Sport E-Book

Richard Giulianotti

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 539

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

In this new edition of his acclaimed book, Richard Giulianotti provides a critical sociological interpretation of modern sport. As global festivals such as the Olympic Games and football's World Cup demonstrate, sport's social, political, economic and cultural significance is becoming ever more apparent across the world. Ten years after its original publication, the text has been completely revised and updated to cover the most recent literature and to tackle the key contemporary issues of sport and society. Chapter by chapter, Giulianotti offers a cogent examination of widely taught sociological theories and topics that relate to sport, skilfully weaving together theory and examples. These include functionalism, Weberian sociology, Marxism and postmodern sociology, along with ethnicity, gender and globalization. Using an international range of case studies and research regarding a wide variety of sports, the new edition has furthered its commitment to making this important material especially accessible to undergraduate readers. Sport: A Critical Sociology remains the best sociological introduction to sport for upper-level undergraduate and postgraduate students on courses such as sport and leisure studies, cultural studies, and modern social theory.

Leseprobe

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

Prologue

Towards a sociological definition of sport

The historical and international dimensions of sport

Book contents

1 Functionalist Theories of Sport: Social Orders, Solidarities and Systems

Durkheimian sociology: social order, solidarity and religion

Sport, social solidarity and religion

Structural functionalism: Parsons and Merton

Luhmann and social systems

Goffman and the microsocial order

Concluding comments

2 Weberian and Microsociological Approaches to Sport: Meanings, Identities and Rationalization

Interpretive social theories and the meaning of sport

Rationalization and sport

Contemporary rationalization: Ritzer’s McDonaldization thesis

Concluding comments

3 Marxist and Neo-Marxist Theories of Sport: Capitalism, Alienation and Class Conflict

Marx and the critique of capitalism

Marxists and neo-Marxists on sport and mass culture

Neo-Marxist sociologies of sport

The Frankfurt School

Neo-Marxism and the commodification of sport

Concluding comments

4 Cultural Studies Approaches to Sport: Domination, Resistance and Transgression

Cultural Studies: origins and key themes

Hegemony theory

Resistance, transgression and the carnivalesque

A normative focus in Cultural Studies

Physical Cultural Studies

Concluding comments

5 ‘Race’ and Ethnicity in Sport: Competing against Racism and Intolerance

‘Race’, athleticism and sport performance

Racism and sport: outlining international histories

Sport, ‘race’ and social stratification

Cultural, ideological and aesthetic issues

Racism and ethnicity: cultural prejudices and intolerance

Concluding comments

6 Gender and Sexuality in Sport: Playing against Patriarchy

The making of sexist sport

Women and modern sport

LGBT cultural politics and sport

Making men through sport: hegemony and diversity

Concluding comments

Questions for discussion

7 The Body in Sport: Discipline, Experience and Risk

Foucault and the body: discipline and governmentality

The body, sport and phenomenology

The body and sporting risks

Sport, voluntary risk-taking and ‘peak experiences’

