what is the sociology of sport?

THE SOCIOLOGY OF SPORT

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What is it and why study it?

(SOURCE: MICHAEL BRADLEY)

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NEW ZEALANDERS BELIEVE winning in international events is important. It contributes to social, economic and health benefits; helps create a sense of strong sense of national identity, pride and social cohesion; creates a healthy image for marketing New Zealand goods, services and experiences abroad; helps attract high profile sports events to New Zealand, with associated economic gains; and encourages New Zealanders to be active Sport & Recreation New Zealand (SPARC) Statement of Intent, 2006–09

NOT ALL AUSTRALIANS like to admit it, but sport defines their culture … It is their proud, shouting declaration of statehood to a world that is literally and notionally far away … Kevin Mitchell, journalist in The Observer newspaper (UK) December, 2006

NOW THAT THE SPORTS business is a massive arm of the international entertainment industry … there’s no way we can escape its economic, social and environmental footprints … [T]he growing involvement of big business, of the media and of advertisers has helped reshape the rules of many games—and, in the process, fuelled new forms of exclusion. John Elkington, environmentalist, president of SustainAbility, 2004


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CHAPTER OUTLINE Introduction

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Defining culture and society

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Defining sport

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What is the sociology of sport?

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Why study sport in society?

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What is the current status of the sociology of sport in Australia and New Zealand

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Summary: Why study the sociology of sport?

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Introduction This chapter focuses on five questions: 1. What are culture and society? 2. What are sports and how might we distinguish them from other activities? 3. What is the sociology of sport? 4. Why study sport in society? 5. Who studies sport in society, and what are their goals? The answers to these questions will be our guides for understanding the material in the rest of the book.


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SPORT IN SOCIETY

DEFINING CULTURE AND SOCIETY As we use sociology to study sport, it is important to define culture and society. Culture consists of the ways of life that people create as they participate in a group or society. These ways of life are complex. They are created and change as people struggle over what is important in their lives, how to survive and accomplish everyday tasks and how to make sense of their collective experiences. Culture encompasses all the socially invented ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that emerge as people try to survive, meet their needs, and achieve a sense of meaning and significance in the process. Of course, some people have more power and resources than others in the culturecreation process, and sociologists study how people use power and resources in the social world. Sports are elements of cultures, and they have forms and meanings, which vary over time from one group and society to the next. For example, traditional martial arts and Sumo wrestling in Asia are organised differently and have different meanings and purposes than combat sports, such as boxing and wrestling, in Australia and New Zealand.The meaning, organisation and purpose of basketball has changed considerably since 1891 when it was developed at a YMCA in the United States as an indoor exercise activity for men who did not want to play football outside during the winter. Canadian James Naismith, who invented basketball as part of an assignment in a physical education course, would not recognise his game if he were to see Lauren Jackson dunk during the Beijing Olympics. Nowadays a billion people may be watching on television, while thousands of others pay to see a women’s professional game in person. It is important to know about these cultural and historical differences when we study sports as parts of society. The term society refers to a collection of people living in a defined geographic territory and united by a political system and a shared sense of self-identification that distinguishes them from other people. Australia, New Zealand, the United States, China, Nigeria and the Netherlands are societies. Each has a different culture and different forms of social, political and economic organisation. It is important to know about these characteristics of society as we study the meaning and social significance of sport from one social context to another.

DEFINING SPORT Most of us have a good enough grasp of the meaning of sport to talk about them with others. However, when we study sport, it helps to define what we are talking about. For example, can we say that two groups of children playing a modified game of netball in a New Zealand town and a pickup game of soccer in an Australian park are engaged in sport? Their activities are quite different from what occurs in connection with the ANZ Netball League games and World Cup soccer matches. These differences become significant when parents ask if playing sports is good for their children, when community leaders such as town or shire councils ask if they should use tax money to pay for sports, or when school officials ask if sports contribute to the educational missions of their schools. Students ask whether jogging and skipping are sports. How about weight lifting? Hunting? Scuba diving? Darts? Automobile racing? Ballroom dancing? Chess? Professional wrestling? Skateboarding? The X Games (action sports competition)? Paintball? A piano competition? Should any or all of these activities be called sports? In the face of such a question, some scholars use a precise definition of sports so that they can distinguish them from other types of social activities.


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CHAPTER 1 THE SOCIOLOGY OF SPORT

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A traditional definition of sport Although definitions of sports vary, many scholars agree that sports are institutionalised competitive activities that involve rigorous physical exertion or the use of relatively complex physical skills by participants motivated by internal and external rewards. Parts of this definition are clear, but other parts need explanation. First, sports are physical activities. Therefore, according to the definition, chess probably is not a sport because playing chess is more cognitive than physical. Are billiards and pool physical enough to qualify as sports under this definition? Making this determination is arbitrary because there are no objective rules for how physical an activity must be to qualify as a sport. Pairs ice dancing is considered a sport in the Winter Olympics, so why not add ballroom dancing to the Summer Games? Members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) asked this question, and ballroom dancing was included in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games as a demonstration sport. Second, sports are competitive activities, according to this definition. Sociologists realise that competitive activities have different social dynamics from cooperative or individualistic activities. They know that, when two girls pass a netball to each other on the grass outside their home, it is sociologically different from what happens when New Zealand’s Silver Ferns team plays Australia’s national team in the World Cup Tournament, so it makes sense to separate them for research purposes. Third, sports are institutionalised activities. Institutionalisation is a sociological term referring to the process through which actions, relationships and social arrangements become patterned or standardised over time and from one situation to another. Institutionalised activities have formal rules and organisational structures that guide people’s actions from one situation to another. When we say that sports are institutionalised activities, we distinguish what happens when two surfers compare waves at a local beach from what happens when surfers compete against one another in an international competition where their rides are evaluated and scored by officials, the leading scorers winning money and trophies which often are paid for by sponsors and television networks. In specific terms, institutionalisation involves the following: 1. The rules of the activity become standardised. Sports have official rules applied whenever and wherever they are played. 2. Official regulatory agencies take over rule enforcement. Representatives of recognised ‘governing bodies’—such as a local rules committee for a children’s netball league, a state high school sports association, the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU), and the International Olympic Committee (IOC)—enforce the rules. 3. The organisational and technical aspects of the activity become important. Sports occur under controlled conditions in which there are specific expectations for competitors, coaches and officials so that results can be documented, certified and recorded. Furthermore, equipment, technologies and training methods are developed to improve performance. 4. The learning of game skills becomes formalised. Participants must know the rules of the game, and coaches become important as teachers; participants may also consult others—such as trainers, dieticians, sport scientists, managers and team physicians—as they learn skills.The fourth point in the definition of sports is that sports are activities played by people for internal and external rewards. This means that participation in sports involves a combination of two sets of motivations. One is based in the internal satisfactions associated with expression, spontaneity and the pure joy of participation.The other motivation is based in external satisfactions associated with displaying physical skills in public and receiving approval, status or material rewards in the process.


