PRT 277 (001) Psychological and Cultural Dimensions of Sport Final Exam NC State

Subculture

A ____ is a group of people with their own distinct culture that distinguishes/ differentiates them from the dominant/ mainstream culture, and from other subcultures

True

True or false: SUBCULTURES offer and nurture IDENTITIES/ VALUES/WAYS OF BEING that offer individuals ALTERNATIVES to MAINSTREAM SOCIETY.

Generation

Class

Music

Politics

Crime

Drugs

Ethnicity

etc

SUBCULTURES can be based around (a combination of) the following dimensions:

Hippies

Bronies

Bikers

Riot Grrrls

Fascists

Subcultural groupings include:

Relationship of difference

SUBCULTURES largely define their identity/ sense of coherence and belonging through their “____” with MAINSTREAM culture

Counter subcultures

Offer an alternative to cultural norms - Hippies

Deviant subcultures

Radically, often criminally, undermining culture norms - White Supremacists and Nazis

Resistant/oppositional subcultures

More assertively challenging cultural norms - organized crime gang

Insider/Outsider Status

The degree to which an individual exemplifies/ performs the various subcultural commonalities, determines their perceived subcultural authenticity, insider status, and group membership

-values and ideals

-personal style/aesthetic
-cultural preferences

-language codes and expressions

-bodily practices and behavior

How are subcultural groupings/boundaries formed? Through a COMMITMENT TO, and EXPRESSION OF common factors such as:

Spectator/Supporter Based Subculture

Participant Based Subculture

There are many types of SPORTING SUBCULTURES, but they can be divided into two groups:

Soccer hooligans, WNBA lesbian fans, Dead Tree Crew football fans

Spectator/Supporter Based Sporting Subculture includes?

BASE jumpers, masters swimmers, gay rugby players, bicycle messengers

Participatory Based Sporting Subculture includes?

mainstream

SUBCULTURES largely define their identity/ sense of coherence and belonging through their “relationship of difference” with ____ culture.

COUNTER, RESISTANT, DEVIANT, INCORPORATED (commercialized)

Depending on their precise nature, and in relation to mainstream culture, subcultural groups can thus be considered one or more of the following:

Alternatives

Many contemporary sporting subcultures are quite literally ____ to the DISCIPLINING CONSTRAINTS of TRADITIONAL SPORTING ACTIVITIES.

-Playing according to RULES and regulations -Learning cooperation and TEAMWORK -Acknowledging and ACCEPTING role -SUPPRESSION of individual in favor of collective good -Conforming to ADULT leadership and authority -Exposure to COMPETITION and competitive ethos

Team Sports Disciplining Functions

McDonaldized Sport

sport as a rationally organized and efficient machine

PLEASURE - FREEDOM - CREATIVITY - INDEPENDENCE - COMMUNITY - ENCHANTMENT

McDonaldized sport (sport as a rationally organized and efficient machine) can negatively effect the feelings of:

True: the sport description of enchantment is true

True or false: Sport can DISENCHANT as much as ENCHANT

Achievement

The 1960s and 1970s saw the emergence of—largely, but not exclusively—youth based alternative sport subcultures, which sought to provide alternatives to traditional, highly regulated ____ sport forms…

- Creative - Athlete-centered - Non-competitive - Un-regulated - Expressions of youthful alternative physicality

These are what Bourdieu (1978) described as “Californian sports”:

“Lifestyle”/action sports

Skateboarding, Yoga, Surfing, Windsurfing, Snowboarding, and Parkour are examples of?

Skateboarding subculture

The attempt to confine and control skateboarding within highly regulated spaces effectively thwarted its oppositional and alternative subcultural character. Therefore, its popularity soon declined among the youth population…

urban and suburban spaces

The skateboarding subculture reasserted its alternative, non-conformist status, through the creative use of ____ not originally designed for skateboarding…

• transformation

• style

• spirituality

• community

• fitness

• health

Yoga Subculture Ethos involves?

Way of Life

Involvement in such subcultures offers an entire “____” centered on the pursuit of “hedonism”, “freedom”, and “self expression” in an increasingly structured and conformist world

Freedom

Exhilaration

Alterity

Lifestyle

Unity

Risk

Expression

Windsurfing Subcultural Ethos includes?

