Sport and SS THEORIES- Lecture 5 Flashcards
Define social theory?
The use of scientific ways of thinking about social life to encompass ideas about societal change and functioning.
What are the three main umbrella theories?
- Critical theory
- Feminist theory
- Interactionist theory
Briefly outline the critical theory?
Focus on unequal power relations
Recognises the diversity and social inequalities within society
(gender, race, religion)
Tend to argue for PROGRESSIVE SOCIAL CHANGE
MICHAEL FOUCAULT
Foucault noted how specific discourses in social life become dominant (cultures, genders, dress code in sports)
Evaluate the critical theory?
+ used to explain aspects of sport and how sport discourses structure the wider society and social divisions
+interrogates groups of POWER
-fails to interrogate on a smaller social scale
Briefly outline the feminist theory?
Somewhat overlaps with the critical theory- looks at power relations, discourse and divisions.
Mainly focused on GENDER- life as a patriarchal system
Sport as a “gendered social construct”
Divisions of the biological body from birth
BELL HOOKS AND JUDITH BUTLER
“Gender is not something that one is. It is something that one does, an act of “doing” rather than “being” . Butler, 1990
Evaluate the feminist theory?
+Pulls on Foucault’s work- looks at gendered equalities
-Criticised for a lack of intersectionality (only focusing on white, middle class females)
-Dosen’t take a micro- level approach
Briefly outline the concept of Interactionist Theory?
More focused on the personal, small scale, everyday interactions of individuals within society.
How individuals make sense of and experience social worlds.
PIERRE BOURDIEU
States that there are FEILDS( education, sport, home)
and CAPITAL (physical, academic, social)
interact to form HABITUS = A LEARNED SET OF DISPOSITIONS by which a person orientates the social world
(FIELDS+ CAPITAL= HABITUS)
“Individuals interact with socialised through fields and capital across the course of their life and develop habitus (a sub-conscious way of behaving)”
Evaluate the Interactionist Theory?
Allows us to focus on aspects of reproduction- why we do what we do? And why do you play one sport or another if you’re from a certain class?
Takes a microlevel approach and unpacks the social interactions on a smaller level
General criticism: focus is on everyday life, and this makes it difficult to explain relationships that structure society across nations and globally
Less focused on social inequalities
Key Reading:
“Body at work: Michael Foucault and the Sociology of Sport”
Genevieve Rail and Jean Harvey
Foucauldian Influence- the influence of him on the sociology of sport has been left in two ways: impacted contemporary social theories such as feminist cultural studies and directly as his approach had a direct focus on the body at the centre of research questions.
Some feminists have accused him for not speaking for women- “there are no women in Foucault” and with not considering the different socialisations of men and women within his discourse on sexuality.