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SPORT IN SOCIETY

When we use a precise definition, we can distinguish sports from both play and dramatic spectacle. Play is an expressive activity done for its own sake. It may be spontaneous or guided by informal norms. An example of play is three 4-year-olds who, during a recess period at preschool, spontaneously run around a playground, yelling joyfully while throwing playground balls in whatever directions they feel like throwing them. Of course, it makes sociological sense to distinguish this physical activity, motivated almost exclusively by personal enjoyment and expression, from what happens in sports. Dramatic spectacle, on the other hand, is a performance that is intended to entertain an audience. It is guided by explicit expectations among the performers. An example of dramatic spectacle is four professional wrestlers paid to entertain spectators by staging a skilled and cleverly choreographed tag-team match in which outcomes are prearranged for audience entertainment. It also makes sociological sense to distinguish this physical activity, motivated almost exclusively by a desire to perform for the entertainment of others, from what happens in sports. Sports are distinguished from play and spectacle in that they involve combinations of both intrinsic enjoyment and extrinsic rewards for performance. This means that all sports contain elements of play and spectacle. The challenge faced in some sports is to preserve a relatively even balance between these two elements. Using a precise definition of sport has important advantages, but it also has potentially serious problems. For example, when we focus our attention only on institutionalised competitive activities, we may overlook physical activities in the lives of many people who have neither the resources to formally organise those activities nor the desire to make their activities competitive. In other words, we may spend all our time considering the physical activities of relatively select groups in society because those groups have the power to formally organise physical activities and the desire to make them competitive. If this happens, we privilege the activities of these select groups and treat them as more important parts of culture than the activities of other groups. This in turn can marginalise people who have neither the resources nor the time to play organised sports, or who are not attracted to competitive activities. Most people in the sociology of sport are aware of this possibility, so they use this precise definition of sports cautiously. However, some scholars reject the idea that sports can be defined once and for all time and use an alternative approach to identifying and studying sports in society.

An alternative approach to defining sport Instead of using a single definition of sports, some scholars study sports in connection with answers to the following two questions: 1. What activities do people in a particular group or society identify as sports? 2. Whose sports count the most in the ways they are funded and supported in a group or society? Asking these questions opens the sociology of sport to a greater range of analysis than is possible when using a static, precise definition. These questions force researchers to dig into the social and cultural contexts in which people form ideas and beliefs about physical activities. The researchers must explain how and why some physical activities more than others are defined as sports and become important activities in the social and cultural life of a particular society. Those who use this alternative approach do not describe sport with a single definition.When they are asked, ‘What is sport?’ they say, ‘Well, that depends on whom you ask, when you ask and


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What is sport? This question cannot be answered without considering cultural values and power in a society. In the Olympics, rhythmic gymnastics is a sport although people in some societies believe that ‘real’ sports must reflect ‘manly’ attributes. (SOURCE: COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE)

Sports as contested activities hen sociologists say that sports are contested activities, they mean that, through history, people have regularly disagreed about what sports could and should be.These disagreements have led to struggles over three major questions about sports and a number of related questions. As you read the following questions, remember that there are many possible answers to each. Sociologists study how and why people in different places and times answer these questions in particular ways ■ What are the meanings, purpose and organisation of sport? The struggles related to this question have raised other questions, such as the following: What activities are defined as ‘official’


REFLECT ON SPORT

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SPORT IN SOCIETY

SPORTS AS CONTESTED ACTIVITIES continued

sports? How are sports connected with social values and people’s ideas about one another, social relationships and the social worlds in which they live? What physical skills are valued in sport—are strength, size and speed, for example, more important than flexibility, balance and endurance? How are sport experiences evaluated—is emotional enjoyment more important than competitive success? What types of performance outcomes are important, and how is success defined, measured and rewarded? How is excellence defined—in terms of one’s abilities to dominate others, all-round athletic abilities or one’s abilities to maximise everyone’s enjoyment in sports? ■

Who will participate in sport, and under what conditions will this participation occur? The struggles related to this question have raised other questions, such as the following: Will females and males play the same sport, at the same time, on the same teams, and should rewards for achievement be the same for females and males? Will sports be open to people regardless of social class and wealth? Will wealthy and poor play and watch sports together or separately? Will people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds play together or in segregated settings? Will the meanings given to skin colour or ethnicity influence participation patterns or access to participation? Will age influence eligibility to play sport, and should sport be age integrated or segregated? Will people of different ages have the same access to participation opportunities? Will able-bodied people and people with disabilities have the same opportunities to play sport, and will they play together or separately? What meanings will be given to the accomplishments of participants with disabilities compared to the accomplishments of able-bodied competitors? Will gay men and lesbians play alongside heterosexuals? Will competitors control the conditions under which they play sports and have the power to change those conditions to meet their own needs and interests? Will competitors be rewarded for playing, and how will rewards be determined?

■

How will sports be sponsored, and what will be the reasons for sponsorship? The struggles related to this question have raised other questions such as the following: Will sports be sponsored by public agencies for the sake of the ‘public good’? If so, who will determine what the public good is? Will sports be sponsored by nonprofit organisations? If so, how will organisational philosophies influence the types of sports that are sponsored? Will sports be sponsored by commercial organisations? If so, how will the need for profits influence the types of sports that are sponsored? To what extent will sponsors control sports and competitors? What are the legal rights of the sponsors relative to those of the competitors and others involved in sports?

As you can see, many aspects of sport can be contested! Sport changes depending on how people answer these questions. Furthermore, answers to these questions are never permanent. New answers replace old ones as interests change; as power shifts; as the meanings associated with age, skin colour, ethnicity, gender and disability change; and as economic, political and legal forces take new and different forms. This means that the definition of sport always reflects the organisation of a society at a particular time. A precise definition of sport is helpful, but it should always be used with caution because truths about sport rest in people’s lives, not sociological definitions. What do you think?


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where you ask.’ They explain that not everyone has the same way of looking at and defining sport and that ideas about sport vary over time and from one place to another. For example, they would note that people in England who raced horses and went fox hunting during the 1870s would be horrified, confused or astonished by what Australians and New Zealanders today consider to be sports. Similarly, the people who watch Super 14 Rugby games today would look at many activities that were considered sports in nineteenth-century England and say they were not ‘real’ sports because participants did not train, compete according to schedules, play in leagues or strive to set records and win championships. Maybe 90 years from now people will play virtual sports in virtual environments and see our sports today as backward, over-organised and fun-less activities that do not allow participants to combine movement with fantasies in ever-changing environments. Those who use this alternative approach to defining sports understand that there are cultural differences in how people identify sports and include them in their lives. For instance, in cultures that emphasise cooperative relationships, the idea that people should compete with one another for rewards are defined as disruptive, if not immoral (Kohn 1986). At the same time, people in cultures that emphasise competition may see physical activities and games that have no winners as pointless. These cultural differences suggest that we should not let a definition of sport shape what is studied. Those who use this alternative approach do research based on what the people in particular cultural settings think is important in their own lives (Bale & Christensen 2004; Newbery 2004; Rail 1998; Rinehart & Syndor 2003). The assumption underlying this approach is that sports are contested activities—that is, activities for which there are no timeless and universal agreements about meaning, purpose and organisation. This means that in the case of sports there are varying ideas about who will participate, the circumstances under which participation will occur, and who will sponsor sports for what reasons. The most important sociological issue to recognise when we use this approach is that people in particular places at particular times struggle over whose ideas about sports will count as the ideas in a group or society. A guide for thinking about these issues is in the Reflect on sport box ‘Sports as contested activities on pages 7–8.’ Struggles over whose ideas count when it comes to the meaning, organisation and purpose of sports are much more common than you might think. To illustrate this, consider the different ways that sports might be defined as people make decisions related to the following questions: • Should children younger than 6 years old be allowed to play sport? If so, how should those sports be organised, and what will be their meaning and purpose? • Should money from a local youth sports budget be given to a program in which young girls are taught to jump rope or to a program in which boys and a few girls compete in an in-line roller hockey league at a local skating rink? • Should tenpin bowling, darts and men’s synchronised swimming be recognised as Olympic sports in 2012? • Should skateboarding be funded by a university sport program? • Should the Commonwealth Games’ associations in Australia and New Zealand include cheerleading as an official sport? • Should a permit to use a sport field in a public park be given to an informal group of frisbee players or to an organised softball team that plays in an official community league? • Should synchronised swimming events be covered in the sports section of a city newspaper or in the lifestyle section? • Should WWF wrestlers be nominated for a ‘sports’ Person of the Year Award?


