Sport, Exercise and Social Theory by Gyozo Molnar John Kelly

Author:Gyozo Molnar, John Kelly [Gyozo Molnar, John Kelly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, General, Sports & Recreation, Cultural & Social Aspects
ISBN: 9781136476402
Google: Ds67nlo2G4wC
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-05-07T03:44:02+00:00

This description of the Paris Games clearly indicates that from its inception, the modern Olympics has undergone major transformations in almost all areas. From a disorganised and ordinary sporting event, the Games have changed to become one of the most prestigious and extraordinary mega events in later modernity (see Roche, 2000). However, this transformation is not unique to the Olympics. All sports, to some extent, have been and are being transformed as part of wider socio-cultural processes. For instance, modern football has also (processually) changed over time and moved away from ad hoc mob football to become association football. Elias (1986: 127) explains: ‘The transformation of a polymorphous English folk game into Association Football or “soccer” had the character of a fairly long development in the greater regulation and uniformity.’ Hence, what is to note is that we cannot formulate an adequately critical and realistic sociological account without exploring the history of whatever is being investigated. By doing so, we avoid process-reduction models that ‘isolate individuals from “society” and involve reducing processes to monocausal, static and non-relational variables’ (Jarvie and Maguire, 1994: 132). To view social phenomena as longterm processes is a fundamental strength of process sociology as sociological explanations must be relational and historical involving references to sequences over time (Dunning, 2002). To emphasise the importance of history in sociological thinking, Elias (1983) strongly argued against the ‘retreat of sociologists into the present.’ In this chapter, we will frequently reference the work of Norbert Elias to help explain and illustrate processual thinking and process sociology, as he was the originator of this theoretical perspective. One of his colleagues, Eric Dunning, observes that ‘Elias spent his adult life striving to construct a reality-oriented, equally theory-centred and research-centred synthesis between a modified psycho-analysis and the best features of the classical and modern sociological traditions’ (2002: 211–212). Krieken notes that Elias essentially provided ‘a set of sensitising concepts, an orientation to how one thinks about and practices sociology with the potential to draw many of the various threads of sociological thoughts together’ (1998: 8).

Moreover, Elias had another important role to play in sociology, especially in the sociology of sport. This role was the legitimisation of the sociological study of sport and leisure. Before Elias, mainstream sociologists had only given sporadic (if any) attention to sports, leisure, and exercise and, thus, they were on the periphery of sociological inquiry. Kelly (2007) observes that there is still a paucity of sport-related comment in much of the mainstream academic literature and that people still have the tendency to make claims such as ‘It's only sport’. Elias (1986: 19) himself wrote, ‘I well remember Eric Dunning discussing with me the question of whether sport, and particularly football, would be considered by the authorities to be a respectable subject of research in the social sciences’.

For those of you who have been involved in sport and/or regular exercise, this may come as a surprise, as you are probably very well aware of the importance of specific sporting events or activities in your life.

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