Sources of SUBCULTURAL CAPITAL and SUBCULTURAL STATUS

As with any subcultural grouping, the insider (core)/outsider (margins) divisions within lifestyle sports are social determined, through factors such as: 1. Sporting Prowess 2. Commitment 3. Equipment 4. Subcultural Style

“Conspicuous Commitment”

Windsurfing Core Participants:

Localism and territorialism

____ marks out spatially/ geographically defined surf subcultures, who look to protect “their surf” from tourists or outside surfers.

Gangs

These localized surf subcultures have been likened to ____, due to their territorialism, violence, and hostility toward outsiders.

Subcultural autonomy and Commercial Colonization/ Sporting Incorporation

Within “alternative/lifestyle/action” sporting subcultures, there is often a tension between:

False: they have become incorporated

True or false: Many “alternative/lifestyle/action” subcultural trends have not become incorporated into mainstream commercial culture and achievement/prolympic sport.

Roller Derby

____ offers a subcultural sporting space, within which it is possible to express alternative expressions of embodied femininity to that (emphasised femininity) associated with traditionally female sporting practices.

The description of skaters in roller derby is true

True or false: “skaters juxtapose antithetical attributes, namely, emphasized femininity (indicated by short skirts, bras, and panties) and aggression (i.e., weaponry and injuries)

how bodies move rather than how they look

derby provides an alternate system of body evaluation based on____, thereby allowing skaters to experience their bodies in ways beyond the forms of passive embodiment

transformative process

"To me the most important part of Roller Derby is the ____ that happens with it…that transforms all of the girls into something stronger and better than they were before”

Violent femininity

Women’s rugby is considered:

PHYSICAL PERFECTION

The values of the HEGEMONIC elite sport model prioritize/advance notions of the pursuit and expression of ____.

OSTRACIZES; MARGINALIZES

This Physical Ableism effectively “____” and culturally ____ physically impaired or disabled bodies

Physical Ableism

The Paralympic Movement has contributed to challenging?

RISK or ADVENTURE-BASED ACTIVITIES.

One of the most prevalent focal points for sportbased ALTERNATIVE LIFESTYLE CULTURES is the pursuit of?

Risk Sports

sports where one must reckon with the possibility of serious injury or death as a consequence of the activity.

Adventure Sports

activity takes place in a setting that is demanding, challenging, dangerous or exotic

Flood risks, crime risks, childhood risks (helmets on bikes), health risks (COVID), environmental risks (pollution), and terrorism risks

Increased sites of risk identified within society include?

Rationality, Bureaucracy, and Control

Modernity = ?

Identifying, avoiding, and managing/controlling RISK

Risk society is focused on?

Skydiving, rock climbing, rapids rafting, etc

Contradictions of risk society include?

Control and Excitement

According to Elias and Dunning (1986), there is a balance between____. The more controlled/controlling (rationally and bureaucratically organized) a society is, the more there is a need for higher levels of EXCITEMENT/FREEDOM in some aspects of individual existence.

Low Control (Pre-Modern) Societies

Relatively low levels of CONTROL and REGULATION over virtually all aspects of life. High levels of FREEDOM, AUTONOMY, and INSECURITY. LIFE itself more PRECARIOUS and “EXCITING”

High Control (Modern) Societies

Complex and HIGH levels of CONTROL and REGULATION sought over virtually all aspects of life. Low levels of FREEDOM, AUTONOMY, and high level of conformity, SAFETY and SECURITY. LIFE itself less PRECARIOUS, more PREDICTABLE, and less “EXCITING”.

Risk (Post-Modern) Societies

Complex and HIGH levels of CONTROL and REGULATION sought over virtually all aspects of life. Low levels of FREEDOM, AUTONOMY, and high level of SAFETY and SECURITY within everyday life. Increased seeking out of managed or cultivated RISK/ EXCITEMENT based experiences.

The rational safety-seeker businessman and the irrational risk seeking shirtless no-harness cliff climber

The Paradox of (Post)Modernity

MANAGING and CONTROLLING RISK

Interestingly, while acknowledging the place of RISK within climbing subcultures, West & Allin (2010) identified that SUBCULTURAL INSIDERS focused on: ____ “those participants who managed risk were good climbers whilst those who exercised poor judgement about risk were poor climbers”

The climbing description is true

True or false: climbing insiders are good climbers while climbing outsiders are the general public, riskier climbers, and the occasional climber

Middle/Upper Middle/ Elite

Researchers have show than many RISK sports are predominantly practiced by the ____ Classes, since they possess the ECONOMIC CAPITAL that can be converted into the TIME and PRODUCTS/SERVICES necessary for involvement in these activities.

