p.p1 {margin: 0.
0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 36.0px; font: 12.0px ‘Times New Roman’; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000}p.
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0px 0.0px; text-indent: 36.0px; font: 12.0px ‘Times New Roman’; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 15.0px}p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.
0px 0.0px; text-indent: 36.0px; font: 11.0px ‘Trebuchet MS’; color: #000000; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 12.0px}span.s1 {font-kerning: none}Sociologists focus on systematic studies of the society and social interaction.
It tends to explain how the community affects the people that live in it. Social being defined as the ongoing concerting and the coordination of the activities of individuals, sociology, therefore, qualifies to be the study of all that is characterised by social. A sub-discipline of sociology that mainly focuses on the study of sports as a social phenomenon is termed as sports sociology. The primary focus here is to critically review how sociologists seek to understand the sporting world as a whole. In addition to that, there will be a review of the various sociological theories of sports and explanation of how the difference in gender affects the sports participation.Several theories have helped to explain and understand the sociology of sports. These theories include; the conflict theory, symbolic interactionism, critical theory and structural functionalism. In critical theory, the primary emphasis is grounded on the materialist interpretation of historical work, rational analysis, a critical stance on the social arrangement and a political program of reform and revolution (Smith and Hattery, 2017, p113).
It mainly draws attention to the differentials in power such as the conflict amongst different classes. It is thus viewed as a macro level of analysing the society. Structural functionalism theory views the society as a complex model, whose different parts work in cooperation to promote stability and solidarity.Symbolic interactionism, on the other hand, develops from various practical considerations.
These considerations allude to the utilisation of dialect by people, for making normal implications for the various deductions that help in correspondence with others. Under the critical theory, there is a stress on the reflective assessment and the critique of society and is done by the application of the knowledge form social sciences and various subjects of humanity. It strives to liberate the humans form the circumstances which enslave them. In most of the premodern societies, the role of gender, particularly for the females and the males in sports was majorly reinforced at a young age.
The sociology that was keenly observed to be surrounding sports was grounded on the idea that sports are for the most masculine (Chalip, 2015, p398). The men are more masculine than females. Regarding this, the females were therefore sidelined and discriminatively exempted from the participation of various sporting activities. This was grounded in the argument that they are delicate and thus prone to injuries, given their less muscular nature. They were thus encouraged to participate more in the noncompetitive games while the competitive ones were left behind for the males.
The impacts of the various sporting activities were to serve as a preparatory model for children to adulthood. During the games, there was a distinct separation of roles between the men and women (Delaney and Madigan, 2015). The separation was majorly expressed through the media and the gender identity. In fact, it has been commonly observed that in the media, the sports played by men are more prominent in comparison to the women sports. The broadcast of the sports between these two genders also vary. There is a clear and distinct contrast in the kind of sports that is taken by each gender. While the male takes part in more combative and confronting coordination games, the women take part in games that are more stylish and individual and are more stylish.
Social class significantly affects the line of the game that some people are seen to take. Social class is usually measured by the amount of wealth that one owns. And is regularly thought that the higher class people are more likely to be more competent at sports.
This would be supported by the fact that in the Beijing games, 40 percent of the medal winners were privately educated (Malcolm, 2018) which would suggest the exposure higher class people have in sport makes them more likely to progress in sport. However on the other hand only 37 percent of team GB were privately educated (Malcolm, 2018) which suggest how times could possibly be changing.Marxism and Functionalism tend to explain and table out certain ideas about human society. The Marxist theory majorly affects how people get to participate in different sporting activities, depending on their social status. Sports can un-doubtfully be viewed using neither the Marxist nor Functionalism model but rather, by combining the two. A Marxist focuses on the distribution of power in sports.
Despite the fact that the Marxist theory is aware of the inequalities that result from money in sporting activities, it fails to recognise the fact that there can be other individuals whose main strength could be creativity and provision of challenging experiences, amid the inequalities. Marxist model majorly stresses the lack of fit in the given different gaps of the society.The participation in sports crosses most boundaries, particularly the racial and the ethnic boundaries. However, it is notable that a person’s identity may provide an upper hand towards the participation in a particular sporting activity (Chalip, 2015,p 399). The society holds very strong ethnic and racial labels and these when applied to particular sports may lead to the identity of particular sports being viewed as self-defining. The aspect of self-defining as ascribed in sports may have its historical roots.People with disabilities have been victims of various societal barriers.
The fact that one has a physical disability evokes some negative perception, and the aspect of discrimination dominates in most of the societies (Delaney & Madigan, 2015). Sociologists have, however, identified sports to be one such field that transcends all forms of barriers, ranging from linguistic, to racial and even social barriers. It acts as a standard platform for participation and inclusion of all manner of diversities and differences. Through this, the persons with disabilities are thus accommodated.
Being considered incapable, participating in sports makes the feels like part of others and fosters their inclusion in all manner of activities that others participate.The participation of the disabled in the Paralympic games has helped in bridging the gap that existed between the disabled and the rest of the population. The quality and quantity of physical opportunities have been increased, and everyone accorded equal chance for competition. Everything has been set level for the disabled so that people with comparable capabilities and strengths can compete at the same level. Both the self-image and self-confidence have been improved through the Paralympic games. It has also helped in killing the perception that the disabled are unable to do most of their things alone.
The act of social welfare among the disabled is seen when the physically challenged are allowed to take part in elite disability sports activities.Indeed, it is evident that sociology plays an utmost crucial role as far as sports and equality in sports are concerned. The various theories put in place for the understating of the sociology of sports are instrumental in enabling the learners to appreciate the various aspects of the sociology of sports as well as their applicability in the contemporary society. Various aspects of stigma and discrimination in sports are viewed in a more sociological aspect, and their critical analysis helps in understanding the both the initial and the current direction of the society about this matter.
