K-160 Mid

Sociology

Study of social life, including all forms of interactions and relationships

Sociology of Sport

Subdiscipline of sociology “that examines the relationships between sport and society, and especially the role of sport and physical culture in social and cultural life”

Power

Capacity of a person or group of persons to employ resources of different types in order to secure outcomes” (Ability to control your environment)

Resources

Various capacities that enable and constrain individuals or groups to engage in practices and social relations

Social Structure

Patterned relationships that connect different parts of society to one another (including individuals and groups) and that simultaneously enable and constrain action. (Framework with how we behave with society and how we are supposed to act)

Social Institution

Enduring and enforced norms, rules, values, organizations, which can be formal or informal. (Systems within the framework and shapes our values/beliefs)

Agency

Capacity of individuals or groups to act independently and make their own free choices, despite social or structured constraints. (Choosing to do something else)

What are the abilities of Power

1. Structure sport in preferred ways

2. Establish selective sports tradition

3. Define legitimate practices and meanings of sport

Sport

Any formally organized, competitive activity that involves rigorous physical exertion or execution of complex physical skills with rules enforced by regulatory body.

Sociological Imagination

Ability to understand the circumstances of individual or group in relation to broader historical, social and cultural factors.

Three sensitivities 

• Historical sensitivity-how personal experience in sport connects to broader history 

• Comparative sensitivity-learning how sporting beliefs and practices shift across diverse cultures 

• Critical sensitivity-ability to apply our critical abilities to make sport better (more inclusive)

Culture

Practices and beliefs

Ideology

• webs of ideas that people give meaning to the world 

  • Allows us to see the world in a different lens, see some things and not see other things 

Social Construction

• Refers to the historical processes in which people collectively invent and reinvent understandings of the social world 

• Ex. Go back in time, ideas of women could and cannot do physical activity, ideas of the gender is based on social construction

• Social construct ideas are embedded by power relations 

Sociology Theory

Foundation of a set of propositions about he nature of the social world and people’s roles or active engagement in that world

• Key Idea:Methods used to provide verification used will vary depending on the questions asked 

Structural Functionalism

Theory emerging out of the early work of French sociologist Émile Durkheim, which came to dominate sociology by the mid-20th century. The theory emphasizes the function of different elements, institutions, and values and norms of a social system in terms of their ability to contribute to the stability of the structure of society.

Pros:Emphasizes the positive of functional aspect of all elements of the system

Cons:Things can be good and bad

Conflict Theory

General theory developed in sociology from the mid-20th century on, based primarily on the work of Karl Marx and Max Weber, that recognized the ubiquitous roll conflict plays in social life.

Weakness:Macro structural level, with little consideration of the people who operate within these structures

Ignores how sports in capitalist societies may involve experiences that empower individuals and groups (black lives matter movement) 

Economically reductionist-’reduces ‘ everything to the economy (definitely in the early stages on solely focusing on economy) 

Structure

Stable pattern of components or ‘parts’

Social Institutions

Formal or informal organizations that provide a framework for interacting in society

Socialization

Lifelong processes of learning the norms of interacting in society or within a particular group

Class Conflict

• Saw society in two classes 

1. Capitalists-control the modes of production and realize the surpluses and profits 

2. Workers-don’t control the modes of production 

The Protestant Ethnic and The Spirit of Capitalism 

• Weber took about Marx’s theory and also focus on religious influences, specifically the protestant belief  

• People believe Protestant belief is a typically version of capitalism that is successful 

  • Focused on ascetic lifestyle, loyalty to God, hard work, duty, refraining from pleasures in this life for the promises of the afterlife 

  • Similar ideas of capitalism 

  • Religious emphasis disappeared but focus on ascetic lifestyle remained

Goal-rational action

”Human action involving the most calculated (rational) means towards achieving  particular end (goal)”

Symbolic Interactionism

• Mead wanted to find how people give meaning to the world around them through symbols (language and verbal and non-verbal gestures), clothing labels and clothing style, body language, sport symbols (sport teams)

  • Society, look how people interact with people and groups 

  • Self (Myself we believe it is born with) but in symbolic interest it is dynamic and evolving over time based on interaction in society.

  • (Focuses on structural)

  • Two components of the self: 

  1. “I’-internal component-subjectively experienced (feelings, emotions) 

  2. ‘Me’-external image of self-perception how others see us 

Weakness:Interactions are not considered in relation to power and inequality (everyone plays on an equal playing field)

Critical Social Theories

left handed in belief

Critical Social Theories allow us to understand issues related to power and to critically assess organizational policies in terms of their impact on people and communities 

Cultural Studies

• Popular culture as a site of struggle

  • Power is not just in social institutions but in ideas of popular culture such as marginalized groups and powerful groups 

  • Resistance and agreeing with ideas 

    • Using different resources to prove ideas and resist ideas 

    • Power-knowledge and ideas not just authority 

  • Hegemony (Antonio Gramsci)-Process by which the ruling class of society maintains and manufactures its worldview as the worldview-that is, as the worldview that is seemingly ‘natural’ and ‘common sensical’

    • Ideologies keep getting told repeatedly until it seems true, can be from social media and other social institutions