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SPORT IN SOCIETY

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How these questions are answered depends on what activities are counted as sports in a society at a given time.These questions also remind us to be cautious in how we use a single definition of sport. For example, if sports are institutionalised competitive physical activities played to achieve internal and external rewards, then why are competitive dancing, aerobics, jump roping and cheerleading not counted as sports? They fit the definition and recently the activity previously called ballroom dancing has changed its name to ‘dancesport’ to table a claim for recognition as a sport. The fact that they are not considered sports when it comes to important issues such as sponsorships, funding and formal recognition raises two questions: (1) what activities are defined as sports in a society, and (2) whose ideas and interests are represented most in those definitions? Answering these questions requires a careful analysis of the social and cultural context in which decisions are made in everyday life. Asking what activities are identified as sports raises critical issues. These issues force us to look at the cultures in which people live, work and play together and struggle over what is important and how they will live together. FIGURE

1.1

S P ORT INV OLV E S ELE ME NT S O F P L AY AND S P E C TAC L E

PLAY

SPORT

SPECTACLE

ADAPTED FROM P. STONE, ‘AMERICAN SPORTS: PLAY AND DISPLAY’, IN J.T.TALAMINI AND C.H. PAGE (EDS), SPORT AND SOCIETY: AN ANTHOLOGY, LITTLE & BROWN, BOSTON.

WHAT IS THE SOCIOLOGY OF SPORT? This question is best answered at the end of the book instead of at the beginning. However, you should have a clear preview of what you will be reading for the next 13 chapters. Most people who do the sociology of sport agree that the field is a subdiscipline of sociology that studies sport as parts of social and cultural life. Much research and writing in this field focuses on ‘organised, competitive sports’ although scholars also study other physical activities that involve goals and challenges (Rinehart & Syndor 2003). The people who do this work use sociological concepts, theories and research to answer questions such as the following: 1. Why have some activities rather than others been selected and designated as sports in particular societies? 2. Why have sports in particular societies been created and organised in certain ways? 3. How do people include sport and sport participation in their lives, and does participation affect who we are and our relationships with others? 4. How does sport and sport participation affect our ideas about bodies, masculinity and femininity, social class, race and ethnicity, work, fun, ability and disability, achievement and competition, pleasure and pain, deviance and conformity, and aggression and violence? 5. How are the meaning, purpose, and organisation of sport connected with culture, organisation and resources in societies?


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6. How are sports related to important spheres of social life such as family, education, politics, the economy, the media and religion? 7. How do people use knowledge about sports as they live their everyday lives? 8. How can people use sociological knowledge about sports to understand and participate in society as agents of progressive change? Understanding the sociology of sport is easier if you learn to think of sports as social constructions—that is, aspects of the social world that are created by people as they interact with one another under the social, political and economic conditions that exist in their society. To stress this point, we generally use the term sports rather than sport. We do this to emphasise that the forms and meanings of sports vary from place to place and time to time. We want to avoid the inference that ‘sport’ has an essential and timeless quality apart from the contexts in which people create, play and change sports in society. Figure 1.1 illustrates that this approach may make some people uncomfortable because they have vested interests in sports as they are currently organised and played. They are not anxious for people to see sports as social constructions that are subject to change if people wish to organise and play them differently. We also want to emphasise that the materials in the book are based on systematic empirical data, qualitative or quantitative, and that our statements about sport and sport experiences are different than those made in blogs, talk radio, television news shows, game commentaries and everyday discussions between people interested in sport.

Differences between sociology of sport and psychology of sport An additional way to understand the sociology of sport is to contrast it with the psychology of sport. Psychologists study behaviour in terms of attributes and processes that exist inside individuals. They focus on motivation, perception, cognition, self-esteem, self-confidence, attitudes and personality. They also deal with interpersonal dynamics, including communication, leadership, and social influence, but they usually discuss these things in terms of how they affect attributes and processes that exist inside individuals. Therefore, they would ask a research question such as ‘How is the motivation of sport’s participants related to personality and the perception of their physical abilities?’ Sociologists study actions and relationships in terms of the social conditions and cultural contexts in which people live their lives. They focus on the reality outside and around individuals and deal with how people form relationships with one another and create social arrangements that enable them to control and give meaning to their lives. Sociologists ask questions about the ways that actions, relationships and social life are related to characteristics defined as socially relevant by people in particular groups. This is why they often deal with the social meanings and dynamics associated with age, social class, gender, race, ethnicity, (dis)ability, sexuality and nationality. A sociologist would ask a question such as ‘How do prevailing ideas about masculinity and femininity affect the organisation of sport programs and the experiences of those who participate in sports?’ When psychologists apply their knowledge, they focus on the personal experiences and problems of particular individuals, whereas sociologists use their knowledge to focus on group experiences and social issues that have an impact on entire categories of people. For example, when studying burnout among adolescent competitors, psychologists look at factors that exist inside the competitors themselves. Because stress is a key ‘inside factor’ in human beings, psychologists focus on stress experienced by individual competitors and how it affects motivation, performance and


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burnout (Smith 1986). When applying their knowledge, they help competitors manage stress through goal setting, personal skill development and the use of relaxation and concentration techniques. Sociologists, on the other hand, study burnout in connection with the social reality that surrounds adolescent competitors. They focus on the organisation of sport programs and the relationships between competitors and other people, including family members, peers and coaches. Because competitors are influenced by the social context in which they play sport, the application of sociological knowledge emphasises that to control burnout we must change the organisation of youth sport programs and the dynamics of competitors’ relationships so that competitors have more control over their lives and more opportunities to have experiences and relationships outside of sport. Both approaches have value, but some people may see a sociological approach as too complex and disruptive.They feel that it is easier to change individual competitors and how they deal with stress than it is to change the social conditions in which competitors live their lives. This is why many people who control sport programs prefer psychological over sociological approaches.They do not want to change patterns of organisation and control in their programs. Similarly, many parents and coaches also prefer a psychological approach that focuses on stress management rather than a sociological approach that focuses on changing their relationships with competitors and the organisation of sport programs.

