Soc222 - Kyle Crowder PDF

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What are sports? Tuesday, January 7, 2020 12:55 PM

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Sports are a mirror of the social world Sociological lens/imagination o A matter of recognizing the connection between individual agency and social structures that define opportunities and shape behavior Personal troubles vs. social issues Sociology o Definition: The systematic study of groups, organizations, social institutions, societies, and the social interaction among people.  Systematic study = rely on theoretical arguments and scientific methods to study social behavior o Sociological knowledge comes from the examination of facts not personal Why do people cheat? Core tenets of the sociological perspective o By their nature, people are social creatures o Individuals are mainly socially determined o People create, change, and sustain the social institutions within which they conduct their lives  We are both the puppets and puppeteers of social institutions  Social institutions: enduring realms or features of society that structure social life and interactions  Classics studied by sociologists  Family  Religion  Education  Economy  Government/politics  Media (newer)  Science/technology (newer)  Sports (newer) Sport vs. Sports o Sport: the social institution related to the organization of athletic endeavors o Sports: specific athletic activities or games (e.g., football, tennis, cycling, etc.) Sports: institutionalized, structures, and sanctioned competitive activities that go beyond the realm of play and involve physical exertion and the use of relatively complex athletic skills o Highly structured:  Pre-determined starts and finishes to contests  Institutionalized rules o Physically challenging  Must tire you out  Distinct from intellectual contests o Distinct from leisure/play Definition of sport varies across

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Fandoms Thursday, January 9, 2020 12:29 PM

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Fandom o The state or condition of being a fan of someone or something Statistics: o About 60% (give or take 5%) of people are sports fans and the data has not changed over the last 20 years o Higher income people are bigger sports fans Are sports the "opium of the masses"? o Karl Marx on religion  Two arguments:  Religion reduces immediate suffering, helps the poor to carry on by providing "positive illusions"  Religion is a distraction, preventing people from recognizing the forces keeping them poor and oppressed. What do we get out of watching sports? o Sense of community o Identity o Tradition o Something to look forward to o Entertainment o Provide emotions, whether high or low

Cottingham reading:  Main goal: o [understand] emotion and ritual behaviors of fans and the meaning that fandom provides o Assess whether these ritual behaviors extend beyond those related to directly watching sports  Approach: o Study the activities of fans of the Pittsburg Steelers  Interesting idea: o Ben Roethlisberger went through a sexual assault case yet people don't condemn him or talk about it because he has a status in Pittsburg and in the NFL  Findings: o Argues that watching sports is not just cathartic  Elias and Dunning ("Eliasian view")  Daily life requires constant restraint  Sports provide opportunity to experience and express strong emotions  Cottingham's critique:  Assumes that emotions are volatile and must be released

 What about positive emotions from sports? Instead adopts a theory of interaction rituals:  Positive feelings emerge out of (are produced by) particular social interactions.  These emotions serve to reinforce cohesion to the group in which the interactions occur (glue us together) o 3 key characteristics of "successful interactions":  Ritual ingredients  Multiple people in the same place (watching alone is not the same)  Boundaries to outsiders  Common focus on something  Common mood or emotional experience  Ritual outcomes  Feeling of membership  "Feeling of confidence, elation, strength, enthusiasm"  Group symbols  A sense of morality/righteousness  Collective effervescence  Momentary state of shared elation, excitement, love  Individuals collectively experiencing "emotional energy"  These 3 things are variable o Successful interactions between people are linked together in "interactional chains" to produce positive emotion for the group. o Regular attendance at games or other gatherings help to "recharge" positive shared emotion Key findings: o Watching sports provide venue for positive emotion fans o But these emotions may also emerge away from the games o Reverence to team symbols is key o Delineation of outsiders is key o As an informal social group, sports fans develop and maintain meaning and sense of belonging across time and space  Traditions connect generations Is this feeling of belonging important? o Maslow's hierarchy of needs  People are motivated by the most basic needs  Once those are satisfied, move on to more advanced needs  Social needs are important Durkheim and religion o French sociologist o Focused on the changing nature of social solidarity o Increasing urbanization, population diversity, and an increasingly complex division of labor is a challenge to social cohesion o Absence of social cohesion can contribute to anomie  Anomie = a condition of instability in society resulting from the breakdown of shared values, standards, ideals, or norms of behavior  Can lead to:  Breakdown of social bonds  Individualism over collective norms o

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Dog eat dog world, people do what's best for them to get ahead  Deviance, suicide o Religion is a social institution that serves to maintain social cohesion  Religion is a social construct  Allows a group to express its unity  Creates solidarity  Reduced anomie in traditional societies  The unified set of beliefs or religion define the distinction between the sacred and the profane  Profane = mundane individual concerns that are part of the physical world and require no special respect or veneration  Sacred = collective representations that are set apart from society, or that which transcends the humdrum of everyday life.  Rituals = formalized activity in which the members of a group or community regularly engage to reinforce shared beliefs or connections, often leading to a sense of "collective effervescence"  Totems = collective symbols used to represent the belief system that unites a group, thereby representing the group itself  Exampled: sacred animal or plant, star of David, cross, crescent moon and star, etc.  The use of these totems and rituals reinforces a sense of belonging and solidarity  Signals to self and others a devotion to the shared beliefs and norms  Reinforces connections between people = social cohesion  Prevents rampant individualism and anomie Religion on the decline? Sport as a religion? o There are rituals  Ex: pledge of allegiance  Chants for rugby teams  Handshakes/huddles o There are totems  Mascots  "Cheese-heads" for Green Bay, wearing cheese on their heads o There is collective effervescence  Cheering together  Hugging people you've never met  Sense of unity

