MIDTERM REVIEW Flashcards
(40 cards)
3 Ways we learn about sport
Culture, context, and communication
SIGN = _____ + _______
signifier (object that represents, ex. red light) + signified (ex. stop)
2 reasons we should take sport seriously
reflects society, and is economic/political
5 Aspects of modern sport
-rules & spatial constraints (fields, separate sport & play)
-goal oriented (winning, profit, points)
-competitive (rivalries)
-ludic (playful & exciting)
-culturally situated (sport reflects society)
Define Ideology
worldview conveyed by subjective statements but claim objectivity (ALL are biased in some way)
*think of “common sense”
Describe the social dichotomy
structured power relations and elements of cultural agency (both constraining and enabling)
5 sociological perspectives of sport
- sport as political/economic enterprise
- sport as site of ideology/myth (race, sexuality, ability, class)
- Sport and politics of space (gentrification)
- Sport embedded in globalization & neoliberalism (trans national corporations and media control)
- Sport as part of new social movements (social justice, sustainability)
What class are most professional athletes & why?
Earn/spend like upper class but rely on body as profitable resource like working class
Define mode of production
how society is organized to secure necessities (food, clothing etc.) Examples are feudalism, capitalism, communism.
Define commodity fetishism
personification of products and economic categories by abstraction of labor processes that come from creating products (ex. perfume marketed by celebrity rather than how it smells/lasts) -capitalism specialty
Define alienation
worker is made to feel foreign to products of their own labor (craftsman doesn’t own his product after selling it to corporation)
Define dialect and give 2 examples
tension between labor vs capital
(capitalism = owners vs workers, feudalism = serfs vs lords, slavery = slaves vs slave owners)
Describe Marx’s view on how sport is related to production
mechanization of body (play through pain), resistance to pain (deny libido), division of labor (different positions are different parts of the assembly line), competition vs cooperation work to create max productivity
Summary of Curt Flood
Got traded but didn’t want to move across country, but the reserve clause prevents players from changing teams unless traded/sold (like a slave) so protested for free agency but lost his career because of it. Why can’t athletes choose where they get to work just like any other employable person?
Describe the two key narratives in popular press
- “millionaires vs billionaires”- rich athletes shouldn’t complain about their situations, and lower paid athletes are always forgotten
- self-responsibility in dangerous sports- leagues “didn’t know” that sports could cause serious harm, retirement seen as a “privilege” after putting body at risk
what were the 2 effects of the concussion discourse?
- misrecognized athletes as unrelated to the working world (illness/injury can’t be separated from SES- think black lung in coal miners)
- deflected responsibility from league admins to players
Traits of Rhoden’s Conveyor Belt analogy
standardization, uniformity, optimal production, removal of defects
Problems of sport and discipline
Rigorous training routines, diet, sleep, school, rookie initiation, exclusivity agreements
Problems of sport and young athletes
-young athletes need law protection (forced labor- 30hrs/week for 10yr old hockey players)
-inappropriate/ abusive coach-player relations are natural
-entertainment industry has child labor laws but non apply to sport, but same issues there???
Problems with March Madness
-athletes draw the audience and revenue but see none of it
-“scholarships” must be renewed yearly incase injury, graduation rates below 50%
Key takeaways from Bale Article
-industrialization lead to segregation of sport spaces
-colonizing land into sportscapes became common
-segregation among spectators
-spectators became docile & surveillance needed due to rowdy behaviors
Describe Space Invaders
people who expose racist/sexist discrimination in sporting spaces (tiger woods on golf courses- unheard of for black man unless he was working there)
Describe Molotch’s Growth Machine Thesis
economic elites influence politics to gain capital, rentiers (exchange value & money making) vs residents (use value & social organization). Use the pro-growth ideology that these capital projects (stadiums) will create “civic pride”
Describe the process of Mcdonaldization of baseball stadiums
-Early ballpark: small, good views, quirky features (Yankee Stadium and Fenway) but didn’t max. spectatorship
-Late modern ballparks (60’s-80’s): multi use, seating was quantity over quality, playing conditions controlled, workers replaced with tech (Skydome, Astrodome)
-Post modern ballpark (90’s-now): reliant on nostalgia to gain support, now have malls, food courts, arcades, to make more of an experience
