Towards a Performativity-Based Understanding of Norms and Values in Martial Arts Practice

This contribution presents a model elucidating the performative production of norms and values within martial arts practice. Drawing on praxeological approaches and performance theory, the model highlights the dual processes through which meaning emerges: via codified, routinized practices and situational, subjective enactments. Martial arts are conceptualized not merely as physical exercises but as complex performative spaces where collective and individual norms and values are continuously enacted, negotiated, and potentially transformed. Beyond martial arts, the model is applicable to other movement cultures, such as dance or organized sport, and may offer both an analytical tool for qualitative cultural-sociological research and a practical heuristic for designing, reflecting upon, and evaluating movement-pedagogical interventions.