dispositions and the possibilities of rest, transforming free time into an extension of work itself. To empirically examine these theoretical claims, the dataset from the Sports and Physical Exercise Practice Module (MOPRADEF), produced by Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI, 2024), was analyzed. The findings reveal that lack of time directly associated with workload demands is the primary reason the population reports for not engaging in physical or sports activity. Furthermore, economically inactive individuals, who have greater availability of free time, show a higher propensity for sports participation, reinforcing the thesis that engagement in physical activity is structurally conditioned by labor market insertion rather than by individual will alone. The results demonstrate the enduring explanatory power of Critical Theory for understanding inequalities in access to sport and bodily well-being in contemporary societies.