Knes Review Sheet Test 1 TOPIC A The importance of Critical and Theoretical Thinking In order to be able to assess the theory s interpretive relevance and value Competing Definitions of Sport ESPN it incorporates that which one confronts when reading the sports pages of major newspapers or watching ESPN Loy et al often we think of sport as a set of specific competitive physical activities based on elements of play games and contests From this perspective we formally define sport as a structed goal oriented competitive contest based ludic physical activity o Structured rules and codes of conduct spatial and temporal constraints highly bureaucraztized o Goal oriented commonly defined objectives allowing a clear identificatioin of winners and losers o Competitive essentially contest based either between competitors or clock Necessarily indeterminate activities involving excitement generated from uncertainty of outcomes o Ludic involving elements of freedom of expression and playful o Physical involving the use of the body in an instrumental and creativity vigorous fashion o Basically an elite high structed and competitive team and individual activities which do dominate the contemporary sporting landscape prolympic sports Sport as and Physical Culture SPORT a collective noun used to describe the various culturally sanctioned aspects of the physical activity practiced within a given society Physical culture those activities where the body itself its anatomy its physicality and importantly its forms of movement is the very purpose the raison d etre or the activity o Represents an ontologically mixed entity there are diverse ways of being physical The Diversity of Physical Culture there are diverse ways of being physical The Active Body as Instrument and Object the active body is the internal instrument with regard to participation and the external object with regard to spectating of physical culture sport culture is in a perpetual state of flux Sport Physical Culture as a Contested Terrain Gramsci dominant cultural ractices and meanings constantly struggle for their position of ascendancy against residual and or emergent practices and meanings all interrelated emergent residual dominant emergent etc Dominant Residual and Emergent Sport Practices Dominant MLB NBA NFL Residual cock fighting Emergent extreme ironing cricket American Competing Understandings of the Sport Society Relation sport is not substantial it is relational Sporting Fetishization treating sport as if it is somehow divorced from the various forces and relations which shape its very constitutional as if it is an entity in and of itself and not a product of a particular culture and historical moment not questioning why our sporting lives are as they are Instead simply taking them for granted sport is a societal construct whose form and function speaks to the nature of the society in which we live The Sport Society Dialectic sport as product and producer of society two way and mutually reinforcing relationship between entities The Jigsaw Analogy an individual piece of a jigsaw is relatively meaningless in and of itself It can only be understood in relation to the other pieces with which is combines to make a full jigsaw Sociological Imagination C Wright Mills encourages the recognition that as they live out their lives individuals contribute to the shaping of society as the individual is made by society and by its historical push and shove The Sporting Sociological Imagination any adequate account of sport must be rooted in an understanding of its location within society The essence of sport is to be found within the nature of it relationship to the broader stream of societal forces of which it is a part Sport Mapping Interrelationships and Interconnections All interrelated relate in the middle to sport o Politics culture economy technology politics I The Olympic Park Stratford II The Super Bowl III Physical Activity and Consumer Culture IV Physical Inactivity and Consumer Culture V The Commercial Spectacle of Intercollegiate Sport VI Sport and Performance Enhancing Drugs Sport represents an important window into understanding the structure and experience of the society we live in READING TOPIC B SPORT AND THE NEOLIBERAL POLITICAL ORDER Sportization of Politics or the Politicization of Sport ex Sarah Palin calling herself a hockey mom Politics the structures processes and practices of governance the mechanisms whereby people s lives are controlled shaped and regulated by external forces Political power the ability to shape control regulate people s lives Macro politics the ability to govern control shape regulate lives on a societal level Micro politics ability to govern lives on a personal level Macro Politics as a system of societal governance and control Political System type and structures of governance and rule Political formations ideology values beliefs and ideas related to the political system Hegemony Gramsci the situation in which a dominant group that holding political power is able to win the support of NORMALIZING the masses for its position of power authority process of manipulating public opinion in order that the people actively consent agree to the ideology underpinning the political order system of rule Chinese State Capitalism and the Beijing Games society is controlled by the government but have allowed a degree of economic reform leading to increased levels of private ownership Two Chinas 1 Authoritarian Politics 2 Consumerist Culture Coercive and Consensus Politics Wielding Political Power 1 Suppressing Dissent Wielding Political Power 2 Coercing the Masses Wielding Political Power 2 Controlling Info Rollerball and Corporate Autocracy and Collectivism governed by a group of global corporate monopolies The polity and economy are indivisible All aspects of society controlled by the Majors transport food communication housing luxury energy global corporate autocracy political tool of corporate society allowing it to govern effectively Corporate society making decisions on a global basis for the common good Rollerball politicized 1 Cathartic Release and Narcoitc Conformity 2 Advancement of group ethic and suppression of individualism Legitimates the authority of the majors the poltical order Corporate command polity economy individual needs and wants supplied by corporate structures in return for absolute compliance obedience Manufacturing Spectacle Manufacturing Consent to Power wielding Poltical