Introduction to the Sociology of Sport 9004464700, 9789004464704, 9789004464711

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Introduction to the Sociology of Sport

International Studies in Sport and Society Series Editor Otmar Weiss (University of Vienna)

volume 1

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/sprt

Introduction to the Sociology of Sport By

Otmar Weiss & Gilbert Norden Translated by

Katharina Tobisch

leiden | boston

Cover design: Floor Boissevain, www.eijgenstijl.nl First published in German by Waxmann (copyright 2013 Waxmann Verlag GmbH) as Einführung in die Sportsoziologie by Otmar Weiß and Gilbert Norden. This edition is a revision of the above work and has been translated and published under license from Waxmann. The translation of this book was made possible by:

 University of Vienna  Sport Austria

 Erasmus+

 European Commission The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at http://catalog.loc.gov LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2021022222

Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 2666-7231 isbn 978-90-04-46470-4 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-46471-1 (e-book) Copyright 2021 by Waxmann Verlag GmbH. Published by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Hotei, Brill Sense, Brill Schöningh, Brill Fink, Brill mentis, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Böhlau Verlag and V&R Unipress. Koninklijke Brill NV reserves the right to protect this publication against unauthorized use. Requests for reuse and/or translations must be addressed to Koninklijke Brill NV via brill.com or copyright.com. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.

Contents

Preface ix List of Figures and Tables X



Introduction 1 Revision Questions 8

1

The Subject Matter of Sociology 9 Revision Questions 14

2

Sociology of Sport: Subject Area, Theoretical Approaches, and Different Methods 15 1 Theories in Sociology of Sport 16 Revision Questions 28

3

Sport and Society 30 1 Sport and Culture: Values in Society and in Sport 32 1.1 Sport and Civilization 38 2 Expansion of Sport, Internal differentiation, and trends 43 Revision Questions 51

4

Socialization and Sport 52 1 Gender Roles in Sport 59 1.1 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intergender (LGBTI) People in Sport 68 2 Social Stratification in Sport 69 2.1 Physical Habitus, Somatic Culture, and Social Distinction 76 2.2 Sports of the Lower Social Classes 82 2.3 Sports of the Upper Social Classes 89 Revision Questions 98

5

Sport and the Social Group 99 1 Social Processes in Sport Groups 105 1.1 Group Size and Group Task in Sport 106 1.2 Group Cohesion in Sport 112 2 Social Facilitation 117 Revision Questions 121

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Sport, Social Recognition, and Identity 122 1 Anthropological Constants 122 1.1 World-Openness 123 1.2 Excentricity 124 1.3 Striving for Recognition 128 1.3.1 Durkheim’s Study on Suicides 131 2 Social Recognition in Sport 134 2.1 Recognition as a Member of a Group 136 2.2 Recognition in an Ascribed Role 136 2.3 Recognition in an Achieved Role 137 2.4 Recognition in a Public Role 137 2.5 Recognition of Personal Identity 137 3 African Americans in Sport 139 4 Action and Representation in Society and in Sport 148 5 Sporting Identity 154 Revision Questions 159

7

Violence and Doping in Sport 160 Revision Questions 166

8

Towards the Joy of Play and Movement in Sport 167 1 The Flow Experience in Sport 170 Revision Questions 172

9

Sport and Communication 173 Revision Questions 182

10

Sport Spectators 183 1 Social Integration 183 2 Identification 184 3 Experiencing Suspense and Showing Intense Emotions 187 4 Sport and Religion 187 5 On Aggression among Sport Spectators 191 5.1 Causes for Aggressive Behavior 192 5.2 History of Violence in Spectator Sport 198 Revision Questions 203

11

Sport and Mass Communication 204 1 Communicator Research 205 2 Content Analysis 209 2.1 Content Analysis of Television Sport 210

Contents 

3 4

5

2.2 Content Analysis of Sport Reporting in Newspapers 212 2.3 Sport Reporting and Gender 213 Media Research 217 Audience Research 226 4.1 Audience Research in the United Kingdom 228 4.2 Audience Research in the USA 230 4.3 Audience Research in Australia 231 4.4 Motives for Consuming Media Sport 234 Impact Research 238 5.1 Theory of the Omnipotence of the Media 238 5.2 Theory of the Relative Ineffectiveness of the Media 239 Revision Questions 241