Sports, Identities, Politics Tuesday, January 14, 2020 12:30 PM

Serazio (2012): "the Elementary Forms of Sports Fandom"  Qualitative study of Philadelphia Phillies (baseball) fans around 2008 World Series

o Participant observation o Content analysis  Sports like religion can serve as basis for social cohesion  Sporting outcomes produces communitas  Feeling of unity or "oneness" that emerges out of collective experience of a "trial" or "rite of passage"  Individuals united and equal despite different statuses, experiences  Manifested through collective effervescence of sports o Stronger when the team is winning  Collective activities of fans at least as important as the came in creating communitas o Tailgating, cheering, celebrating, etc. is what ties sports fans together  Source of community connection in face of anonymity and disconnection of modern life o Serves as a reminder of civic interconnectedness and dependence, despite the daily endurance of big city anonymity. Tapping into debate about the nature of "community" in modern society Community = a group of people sharing a common trait or experience that is the basis for a sense of shared identity or belonging  Physical community: a group of people with a connection based on sharing the same physical location (neighborhood, town, nation)  Social community: a group of people with a connection based on sharing a common demographic or social characteristic, activity, or belief system (LGBTQ community, Jewish community. Green Party) Community is important  Affects opportunities  Defines rules of behavior  Shapes identity In traditional societies, physical community = social community Big debate about what modern life does to our sense of community  Traditional argument: modern world undermines strong community  Counterargument: modern world is conducive to stronger community Most communities are imagines communities  A group of people who self-identify as a common group despite the fact that they will likely never meet. We sometimes define sub-communities within communities  Community within a community. o Ex: Like KPOP but specifically EXO, Pink Panda, etc.  Intersection of social and physical communities o Ex: RC fans of Seattle  Intersection of multiple social communities o Ex: Black Republicans Communities vary in terms of whether they provide a "sense of shared identity and belonging" What makes for a strong, cohesive community?  Participation perceived as important and/or rewarding  Regular activities/interactions that allow for reinforcement of group

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Use of symbols that signal and reinforce shared identity/affinity/membership Boundaries that differentiate members and non-members

Sport and city allegiance  Teams represents the city  Teams become part of our place-based identity o We hang on to our hometown teams  Teams are tied to places  Strengthen cohesion by defining the other? o Less dedicated fans  Fandom during losses  Knowledge and tradition  Emulating character of the city o Relative to other team  Commitment and tradition  Character rivals and their city o Hating the other?  Ingroup positivity= Paying more to see good things for your team  Outgroup positivity = paying more to see bad things for the opposing team Defining the other appears to be quite important in our sports fandom? Are things different on the international scale  Why do we care so much about the outcome of international competition o Nations (fans and politicians) use international events as a test of political/ideological superiority  International sports affect our national identity Shobe (2013), "Place, identity, and Football"  Football (soccer) plays an important role in shaping national identity o Opportunity to express identities to other nations o Nation - a large body of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular country or territory  An imagined political community- and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign.  Boundaries are defined by us  It is imagined because members of even the smallest nation will never meet or hear of all other members of the nation.  But also imagined because each member has a conception of what the nation is  Sport helps us shape our ideas about our nation (what it is and what it should be)  The stakes are high REQUIRED READING review Rashidi (2019): "Tractor Sazi FC and the Civil Rights Movement of Turks in Iranian Azerbaijan"  Main points:

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Citizens/fans are affected by sport As an institution, sport is often the basis for a sense of community, often binding us to our home  Our allegiance to a team–our fandom–shapes and reinforces our identity  This can lead to social and political strife with those outside of the community o But citizens/fans can also use sport to redefine their identity and "reimagine" their community  Sports help to define aspirations for what the community/nation should be  Sport can be used as a vehicle to affect social and political change o Freedom of expression  There is no freedom of expression in Iran Education in mother language 

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Sports Lessons Thursday, January 16, 2020 12:31 PM

What do people learn from sports?  Perseverance  Teamwork  How to keep yourself motivated  Time management  Connections  Enjoy what you do  Leadership  Making good decisions  Trust  Self-discipline  Problem solving  Identity What is socialization?  The process of learning and social development that occurs through social interaction o The things we learn from our socializing  What part of what we know so we learn through socialization o Language o How to interpret stimuli o Accepted beliefs o Societal values o Norms of behavior o Expected roles o How to interpret symbols o Functional activities  Brushing teeth, tying shoes o Sense of self  Distinct identity from perspective of others  Self-identity vs. social identity

