Social Cultural Issues in Sports - Essay Example

Sports and Social Class Introduction Sport is a key to life in the United Kingdom. About 36 million people almost over half the British population take part in sports. United Kingdom sportsmen hold many titles in different sports such as rowing, squash, snooker, boxing and motorcycle sports. Many modern day international sports have started in the United Kingdom, such as rugby, football, cricket, golf, tennis and boxing. Football particularly has a big fan following, since it is the national game. Many international events are most often held in Great Britain because of the best equipped stadiums and facilities that they have available. Commonwealth Games were held in Manchester on 25th July and 4th August 2002, and history witnessed the biggest sporting event ever held in British soil. Sports has always been enjoyed and encouraged by people of Great Britain. Participation is seen from all social classes and all clubs, associations and governing bodies. The British Government promotes and funds sports through its five Sports Councils, including United Kingdom Sport and the four councils for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. In 1998 a Sports Cabinet was set up to identify strategic priorities for sport. It is headed by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and also includes a number of ministers responsible for sports. The primary aspect of the development of sports is to develop a culture which stresses on the importance of equality in a dual sense. Firstly it gives an opportunity of participation and secondly an opportunity of competition. Ref: [Eric Dunning, Dominic Malcolm, 2003, Sports, 16/1/2008, Available from World Wide Web : ] Thus we can say the development of sports can be said to have occurred as a part of the long term process that also characterizes the development of the modern Western World. Sport occupies a major place in English cultural life. The making of sports can be rightfully contributed to the British, and their contribution that sport cultures have made to the world cannot be denied. Many of the sports that dominate the international sporting arena today were first played in their modern form in Britain. Schooling institutions in Britain and ancient universities first endorsed, systematized and revitalized in appearance style and character games such as soccer, rugby, cricket, and sports such as rowing, athletics and boxing. Then they were disintegrated in the new urban communities of the industrializing society. The magnitude of sports in the British Empire and the trade networks of that empire, and the similar impact of other European nations and their imperialist policies and acquisitions of France and Germany, consolidated the extraordinary impact of these new sports forms and practices. European manhood started representing ideologies such as fair play and sports. At the same time, physical activity and sports for women were cultivated to fit with coeval ideals of Victorian femininity. The response from enthusiastic working-classes to organised team forms such as soccer laid the foundations for the commercial and professional evolvement of the sport. Soccer thus became a central source for the representation of urban, regional and national identity. Historical Evidence and Studies The universe of sporting activities and entertainment is socially realised and acceptable at a given moment in time. Participation in sports by competitors, participants, spectators, listeners and viewers remains socially divided in a variety of ways. Inequalities regarding sports participation have increased in many countries in recent years. The primary principles and form of power around which the social cultural differences are conceived are gender, race caste and body. Generally the differences between males and females, social classes, racial groups, and people with different abilities are biologically rooted. Studies indicate that the higher is one’s social class, the greater is one’s overall involvement in sports. Studies also reflect that people with a rich cultural background and especially those who are economically rich are most likely to be involved in sports. Social class, home environment and economic status are certain factors that also influence younger citizens’ participation in school and out of school physical activities. A survey of 52 16-year-old adolescents from different socioeconomic backgrounds but belonging to one suburban and one inner-city secondary school in the Midlands, United Kingdom was conducted. They participated in group interviews which explored their understanding about physical activity and the difficulties that they experienced while active participation. The study concludes that any kind of interest in physical activity is primarily linked to an individual student’s social class, his home environment and economic status. It was also observed that the level of participation of students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds was less as compared to their higher socioeconomic counterparts. An individual’s cultural, physical and economic status is a salient feature in involvement in physical activity settings. Hence, this study emphasises the need for a better and wider provision of well planned physical activity in schools in economically deprived areas to compensate for lower participation levels. It has always been debated that funding sports for all classes and supporting it for elite sports is unjustified. The objective of funding sports is that it will provide equality of opportunity to compete in the Olympics, and this has turned out to be a problem at the international level, since many nations find it impossible to match Olympic standards. Many advanced nations also create a problem since they tend to rule out poorer and developing nations participants. Efforts of various sports agencies for decades in the United Kingdom have failed to fill gaps in provision and lack of co-ordination. The continuing problem is inequality that results in social background being as much a factor in determining the chances of success as ability, aptitude, and precocious talent. It has always been maintained that social class differences are often thought to be relevant in post-modern societies, or to be replaced by simple differences of income or wealth. Poverty has certainly increased in the United Kingdom, and thus social exclusion has become a focus for policy, meaning the inability to participate effectively in mainstream social life. These are legitimate constraints affecting participation of which generally participants are not aware, which in turn leads to activity choices and lifestyle practices. These in turn are then influenced by a person's internalisation of social structures, and access to various kinds of capital, including social cultural and symbolic. It is therefore very important that some kind of personal gain is present before participation can take place, and this is passionately influenced by social class. Generally the perception is different for all, middle