12

Sport and the Economy 243 1 Sport Marketing and Mass Media 255 Revision Questions 262

13

Sport and Politics 263 1 The Power of Sport: A Theoretical Approach 263 2 Sport, Social Integration, and National Self-representation 266 3 Sport as a Means of Strengthening a Nation 270 4 Sport Boycotts 273 5 Sport, Globalization, and Olympism 275 Revision Questions 283

Bibliography 285 Index 317

vii

Preface In the last decades, the sociology of sport has made considerable progress and provided significant scientific insights, which form the bases for theory and practice, as well as for scholastics, education, and future careers. In this sense, the present, state-of-the-art introductory book aims to impart basic knowledge about the research area, as well as provide guidance by clearly illustrating sport sociological topics, definitions, theories, methods and research findings and clarifying them by means of examples and key points. The book is particularly aimed at students of sport science and sociology, but also everyone who is interested in sport and wants to gain a better understanding of the social world of sport will benefit from it. For better legibility, we have refrained from using the gender-neutral form of the relevant person-related terms. If these terms are used in their male form, they refer to every individual. The first edition of this book was published in German in 1999 by the publisher UTB in Stuttgart, Germany, in conjunction with WUV in Vienna, Austria. The second edition of the German version was published in 2013 by Waxmann, an international academic publishing house in Germany. A few years later, we decided to publish an English version of the book, to make it accessible to a larger number of readers. In this context, we are very grateful to Katharina Tobisch, who translated the second edition of this book into English. Her work actually far exceeded that of a translator, since she also helped us with the research that was necessary to update the German version and to adapt it to an international, English-speaking audience. Furthermore, we would like to thank Jason Prevost and Debbie de Wit from Brill Publishers for their excellent cooperation. They did not only allow us to publish this book, but also gave Otmar Weiss the opportunity to serve as editor for a whole book series, International Studies in Sport and Society, of which this book is the inaugural volume. Special thanks also go to Christine Retz for proofreading the manuscript.

Figures and Tables Figures 1.1 Related disciplines of sociology 12 2.1 Operationalization of the term ‘health consciousness’ 27 3.1 Means for motivation scales by country and gender in 1989 and 1999. Sources: Curry, T. J. and O. Weiss. 1989. “Sport Identity and Motivation for Sport Participation: A Comparison between American College Athletes and Austrian Student Sport Club Members”. In: Sociology of Sport Journal 6. pp. 257–268 (figure on p. 264); Curry, T. J. and O. Weiss. 1999. Volleyball sporting identities in the USA and in Austria. Research report. Vienna (figure on p. 16) 34 3.2 Pankration. Source: Schöbel, H. 2000. Olympia und seine Spiele. Berlin, p. 58 39 3.3 Inline skate by the Rollerblade brand. Source: https://pixabay.com/de/ photos/inlineskate-sport-training-schuh-1324496/ [last accessed: 14 May 2020] 45 3.4 Nordic Walking in the Alps. Source: Copyright Bernd Ritschel / Tourismusverband Pitztal 48 3.5 How often do you exercise or play sport? (Survey 2009). Source: Special Eurobarometer. 2010. Sport and Physical Activity, p. 9. Retrieved from: https://ec.europa.eu/commfrontoffice/publicopinion/archives/ebs/ ebs_334_en.pdf [last accessed: 14 May 2020] 49 3.6 How often do you exercise or play sport? (Survey 2017). Source: Special Eurobarometer 472. 2018. Sport and Physical Activity, p. 7. Retrieved from: http://ec.europa.eu/commfrontoffice/publicopinion/index.cfm/ Survey/getSurveyDetail/search/sport/surveyKy/2164 [last accessed: 14 May 2020] 49 4.1 Women’s soccer. Source: Copyright Bezard / USI Wien 64 5.1 Reciprocal matrix. Source: Wössner, J. 1979. Soziologie. Einführung und Grundlegung (8th ed.). Vienna, Cologne, Graz, p. 146 (translated) 103 5.2 Bar chart. Source: Wössner, J. 1979. Soziologie. Einführung und Grundlegung (8th ed.). Vienna, Cologne, Graz, p. 147 (translated) 103 5.3 Sociogram. Source: Wössner, J. 1979. Soziologie. Einführung und Grundlegung (8th ed.). Vienna, Cologne, Graz, p. 147 (translated) 104 6.1 Stamp of Althea Gibson. Source: https://www.shutterstock.com/de/ image-photo/milan-italy-october-28-2020-black-1849371097 [last ­accessed: 18.08.2020] 143

