WEEK 23 LECTURE 1: SOCIOLOGY OF SPORTS & AGING

Question 1

DEFINING ‘SPORT’

Answer 1

How do we decide what is a sport?

1. Coakley (2009): sports are ”well-established, officially governed, competitive physical
   activities in which participants are motivated by internal and external rewards.”
2. Giulianotti (2005) – a sport is:

a. Structured by rules and codes of conduct, spatial and temporal frameworks, and
institutions of government

b. Goal-oriented

c. Competitive

d. Able to generate excitement

e. Culturally situated in that A-D correspond closely to the value systems and power
relations within the relevant sport’s host society

Question 2

WHAT IS THE SOCIOLOGY OF SPORT?

Answer 2

Focused on the study of sport as a social institution.

Goal: Understanding the game, but also the “games outside the games”; How does the institution of sport relate to other institutions and impact peoples’ interactions, daily lives, and life chances?

Question 3

THE BIG THREE ON SPORTS

Answer 3

FUNCTIONALISM – sports as a form of social solidarity
* How do sports bring people together?
* How does organic solidarity take place within various sports?

CONFLICT THEORY – the dynamics of capitalist economic systems shape all institutions, sports included
* Conditions of athletic production (owner-player conflicts, e.g., NCAA)
* Nature and effects of sports consumption

SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM – meaning making through interactions in sports (both on and off the ‘field of play’)
* E.g., status symbols

Question 4

B AR R IE R S IN SPORT (KA R E N & WAS H IN GT ON 2 01 5 )

Class
Race
Gender

Answer 4

CLASS:

• Which sports are expensive / associated with status?
• Which sports tend to be taken up by those with lower income?
• How can participation in sports lead to upward mobility?

RACE

GENDER:

• Sport is a gendered institution; masculinity is often enforced through sports participation
• Which sports are associated with conceptions of masculinity, and which are not? How does this intersect with sexuality?

Intersectionality: Serena Williams

Serena Williams and the Trope of the “Angry Black Woman

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45476500

Question 5

SOCIOLOGY OF AGING

Answer 5

GERENTOLOGY – the study of the sociological
and psychological aspects of aging and the
problems faced by those who are older.

THE LIFE-COURSE PERSPECTIVE (Moody &
Sasser 2018)

• We cannot understand what old age means
  unless we understand it as part of the entire
  course of human life
• We can look at old age as one phase of the
  entire life course, and the result of influences
  that came from earlier periods and life
  transitions
• Examples of life transitions?

Question 6

DISENGAGEMENT THEORY

Answer 6

A theory of aging that suggests society and the aging individual mutually sever many of their relationships over time.

Question 7

ACTIVITY THEORY

Answer 7

A theory of aging that suggests those elderly people who remain active and socially involved will be best adjusted

Question 8

AGEISM as discrimination

Answer 8

Prejudice and discrimination based on a person’s age
* How does this take place?