How sports and society are interrelated
Relationship to significant sociological elements including education, leisure, social stratification, social mobility, race, and gender issues
Why people are so engaged in sports
For many people, sports represent a diversion from daily responsibilities and problems. They can attend an event or watch on television and focus on the event instead of other concerns they might face
How American values are reflected in sports
Justice, fair play, and teamwork. Sports have contributed to racial and social integration and over history have been a "social glue" bonding the country together
How sports both unties and divides members of a society
Through sex, gender, race, social status/class, propaganda
Explain the use of logos, team names, and symbols and unifying and dividing mechanisms used in sports
The brand name, logos, marks, and colors of a sports organization serve as a starting point in the brand management process
What is a social phenomena and who coined the term
Any behavior's, actions, or events that take place because of social influence Emile Durkheim
Why does social phenomena in sports matter to sociologists
Helps us understand the ways that social class, gender, race and ethnicity, sexuality, and physical ability influence our everyday lives
What is a microcosm of society
Are socially significant activities for many people/something (such as a place or an event) that is seen as a small version of something much larger
What makes sports so engaging to spectators
Engages are emotions/hormones
Suspense engages our intellect
Human nature
Identification with team engages our spirit
Feeling like your a part of that team
Comprehensibility
The quality of being easy or possible to understand
Continuity
The foundation of the game and the method by which you should play
Readability
A measure of how easy a piece of text is to read
Coherence/predictability
all of its parts fit together well/the quality something has when it is possible for you to know in advance that it will happen or what it will be like
Low cost
Financially lower families join sports with less financial needs, b-ball, football, running
Vicarious experiences
An individual observing another individual teach/delivers a feeling or experience from someone else
Values
Pride, freedom, democracy, lady liberty, George Washington, Eagle, color scheme, national anthem, food, competition
Sports values
Keep an optimistic attitude.
Accept mistakes and learn from them.
Hard work.
Be a source of positive energy for my team.
Have confidence.
Embrace challenges.
Be grateful to play.
What is deviance
Behaviors that violate social rules and norms
Levels of deviance
Questioning or disagreeing, advocating for change, resisting compromise, using new methods, breaking a rule, and going rogue.
Absolutist approach
Assumes that social norms are based on essential principles that constitute an unchanging foundation for identifying good & evil and distinguishing right from wrong
Constructionist approach
Deviance occurs when ideas, traits, and actions fall outside socially determined boundaries that people use to determine what is acceptable and unacceptable in a social world
Formal Deviance
Violation of official rule, punished by official sanctions authorized by authorities
Informal Deviance
Unofficial, punished by informal sanctions, administered by observers or peers
Deviant Over conformity
Based on accepting and conforming to norms without question leads to fascism
Deviant Under conformity
Based on ignoring or rejecting norms; involves "subnormal" actions and, in extreme cases, leads to anarchy
On the field deviance
Grey area somewhere between acts considered 'part of the game' (taking a cheap shot at an opponent when the referee is not looking) and those that 'cross the line
Off the field deviance
Fights (sometimes with firearms involved); sexual assault and attempted rapes; marching bands physically brawling against each other during half-time activities; domestic violence charges; and drunk driving
Absolutist Based on 4 assumptions
1. norms represent social or moral ideals
2. Any departure from the ideal constitutes deviance
3. The greater the departure from the ideal, the more serious the deviance.
4 assumptions of the constructionist approach
1. Norms are socially constructed as people interact with/ each other and determine what is acceptable and what is not.
2. Deviance is socially constructed as people negotiate the boundaries of their acceptance
3. Power dynamics influence this negotiation
4. Most ideas, traits, and actions fall into a normally accepted range.
Do money and power matter in sports?
Clearly tied to patterns of class, class relations, and social inequality in society. Money and economic power do matter, and they matter in ways that often reproduce existing patterns of social class and life chances
Social stratification
structured forms of economic inequalities that are part of the organization of everyday life
Class Relations
The ways that social class is incorporated into the organization of our everyday lives
Class ideology
Interrelated ideas and beliefs that people use to … understand economic inequalities
identify their class position
Evaluate the impact of economic inequalities on the organization of social worlds
Belief in the American Dream
The belief that the US is a Meritocracy
Intersectionality
Coined by civil rights activist and professor Kimberlé Crenshaw can be defined as “the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group