Concluding comments

Questions for discussion

8 Sporting Places and Spaces: Fields of Affection, Commerce and Fantasy

Sport places and emotional attachments

Political economy and sport arenas

Postmodern sport stadiums

Sport stadiums, security and social control

Concluding comments

Questions for discussion

9 Elias on Sport: Figurations, Civilization and Interdependence

Human figurations, mimesis and the spare-time spectrum

The civilizing process

Figurational sociology and football hooliganism

Figurational sociology and the sociology of sport

Concluding comments

Questions for discussion

10 Bourdieu on Sport: Domination, Distinction and the Public Intellectual

Bourdieu’s theoretical framework

Distinction: the stratification of sporting tastes

The politics of research

Concluding comments

Questions for discussion

11 Postmodern Sport: Fragmentation, Consumption and Hyperreality

Postmodern and poststructuralist social theories

The postmodern world and dedifferentiation

Postmodernity and social identities

Postmodern sport and the new middle classes

Postmodern sport and the new capitalism

Extreme postmodern culture: Jean Baudrillard and hyperreality

Concluding comments

Questions for discussion

12 Globalization and Sport: Political Economy, Cultural Creativity and Social Development

Political-economic aspects of global sport

Socio-cultural aspects of global sport

Sport for development and peace

Concluding comments

Questions for discussion

Epilogue: Towards a Critical Sociology of Sport

References

Index

End User License Agreement

Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

Begin Reading

Print Page Numbers

iii

iv

vii

viii

ix

x

xi

xii

xiii

xiv

xv

xvi

xvii

xviii

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

54

55

56

57

58

59

60

61

62

63

64

65

66

67

68

69

70

71

72

73

74

75

76

77

78

79

80

81

82

83

84

85

86

87

88

89

90

91

92

93

94

95

96

97

98

99

100

101

102

103

104

105

106

107

108

109

110

111

112

113

114

115

116

117

118

119

120

121

122

123

124

125

126

127

128

129

130

131

132

133

134

135

136

137

138

139

140

141

142

143

144

145

146

147

148

149

150

151

152

153

154

155

156

157

158

159

160

161

162

163

164

165

166

167

168

169

170

171

172

173

174

175

176

177

178

179

180

181

182

183

184

185

186

187

188

189

190

191

192

193

194

195

196

197

198

199

200

201

202

203

204

205

206

207

208

209

210

211

212

213

214

215

216

217

218

219

220

221

222

223

224

225

226

227

228

229

230

231

232

233

234

238

239

240

241

242

243

244

245

246

247

248

249

250

251

252

253

254

255

256

257

258

259

260

261

262

263

264

265

266

267

268

269

270

271

272

273

274

275

276

277

278

279

280

281

282

283

284

Sport A Critical Sociology

Second Edition

Richard Giulianotti

polity

Copyright © Richard Giulianotti 2016

The right of Richard Giulianotti to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First edition published in 2005 by Polity PressThis second edition first published in 2016 by Polity Press

Polity Press65 Bridge StreetCambridge CB2 1UR, UK

Polity Press350 Main StreetMalden, MA 02148, USA

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-0196-0

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Giulianotti, Richard, 1966-Sport : a critical sociology / Richard Giulianotti. -- Second edition.pages cmIncludes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 978-0-7456-6992-2 (hardback : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-0-7456-6993-9(pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Sports--Sociological aspects. I. Title.GV706.5.G533 2015306.4’83--dc23

2015003523

The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate.

Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.

For further information on Polity, visit our website: www.politybooks.com

Acknowledgements

The writing of this book has benefited greatly from my working in the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences at Loughborough University. I would particularly like to thank my colleagues in the school’s social science section, with whom I have undertaken collaborative research and writing, and my postgraduate students for their sharp analysis, enthusiasm and endeavour in researching diverse sport topics. I would also like to thank my many colleagues in Bø, at Telemark University College, Norway, for the opportunity to participate in many stimulating and instructive conversations and collaborations in the fields of sport, culture and outdoor life.

Over the years I have immensely enjoyed undertaking different collaborative projects with Gary Armstrong and Roland Robertson, which have led to the publication of various books and many articles. The influence of these joint activities is evidenced in different parts of this book, most obviously in discussions on sport subcultures and security issues (with Gary) and on the complex interplay of sport and globalization (with Roland). In regard to assisting my work on specific passages in the book, I thank Ansgar Thiel and Jan Ove Tangen for providing very helpful comments on an earlier discussion of Niklas Luhmann’s theories, Tommy Langseth for pointing me to very useful literature on snowboarding and surfing, and David Howe for insightful discussions on sport and disability.

Finally, I owe a great deal to the expertise, support and patience of my publishing team at Polity, specifically Jonathan Skerrett for inviting me to write the revised edition of this book, Clare Ansell for supervising production, and Caroline Richmond for copyediting.

