KNES287 SPORT AND AMERICAN SOCIETY section meeting starts 9 12 MODULE I INTRODUCTION 8 31 What is Kinesiology Interdisciplinary study of human movement the ACTIVE body Physical culture represents an ONTOLOGICALLY MIXED ENTITY multiple diverse ways of being physically active Dance sports exercise recreation health P E KNES287 is more of a qualitative way to look at physical culture All aspects of physical culture are also SOCIOLOGICAL entities and contribute toward social cultural and historical processes In order to truly understand American society one must study contemporary sport culture aim of this course to produce CRITICAL SPORTING INTELLECTUALS We will be introduced to theories that assist us in observing interpreting understanding and experiencing society the social world and sport It s like a social lens through which we will be able to look at sports An approach to understanding sport The ESPN view whatever is on ESPN is a sport Yeah football but pool Bass Fishing National spelling bee Poker Set of competitive physical activities based on play games and ontests And we formally define it as a structured goal oriented competitive contest based ludic physical activity AKA SPORT is something that is Structured rules and codes of conduct spatial and temporal constraints highly bureaucratized Goal Oriented Commonly defined objectives allowing clear identification of winners and losers Competitive Contest based competitors or clock Outcomes are uncertain by this definition WWE isn t a sport because outcomes are predetermined Ludic Elements of freedom of expression and playful creativity audibles crossovers bunting Physical Involving use of body in instrumental and vigorous fashion So chess may fit the other aspects but body isn t used in a key manner so it s NOT A SPORT These 5 categories describe prolympic sports pro Olympic sports Many other highly popular physical activities don t fit into this prolympic definition however working out karate hiking SPORT AS A PHYSICAL CULTURE 9 7 According to loose definition in this course sport is a collective noun used to describe the various culturally sanctioned aspects of PHYSICAL ACTIVITY practiced in society our body is the essential instrument with regard to participating in and object with regard to spectating physical culture ACTIVE BODY instrument participation object spectating when you play baseball your body is the instrument When you watch it on TV you re watching the body as an object Range of sporting involvement ranging from work to play 1 Occupational participation a manager or agent generating money for business 2 Professional participation professional athlete 3 Wellness leisure participation keeping your body healthy 4 Active spectating going to watch a game 5 Passive spectating watching a game on TV Just like with other CULTURAL FORMS music food media sporting and preferences of society are NEVER GUARANTEED and always likely to change Meaning that sport and physical culture are always different in every country and location you go to Sport is constantly changing always in a PERPETUAL STALE OF FLUX the first college football game played in the 1800 s was very similar to rugby over time has become the NCAA and football that we know Antonio Gramsci a theorist who died in the 30 s who never once wrote about sport said culture is a CONTESTED TERRAIN There s a dominant culture a residual culture and an emergent culture that are constantly fighting to overtake one another 10 years ago you watched TV at home in your den now much TV is predominantly watched on laptops So too there are dominant football residual baseball and emergent lacrosse sports in America Nothing is guaranteed baseball was dominant decades ago has been replaced by football recently 200 years ago cockfighting was dominant people legit bet on it now it s definitely residual SPORT IS NOT SUBSTANTIAL IT IS RELATIONAL There s no true essence of what sport is it is DETERMINED BY THE SOCIETY IN WHICH IT S BEING PLAYED IT IS RELATIVE TO ITS SOCIETY Economy technology politics and culture are all intertwined in sports How can we begin to thing contextually about sport 1 Bob Costas believes that sport is a world of itself and completely an escape from society Costasitis That leads to SPORTING FETISHIZATION Treating sports as if it s divorced from our world something we do We don t question why our sporting lives are as they are we simply take them for granted 2 Sport as a Mirror of Society that society directly reflects society We should use our SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION C Wright Mills Encourages the recognition that there is a two way relationship between sport and society 3 Sport as a Product and Producer of Society Dialectic Thesis SPORT SOCIETY Thinking along these lines brings us to a Jigsaw Analogy Sport is a single piece in a huge puzzle that only means something and takes shape in relation to the other pieces with which it combines to constitute the jigsaw as a whole DISCUSSION SECTION 9 12 Readings Dr Andrews article Sport should be noun suggesting diversity and complexity of what are expressions of physical culture there s not one specific thing that you can point to about something and say that makes it a sport you can t just said its physically demanding or it s on ESPN Sport as contextually bound Ontological dialecticism ways of being interconnected sport mirroring society Use our sociological imagination to identify those interconnections the Super Bowl is much more than just a football game what else is going on at a Little League baseball game besides the game itself From Gruneau sport is a cultural practice part of our every day lives Jackie Robinson s integration into baseball was actually 10 years ahead of the anti segregation laws in schools so you could say that baseball s integration actually affected the world s integration Contemporary commercial sport sport in different time periods is product of those social relations sport in era of late capitalism is no diff Post WWII and corporate capitalism sport was changed in accordance with corporate commercial structures sport became a big business Corporate sport model 1 Profit driven executive control and management hierarchies run a team like a business 2 Cartelized and franchised organizational structures who plays who how many games where 3 Rational relocation Baltimore Indianapolis Colts 4 Media sport as entertainment part of the entertainment business 5 Sport spectacles as vehicles for