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6.2 Sporting identity 156 6.3 Scale: Personal Sporting Identity / Means by Country and Gender. Source: Curry, T. J. and O. Weiss. 1999. Volleyball sporting identities in the USA and in Austria. Research report. Vienna 157 6.4 Scale: Social Sporting Identity / Means by Country and Gender. Source: Curry, T. J. and O. Weiss. 1999. Volleyball sporting identities in the USA and in Austria. Research report. Vienna 157 6.5 European Sport Index: The significance of sport in the 28 EU member countries. Source: Weiss, O., Norden, G.; Nader, M. & Arnusch, F. 2016. “European Sport Index: the social significance of sport in 28 European countries.” In: European Journal for Sport and Society, Volume 13, Issue 2, pp. 167–182 158 10.1 Liverpool FC Club Emblem. Source: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/liverpool-england-feb-01-2018-flag-1209716695?irgwc=1 [last accessed: 14 May 2020] 191 11.1 Title page of the American sporting magazine The Spirit of the Times (from 17 January 1877). Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_of_ the_Times#/media/File:141_Spirit_Of_The_Times_Judge_Fullerton.jpg [last accessed: 15 May 2020] 219 11.2 Victor Silberer, successful rower and founder of the Allgemeine Sport-Zeitung. Source: Portrait archive of the Austrian National ­Library 220 12.1 Advertising of sponsors at the baseball stadium Citi Field in New York. Source: Metsfan84 at the English language Wikipedia (https://commons. wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Citi_Field_Home_Opener.JPG), “Citi Field Home Opener”, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode 249 12.2 A 15-meter-high Coca-Cola vending machine at Gangneung ­Olympic Park, at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. Source: https://www. shutterstock.com/image-photo/gangneung-south-korea-february17-2018-1060265084 [last accessed: 15 May 2020] 250 13.1 Aborigines at the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympic Games of 2000 in Sydney. Source: http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/ Australia-Aborigines/a2d8e7f4de29410b849d59d863b3991a/1/0 [last accessed: 23 July 2020] 270 13.2 Opening ceremony of the 54th international session for young participants organized by the IOA with Acropolis in the background. Source: International Olympic Academy and International Olympic Committee. 2015. Olympic values: Respect for diversity. 54th international session for young participants. Athens, p. 22 282