Using the sociology of sport The insights developed through sociological research are not always used to make changes in favour of the people who lack power in society. Like any science, sociology can be used in various ways. For example, research findings can be used to assist powerful people as they try to control and enhance the efficiency of particular social arrangements and organisational structures. Or they can be used to assist people who lack power as they attempt to change social conditions and achieve greater opportunities to make choices about how they live their lives. Science is not a pure and objective enterprise.Therefore, sociologists, like others who produce and distribute knowledge, must consider why they ask certain research questions and how their research findings may affect people’s lives. Sociologists cannot escape the fact that social life is complex and characterised by conflicts of interests between different groups of people. Like the rest of us, sociologists must deal with the fact that some people have more power and resources than others. Therefore, using sociology is not a simple process that always leads to good and wonderful conclusions for all humankind. This is why we must The rituals of sport think critically about the potential consequences of sociological knowledge when we study sport. engage more people This book has been written to help you use sociology to do the following: in a shared experience 1. Think critically about sport so that you can identify and understand social than any other problems and social issues associated with sport in society.

institution or cultural activity today. Varda Burstyn, The Rites of Men, 1999


2. Look beyond issues of physical performance and records to see sport as a social construction that influence how people feel, think, and live their lives. 3. Learn things about sport that you can use to make informed choices about your own sport participation and the place of sport in the communities and societies in which you live.

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4. Think about the ways that sport in your schools and universities might be transformed so they do not systematically disadvantage some categories of people while privileging others.

Controversies created by the sociology of sport Research in the sociology of sport sometimes creates controversy. This occurs when research findings suggest that there should be changes in the organisation of sport and the structure of social relations in society as a whole. These recommendations may threaten some people, especially those who control sport organisations, benefit from the current organisation of sport or think the current organisation of sport is ‘right and natural’. These people have the most to lose if there are changes in the organisation of sport and social life. People in positions of power and control know that changes in society could jeopardise their positions and the privilege that comes with them. Therefore, they prefer approaches to sport that blame problems on the weaknesses and failures of individuals. When theories put the blame for problems on individuals, solutions generally call for better ways to control people and teach them how to adjust to society as it is, rather than calling for changes in how society is organised (McKay 1991). The potential for controversy that results from a sociological analysis of sport can be illustrated by reviewing research findings on sport participation among women around the world. Research shows that women, especially women in poor and working class households, have lower rates of sport participation than do other categories of people. Research also shows that there are many reasons for this, including the following: 1. Women are less likely than men to have the time, freedom and money needed to play sport regularly. 2. Women have little or no control of the facilities where sports are played or the programs in those facilities. 3. Women have less access to transportation and less overall freedom to move around at will and without fear. 4. Women are often expected to take full-time responsibility for the social and emotional needs of family members—a job that is never completed or done perfectly. 5. Many sport programs around the world are organised around the values, interests and experiences of men. As a result of these reasons, many women do not see sport as appropriate activity for them to take seriously. It is easy to see the potential for controversy associated with such research findings. For example, sociologists might use them to suggest that opportunities and resources to play should be increased for women, that women and men should share control over sport, and that new sports organised around the values, interests and experiences of women should be developed. Other suggestions would call for changes in ideas about femininity, masculinity, gender relations, family structures, organisation of work and the distribution of resources in society. When sociologists say that increasing sport participation among women or achieving gender equity in sport programs requires such changes, they threaten those who benefit from sport and social life as they are currently organised. In response, these people see the sociology of sport as too critical and idealistic and often claim that these changes would upset the ‘natural’ order of things. However, good research always helps people think critically about the social conditions that affect our lives. Studying sport with a critical eye is easier if we have informed visions of


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BREAKING BARRIERS

CULTURAL BARRIERS: ARE WE NOT ATHLETES?

L

ouise Sauvage became the first person with a disability to become the Female Athlete of the Year in Australia in 1999. In addition, she won four Boston Marathons and a total of nine gold medals at the Paralympics in Barcelona, Atlanta and Sydney. Randy Snow is a ten-time US Open Wheelchair Tennis champion, and International Tennis Federation champion, US Tennis Association Player of the Year and winner of many athletic awards. Asked about the Paralympics for elite competitors with physical disabilities, Randy Snow has this to say:

Paralympians are better competitors than our able-bodied counterparts. We work just as hard, do it for a lot less money, carry education to our venue as well as competition and have overcome physical challenges to do our sports. Our stories display … true resiliency … therefore better matching us with the way life really exists. (in Joukowsky & Rothstein 2002, p. 39) Snow’s comment plus the relative invisibility of sport for competitors with a disability raises a sociological question: Whose sport counts in society? The answer is that ideas and decisions about sport are based on multiple interactions that occur under particular cultural, political and economic conditions. For sociologists this raises three additional questions, namely: Who is involved in and excluded from these interactions? Whose interests are represented or disadvantaged by the decisions made? How can cultural, political and economic conditions be changed so that decisions are more representative of all people in a social world? Most readers of this book have never had friends whose physical or intellectual impairments made them ‘disabled’ and never met an athlete from the Paralympic Games or Special Games. This means that if we asked you to close your eyes and imagine five different sport scenes, few of you would picture a scene involving competitors with an amputated limb, in wheelchairs, blind, with cerebral palsy or with intellectual or developmental disabilities. This imagination exercise is not meant to evoke guilt. Our views of the world are based on personal experiences; and our experiences are influenced by the meanings that we and others give to age, gender, race, ethnicity, social class, sexuality, (dis)ability and other characteristics that are defined as socially significant in our cultures. Neither culture nor society forces us to think or do certain things, but the only way to mute their influence is to critically examine social worlds and understand the ways that cultural meanings and social organisation create constraints and opportunities in people’s lives, including people with disabilities. In the following chapters, Breaking barriers boxes present the voices and experiences of people with disabilities. If you are currently able-bodied, each box alerts you to social and cultural barriers that constrain the lives of people with disabilities. If you have a disability, each case acknowledges the barriers that you, Louise Sauvage, Randy Snow and millions of others face in the pursuit of sport participation. These barriers, according to many people, are ‘just the way things are’. Eliminating them is impossible or unrealistic because they require changes in the organisation of relationships, schools, communities and societies. However, we are not victims of culture and society. If we have informed and idealistic visions of what sport could and should be, it is possible to identify and eliminate barriers. Fung Ying Ki, a triple gold medal winner in the 2000 Sydney Paralympics, knew that it was possible to break barriers when she said, ‘I hope that, in the future, there will no longer be “disabled competitors” in this world, only “competitors”’ (in Joukowsky & Rothstein 2002, p. 115).


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what sport and society could and should be in the future. Without such visions, often born of idealism, what would motivate and guide us as we participate in our communities, societies and world? People who make a difference and change the world for the better have always been idealistic. This is illustrated in the Breaking barriers feature opposite.

Sport is a part of everyday life in wealthy countries, when and where people have the time, energy and resources to organise and play physical games. Every Saturday during the winter, many people go to this park where young boys and girls play soccer. It is a rich site for studying sport in society because social dynamics resolve around issues related to gender, social class, race and ethnicity, family and community. (SOURCE: CHRIS HALLINAN)

Different approaches in the sociology of sport Some scholars who study sport in society are more interested in learning about sport than society. They focus on understanding the organisation of sport and the experiences of competitors and spectators. Their goal, in most cases, is to improve sport experiences for current participants and make sport participation more attractive and accessible. They also may do research to improve athletic performance, coaching effectiveness and the efficiency and profitability of sport organisations.These scholars often refer to themselves as sport sociologists, and see themselves as part of the larger field of sport science. Scholars concerned primarily with social and cultural issues usually refer to themselves as sociologists who study sport or as cultural studies scholars. Their research on sport in society is often connected with more general interests in leisure, popular culture, social relations and social life as a whole. They use sport as a window into culture, society and social relationships and they study sport as metaphorical stories that people tell themselves about themselves thereby revealing their values, ideas and beliefs. Differences between scholars are not unique to the sociology of sport. They occur in every discipline as researchers make decisions about the questions they will ask and the knowledge they seek to produce. Knowledge is a source of power, so our knowledge in the sociology of sport has practical and political implications. It influences the ways that people view sport, integrate them into their lives and make decisions about the organisation and place of sport in society.

