Producing Knowledge About Sports in Society

Those who study sports in society want to understand the following:

  • The cultural and social contexts in which sports exist

  • The connections between those contexts and sports

  • The social worlds that people create as they participate in sports

  • The experiences of individuals and grou[s associated with those social worlds

  • The organization of sports and how people are influenced by sports

Tools Used to Study Sports in Society:

  • Social Research: investigations in which we seek answers to questions about social worlds by systematically gathering and analyzing data

  • Social Theories: logically interrelated explanations of the actions and relationships of human beings and the organization and dynamics of social worlds

  • Personal Theories: summaries of our ideas about and our explanations of social life and the contexts in which it occurs 

  • Personal Theory: personal explanations about our experiences, people, events, and social worlds

  • Social Theories: theories involve a combination of : description, reflection, analysis. Theories have practical applications because they help us make choices and anticipate consequences

Theories & Concepts:

  • Cultural Theories: explain what we know about the ways that people think and express their values, ideas, and beliefs as they live together and create social worlds narratives

  • Interactionist Theories: explain what we know about the origins, dynamics, and consequences of social interaction among people in particular social worlds

  • Structural Theories: explain what we know about forms of social organization that influence actions and relationships

Other Concepts Used by Messner:

  • Symbols: concrete representations of the values, beliefs, and moral principles around which people organize their lives

  • Gender: a social element woven into the fabric of social worlds as meaning, performance, and organization

Collecting Data:

  • Quantitative Approach: collecting information about people and social worlds, converting the information into numbers, and analyzing the numbers by using statistical procedures and tests

  • Qualitative Approach: collecting information about people and social worlds, identifying patterns and unique features, and analyzing the information by using interpretive procedures and tests

Types of Observational Methods:

  • Outside observation

  • Participant observation

  • Fieldwork: “on-site” data collection, usually done in a particular social world

  • Ethnography: fieldwork that involves observations and interviews

Data Collection Methods in Social Science:

Text Analysis;

  • Discovery: identify and track themes in written documents or audio media content

  • Deconstruction: analyze narrative and images in documents or media content to make clear the underlying meanings and assumptions

Experiments:

  • Lab based vs. field-based

Good Research Leads to Knowledge Claims:

  • Knowledge Claims: statements that explain the “how and why” about gender in connection with sports and sport participation in society

Messner Used a Critical Approach 

Using a Critical Approach to Produce Knowledge:

  • When a critical approach was used in Northern Ireland, it led to programs that decreased sectarian violence at matches and in neighborhoods

Theory and Research: Discussion issues

  • Using a critical approach makes us aware that the production and application of knowledge are not completely objective processes