Abbreviations

A

ABC

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

AFL

Australian Football League (elite Australian Rules football league)

AGIL

adaptation, goal attainment, integration, latency (sociological model)

ATP

Association of Tennis Professionals

B

BBC

British Broadcasting Corporation BIRG basking in reflected glory

BRICS

Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa CBC Canadian Broadcasting Corporation CCCS Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies CCTV closed-circuit television

C

CNN

Cable News Network

CORF

cutting off reflected failure

E

EGLSF

European Gay and Lesbian Sport Federation EPL English Premier League

EU

European Union

F

FARE

Football against Racism in Europe FIFA Fédération Internationale de Football Association (world football governing body)

FIS

Fédération Internationale de Ski (world skiing governing body)

FIVB

Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (world volleyball governing body)

I

ICC

International Cricket Council (world cricket governing body)

ILO

International Labour Organization

IMF

International Monetary Fund

IOC

International Olympic Committee (Olympic sport governing body)

IPC

International Paralympic Committee (world governing body of paralympic sport)

IPL

Indian Premier League (cricket tournament) IRB International Rugby Board (world rugby union governing body; rebranded as World Rugby in 2014)

ISF

International Snowboard Federation

L

LGBT

lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender LPGA Ladies’ Professional Golf Association (North American) MLB Major League Baseball (elite North American baseball league)

N

NBA

National Basketball Association (elite North American basketball league)

NCAA

National Collegiate Athletic Association (US college sport association)

NFL

National Football League (elite US American football league)

NGO

non-governmental organization

NHL

National Hockey League (elite North American hockey league)

NRL

National Rugby League (elite Australasian rugby league)

P

PCS

Physical Cultural Studies

PED

performance-enhancing drugs

RFID

radio-frequency identification

S

SDP

sport for development and peace TCC transnational capitalist class TNC transnational corporation

U

UEFA

Union Associations of European Football (European football governing body)

UN

United Nations

UNESCO

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

UNOSDP

United Nations Office on Sport for Development and Peace

W

WADA

World Anti-Doping Agency WAGs wives and girlfriends

WHO

World Health Organization

Prologue

This book seeks to advance a critical sociological interpretation of modern sport. Throughout, I examine and engage critically with core theories and substantive research themes within the sociology of sport. Other disciplines – notably anthropology, history, human geography, political science and political philosophy – contribute substantially towards broadening the book’s interpretive horizons.

Sport is a vast global field of social, cultural, economic and political activity which cannot be ignored by sociologists. Consider the scale of the world’s leading sport mega-events. The 2012 London Olympic Games involved 204 nations competing in 302 events, assisted by around 70,000 volunteer staff, reported on by 21,000 accredited media workers, and watched live by hundreds of millions of television viewers. In the United States, American football’s NFL Super Bowl is watched on television by increasing numbers, peaking for the 2012 game with an average of 113 million viewers – the highest ever US audience for any television broadcast. At the other end of sport, at grassroots level, tens of millions of people participate in sporting pastimes, notably the football codes,1 skiing, basketball, gymnastics, track and field athletics, and volleyball.

There is no single reason for sport’s huge cross-cultural appeal. Like love, truth and art, sport is a kind of human medium that conjoins people. Modern sport promises playful pleasures to players and spectators; new skills are tutored and learnt. Different sports facilitate controlled, pleasurable interaction with particular landscapes. In our increasingly ‘performative’ consumer culture, the physical endeavour of sport compensates for our sedentary work and leisure practices.