WHY STUDY SPORT IN SOCIETY? This is a serious question for people in the sociology of sport. The answer that most of us give is that we study sports because they are given special meaning by particular people in societies,


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they are tied to important ideas and beliefs in many cultures and they are connected with major spheres of social life such as the family, religion, education, the economy, politics and the media.

Sport is given special meaning in people’s lives We study sport in society because it is an important part of everyday social life around the world. As we look around us, we see that the Olympic Games, soccer’s World Cup for men, the Tour de France, the Australian Tennis Open and the International Rugby Board’s World Cup are now worldwide events capturing the interest of billions of people. As these and other sport events are viewed in person or through the electronic media by people in over two hundred countries, they produce vivid images and lively stories that entertain and inspire people and provide them with the words and ideas that they use to make sense of their experiences and the world around them. Even when people do not have an interest in sport, their family and friends may insist on taking them to games and talking with them about sport to the point that they are forced to make sport a part of their lives. Sport images are so pervasive today that many young people are more familiar with the tattoos and body piercings of their favourite sport celebrities than they are with political leaders who make policies that have a significant impact on their lives. People worldwide increasingly talk about sport—at work, at home, in pubs and clubs, on dates, at dinner tables, in school, with friends and even with strangers at bus stops, in airports and on the street. Sport provides non-threatening conversation topics with strangers. Relationships often revolve around sport, especially among men, and increasingly among women. People identify with teams and competitors so closely that what happens in sport influences their moods, identities and sense of wellbeing. People’s identities as competitors and fans may be more important to them than their identities related to education, career, religion or family. Overall, sport and sport images and stories have become a pervasive part of our everyday lives, especially for those of us living in countries where resources are relatively plentiful and access to the media is widespread. For this reason, sport is a logical topic for the attention of sociologists and anyone else concerned with social life today.

Sport is tied to important ideas and beliefs in many cultures We also study sport in society because it is closely linked with how people think about and see the world. Sociologists try to understand these links by studying connections between sport and cultural ideologies. Ideologies are webs of ideas and beliefs that people use to give meaning to the world and make sense of their experiences. Ideologies are important aspects of culture because they embody the principles, perspectives and viewpoints that underlie our feelings, thoughts and actions. However, ideologies seldom come in neat packages, especially in highly diverse and rapidly changing societies. Different groups of people in society often develop their own ideas and beliefs for giving meaning to the world and making sense of their experiences, and they do not always agree. These groups may struggle over whose ideologies provide the most accurate and useful ways of giving meaning to and explaining the world and their experiences in it. As various groups use and promote their ideologies in society, sport becomes socially relevant. As social constructions, sport can be organised to reinforce or challenge important ideas and beliefs. People create and organise sport around their ideas and beliefs about bodies, relationships, abilities, character, gender, race, social class and other attributes and characteristics that they define as important in their lives. Usually, the most popular forms of sport in a society reinforce and reproduce the ideologies favoured and promoted by people with the most power and influence


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The body and the sociology of sport

REFLECT ON SPORT

U

ntil recently, most people viewed the body as a fixed, unchanging fact of nature. They saw it in biological rather than social and cultural terms. But many scholars and scientists now recognise that we cannot fully understand the body unless we consider it in social and cultural terms (Blake 1996; Brownell 1997; Butler 2004; Cole 2000; Schilling 1997; Turner 1997). For example, medical historians have shown that the body and body parts have been identified and defined differently through history and from one culture to another. This is important because it affects medical practice, government policies, social theories and our everyday experiences (Fausto-Sterling 2000; Lupton 2000; Preves 2005). Changes in the ways bodies have been socially defined (or ‘constructed’) influence widespread ideas about sex, sex differences, sexuality, ideals of beauty, self-image, body image, fashion, hygiene, health, nutrition, eating, fitness, racial classification systems, disease, drugs and drug testing, violence and power and many other things that affect our lives. In fact, body-related ideas influence how people define desire, pleasure, pain and quality of life. For example, nineteenthcentury Europeans and North Americans used insensitivity to pain as a physiological indicator of general character defects in a person. Furthermore, they saw muscular bodies as indicators of criminal tendencies and lower-class status (Hoberman 1992). Today, however, partly in connection with how sport has been defined, people see the ability to ignore pain as an indicator of strong character, instead of defective and deviant character. They now regard a muscular body as an indicator of self-control and discipline rather than criminality. The social dimensions of physical bodies are especially apparent in sport. As sociologist John Wilson explains: [In sport] social identities are superimposed upon physical being. Sport, in giving value to certain physical attributes and accomplishments and denigrating others, affirms certain understandings of how mind and body are related, how the social and natural worlds are connected. The identity of the athlete is not, therefore, a natural outgrowth of physicality but a social construction. Sport absorbs ideas about the respective physical potential of men versus women, whites versus blacks and middleclass versus working-class or moral people. In doing so, sport serves to reaffirm these distinctions. (Wilson 1994, pp. 37–8)

Due in part to sport science, many people now see bodies as complex machines with component parts that can be isolated and transformed to enhance specialised competitive performances.This, in turn, has led to an emphasis on monitoring and controlling athletic bodies in forms such as weigh-ins, tests for aerobic capacity, muscle biopsies and tissue analysis, the identification of responses to various stressors, hormone testing, the administration of drugs and other chemical substances, drug testing, blood boosting, blood testing, diet regulation and restriction, vitamin regulation and the measurement of body-fat percentage, muscle size, anaerobic capacities and on and on. In the future, we are likely to see brain manipulations, hormonal regulation, DNA testing, body-part replacements and genetic engineering. Therefore, the body is cultural in the sense that it is now studied and understood in terms of performance outcomes, rather than subjective experiences of bodily pleasure (Pronger 2002). In many sports today, the ability to endure pain


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THE BODY AND THE SOCIOLOGY OF SPORT continued

rather than experiencing pleasure is an indicator of the ‘disciplined body’, and limiting the percentage of body fat is so important that some bodies are starved to be ‘in good shape’. Thinking about the body this way challenges traditional Western ideas about mind–body separation. It highlights the notion that culture is embodied, and raises critical research questions such as the following: 1. How do people form ideas about natural, ideal and deviant bodies in sport and in culture generally? 2. What are the moral, cultural and sociological implications of how bodies are protected, probed, monitored, tested, trained, disciplined, evaluated, manipulated and rehabilitated in sport? 3. How are bodies in sport marked by gender, skin colour, ethnicity, (dis)ability and age, and what are the social consequences of such marking? 4. How are bodies in sport represented in the media and popular culture in general? These questions make many people associated with sport uncomfortable because the answers often challenge taken-for-granted ideas about nature, beauty, health and the organisation and purpose of high-performance competitive sport. But it is important to ask these questions. What do you think?

