This paper provides a review of some of the main currents of sociological thought which have informed a body of research in the area of sport and racism. It considers some of the main popular ...arguments about sport in discussions of race relations, black identity, and black feminism and argues against the notion of any one body of thought being viewed as a form of universalism. The examples that people use may change but the underlying processes and social and political problems reflect not just traditions of social thought but also many voices of anger and frustration in a world that is left wanting on so many fronts. The paper is critical of European intellectual constructions of racism which have often been applied in a devastating manner in the field of sport and leisure.
Capitalism plays a significant role in the process of commercialization of sport. The bureaucratization, professionalization, politics and policy change legitimate organizational activities (Oliver ...1992). The external process of bureaucratization, which is "the organizational manifestation of the rationalization of social life" (Slack & Hinings 1994: 806) transforms sport organizations. The new environment of sport organizations moves them from voluntary organization to formal organizations with professional staff. This work identifies impact of external processes such as bureaucratization, professionalization and commercialization on sport organization. The focus is on the environmental pressures which change practices (procedures) in sport organizations. The article shows the changes in the field of sport and the processes of excluding voluntary, non-profit sport organization from competitions in elite sport. The last section of the article presents an alternative point of view on volunteers in sport industry.
This article argues that the recent growth of interest in the body in Western social science has been largely based on Western assumptions of social development. In particular, studies of sport and ...body culture more generally have either ignored non-Western societies, such as Japan, or sustained stereotypical views of Japanese culture. As a small amount of research being developed by anthropologists suggests, the study of sport and body culture in Japan reveals similarities and differences with the West. The pattern of Japanese social development is both a route to modernity and one of the roots of modernity. Reflections on three areas (body culture, physical culture and sport) illustrate this argument and suggest where further research is required.
The aim of this article is to describe & define the two principal paradigms in French sociology of sport: sporting field theory inspired by Pierre Bourdieu & critical theory of sport developed by ...Jean-Marie Brohm. In this way, the article presents the explanatory schemas of the two theories & propounds a reading of the two authors' conceptions of the world. Finally, three prospects for study would allow the sociological analysis of sport to be transcended & followed. 82 References. Adapted from the source document.
This presentation will endeavour to answer the following question : How can the Global Identity Coherence of an individual be analysed through his sporting practices? Based on work in the field of ...Sociology of Sport, our purpose is to highlight the limitations of recent theories on the Identity of the Individual, considered as a multiple being, when an analysis considers him from the point of view of his Global Identity Coherence. This purpose requires on the one hand, redefining the heuristic aspect conferred on the Sociology of Sport. This needs to take into account the global sociological problems which Sports enables one to encounter instead of concentrating oneself purely on the limitations that have been assigned to the subject & from which it should not ideally deviate. This reflection invites, on the other hand, a keen insight into the limitations surrounding the individual: identified as plural, multiple, or multi-facetted in identity when studying him as a coherent entity. We have identified three limitations: the constant confusion between Identity & Role; the imaginary compartmentalization of different identities & the lack of interrogations pertaining to the link between these different identities.
The extension & diversification of contemporary sports activities makes any study of involvement in sports a complex investigation. The speed at which the nature of physical & sports activities has ...changed has imposed two constraints on the sociological approach: the need to generate data that define real conditions at a given moment & the need to organize the production of such data so as to allow for repetition of the information compiled. Based on a questionnaire-type survey of young people, ages 14-20, schooled in the Provence-Alpes region of France, the authors have applied an analytical method that permits the presentation & understanding of ambivalent conduct (practicing a specific sport with a club & taking part on a regular basis in nonstructured activities). The use of this method has brought out original results & contributed to a reevaluation of the impact of traditional variables (age, gender, socioprofessional category, etc) on sports participation. 5 Tables, 4 Graphs, 24 References. Adapted from the source document.
This article offers a proposal for combining the sport sociological and sport psychological imaginations. In order to effect this
rapprochement
, some serious adjustments to the ways in which many ...applied sport psychologists and sport sociologists think about and conduct research are required. Thus, the initial part of this article expresses some critiques, albeit brief, of current tendencies within both sport sociology and sport psychology. We deemed these critiques necessary to advance a neo-Millsian position on the articulation of social structure and personality. This neo-Millsian position draws on the ego-psychoanalytical tradition to offer suggestions for how we might reconceive the problems of indispensability/expendability in the Prolympic structures of sport and for how we might, using a life-histories (biographical) methodology, engage in useful or practical research, especially on the problematics of how individuals handle/mishandle early, pre-career, and mid-career failure, and, in the long-run, inevitable failure at the end of their careers. Where, then, is the common ground between sport sociology and sport psychology? We argue that it is the analysis of ego-practices and ego-defenses as learned, consciously or unconsciously, over our biographical lives as they intersect with, and are contoured by, social history and social structure.
As we pass the 30th anniversary of a recognized sociology of sport in North America, it is appropriate to develop a current sociological analysis of the subdiscipline. In the first part we examine ...the origins of the field and the development of the Wisconsin socialization paradigm and the social problems perspective. In the second part we explore the critical shift in the field, emerging from an engagement with C. Wright Mills, and the development of a political economy perspective. In the third part we review the turn to Antonio Gramsci and cultural studies, focusing particularly on the themes of gender and the body. We conclude by considering whether, given the current eclecticism, sociology of sport is still a legitimate description of our field.
A memorial to Barbara Brown, President of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport (NASSS), & member of the editorial board of this journal, who died of cancer on 11 Aug 1990. Her ...background & contributions to the profession are reviewed. S. Dilts
In discussion about social structural development in our society, sociological handbooks & encyclopedias in Germany offer research fields based on age & living conditions, among others. However, one ...social practice that has accompanied & affected the development of modern societies since the second half of the 20th century is often missing: sport. Then again, sport science does not tend to focus on sociology either. The author contends that the establishment of sport science & sport sociology as its sub-discipline in German universities in the 1970s has made the subject less obscure. The article discusses the current status of sport sociology in three steps: 1) a short glimpse at the genesis of sport sociology in Germany, 2) current developments in research, epistemology, thematic & textual orientations, structures, & research problems, & 3) the resulting gains & perspectives of sport sociology research & how these are intertwined with sociology, sport science & sport itself. Adapted from the source document.
