What Is Sports Sociology?

Sports sociology: A survey of current issues

Sports sociology is a sub field of sociology that examines the relationships between sporting or games and the society as a whole and sport itself as an observable social phenomenon. The sporting world is seen as a reflection of society with relationships going on. Games are influenced by the larger society and culture, and are influences that affect the larger culture.

Women who were previously banned from serious sport have always participated in organized exercise, but had to make great strides to be taken seriously as professionals or to compete in serious ways. There are current issues in role modeling that are of concern. The practicality of being a professional who is doing a job with no burden of serving as a societal model for all that is excellent in life is being debated in the current debate.

The class, gender, racism, and ethnic issues that are involved with restricted golf clubs is a major concern. The image of a historical golfer has economic and social ripples that travel through all segments of society and the businesses that are related to golf, use his image for advertising, and attract audience to golfing events. The morals clauses in sports contracts are worthy of study.

Sport as a social conflict

Media spends a lot of money on sports. Major newspapers devote at least a quarter of their pages to sport. The sports columnist and reporter staffs are the same size as the news staffs of many newspapers.

Sports commentators such as Howard Cosell, John Madden and Frank Gifford are well known beyond the sports world. The Sports Channel, the Golf Channel and the ESPN are sports television networks. Functional theorists recognize the consequences of their actions.

The general public dislikes the "win at all cost" strategies that some teams use. The recruitment of athletes based on athletic ability rather than academic ability, majoring in eligibility, demanding athletes participate in unauthorized practices, and under the table payments are all examples of the consequences of sport. Sport is seen as a reflection of the inequalities in society by the social conflict view.

Sport is the "opium of the people". Sport is seen as a social institution which the more powerful oppress, manipulate, and exploit the less powerful. The sport team works to maintain their advantage over their competitors.

Major league baseball does not share their profits. Television revenues and stadium deals are not shared by teams in larger markets. Signing, releasing, cutting or trading a player is influenced by the impact a transaction will have on other teams in the league.

Title IX and the Sociology of Sports

The sociology of sports is the study of the relationship between sports and society. It examines how sports influence culture and values, how sports affect politics, economics, religion, race, gender, and youth, and how sports affect media. It looks at the relationship between sports and social mobility.

Title IX makes it possible for female athletes who are assigned at birth to attend schools that receive federal funding to compete in sports of their choice. Competition at the college level is a good way to get into athletics. The reinforcement of the gender binary in sports is harmful to athletes who are gender neutral.

The Role of Social Values in Sports: How Drug Use Influences Physical Development

The emergence and spread of modern sports in the 19th and 20th centuries are part of the larger process of globalization. The globalization of sports has been characterized by the creation of national and international sports organizations, the standardization and worldwide acceptance of the rules and regulations for individual and team sports, the development of regularly scheduled international competitions, and the establishment of special competitions, such as the Olympic Games and the various world championships Western values and capitalist marketing have influenced the way people construct, use, represent, and feel about their bodies.

There is a political economy at work in the production and consumption of global sports and leisure products that has resulted in a narrow selection of Western sports, but non-Western sports and attitudes toward the physical self have not completely disappeared. They have survived and have found a place in the sports and body cultures of Europe and North America. There is a tendency to explain differences in performance in sports, in terms of physical differences between races.

Austrians and Swedes excel at skiing and tennis, and cultural explanations have been sought through the analysis of social structures and environmental conditions. When a person is good at middle-distance running, there is a tendency to look for a reason. The tendency is wrong.

The concept of "race" has become problematic because of the mapping of human DNA. The genetic diversity within populations sharing certain physical characteristics is as good as the diversity between different groups. If there are physical differences that make a difference in the success of African American sprinters, it is not likely that they will be discovered by the experts.

Racist references to race are more likely to confuse than clarify research into athletic performance, as evidenced by the exclusion of African Americans from Major League Baseball in the early 20th century. Sociologists have pointed out that focusing on the actions of the athlete individualizes the issue of drug usage rather than examining the social roots of drug consumption. Medicalization of social life and the increased importance of sports as a source of self-esteem and material benefits are some of the causes of drug usage.

Macro-sociology can cover all human society

Depending on where you live, societies can be very different. A couple attend a sports game with hundreds of other people. They may not know each other outside.

They may experience a sense of camaraderie and connection with the many others that are there as they cheer and boo. They know how to behave after leaving a sporting event. The crowd response to two similar events can be very different because each group of people has their own way of interacting with each other.

It's even more complicated because being in a group of people can change people's behavior, which means that people of the same group can exhibit different behaviors. Macro-sociology can cover all human society. It can deal with a wide range of societal issues, such as war, the suffering of Third World nations, poverty, and the environment.