    • Ex: Clash between Donald trump vs Bad Bunny for halftime show for Superbowl

    • Donald trump is using hegemony while Bad Bunny is against it 

Social Justice Theories

Want things to be just (Left leaning theories) 

Feminist Theories

• Sociological theories are looking in the lens of men

• Expose how worlds are in a men's view and that we should sexism, sexist exploitation and oppression

  • Look into history of sports as well 

  • Imbalance of media coverage, resources in sport 

  • Men’s belief are hegemonic 

  • Women challenging these ideas and views of what the female body can do 

Critical Race Studies

• Race and racism have a significant role in creating social institutions and in sporting traditions and how they continue to shape it today

Intersectionality Theory

• Identity categories (race, gender and class) are not separate, they are represented simultaneously 

  • You can experience both privilege and oppression (gender privilege and class oppression) 

  • Refers to an approach to understand these different categories are intertwined”

Weakness of Critical Theories (Cultural, Feminist & Critical Race Studies)

1. Critical theories have been accused of focusing on the negative aspects of sports to the exclusion of positive aspects

2. Critical theories can focus on critique with little movement towards productive change 

What are the 3 factors of Modernization in Sport

1. Improvements in transportation 

• In 1800’s, Travelling in canada is time intensive, only rich people were able to travel 

• Based on industrialization like steam engine in boats and railroad, travel times plummeted 

• Transportation improvements aided the formation of regional leagues, which requires standardized rules, governing bodies and highly sophisticated organizational structure

• Sport was played in small communities with different rules but now that they are versing other communities, whose rule do they follow? 

2. Improvements in communication 

• Advances in communications meant that the ‘home town’ team or here could be followed in regional, national and even international competition 

  • Telegraph (Help to give results for competition)

  • Communications intensified with radio, television and internet 

• Communication improvements opened up new markets and played a pivotal role in the development of the ‘modern’ fan 

3. Advances in Sporting Equipment and Facilities 

• Sport equipment was very expensive but eventually were mass produced 

  • Quality-safer and more accessible 

  • Reduced cost-more affordable 

  • Standarized-aided organization of leagues and inter-regional

  • Multiple factories around the world could make equipment 

• Facilities

  • Indoor facilities with gas lighting meant could play sport at night which made it more accessible for working class 

  • Stadium seating aided evolution of spectator 

What is Democratization in Sport

• Democratization-1) making sport available to all individuals and groups; 2)movement toward greater social equality in sport 

• With these developments, democratized didn’t happen 

  • Based on patterns of repression, incorporation and segregation 

Amateur Sport

• Montreal Pedestrian Club (1873): 

  • Definition of amateur is extremely narrow

  • This is because they believed people would have an advantage (Trying to incorporate fair play) 

• This movement was trying to play sport for fun and not against the ruling groups

  • Amateur sport is more about ideology to play for joy, pleasure and honor of competition rather than professionalism 

Sports Gambling

wagering money on sporting outcomes. After Bill C-218: increased accessibility and participation; allowed betting on one outcome at a time

Social Stratification

What is it: Society-wide hierarchical system that ranks individuals and groups based on race, education, power, etc, determining who has access to resources and opportunities

- Major players 

- government

- gambling corps and betting platforms 

- professional sports leagues and media networks 

- Peer influence and social interactions 

- Fundamentally about how power and resources are distributed; powerful institutions shape the environment and choices

Double-bind of Masculinity

 ideal of working out for their masculinity and to not look weak 

Race

Historically considered a biological fact, race is now understood as a social construct that categorizes people based on perceived physical differences, often skin colour. This categorization has been used to justify unequal treatment and discrimination, despite lacking  a genetic basis for the associated stereotypes”

Scientific Racism

Pseudo belief that justifies racism and racial superiority but has been debunked by modern scientists

Interpersonal Racism

•  individual, overt acts of discrimination (What most of us think about) 

Structural Racism

• Influence dominant culture and belief systems and is woven into laws, language, rules and norms of Canadian society (Help us understand to reflect ourselves and just blame others)

  • (KJHL Split-Manitoba hockey league split with indigenous and non-indigenous league)-Non indigenous said they wanted to split because of safety, cost and travel time but that is not justified. League restructuring is structural or systemic racism.

Settler

non-indigenous person who has immigrated-or whose ancestors immigrated from somewhere else 

Settler Colonialism

Unlike colonialism, which is more or less temporary, settler colonialism aspires to establish an enduring set of unequal power relations between Indigenous Peoples and settlers:

• A structure, not an event 

• Objectives of settler colonialism-dispossess Indigenous Peoples of their lands; displace Indigenous knowledges and ways of being 

  • This structure is not elsewhere, it is here 

  • Wants you to identify as Canadian and not as a settler 

Spaces

Indigenous lands are transformed into settler spaces 

Systems

Government policies, legal system police structures, corporate interests converge in reproducing relations of Indigenous domination

Stories

We can tell that justify and naturalize settler colonialism (Ex: Hockey in residential schools)

Cultural Genocide

• Destruction of structures and practices that allow the group to continue as group. To destroy political and social institutions of the targeted group. 

  • Movement is restricted, languages are banned, leaders killed and families are disrupted to not practice cultural values