All sports are rule-governed, thereby enabling their easy transmission across different cultures; yet the rules and techniques of sports are not followed in totally uniform ways and thus tend to be transformed to suit local needs. Sport allows different cultures to explore old and new identities and conflicts, in particular concerning community, gender, social class and ethnicity. The ideals that tend to surround sport – for example, with reference to ‘sportsmanship’ and ‘fair play’ – reflect dominant, liberal-democratic and masculine ideologies within the West. Institutionally, sport has been a normative training ground for young elites, notably the English aristocracy and international business leaders. The multi-billion-dollar economics of sport are now dominated by a power matrix that features top sports governing bodies, transnational corporations and global media networks. And the global appeal and growth of sport are reflected in the continuing expansion of ‘sport studies’ as an interdisciplinary field of academic inquiry. New departments and schools, courses and programmes have evolved with a diversity of names and disciplinary emphases. One broad intention for this text is to contribute fully and critically to this expanding social scientific field of inquiry on sport.

This book represents a fully revised version of an earlier edition published by Polity in 2005. My aims in making these complete revisions have been threefold: first, to update the earlier book in order to take account of developments in sport, and in the sociology of sport, over the intervening decade; second, to make the text more accessible to a wider audience, particularly a broader cohort of students at different levels of study; and, third, to inspire further debate among readers, notably through the listing of questions for discussion at the end of each chapter.

Towards a sociological definition of sport

To begin this sociological analysis of sport, I turn first to the issue of how sport might be defined. Of course, the meaning of any keyword will be contested and subject to significant historical and cultural variations. The definition of ‘sport’ is thus somewhat slippery and, to our modern eyes, in the context of the English language, carries some unusual and archaic ties to pre-industrial aristocratic leisure pursuits, such as hunting and shooting. Indeed, for Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary, the verb ‘to sport’ is to ‘frolic’, ‘make merry’ or ‘amuse’, as well as to ‘wear’ and ‘exhibit’; as a noun, ‘sport’ denotes ‘recreation’, ‘games’ and ‘play’, and even ‘amorous behaviour’, ‘mirth’, ‘jest’ and ‘dalliance’.

The modern sociological definition of sport is more specific and systematic. Adapting McPherson, Curtis and Loy (1989: 15–17), I suggest that sport may be defined by the following five properties:

structured

, by rules and codes of conduct, spatial and temporal frameworks (playing fields and time limits on games), and institutions of government;

goal-oriented

, as sport is aimed at achieving particular objectives – e.g., scoring goals, winning contests, increasing averages – thus winners and losers are identifiable;

competitive

, as rivals are defeated, records are broken;

ludic

, enabling playful experiences, which germinate excitement;

culturally situated

, in that 1–4 are intertwined with the valuesystems and power relations within the host society.

Criteria 1–4 enable us to distinguish sport from other practices such as walking or exercising that lack, for example, competition. Criterion 5 enables us to recognize that any transformation of the social context in which sport is played may well lead to the transformation of the sport per se. Hence, to enable its sociological understanding, we need to examine sport with reference to its historical and cultural contexts; its underlying power relations, social structures and cultural values; and the diverse meanings, practices and identities associated with sport by different social groups.

The above criteria enable an inclusive approach in the classification of ‘sports’. Despite their comparatively low requirements in terms of physical activity or fitness, this definition does stretch to include competitive games such as darts, bowling, snooker, pool and motor-racing. Each discipline requires intensive physical engagement and proficiency in hand–eye co-ordination and is structured, goal-oriented, competitive and ludic. Moreover, the officials, participants and spectators within these activities tend to advocate their sport status; their associated sport equipment is retailed by ‘sports’ shops; and significant events and incidents within these disciplines are reported by ‘sports’ media.