class individuals see time spent on sports as a form of social and personal gain, while working class groups are much more instrumental and are more interested in career possibilities. Overall, a sport is a highly organised activity and there are many other complications including external changes or personal struggles and developments. Youth and Sports Youth involvement in sports and leisure has not been researched too much. Although, training young athletes and the development of talent initiatives are some exceptions. Studies indicate that there was a clear social class distribution of those taking part in various sports especially in tennis, but less so in gymnastics. The factors identified were the usual ones of financial support, transport facilities, and parental role, especially in encouraging healthy and safe activities. While studying the development of the Olympic talent initiatives in youth it was realized that the Olympic athletes were still expected to cover their own expenses, resulting in personal debts, limits to the amount of time spent on training, and low/partial earnings. On observing the social class of elite performers it was determined that they were over-represented that those from social groups. Clearly, the sports themselves hold a distinction with rugby league approaching representative ness, and with swimming as the most privileged. Nottinghamshire is known to have set the pace for innovative youth sport development work throughout England. In Nottinghamshire a case-study approach was conducted using a particular policy for youth interested in active participation. They were provided with supporting pathways, access to coaches, and subsidised facilities as well as a strong encouragement to join clubs. Questionnaires were then sent to the participants, some of them were interviewed by telephone and the coaches were interviewed as well. Data on social background was gathered by keeping in mind various factors such as social need, low-income, family difficulties, poor housing, educational difficulties, lack of skills, and unemployment. Of course the results may be somewhat controversial and not entirely match the theoretical discussions. Some sources also could be biased such as, exaggeration by the children, the possibility of under representing children in poor households with no basic amenities, and possibility of children being involved in examinations or other courses at the time of this survey. Nevertheless, the data obtained was fairly robust and reliable. The results were very encouraging, with 46 per cent students becoming involved in the county sport scene or at a higher level, and showed a clear improvement after entering the squad. Sixteen per cent of respondents had dropped out from competitive sports, largely because of school work and other commitments. The coaches felt that lack of appropriate facilities, poor communication with club coaches, and a lack of support mechanisms were also some major hassles in active sports participation. Lack of suitable exit routes at important stages in a student’s life like inadequate squads or coaching opportunities, and drop-out in school or moving from junior to senior levels also triggered results. It was also highlighted that almost one-third of the population as a whole had some levels of social need, but those from lower levels tended to participate more frequently than those from moderate, serious and extreme levels of social need. Children living in areas of below average social need revealed higher chances of becoming a participant. However, most participants just seemed to be abandoned or neglected, rather than being encouraged to participate in some or the other way. Teachers have been given the responsibility to encourage more children, and especially children in the sphere of serious and extreme social needs should be targeted first. Although this little scheme was successful and revealed great results, there is still room for improvement, especially in attracting children from areas of social need, and in dealing with athletes who do not make the elite teams. Guidance on issues of equality needs to be extended to include social class as well as all genders and races. The findings in particular seemed to contradict the view that social class now only effects frequency of participation. At present the biggest hurdle is that sports participation policy is contradictory and facing the conflicting objectives of elitism and universality. This problem affects all developed countries, but there are certain policies that can be borrowed from other nations to improve the situation. This analysis should be conducted in other areas, and other schemes should also be evaluated, to see if they are selective by distribution of resources. Community renewal can also be worked on, especially to build up social resources in the most deprived working-class areas. However, the whole issue may be far more structured and therefore resistant to such policy. Unless these issues are addressed, youth participation in sports may develop even more as a site for the reproduction of inequality and as a powerful vehicle for social exclusion. Social Class and Sporting Practices Studies reflect that social class groupings in Europe were common. This analysis is dependent on the belief that preferences and practices pertaining to sports can be done based upon social class boundaries. To explain the variability in sport culture, data from an original questionnaire survey of the general public was taken. The article describes multivariate statistical relationships between notions of economic capital, cultural capital and social capital, important forms of power in social space that potentially structure and define cultural tastes and practices. Differences at workplaces pertaining to economic ownership control over budgets and personnel, personal autonomy, job skill and manual labour, and sports culture in the form of sports knowledge and participation in sporting activities is also highlighted. Interactions between different genders and classes in promoting sports culture is also highlighted in this analysis. The article is a hypothetical exploration of the sports culture, the boundaries it reflects and maintains between social classes and contributes to the growing body of sports and social class literature based in the United Kingdom. Closer studies into the nature of relationships between social class and sporting practices show that cultural tastes and activities are patterned by complex social phenomena; and are most certainly not a result of arbitrary judgements about beauty, pleasure and enjoyment made by self-governing individuals. Cultural discriminations and practices have always prevailed in a multidimensional society, and these are coexisting positions which are exterior to one another and which are defined in relation to one another through their mutual exteriority and their relations of proximity, vicinity, or distance. The richer or upper class uses the power of its position to define sophisticated or cultured tastes and utilizes privileged