in that society. In the process, those ideologies often become dominant in that most people learn to use them as they make sense of the world and their experiences in it. When this occurs, sport serves as a cultural practice that supports and solidifies particular forms of social organisation and power relations. Gender ideology We can use gender ideology to illustrate these points. Gender ideology consists of a web of ideas and beliefs about masculinity, femininity and male–female relationships. People use gender ideology to define what it means to be a man or a woman, evaluate and judge people and relationships and determine what they consider to be natural and moral when it comes to gender. It also is used as people create, play and give meaning to sport. Dominant gender ideology in Australia and New Zealand has traditionally emphasised that men are naturally superior to women in activities that involve strength, physical skills and emotional control. Through most of the twentieth century, this idea was used to establish a form of ‘common sense’ and a vocabulary that defined female inferiority in sports as ‘natural’. Therefore, when a person threw a ball correctly, people learned to say that he or she ‘threw like a boy’ or ‘like a man’. When a person threw a ball incorrectly, they learned to say that he or she ‘threw like a girl’. The same was true when people were evaluated in terms of their abilities to run or do sport in general. If sport was done right, it was done the way a boy or man would do it. If it was done wrong, it was done the way a girl or woman would do it. The belief that doing sport, especially sport that is physically demanding, would make boys into men has long been consistent with the dominant gender ideology in many cultures—not just in Australia and New Zealand.


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Consequently, when women excelled at these sports, many people claimed that they were ‘unnatural’. Dominant gender ideology led them to assume that femininity and sporting excellence, especially in physically demanding or heavy-contact sports, could not go together. As they tried to make sense of strong, competent women competitors, they concluded that such women must be male-like or lesbians. When this conclusion was combined with related ideas and beliefs about nature, morality and gender, many people restricted opportunities for girls and women to play sport. This gender ideology was so widely accepted by people in sport that coaches of men’s teams even used it to motivate players. They criticised men who made mistakes or did not play aggressively enough by ‘accusing’ them of ‘playing like a bunch of girls’. As they made sense of sport and gender, these coaches inferred that being female meant being a failure. This ideology clearly served to privilege males and disadvantage females in the provision of opportunities and the allocation of resources to play sport. Although it has been challenged and discredited in recent years, the legacy of this gender ideology continues in many social worlds to privilege some boys and men and disadvantage some girls and women. Fortunately, ideology can be and sometimes is changed. People may question and struggle over it, and some people organise challenges that produce changes in deeply felt and widely accepted ideas and beliefs. In the case of gender ideology, sport has occasionally been a site or ‘social place’ for challenging dominant ideas about what is natural and feminine. The history of struggles over the meaning and implications of gender in sport is complex, but recent challenges by both women and men Billboard showing Nike ad during 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. who do not accept traditional ideas (SOURCE: NEWSPIX) and beliefs have led to important changes in gender ideology.


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Women competitors have illustrated clearly that females can be physically powerful and capable of noteworthy physical achievements surpassing those of the vast majority of men in the world. Furthermore, the accomplishments of women competitors have raised serious questions about what is ‘natural’ when it comes to gender. We will discuss issues related to gender ideology in sport in nearly every chapter, but especially in Chapter 8. The Reflect on sport box ‘The body and the sociology of sport’ (pages 17–18) presents issues related to another ideological issue in our lives: What do we consider to be natural when it comes to the body? Racial ideology Sport is a site for important ideological struggles. In New Zealand and Australia, it has been a site for either reproducing or challenging dominant ideas about race, and the connections between skin colour and abilities, both physical and intellectual. Racial ideology consists of a web of ideas and beliefs that people use to connect sport to skin colour and evaluate people in terms of racial classifications. Racial ideologies vary around the world, but they are powerful forces in the social lives of many people. They are used to place people into racial categories, and they influence important social practices and policies that affect people’s lives. The connections between sport and racial ideologies are complex. Racial ideology is often used as a basis for evaluating athletic potential or explaining athletic success. The notion that light-skinned people cannot jump and that dark-skinned people are natural competitors are expressions of dominant racial ideology in certain cultures—an issue discussed in Chapter 9. Class ideology Class ideology consists of a web of ideas and beliefs that people use to understand economic inequalities and make sense of their own position in an economic hierarchy in society. With increasing professionalisation and widespread media coverage the perception that sport offers a genuine career path for youth in both Australia and New Zealand is perpetuated. Sport provides many stories and slogans emphasising that people can achieve anything through discipline and hard work and that failure awaits those who are lazy and undisciplined. By extension, this ideology leads people to make positive conclusions about the character and qualifications of wealthy and powerful people and negative conclusions about the character and qualifications of those who are poor and powerless.Winners are assumed to have strong character, whereas losers are assumed to have weak character. This way of thinking connects sport positively with capitalism and its competitive system of economic rewards. This will be discussed in Chapters 8–10. Sport and ideologies: complex connections As we think about sport and ideologies, it is important to know that ideology is complex and sometimes inconsistent, and that sport comes in many forms and has many meanings associated with it. Therefore, sport is connected with ideologies in various and sometimes contradictory ways. We saw this in the example showing that sport is a site for simultaneously reproducing and challenging dominant gender ideology in society. Furthermore, sport can have many social meanings associated with it. For example, baseball is played by similar rules in Japan and the USA, but the meanings associated with baseball and with competitors’ performances are different in the two cultures because of ideological differences. Team loyalty and conformity are highly prized in Japan, and emotional displays by players or coaches are frowned upon, whereas in the USA individualism is emphasised and emotional displays are accepted and defined as entertaining. Japanese baseball games may end in ties, but games in the USA must have clear winners and losers, even if it means playing extra innings and overtime or ‘sudden death’ periods. The complex connections between sport and ideologies make it difficult to generalise about the role and consequences of sport in society. Sport has the social potential to do many things. This is another reason for studying it as a social construction.


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Sport is connected to major spheres of social life

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[Sports] are why some people get out of bed. Sports define many of us. Some superstars command as much attention as heads of state and other leaders. Whether you weigh the good or bad of it—it’s a fact.