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How does socialization happen? o Interactionist perspective  Focuses on studying the way the social world is created and recreated through interaction between individuals and their environment  When we interact with others, we are receiving and interpreting clues to  Learn how to model the behavior of others  Through interactions in different contexts, we learn what is appropriate and expected in different situations  Through interaction with other individuals and institutions, we adopt shared meanings for  Develop a sense of self by assessing how others see us  Develop an understanding of our accepted positions/roles in social institutions What does it mean that socialization is a process of social reproduction o Social reproduction = over time, social groups, and institutions operate in ways that aid in the reproduction of the dominant social and cultural structures of the society  Our parents taught us and their parents taught them  Ex: Black people used to not be QB because it was the norm that they were not, now there are plenty of QBs that are black. o Socialization is a central mechanism through which a society reproduces itself  New members learn key components of society:  Language, norms, rules, traditions, language of the society  Non-conformists are sanctioned and re-socialized o Socialization is a central mechanism through which we learn a sense of self and our expected position  Interactions remind us of our expected behaviors  Learn positions within society's central institutions  Can be used to reinforce systems of stratification  Ex: by race, gender, sexuality o Is socialization a passive process?  Is it something that just happens to us?  NO  Personal internalization perspective  We internalize rules of behavior as we grow up in families, attend school, interact with peers, receive messages from media, etc.  Interactionist perspective  Socialization is not a passive process [we participate in our own socialization]  As we form relationships, we are affected by others and we affect them  We actively interpret what we see and hear, and we accept, resist, or refine those ideas o What is the role of social institutions in the socialization process?  Most socialization happens within institutions  Family, church, schools, media, sport  Place where interactions happen, behaviors are rewarded or sanctioned, roles are defined within rules of the institution Why is sport such a powerful institution for socialization?

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Sport is very ritualistic Serial practices, games, fandom, traditions all follow regular patterns of interaction  Things repeated over and over in a consistent patter, process = strong reinforcement of behaviors, roles  Strong reinforcement of behavior in a context in which importance and reward is placed on the results of the interaction o Sport transcends struggles of daily life  Sport provides a ready set of situations and common experiences on which to interact and negotiate meaning o Socialization related to sports extends beyond the pitch, field, Who participates in the socialization of sports participants? o Strong role of socialization in all stages of the athletic life  Factors affecting who plays a sport  Ability, social reinforcement, opportunity (triangle) -they all feed into each other  Reinforcement of the athlete role  Team, friends, family, school, fans, media (people who get invested in that person's role as an athlete and they encourage you to do more) o Athlete as a master status?  Master status = social role or characteristic that overpowers all others in shaping a person's social identities and interactions  Common master statuses: sex, race, age  Athlete role may also dominate in all kinds of social interactions  May become a centerpiece of sense of self  This makes it hard to leave sports  Hard to adopt a new identity  Letting people down What do we learn through socialization in sports? o Goffman describes main themes of character  All are strongly socialized in sports  Courage: proceed despite dangers (failing, injuries)  Gameness: expend effort even in the face of setback or pain  Integrity: resist temptation to depart from moral standards (resisting temptation to cheat or make dirty hits)  Composure: maintain self control and poise in all types of situations Are there differences across sports in the lessons learned? o There is a spectrum of sports experiences and consequences  Power and performance model  Strength, speed, power to push limits  Prove excellence through competitive success, attribute success to sacrifice  Willingness to risk health, play with pain  Exclusive - keep only elite athletes  Defining the opponent as an enemy  Hierarchy: Owners --> Coaches --> Athletes  There are cuts 

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Pleasure and participation mode  Participation revolves around connection between people, mind/body integration  Spirit of personal expression, growth  Inclusive-incorporate various abilities  Defining the opponent as a partner  Democratic decision-making  There are no cuts No sport is on the extreme end of either spectrum

Joncheray reading:  Women in rugby  How did they manage this double identity role conflict? o Being a mom and a rugby player

Deviance Thursday, January 23, 2020 12:33 PM

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What is deviance? o Modes of behavior that do not conform to the norms held by most members of a social group or society.  Norms: rules of conduct that specify appropriate behavior in a specific set of social situations  Relative roles, expectations  Applies to different people differently depending on their role o Can be formal or informal  Formal deviance (i.e. crime): violation of a formal law (burglary, robbery. Theft, rape, loitering, etc.)  Ex: using steroids is illegal in baseball so if you commit this it is formal deviance, deflating footballs in football, fighting other players (in most sports), stealing signs  Informal deviance: violations of informal social norms, norms that have not been codified into law.  Ex: other players making noises when a player is making free throws (however fans can make noise), kneeling during the National Anthem, not shaking hands with the opponent, jogging too slowly around the bases o Varies in intensity  Depends on the strength of the norms  Depends on (potential) damage  Intensity of deviance (and conformity) reflected in intensity of sanctions  Sanctions: a mode of reward or punishment that reinforces socially accepted norms of behavior  Ex: working hard in practice and the coach gives you a high five afterwards o Norms and deviance are context-specific  A behavior may be deviant in one situation but not in another Deviance: modes of behavior that do not conform to th...