Social Significance of Sport

Question 1

Sociology definition

Answer 1

the study of social organization and behaviour, based on social theory and empirical research

How social structures and institutions influence society and individual behaviour and how we, in turn, influence those same structures and institutions

Question 2

Sociology of Sport

Answer 2

Examines the relationship between sport, and society, and studies sport as a part of Canadian cultural, and social culture.
More than the phenomena of Sport
Look for extrinsic/structural/cultural, not intrinsic explanations to explain social behaviour

Question 3

Sport sociologists

Answer 3

try to demonstrate the significance of sport to some of the central problems of sociology: the explanation of structures of class, gender, and racial inequality, as well as the processes through which social change is achieved and circumscribed

Question 4

Canadian society is _______, as are all meanings about social life which shape the world in which we live.

Answer 4

1. Socially constructed

We are shaped by, and we shape society

Question 5

1) Social structure:

Answer 5

Patterned relationships that connect different parts of society to one another: from individuals to entire society.

Question 6

2) Agency:

Answer 6

ability of individuals and groups to act independently in a goal-directed manner, and to pursue their own ‘free’ choices.

Question 7

Reification:

Answer 7

to give abstract concepts “human” characteristics

It is important to not give society human characteristics

Question 8

C. Wright Mills (1916-1962)

Answer 8

coined the term sociological imagination

Question 9

Sociological imagination

Answer 9

Making connections between personal troubles (a private matter) and public issues of social structure)
Link broader social structures and power relations to our immediate life situations.
Ex: Can’t afford to play hockey?

Question 10

Three concepts of social imagination

Answer 10

1) Historical Sensitivity:
The person who studies sport without studying its history will never truly understand any given state of sport, or the forces operating to change it.
2) Comparative Sensitivity:
How sport takes different meanings forms in various cultures.
3) Critical Sensitivity:
A willingness to think and act critically: demystify and problematize conventional definitions of reality and contemporary power relations

Question 11

Durkheim: Founding father of Sociology

Answer 11

social importance and ideological function of rituals in modern society.
Role of religion as source of solidarity.
Sport: more than just entertainment
1.socially constructed belief system, ideology, commercial spectacle
2.Representational collectives – ie representations of the communities in the divisive and increasingly secular
3.Sporting events are serialized civic and national rituals

Question 12

Ideology:

Answer 12

a system of interdependent ideas that explain and justify political, economic, moral, and social conditions and interests, making them seen right or natural (as opposed to seeing ideology as a social construction –it is what it is rather than socially constructed)
Ideology is incredibly important because these ideas are seen as ‘common sense’

Question 13

Practical Consciousness

Answer 13

your naturalized beliefs
All things which agents know tactically about how to go on without being able to give them direct expression or explanation
It is practical, subject to ongoing refinement
Actions supporting practical consciousness strengthens it
Actions challenging it makes us question “truth”

Question 14

Importance of ideology

Answer 14

it affects what we see and how we interpret it

*An ideology directs our attention to specific aspects of reality and interprets them systematically