Functionalism Structural functionalist theories see society as a
complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. Sport itself developed from religious ceremonies, which served to promote social and moral solidarity of the community. Bromberger saw similarities between religious ceremonies and football matches. Matches are held in a particular spatial configuration, pitches are sacred and may not be polluted by pitch invaders, and lead to intense emotional states in fans. As with religious ceremonies, spectators are spatially distributed according to social distribution of power. Football seasons have a fixed calendar. Group roles on match day are ceremonial, with specially robed people performing intense ritual acts. As a church, football has an organizational network, from local to global levels. Matches have a sequential order that guides the actions of participants, from pre-match to post-match actions. Lastly, football rituals create a sense of
communitas. Songs and choreography can be seen as an
immanent ceremony through which spectators transfer their strength to the team. Accounting for the fact that not all actions support the existing societal structure,
Robert K. Merton saw five ways a person could react to the existing structure, which can be applied to sports as well: conformism, innovation, ritualism, withdrawal, and rebellion.
Erving Goffman drew on Durkheim's conception of positive rituals, emphasizing the sacred status of an individual's "
face". Positive (compliments, greetings, etc.) and negative (avoiding confrontation, apologies, etc.) rituals all serve to protect one's face. Sport journalists, for example, utilize both the positive and negative rituals to protect the face of the athlete they wish to maintain good relations with. Birrell furthermore posits sport events are ritual competitions in which athletes show their character through a mix of bravery, good play and integrity. A good showing serves to reinforce the good face of the athlete.
Interpretative sociology Interpretative sociology explores the interrelations of social action to status, subjectivity, meaning, motives, identities and social change. It avoids explaining human groups through general laws and generalizations, preferring what
Max Weber called
verstehen - understanding and explaining individual motivations. It allows for a more complete understanding of diverse social meanings, symbols and roles within sport. Sport allows for creation of various social identities within the framework of a single game or match, which may change during it or throughout the course of multiple matches. Ones role as a sportsperson further affects how they act outside of a game or a match, i.e. acting out the role of a student athlete. Weber introduced the notion of
rationalization. In modern society, relationship are organized to be as efficient as possible, based on technical knowledge, instead of moral and political principles. This creates bureaucracies that are efficient, impersonal and homogeneous. Allen Guttmann identified several key aspects of rationalization, which can likewise be applied to sports: •
Secularization: modern sports have become independent of the
religious institutions from which they have evolved. In the pre-modern societies, sport and religious festivities were interconnected.
Religion does hold some importance in sports, which can be seen in the pre-match rituals,
superstitions and
prayer. •
Meritocracy: Sports promote fair competition, while pre-modern sports were exclusive. For example, the ancient
Olympics excluded women and non-citizens. In contrast, modern sports offer opportunities to the disadvantaged, while fair judging/refereeing offer a
level playing field.
Social status still plays a role in sport access and success. Richer countries will have more numerous and successful athletes, while the higher class will have access to better training and preparation. • Specialization: modern sports, just like industry, has a complex division of labor. Athletes have a very specialized role inside of a team, which they must learn and perform, i.e. the kicker in
american football. This does not apply to all sports, as some value the ability to cover a number of roles as necessary. • Rationalization: modern sports identify the most efficient way to achieve the desired goal. On the other hand, Giulianotti points out that sports are dominated by irrational actions. • Bureaucratization: sports are controlled by organizations, committees and supervisory boards on local, continental and global levels. Leading positions are supposed to be given based on qualifications and experience, instead of charisma and nepotism. This is not always the case, as powerful and charismatic personage are often put in charge of said organizations and committees. • Quantification:
Statistics measure and compare modern sport events, often throughout multiple generations, reducing complex events to understandable information which can be easily grasped by the mass public. Statistics are not the dominant factor in sport culture, with the socio-psychological and aesthetically pleasing factors still being the most important.
Neo-Marxism Karl Marx saw sports as rooted in its economic context, subject to
commodification and
alienation.
Neo-Marxism sees sport as an ideological tool of the
bourgeoisie, used to deceive the masses, in order to maintain control. As laborers, athletes give up their
labour power, and suffer the same fate as the alienated worker. Aside from supporting
industrial capitalism, sport propagates heavy physical exertion and overworking as something positive. Specialized division of labor force athletes to constantly perform the same movements, instead of playing creatively, experimentally and freely. The athlete if often under the illusion of being free, unaware of losing control over his labor power. Spectators themselves support the alienation of athletes' labor through their support and participation. Marxist theories have been used to research the commodification of sport, for example, how players themselves become goods or promote them, the hyper-commercialization of sports during the 20th century, how clubs become like traditional firms, and how sport organizations become brands. This approach has been criticized for their tendency toward raw
economism, and supposing that all current social structures function to maintain the existing capitalist order. Supporting sport teams does not necessarily contradict the development of
class consciousness and participating in the
class struggle. Sport events have a number of examples of political protest. Neo Marxist analysis of sports often underestimate the aesthetic side of sport as well.
Cultural studies Hegemony research describes the relations of power, as well as methods and techniques used by dominant groups to achieve ideological consent, without resorting to physical coercion. This ideological consent aims to make the exploratory social order seem natural, guaranteeing that the subordinate groups live out their subordination. A hegemony is always open to contestation, and thus counter-hegemonic movements may emerge. The dominant groups may use sports to steer the use of the subordinate classes in the desired direction, or towards consumerism. However, the history of sport shows that colonized are not necessarily manipulated through sport, while sport professionalization, and their own popular culture, helped the working class avoid mass subordination to bourgeois values. Resistance is a key concept in cultural studies, which describes how subordinate groups engage in particular cultural practices to resist their domination. Resistance can be overt and deliberate or latent and unconscious, but always counters the norms and conventions of the dominant groups.
John Fiske differentiated between confrontational semiotics and avoidance. ==Body and sports==