access to these cultural forms to maintain class boundaries. The higher and dominated classes also share an understanding of what comprises the lowbrow discriminations of social space, tastes embraced by the lower classes and ostracized by elites, another means of reinforcing the distinction between them. We can rightfully say that cultural tastes and practices, spectatorship and consumption are integral elements of a class struggle in society. A particular a model capable of explaining class-based differences in sports culture must be developed and should take into account the most relevant determining factors of social space such as financial resources and spare time. Financial resources are the equivalent of income and wealth, and influences sporting practice directly. Generally any kind of sporting engagement require financial investment for purchasing equipment, renting of space, purchase of tickets, etc. Time is also very necessary for engaging in any kind of leisure activities including sporting activity, and the availability of free time often depends on financial circumstances. Cultural resources comprises of cultural tastes, dispositions and practices; social background, the family circumstances that produce cultural tastes through processes of socialization; and educational experiences and credentials that also influence and define cultural tastes. As with financial resources, cultural resources also influence various aspects of sporting practices; the experiences of individuals and their parents introduce individuals to a lifestyle that places value on certain kinds of recreational practices and provide opportunities for engaging in such activities. Generally economic capital and cultural capital serve to define the characteristics and parameters of social space. This means that differences in cultural tastes and variability in financial resources and cultural capital at the same time inter-connectedly identify social groupings with the potential to become social classes. This therefore also suggests that financial resources and cultural capital are linked to various cultural choices not only because of the financial wherewithal needed to participate in a given leisure or activity or through personal experiences in the educational system but also because choices and inclinations are promoted within social class contexts and serve to maintain class boundaries. Ref: Wilson International Review for the Sociology of Sport.2002; Available from World Wide Web : A large number of studies and analysis utilize survey data to describe class differences in sporting culture. Both financial resources and educational resources exhibited positive relationships with professional and amateur sport spectatorship, but financial resources are generally the tougher predictor, especially for men and mostly with respect to professional sport spectatorship. Data from many national surveys has been applied to educational attainment and household income to gauge frequency of attendance at artistic and theatrical events to predict sport spectatorship. That is how it was determined that participation in sports, financial resources and artistic consumption is related to spectatorship but educational attainment is not. On similar grounds household income and educational attainment was applied to predict attendance at any amateur or professional sports event such as at an auto race, stock car, or motorcycle race or participation in sports such as softball, basketball, swimming, golf, bowling, skiing or tennis. It was discovered that financial resources and educational resources both showed equal participation in sports and sports spectatorship, although some differences in gender were noted, and that educational capital was negatively related to attendance at automotive/motorcycle events. Sports and Class Power There is a different relationship between the possession of resources and sports culture between sexes. However, several different and important concepts that form an exploration of class and sport are seldom addressed in the sociology of sport literature. Some of these concepts are a) sports culture and knowledge of sports; b) cultural resources c) social capital; and d) class position indicators embedded in workplace relations. Regarding the first, knowledge of sports reflects multifaceted consumption of sport from media sources Internet, television, newspapers, magazines, attendance at sporting events and/or participation in conversations about sports with friends, colleagues and acquaintances and therefore provides an excellent test of the sport culture and class thesis. With respect to social background, the multidimensional manifestation of cultural capital is espoused by distinguishing analytically between personal and parental educational credentials. Unlike other studies it distinguishes between socialization in childhood on the one hand, and personal educational experiences and credentials on the other, as separate incubators of sports knowledge and sporting practices. Social capital is a critical form of power in modern societies. Social capital is defined as “the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintanceship and recognition” or in other words to membership of a group which provides each of its members with the backing of the collectively-owned capital. Finally class distinctions based in workplace divisions, long key components of class analysis in this country, are also predictors of variability in sport culture and therefore another key manifestation of capital in the struggle for distinction. Data from many surveys conducted in the United Kingdom, and assembled to investigate the varied manifestation of economic, cultural and social capitals as determinants of health and well-being, enables this multifaceted investigation of class and sport culture. Although there is no one type of culture that fuels class dynamics in all fields, no single form of capital can determine class position. This article investigates whether participation in sporting activities and breadth of sports knowledge are structured by various capitals and class position markers. It represents a complete application of different kinds of capitals to sporting culture than those that currently exist in the quantitative sociology of sport literature, but is limited by virtue of addressing only a small slice of the immensity of sports culture in the United Kingdom. The article therefore represents a small step towards identifying the roles played by sport culture in the manifestation of the European classes. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Ref: [Eric Dunning, Dominic Malcolm, 2003, Sports, 16/1/2008, Available from World Wide Web : ] 2. Ref : Wilson International Review for the Sociology of Sport.2002; Available from World Wide Web : 3. Ref: Jay J. Coakley, Eric Dunning, 2000, Handbook of Sports Studies, 16/1/08; Available from World Wide Web: 4. Ref: Bourdieu, P. 1978. "Sport and social class." ; 16/1/08, Available from World Wide Web 5. Ref: Encyclopedia.com, 16/1/08. Available from World Wide Web: Read More