There's a very interesting underlying metaphoric structure to the whole genre of "doing activity X in support of situation/class of people Y". Maybe I'll post on it when I have time to do the job right (at the moment I'm skiving off from assessing Product Impact). But here's an example of what I'm talking about. There's a very common, very basic metaphor "achieving a purpose is moving through space to a goal". So you can be "getting closer to" an accomplishment; you can meet "roadblocks" in a process; etc. etc. So participating in a race in support of a process to achieve a purpose (working very hard here to avoid motion/goal language in talking about the metaphor) is, in part, reifying the metaphor and invoking a kind of sympathetic magic whereby moving through space to the goal-location "assists" achieving the purpose.
While there are any number of "supportive activity" events, I think this is part of the reason why runs/walks/bike rides/etc. are so popular for this purpose.
Anyway, more later when I have time. (Oooh! Oooh! I got to use the word "reify" in casual conversation!)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2007-07-20 10:43 pm (UTC)While there are any number of "supportive activity" events, I think this is part of the reason why runs/walks/bike rides/etc. are so popular for this purpose.
Anyway, more later when I have time. (Oooh! Oooh! I got to use the word "reify" in casual conversation!)