Sport and the Sociological Imagination Flashcards
What are sports?
A traditional definition of sports: ‘Sports are institutionalized competitive activities that involve rigorous physical exertion or the use of relatively complex physical skills by participants motivated by internal and external rewards’. (Coakley and Pike, 2009: 5).
Who does this definition overlook? Can e-sports, chess, pool etc be classed as sports? Is it possible to have a single definition Sports are social constructions.
To define sport, we need to look at how it was perceived in different time periods and cultures.
What is the sociological imagination?
(C Wright Mills, 1959)
Sociology should relate the personal troubles of the individual to the public issues of social structure. Emphasises the willingness to view the world from the perspective of others.
The sociological imagination is a “quality of mind” that allows one to grasp: “history and biography and the relations between the two within society. That is its task and its promise.” (Wright Mills, 1959: 6). A study that does not come back to biography, history and their intersections within a society has not completed its ‘intellectual journey’.
Coakley and Pike (2014) – important to view sport from different POVs and asking questions about why sport is defined, organised and experienced the way it is.
Hargreaves and Vertinsky (1997) – connecting the personal and the social body. There is a relation of power that links sports to other key people, ethnicities, histories, religions, and politics. There is a need to move beyond the physical body/performance and focus on the wider picture.
Is an event that happens to someone due to the individual choices they made, or the consequence of societal context? Make connections between unique individual experiences and wider economic, political, cultural influences.
What is the structure of this particular society as a whole?
Where does this society stand in human history?
What varieties of men and women now prevail in this society and in this period?
What is culture and cultural values? What examples are their in sport today within our society?
Culture: a complex system of beliefs, ideas, symbols, values, habits, customs and artefacts that governs the behaviour of people in all societies.
Cultural values: the criteria by which all people evaluate the morality, desirability, merit and correctness of cultural beliefs, ideas, symbols, habits, customs and artefacts.
Fair play, spirit of the game, it’s not the winning, it is the taking part that counts?
Coakley (2007): Quantitative definitions of progress. Conformity, discipline, obedience, sacrifice and delayed gratification. Masculine definitions of performance. Nationalism. Winning. Competition.
Drinking at Qatar World Cup, banned at the football there, normal sporting culture in the UK though. Cultural values influence sport. How does the dominant culture influence views of sport? How are they projected as universal? Male participation gets more headlines than women,
Nationalism. Sports draw people together under one nation e.g. West Indies and cricket. Kosovo has an national football team but aren’t recognised as a nation by UN
Must always be a winner and loser, why Some people view sport for the money, some for taking part.
What are common explanations for football hooliganism?
Excessive alcohol consumption
Violent incidents on the field of play
Unemployment
Affluence
Permissiveness
Who are the typical football hooligans?
Male
15-30 years of age
70% arrests are working-class males
Social Groups 4 & 5/NS-SEC 5-8
Narrow social horizons
Similar life experiences
Strong bonds of loyalty
Why do people engage in hooliganism? Is it a personal trouble or a social issue?
Ways to confirm identity (as ‘real’ men).
Being tough.
Standing up for your mates.
Being able to hold your drink.
Sources of prestige and honour in local community for those who can fight.
A way of gaining status.
Sources of excitement.
Normalisation.
Sense of solidarity, others are participating in hooliganism for the same reasons.
Those who take part in hooliganism are at the bottom of social hierarchy. All from similar backgrounds. If my wider life is negative, why should I care at football? Football can allow people to let loose
Apply personal experiences to wider constructs in society e.g. economic inequality, capitalism, housing shortages, cost of living crisis.
Football hooliganism is more of a social issue because there are many explanations of why individuals feel the need to engage in violence at football. Because many people engage in it, we need to look back at historical context to see why it is continuing to this day and why such violence hasn’t occurred in other sports or in other countries. It suggests something within our society and culture needs to be changed and addressed in order for violence to be stopped.
What are personal troubles and social issues? (C Wright Miller, 1959)
A trouble is something that affects an individual and can be solved and explained by their private sphere and immediate environment or context.
An issue has roots in the wider social context, history and society as a whole which intersects with the wider societal structure.
Uses the concept of unemployment to understand the differences. Indicates that issues require us to look at the wider solutions affecting so many people, their unemployment is not going to be due to one factor, but rather a multitude of things that only by looking at history, context etc, we can hope to understand.