The historical and international dimensions of sport

The sociological definition of sport raises issues regarding the historical and international dimensions of sporting practices. To consider in a little detail, it might be noted first that the field of modern sports has a very extensive historical backdrop. Indeed, prehistoric societies were believed to have contested ball games and blood sports as part of their religious cosmologies, often as rituals ‘to placate the unknown powers that people called gods’ (Baker 1988: 6). The modern Olympic Games inherited sporting disciplines from the original ancient Greek games, including sprinting, the long-jump, javelin-throwing and wrestling. Yet it was the British, particularly in the late nineteenth century, who were instrumental in transforming folk games and medieval pastimes into modern codified sports. In part, this endeavour was driven by the attempt to secure order and to inculcate ‘muscular Christianity’ among young men. British schoolboys had been adept in ‘hard-drinking, horse-racing, gambling, blood sports, prize fighting and sexual indulgence’ (Mangan 1998: 179), but these unruly energies were gradually dissipated in schools, as sports such as football, rugby, field hockey, boxing, lawn tennis, squash, and track and field athletics were systematically institutionalized (Mangan 1981: 15–18). In turn, these sports underwent international diffusion through the diverse routes of trade and empire. As Perkin (1989: 217) noted,

where the public-school boys went in large numbers, inside or outside the Empire, there cricket and rugby prevailed, and where the hornyhanded sons of toil, or at least of the counting house, predominated, there soccer fever tended to infect the locals and become endemic.

British dominions such as Australia, New Zealand and South Africa embraced the old school ‘games cult’. The Australians were the first to codify football, as their sport of Australian Rules, in 1859; the sports of rugby union, rugby league and cricket were subsequently seized upon to different degrees by the dominant white communities. In the Indian subcontinent and the Caribbean, cricket was favoured, although local publics came to transform the sport’s colonial culture. After Indian national independence in 1947, kabaddi underwent forms of modern sportification as different local codes of play were harmonized and playing procedures were standardized.

North America’s aristocracy and upper middle classes may have enjoyed tennis, polo and cricket but, up to 1914, new American sporting traditions were established. Baseball, spread initially by the army in the mid-nineteenth century, gained mass popularity among the lower classes; young males at leading universities took up American football; later, the Christian movement established basketball and volleyball as alternatives to existent sports. In Canada, ice-hockey and lacrosse were founded as national sports, the latter being derived from the game played by First Nation peoples.

In central Europe, gymnastic forms of physical culture were also inculcated. In Germany in the early nineteenth century, Friedrich Jahn founded the Turnverein, a set of nationalistic disciplines combining gymnastic drill with military training (notably fencing). The Czech equivalent, sokol, spread across East and Central Europe. ‘Swedish gymnastics’ were founded by Pehr Henrik Ling in the early nineteenth century and were quickly spread internationally, for example by being practised by middle-class English women from the 1830s onwards. Beyond gymnastic activities, to meet competitive demands among German sportspeople, handball was invented and popularized after the First World War to challenge football’s popularity. France’s major contribution to the development of early sport was largely political and administrative. Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the modern Olympic Games, first contested in Athens in 1896, and the French were also catalysts in establishing football’s governing body, FIFA, in 1904. France’s distinctive sporting event remains the Tour de France, the world’s most prestigious cycling race, first contested in 1903. While football’s European hegemony remains intense, shooting and the alpine sports continue to be strong across the Alps and Nordic nations. In Ireland, hurling and Gaelic football, established to counteract perceived British cultural imperialism, maintained strong grassroots support. In Latin America, there are no noteworthy indigenous sports; football dominates, but baseball is hugely popular in Central America. In East Asia, notably Japan and Korea, different martial arts were gradually transformed into such modern international, competitive sports as judo, kendo and taekwondo. In China, the ancient games of cuju (a form of football) and dragon-boat racing were contested more than 2,000 years ago; in modern times, table-tennis has been particularly popular, while there has been mass interest in volleyball, basketball and, latterly, football. Thus, overall, while notwithstanding the transnational appeal of such ‘global games’ as football, this short look at the modern history of the diffusion and development of sport points to the significant variety of sporting traditions, tastes and cultures prevalent across different nations and regions.

Book contents

This book is committed to providing a critical sociological analysis of sport that engages fully with historical and cultural issues and questions. The discipline of sociology may be viewed as the inquisitive child of modernity, as its focus is traditionally directed at examining industrialized and industrializing societies. The explanatory influence of sociology has certainly expanded throughout the twentieth century, particularly towards and after the millennium, to become a kind of master discipline within the social sciences that often encompasses the themes, theories and methods drawn from history, anthropology, economics, geography, politics and international relations, and social psychology.