Another reason to study sport in society is that it is clearly connected to major spheres of social life, including the family, the economy, the media, politics, education and religion. We discuss these connections in various chapters in this book, but it is useful to highlight them at this point. Sport and the community Sport is closely related to families and communities. Thousands of children are involved in a variety of organised sport activities. It is primarily their parents who organise leagues, coach teams, attend games and serve as ‘taxi drivers’ for child competitors. Family schedules are altered to accommodate practices and games. These schedules may also be affected by sport participation by adult family members. The viewing of televised sports events sometimes disrupts family life and at other times provides a collective focus for family attention. In some cases, relationships between family members Bob Davis, vice president, are nurtured and played out during sports activities, or in conversations American Program Bureau, 1999 about these activities. Local churches and church groups in Australia and New Zealand are active sponsors of athletic teams and leagues. The Melbourne Tigers’ Basketball Club was originally known as Melbourne Church because it was organised around the Church of England Boys’ Club. Rugby players from the Pacific islands frequently express devout Christian beliefs, with Michael Jones, who played test rugby for New Zealand, refusing to compete on Sundays. Moreover, other religious organisations have used competitors as spokespersons for their belief systems, and some participants such as Craig Turley (formerly with the West Coast Eagles AFL team) defined their sport participation in religious terms. Sport is an integral part of school life in many countries. Sport is taught and played in physical education classes, and schools in some countries have interscholastic sports teams that attract widespread attention among students and community residents. Some US universities even use intercollegiate teams for public relations purposes, making or losing large amounts of money in the process. By comparison, the sports sponsored by universities in Australia and New Zealand are low-profile, club-based teams that emphasise participation and student control—a model quite different than the one used in the USA. Public school sports programs in Australia and New Zealand are similarly low-profile compared to the USA. Yet, public specialist Sports High Schools have been established in Melbourne, Newcastle, Sydney and Wollongong. Private Grammar Schools in Melbourne recruit accomplished sports performers with a variety of scholarships. These issues are discussed in Chapters 4 and 5. Sport and the economy The economies of most countries, especially wealthy post-industrial countries, are affected by the billions of dollars spent every year for game tickets, sports equipment, participation fees, club membership dues and bets placed on favourite teams and competitors. Sports teams affect the economies of many communities. Most countries use public monies (taxes) to subsidise teams and events. In fact, sport and commerce have fused together so that corporate logos are linked with sports teams and competitors, and displayed prominently in arenas, stadiums and other places where sports are played and watched. Some sports stars make impressive sums of money from combinations of salaries, appearance fees and endorsements. Corporations paid up to $4.8 million for a single minute of commercial time during the 2006 telecast of the US Super Bowl. They have paid over $100 million to be international Olympic sponsors and have their brands associated with the Olympic name and symbol for four years. Like Telstra Dome in Melbourne and Westpac Trust Stadium in Wellington, many sports stadiums, arenas and teams


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are now named after corporations. Sponsorships and commercial associations with sports are so common that people now believe that, without Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Nike, Ford and other transnational corporations, sport could not exist. Indeed, sport can be such a powerful carrier of commercial messages that many governments have acted to ban the promotion of tobacco products in sporting events, although the Melbourne Grand Prix was granted an exemption from this ban for many years so that its organisers did not take it to another location. This indicates that sports are cultural practices deeply connected with the material and economic conditions in society. These issues are discussed in Chapters 10 and 11. Sport and the media Television networks and pay TV stations pay billions of dollars for the rights to televise major games and events. The consortium led by the Seven and Ten Networks paid the Australian Football League $780 million ($693 million cash and $87 million in free advertising) to re-capture the rights from a coalition of rival networks. In the USA, NBC (owned by General Electric) paid the International Olympic Committee (IOC) $2.3 billion for the rights to the Summer Games of 2004 and 2008 and the Winter Games of 2006. People in sports organisations that depend on spectators are keenly aware that without the media their lives would be different.The images and messages presented in media coverage of sport also emphasise particular ideological themes, and they influence how people see and think about sport and social life. The media have converted sport into a major form of entertainment witnessed by billions of people. Sports stars can be global celebrities, and the corporations that sponsor sports inscribe their logos in people’s minds as they promote lifestyles based on consumption. These issues are discussed in Chapter 12. Sport and politics People in many societies link sport to feelings of national pride and a sense of national identity. For example, as a result of her success in the Sydney Olympics many people promoted Aboriginal gold medallist Cathy Freeman as an example of positive race relations in Australia. Many events involve expressions of unity and patriotism, combined with memorials to commemorate those who died in environmental tragedies, terrorist attacks or wars. The annual Anzac Test between the Kangaroo and Kiwi rugby league teams is one example. These events allow people at the games and watching on television to experience widely shared feelings and reaffirm their sense of shared experience and national identity. Most people around the globe have no second thoughts about displaying national flags and playing national anthems at sporting events, and some may quickly reject competitors and other spectators who do not share their views on the flag and the anthem. Political leaders at various levels of government promote themselves by associating with sports as participants and spectators. National political leaders, including the Prime Ministers of Australia and New Zealand, are often seen at sporting events and regularly make congratulatory phone calls to competitors and teams in order to bask in the reflected glory of international sporting success. State governments in Australia have appointed former sports stars to state governorships using their name recognition and reputations from sport to bolster waning public support for the vice-regal office. International sports have become hotbeds of political controversy in recent years, and most countries around the world have used sports actively to enhance their reputations in global political relationships. Furthermore, sport involves political processes associated with issues such as who controls sport and sporting events, the terms of eligibility and team selection, rules and rule changes, rule enforcement and the allocation of rewards and punishments. Sports and sporting organisations are political because they involve the exercise of power over people’s lives. For example, during the 1981 Springbok Tour of New Zealand there were widespread public protests in New Zealand which challenged the apartheid policies of South Africa. These issues are discussed in Chapter 13.


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WHAT IS THE CURRENT STATUS OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF SPORT IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND? Prior to 1980, very few people studied sport in society. Scholars were not concerned with physical activities and thought that sport was unrelated to important issues in society. However, a few sociologists and physical educators in Europe and North America began to think outside the box of their disciplines. They decided that sport should be studied because it was becoming an increasingly important activity in many societies. During the last two decades of the twentieth century, the sociology of sport gradually came to be recognised as a legitimate subfield in sociology and physical education/kinesiology/sport science. Research and interest in the sociology of sport has increased significantly in recent years. For example, Amazon.com has nearly 900 books listed in the ‘sociology of sport’ category. In 2000 only one-third of that number of books were listed. Recent growth has also been fuelled by the formation of professional associations and academic journals devoted to the field. These associations and journals enable scholars studying sport in society to meet with one another and present and publish their ideas and research. The journals related to the field are listed in Table 1.1. Sociology of sporting organisations include the following: 1. The International Sociology of Sport Association (ISSA). Formed in 1965, this organisation, formed in 1965, meets annually and attracts international scholars. Since 1965 it has sponsored publication of the International Review for the Sociology of Sport. 2. The Australian Sociological Association (TASA) established a Leisure, Tourism and Sport Study section. The association sponsors The Journal of Sociology. 3. Sociological Association of Aotearoa New Zealand (SAANZ) The association sponsors the journal New Zealand Sociology. 4. The North American Society for the Sociology of Sport (NASSS). This organisation, formed in 1978, has held annual conferences every year since 1980, which attract many delegates from outside North America. It has sponsored publication of the Sociology of Sport Journal since 1984. Various other countries also have their own national associations for the study of the sociology of sport. Growth in the sociology of sport will continue to occur if scholars in the field conduct and publish research that people find useful as they seek to understand social life and participate effectively as citizens in their communities and societies.

Summary WHY STUDY THE SOCIOLOGY OF SPORT? Sociology is the study of social life, including all forms of social interaction and relationships. Sociologists are concerned with social issues, social organisation and social change. Their goal is to enable people to understand, control and change their lives so that human needs are met at both individual and group levels.