Middle/Upper Middle Class HABITUS

RISK sports, and the SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL benefits thought to derive from them, also related to the ____, specifically regarding the: “intrinsic long term rewards from physical and psychological self-betterment”

QUEST FOR EXCITEMENT

Those with less economic capital, are similarly involved in a ____, through the creative usage and adaptation of their local environments.

Parkour/free running

Developed by young residents of a working class Parisian suburb (banlieue) called, Lisses in the 1980s. “the art of moving fluidly from one part of the environment to another…

Tomb-Stoning

“the ‘thrill’ derives from the proximity of danger, or even death, and the oppositional status of the act”

FREEDOM - CONTROL - INDIVIDUAL EXPRESSION - SELF-ACTUALIZATION -  PERSONAL FULFILLMENT - TRANSCENDANCE

Actively seeking opportunities for RISK, provides a site for experiences of:

Inclusion

The ____of these new sports is part of the IOC’s big goal of making the Olympics more attractive to younger spectators, as well as efforts to improve gender ratios of the Games and to respond to broader social trends in the urbanization of sport

Adopted

As Boykoff asked: “what does it mean to bring these disciplines and their ATTENDANT CULTURES to the Olympic stage? Right now, there are near existential battles over who exerts control over the youth/action sports once they are ____—OR APPROPRIATED, as some might argue—by the Olympics.”

- Governance of the sport - Media representation of sport/ subculture - Aligning with subcultural values and traditions - Increased focused on competition

Research has demonstrated that many involved in action/lifestyle sport subcultures were APPREHENSIVE about their INCLUSION in the Olympics, specifically due to issues related to:

Breakdancing

In 2024, which sport replaced baseball, softball, and karate as an Olympic medal sport?

1. A group of people living within/ occupying the same area (SPATIAL)

2. A sense of belonging derived from sharing common interests and attitudes (CULTURAL)

There are two primary definitions of COMMUNITY:

Community

____ is a population living within a bounded space and sharing specific cultural practices through which communal identity is expressed.

Gemeinschaft

“Community” Social groupings based on strong interpersonal relationships and commitments, and shared beliefs, customs, and places. Individuals committed to collective over personal interests. Strong collective associations and institutions. Thought of by Ferdinand Tonnies

Gesellschaft

“Society/Civil Society” Social groupings only motivated by need to realize individual self interests. Lacks a sense of shared beliefs, customs, and places. Individuals committed to personal over collective interests. Weak collective associations and institutions.

Pre-Industrial Gemeinschaft

“Community” Being for one another

Post-Industrial Gesellschaft

“Society/Civil Society” Being for oneself

The gemeinschaft and gessellschaf descriptions are true

True or false: There is a tendency for some critics to associate preindustrial societies with gemeinschaft and contemporary late modern/ post-industrial societies with gesellschaft. There is a tendency for some critics to associate preindustrial societies with gemeinschaft and contemporary late modern/ post-industrial societies with gesellschaft.

Bowling Alone Analogy

Decline in membership of civic organizations due to individualizing (technological/cultural/political) of society and social life.

Individuality; Community

So much for contemporary GESELLSCHAFT (____)? Or CrossFit and the persistence of GEMEINSCHAFT (____)?

Sporting Gesellschaft (Individuality)

Adult competitive team sports are on the decline while involvement in individual sports is increasing. 1. Within wealthy societies, involvement in individual sports a marker of social/status differentiation and individual improvement

2. Individual sports demand less social investment and are easier to “drop”

3. Time-pressured existences lend themselves to individually realized activities

4. Within appearance-based consumer culture, many individual activities focus on body toning/reshaping

5. Adult recreational team sport on the decline, team sports the domain of the young.

collective/communal representation

Durkheim used the term “____” to describe the elements of life (religion, and yes, sport), that are the commonly shared institutions or experiences through which individuals express and derive their sense of collective belonging; their sense of “we-ness”. According to Durkheim, ____ can contribute to the levels of “social solidarity” (communal/group cohesion) within a society

Examples of Collective [Community] Representation

“For example, a stamp, a flag, or the sport of football are by themselves just a piece of paper, a piece of cloth, or a group of padded men chasing a leather ball; they are all essentially worthless and derive their value from the reality of collective forces they represent and embody. The more important a society determines an object to be, the more valuable it will be in the eyes of an individual.”