In this sociological study of sport, I argue that historical and anthropological standpoints are particularly valuable. They enable sociologists to provide crucial comparative perspectives both on the categorical range of sporting practices and on the interconnections between these practices and power relations, community identities, codes of social conduct and wider belief systems. Historical and anthropological approaches also help to reveal, on the one hand, the centrality of power relations and, on the other, the important socio-cultural creativity and agency of human actors in making modern sport. This sociological dichotomy – of structured power relations and elements of cultural vitality and agency – constitutes a key theme throughout the book.

I seek to provide a critical sociological analysis of sport. By critical, in broad terms, I am referring, first, to the endeavour to expose errors and misrepresentations, and to correct misunderstandings, concerning sport; second, to the commitment to highlight the power interests, divisions and inequalities that lie behind social relations and organizations within sport; and, third, to principles of democracy, social inclusion and social justice, and the concern to explore alternative ways in which sport may be organized and experienced. In that sense, my approach to the sociology of sport accords with the critical theoretical traditions within social science, particularly those that draw on neo-Marxist (especially neo-Gramscian) and Foucauldian standpoints (cf. Calhoun 1995).

To provide this critical sociological analysis of sport, the book is separated into twelve chapters. This distribution of intellectual labour is intended to make for diverse, concise discussions, although, given the constraint of contemporary academic publishing, they cannot be encyclopaedic. I have endeavoured to deploy a reasonable range of sociological texts, taking account of likely readership interests and, of course, my disciplinary research concerns and theoretical commitments. Each chapter also concludes with several questions on the relevant issues and subjects that warrant further consideration by readers.

The opening three chapters explore the broad influence of three founding fathers of sociology, namely Emile Durkheim, Max Weber and Karl Marx, in relation to sport. In the first chapter, I explore functionalist and system theories of sport that draw particularly from the Durkheimian tradition in sociology. These approaches emphasize sport’s functional utility in promoting social cohesion and solidarity through quasi-religious rituals. Sport may be seen to strengthen social order at two levels: at the systemic level, as claimed by structural functionalists, through the interconnections between sport and other institutions; and at the everyday level, as indicated for example by Goffman, through particular interaction rituals that protect the ‘face’ of social actors.

Second, Weberian sociologies facilitate deeper understanding of sport’s interpretive and rationalized aspects. Interpretive sociology focuses on the complex, varying meanings and identities of social actors within sport. Weber, Guttmann and Ritzer point us towards considering the impact upon sport of our highly rationalized, bureaucratized modern society. Despite significant respective strengths, I argue that Durkheimian and Weberian perspectives underplay the key political-economic factors that shape sport at structural and everyday levels.

Conversely, and third, Marxist and neo-Marxist theories address the political-economic divisions and underlying conflicts within sport in the context of modern capitalism. According to different neo-Marxist positions, sport reproduces the signature iniquities of industrial capitalism, such as in exploiting workers/athletes and manipulating consumers/spectators. However, such arguments may oversimplify Marx’s understanding of the complexity of power relations at particular historical conjunctures and underplay how sport (and other cultural fields) may become key sites of social and symbolic conflict.

These discussions lead into an analysis of ‘Cultural Studies’ and wider neo-Marxist approaches in chapter 4. More plausible Cultural Studies approaches draw on sustained fieldwork and theory (notably from Gramsci and Williams) to examine how culture (including sport) is a site of struggle for subordinated social groups, notably the working classes, young women and ethnic minorities. Key concepts here relate to hegemony, resistance, transgression and the carnivalesque. I also consider how two further perspectives – drawing on the work of the Habermas and the recent ‘Physical Cultural Studies’ movement – may be deployed critically to examine sport.