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Sociologists study sport as parts of culture and society. They look at sport in terms of its importance in people’s lives and their connections to ideology and major spheres of social life. Research in the sociology of sport helps us understand sport as a social construction created by people for particular purposes. As a social construction, sport is related to historical, political and economic factors. Some scholars in the field define sport as activities involving: (1) the use of physical skill, prowess or exertion; (2) institutionalised competition; and (3) the combination of intrinsic and extrinsic reasons for participation. Using a single definition of sport is problematic if it leads us to ignore or devalue the lives of people who do not have the resources and the desire to develop formally organised and competitive physical activities. For this reason, many scholars now recommend that, instead of using such a definition, we should ask what activities are identified as sports in different groups and societies at different points in time. This approach forces us to recognise that sports are contested activities. Further, it focuses our attention on the relationship between sport and power and privilege in society, and leads more directly to concerns for transforming social life so that more people have resources to control their lives and make them meaningful. When sociologists study sport in society, they often discover problems based in the structure and organisation of either sport or society. When this happens, the recommendations that sociologists make may threaten those who want sport and sport programs to remain as they are now. Therefore, sociology sometimes creates controversies. Continued growth of the sociology of sport depends primarily on whether scholars in the field do research and produce knowledge that makes meaningful contributions to people’s lives.

Links to relevant websites are available online. For further exploration of this chapter topic go to www.mhhe.com/au/coakley

TABLE

1.1

PU BLICAT ION S OURCE S FO R S O C I O L O GY O F S P O RT R E S E AR C H JOURNALS DEVOTED PRIMARILY TO SOCIOLOGY OF SPORT ARTICLES

International Review for the Sociology of Sport (quarterly) Journal of Sport and Social Issues (quarterly)

Sociology of Sport Journal (quarterly) Sport in Society (quarterly)

SOCIOLOGY JOURNALS THAT SOMETIMES INCLUDE ARTICLES ON OR RELATED TO SPORT

American Sociological Review British Journal of Sociology International Sociology Journal of Sociology New Zealand Sociology

Sociological Review Sociology Sociology of Education Theory, Culture, and Society

INTERDISCIPLINARY, SPORT SCIENCE AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION JOURNALS THAT SOMETIMES INCLUDE ARTICLES ON OR RELATED TO SOCIOLOGY OF SPORT TOPICS

Avante Canadian Journal of Applied Sport Sciences Sport in Society (formerly Culture, Sport, Society) European Physical Education Review Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance Journal of Sport Behavior Journal of Sport Management


Journal of Sport Sciences Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy Quest Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport Sport, Education, and Society Sport Science Review Women in Sport & Physical Activity Journal

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JOURNALS IN RELATED FIELDS THAT SOMETIMES INCLUDE ARTICLES ON OR RELATED TO SOCIOLOGY OF SPORT TOPICS

Adolescence Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature The British Journal of Sport History Canadian Journal of the History of Sport European Sport Management Quarterly The European Sports History Review International Journal of the History of Sport International Journal of Sport Psychology Journal of Human Movement Studies Journal of Leisure Research Journal of the Philosophy of Sport Journal of Popular Culture Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology Journal of Sport History Journal of Sport Media

Journal of Sports and Economics Leisure Sciences Leisure Studies Managing Leisure Olympika: The International Journal of Olympic Studies Soccer and Society Society and Leisure Sport in Society Sport History Review Sport Management Review The Sport Psychologist Sporting Traditions Sport in History (formerly The Sports Historian) Youth & Society

CHECKING YOUR UNDERSTANDING 1. Which mainstream sport in Australia or New Zealand is closest to becoming a dramatic spectacle? Give reasons for your choice, and illustrate what would be necessary to prevent that sport from becoming a dramatic spectacle. 2. Some sociologists study sport in society because sport is tied closely to ideologies in Australia, New Zealand and other nations. Explain what is meant by ‘ideologies’ and then show how sport is related to ideas about gender, race and social class in Australia or New Zealand.

FURTHER READING Andrews, DL & Jackson, SJ (eds) 2001, Sports Stars: The Cultural Politics of Sporting Celebrity. Routledge, London/New York. (Sixteen articles focusing on the cultural, political, economic and technological factors that together influence sport celebrity around the world and how celebrities influence the everyday private lives of people around the world.) Coakley, J & Dunning, E (eds) 2000, Handbook of Sports Studies, Sage, London. (Forty-two chapters on the ways sports are studied as social phenomena and on the sociology of sport in various countries and regions around the world.) Collins, C & Jackson, SJ (eds) 2007, Sport in Aotearoa/New Zealand Society, Thomson, Melbourne. (Twenty-two chapters dealing with historical, theoretical and topical sports issues in Aotearoa/ New Zealand.) McKay, J 1991, No Pain, No Gain: Sport in Australian Culture, Prentice-Hall, Sydney. (The first critical analysis of the common assumptions surrounding Australian sport.)

REFERENCES Bale, John & Christensen, Mette (eds) 2004, Post-Olympism: Questioning Sport in the Twenty-First Century, Berg. Oxford/New York. Blake, Andrew 1996, The Body Language:The Meaning of Modern Sport, Lawrence and Wisehart, London. Brownell, Susan 1995, Training the Body for China: Sports in the Moral Order of the People’s Republic, University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Burstyn, Varda 1999, The Rites of Men: Manhood, Politics, and the Culture of Sport, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, Ontario.


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Butler, Judith 2004, Undoing Gender, Routledge, New York. Cole, Cheryl L 2000, ‘Body studies in the sociology of sport’, in J Coakley & E Dunning, (eds), Handbook of Sport Studies, Sage, London, pp. 439–60. Fausto-Sterling, Anne 2000, Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality, Basic Books, New York. Hoberman, John M 1992, Mortal Engines: The Science of Performance and the Dehumanization of Sport, Free Press, New York. Joukowsky, Artemis AW III & Rothstein, Larry 2002, ‘New horizons in disability sport’, in Thomas Artemis Laqueur (ed.), Making Sex, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA. Kihn, Alfie 1986, No Contest: the Case Against Competition, Houghton Mifflin, Boston. Lupton, Deborah 2000, ‘The social construction of medicine and the body’, in G Albrecht, R Fitzpatrick & S Scrimshaw (eds), The Handbook of Social Studies in Health and Medicine, Sage, London, pp. 50–63. McKay, Jim 1991, No Pain, No Gain: Sport in Australian Culture, Prentice-Hall Australia, Sydney. Newbery, Liz 2004, ‘Hegemonic gender identity and outward bound: resistance and re-inscription?’, Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 36–49. Preves, Sharon E 2005, Intersex and identity:The contested self. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Pronger, Brian 2002, Body Fascism: Salvation in the Technology of Physical Fitness, University of Toronto Press, Toronto/Buffalo, New York. Rail, Geneviève 1998, Sport and Postmodern Times, State University of New York Press, Albany. Rinehart, Robert E & Syndor, Synthia (eds) 2003, To the Extreme: Alternative Sports Inside and Out, State University of New York Press, Albany. Schilling, Mary Lou 1997, Socialization, Retirement and Sports. Online essay and links: http://edweb6.educ.msu. edu/kin866/Research/resschilling1.htm (retrieved 8 May 2008). Smith, Ronald E 1986, ‘Toward a cognitive-affective model of athletic burnout’, Journal of Sport Psychology, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 36–50. Stone, Gregory P 1973, ‘American sports: play and display’, in JT Talamini & CH Page (eds), Sport and Society: An Anthology, Little & Brown, Boston. Turner, Bryan S 1997, The Body and Society, Sage, London. Wilson, John 1994, Playing By the Rules: Sport, Society and the State, Wayne State University Press, Detroit, pp. 37–38.


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