Sport as Collective/ Community Representation

“an object with which we identify, an athlete or a sports team defines as a ‘community’ all those who relate to the object cathectically or in a possessive manner–our athlete, our team– and who introject the “representation” into their selfdefinitions (I am a fan; I wanna be like Mike [Jordan]).”

communitas

____ is a special experience during which individuals are able to rise above those structures that materially and normatively regulate their daily lives and that unite people across the boundaries of structure, rank, and socioeconomic status.

Glue

REPRESENTATIVE SPORT is often the collective ____ (the communitas) which, seemingly binds all the elements of the community together... 

1. Organic/Face to Face Communities

2. Extended Communities

What are the variants of Sporting Communities?

SMALL-SCALE

In ____ communities (where we know/are familiar with a large percentage of community members) learn the histories, rules, and bonds of community belonging through FACE-TO-FACE INTERACTIONS AND EXPERIENCES WITHIN THE COMMUNITY.

LOCALIZED ORGANIC COMMUNITAS

Organic/ Local Community - Relatively close proximity to stadium - Team represents local identity - Small town socio-spatiality and populace - Face-to-face familiarity and experience of belonging ____

Massilon, Ohio

What town is “Touchdown Town” Tigers who give merch to newborn babies?

Phillipsburg, New Jersey

“the community makes what this football program is all about. I grew up in this town. I grew up in this town, and I remember and I remember as a little kid on Friday nights, in the Fall, is football night. That’s what you did. We walked over to the game, and everybody went to a football game, and you grew up with it. And, it just kind of just breeds itself throughout the town.”

North Town, Texas

Small town (8,000) in south Texas. Predominantly farming/ranching community. Considerable local poverty. 80% Mexican-American population. North Town H.S.: 600 students/Triple-AAA level sports teams in 5-level state system

Organic

North Town TX is a face-to-face community, in that the size of the town was sufficiently small that individual’s would either directly know, be familiar with, or recognize, the majority of their community fellows. Thus, it can be considered an “____” community, in that the experience and feeling of communal belonging was realized through direct participation in, and engagement with, community practices and people.

Enlivened; Patriotic

“The games ____ the community’s social life... Community sports was the ____, neighborly thing to do”

High School Football Rituals and Collective Involvement

- Friday night games - Weekly pep rallies - Marching band - Cheerleader/Pep Squads - Homecoming bonfire and dance - Powder puff football game - Booster club

T

T/F: nvolvement in each of these elements of the North Town high school football ritual, represented a context for the performance and display of individual commitment to the town’s/community’s traditions/ rituals/values. Thus, on the surface, football becomes a vehicle for affirming the collective solidarity/harmony of the community.

- Gender hierarchies - Sexual preference hierarchies - Ethnicity/racial hierarchies - Social class hierarchies

As much a source of social divisiveness, as social cohesion, the high school football ritual “staged” community politics and social hierarchies:

overly romanticize

So, the example of North Town demonstrates that is important not to ____ the organic community.

dominant CLASS, ETHNICITY, and GENDER

As much as the high school football ritual contributes to the creation of collective belonging and familiarity, it also reproduces ____ based power structures, relations, and inequalities.

The Evolution of the American City/ Metropolis

1. The Walking City (1820 - 1880)

2. The Street Car City (1880 - 1950)

3. The Automobile [Suburban] City (1950 - Present)

4. The Mass Transit City (1970 - Present)

5. The Exurban [Satellite] City (1980 - Present)

imagined communities

Extended METROPOLITAN communities are “____”, because their members can only realistically be expected to know, or be familiar with, a very small percentage of the entire populace.

FEELING OF COMMUNITAS

Influence by the POPULAR MEDIA and POLITICAL RHETORIC, people IMAGINE the COMMON BONDS and AFFINITIES which produce the ____ (shared experiences, values, and identifications).

SPORT TEAMS

____ are one of the most resonant and powerful sources of IDENTITY for cities and their populations. TEAMS as REPRESENTATIVES of their cities, and oftentimes came to EMBODY and ENHANCE aspects of COMMUNAL IDENTITY. Hence, SUPPORTING/FOLLOWING a TEAM, whether actively or passively became an EXPRESSION of CIVIC/ COMMUNITY UNITY, IDENTIFICATION, and BELONGING (COMMUNITAS). 52

CIVIC IDENTITY

From the earliest days of modern industrial cities in the second half of the 19th century, sport has been an important expression of ____

Walking City

Spatially dense and concentrated population: face-to-face interaction, and experiential construction of local communal belonging/communities.