These four, more theoretical opening chapters provide the crucial conceptual bases for examining four more substantive themes in the next chapters, relating specifically to ‘race’, gender, the body and space. The first two of these, on ‘race’ and gender, have become key research domains within Cultural Studies and the sociology of sport. I examine each theme with substantial reference to their modern sporting histories, highlighting the long-term social construction and cross-cultural complexity of these respective research fields. I explore how sport has contributed to racist mythologies and assess whether it offers alternative social mobility for non-white social groups. I examine sport’s role in shaping distinctive and contested norms, identities and experiences in relation to gender and sexuality.

The subsequent two chapters examine, respectively, the body and sport spaces as two key sites of sporting practice. Foucault’s theories on the corporeal and spatial disciplining of populations feature prominently. I explore the body in sport with reference to phenomenological experiences and the appeal of voluntary risk-taking but also with regard to the disciplining and governing of bodies and more problematic bodily risks. In the next chapter, I examine sport spaces with regard to deep emotional attachments, political economic issues, the increasingly extensive securing of stadiums, and processes of postmodernization.

The following two chapters examine the sport-centred contributions of two major international sociologists, Norbert Elias and Pierre Bourdieu. Elias’s ‘process sociological’ standpoint examined society as a game wherein participants, spectators and governing bodies are ‘interdependent’ and caught in the constant flux of play. His theory of the civilizing process has been employed to trace sport’s social history and, more problematically, to explain sports-related violence. Bourdieu forwarded a more critical, concerted sociological standpoint that connects sporting ‘tastes’ to intergroup classifications and social struggles. His later work became more overtly politicized through trenchant critiques of social inequality and the dominance of neoliberal government policies.

The final pair of chapters, on the postmodern and globalization, examine two of the most important debates within social science over the last two to three decades. Postmodern trends in sport are identifiable in the growing significance of media, the interpenetration of sporting codes and disciplines, the reorientation of stadiums towards fantasy consumption, more fluid forms of sports identification, and the collapse of sports-defined distinctions between high and low culture. Latterly, globalization has become the key research theme within contemporary sociology. I examine how modern sport illustrates par excellence the globalization of cultural practices and social relations, as well as the deep-seated divisions and inequalities in global politics and economics. As a whole, these chapters, and the short epilogue that follows, are intended to provide the reader with a critical sociological understanding of sport and to inspire reflection on how sport might be reformed and transformed according to principles that are rooted in democracy, social inclusion and participation, and social justice.

1.

   These football codes include association football (soccer), American football (or gridiron), Australian Rules football, rugby union and rugby league, and Gaelic football. Unless otherwise indicated, ‘football’ designates the sport of soccer alone.

1Functionalist Theories of Sport: Social Orders, Solidarities and Systems

Functionalist social theories, and their variants of structural functionalism and neo-functionalism, highlight the maintenance of social consensus and social order and downplay the role of conflict in social life. Although they were highly influential in sociology and social science in the early and mid-twentieth century, functionalist approaches lost most of their impact from the 1960s onwards to more attractive conflict-based theories, notably Marxist perspectives. Today, functionalist sociologies of sport tend to appear as historical artefacts that provide little of contemporary explanatory value.

While not ignoring their weaknesses, I seek to indicate here that the functionalist sociologies of Durkheim, Merton and Parsons help us to understand key issues in sport, notably with regard to social integration, solidarity, order, rituals and anomie. Aspects of functionalist sociology have been evidenced particularly by Central and North European scholars in applying the systems theory of the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann to sport. Goffman’s more microsociological work also provides intriguing insights into the fragile social order that underpins everyday social interaction.

Durkheimian sociology: social order, solidarity and religion

Emile Durkheim (1858–1917), who advanced the first comprehensive functionalist standpoint in sociology, lived through periods of great social change in his native France – notably growing industrialization, urbanization and secularization, as well as the first global war. In partial consequence, his sociological focus was relatively conservative and concerned the nature and problem of how social order was to be maintained when faced with these kinds of major transformation.