Critical Theories of Sport

Question 1

Social Theory

Answer 1

• A Set of propositions about the nature of the social world and people’s roles or active engagement in that world
• Must be tested and verified
• Political motivations? Challenging common sense ideologies and understandings

Question 2

Critical Social Theories

Answer 2

a) people have agency: they can control the condition of the world around them
b) Expended notion of power to include gender, sexuality & race relations - people can challenge power relations in order to evoke change. Resistance is possible and power is never complete

Question 3

hegemony

Answer 3

Origin - Hegemonia - “Leadership” (Greek), developed by Antonio Gramsci (1920s)
Gramsci tried to understand how societies with structural divisions and inequalities (social class, gender, race/ethnicity) were ‘held together’ by consent.
Dominant groups with greater resources and power exercise ideological and moral:
establish systems of meanings and ideologies as ‘common sense’, as ‘the only way of running society’ or in our case, sport and leisure (“It’s part of the game”).
Consensually accepted by majority of citizens.