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Tables 1.1 Selected theoretical approaches of sociology 13 2.1 Investigation of sport according to theoretical approaches of sociology (as selected in table 1.1) 22 2.2 Overview of selected qualitative and quantitative methods of empirical sport sociological research 26 3.1 Structural characteristics of folk games and modern sport games (selection). Source: Dunning E. 1975. “Industrialization and the incipient modernization of football.” In: Brill, E. J.: Stadion I. Journal of the History of Sport and Physical Education, pp. 110–111 42 3.2 Development of running/jogging and Nordic Walking in Austria, according to data by Spectra, 2000–2017. Source: Spectra Marktforschung. 2017. Spectra Lauf- und Sportstudie 2017. Trotz aller medialer und gesundheitspolitischer Bemühungen: Die Sportler werden nicht mehr! Retrieved from https://www.spectra.at/fileadmin/aktuell/2017/Spectra_Aktuell_15_17_Laufen_web.pdf [last accessed: 14 May 2020] 47 3.3 Cost-benefit analysis of sporting activity in Austria 1998 and 2013. Source: Weiss, O., Pichlmair, A., Hanisch, W., Bauer, R. 2016. “Auswirkung von Sport auf die Gesundheit.” In: Österreichische Ärztezeitung. No. 9. Vienna. pp. 20–26 (translated) 50 4.1 Gender-specific sporting preferences. Sources: Lamprecht, M. & Stamm, H. 2002. Sport zwischen Kultur, Kult und Kommerz. Zurich, p. 97; Weiss, O., Hilscher. P., Norden, G. & Russo, M. 2010. “Sport 2000. Entwicklungen und Trends im österreichischen Sport.” In: P. Hilscher, G. Norden, M. Russo & O. Weiss (eds.), Entwicklungstendenzen im Sport (3rd ed., pp. 61–78). Vienna, pp. 64–65 68 4.2 Motives for doing sport among EU citizens, according to gender, age, education, and frequency of exercising (2017). Source: Special Eurobarometer 472. 2018. Sport and Physical Activity, p. 57. Retrieved from: http://ec. europa.eu/commfrontoffice/publicopinion/index.cfm/Survey/getSurvey Detail/search/sport/surveyKy/2164 [last accessed: 17 February 2021] 74 4.3 Sport participation in the EU according to gender, age, and socio-­ demographic group (2017). Source: Special Eurobarometer 472. 2018. Sport and Physical Activity, p. 12. Retrieved from: http://ec.europa.eu/ commfrontoffice/publicopinion/index.cfm/Survey/getSurveyDetail/ search/sport/surveyKy/2164 [last accessed: 17 February 2021] 75 4.4 Ideal-typical contrasts of class-specific sporting preferences. Source: Nagel, M. 2003. Soziale Ungleichheiten im Sport. Aachen, p. 80, modified and supplemented 97 5.1 Sociomatrix. Source: Wössner, J. 1979. Soziologie. Einführung und Grundlegung (8th ed.). Vienna, Cologne, Graz, p. 146 (translated) 102

Figures and Tables 

xiii

5.2 Connection between group size and group performance in a tug of war. Sources: Ingham, A. G., Levinger, G., Graves, J. & Peckham, V. 1974. “The Ringelmann Effect: Studies of group size and group performance.” In: Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 10(4), pp. 371–384; Ringelmann, M. 1913. “Recherches sur les moteurs animés : Travail de l’homme.” In: Annales de l’Institut National Agronomique, XII, pp. 1–40 (experiment conducted in the 1880s, published in 1913) 108 5.3 Steiner’s taxonomy of tasks. Source: Thomas, A. 1992. Grundriß der ­Sozialpsychologie. Bd. 2: Individuum – Gruppe – Gesellschaft. Göttingen, p. 163 (translated) 109 5.4 Results of sport studies conducted using the SCQ. Source: Meding, M. 1989. “Zum Zusammenhang zwischen Kohäsion und Erfolg bei Sportmannschaften.” In: Sportwissenschaft, 19(3), pp. 247–271 (on p. 256, translated) 115 11.1 Research fields of mass communication, according to Lasswell’s model of communication. Source: Lasswell, H. D. 1948. “The structure and function of communication in society.” In: L. Bryson (ed.), The communication of ideas (pp. 37–151). New York, p. 117 205 11.2 Conditions influencing the selection of news. Source: Becker, P. 1983. “Sport in den Massenmedien. Zur Herstellung und Wirkung einer eigenen Welt.” In: Sportwissenschaft, 13(1), pp. 24–45 (p. 32, ­translated) 206 11.3 Events of national importance in the United Kingdom. Sources: Coakley, J. & Pike, E. 2014. Sports in Society. Issues and Controversies. 2nd ed. Berkshire, p. 415; Shapiro, P. & Rees, B. 2015. The Olympics TV deal & UK listed events: what are the options for Discovery in the UK? Retrieved from: https://www.lawinsport.com/content/sports/item/the-olympicstv-deal-uk-listed-events-what-are-options-for-discovery-in-the-uk [last accessed: 14 May 2020] 211 11.4 Important sports journals (from the late 18th to the 20th century) and their countries of origin and founding years. Sources: Boyle, R. 2006. Sports Journalism. Context and Issues. Los Angeles, London, New Delhi & Singapore, pp. 30–56; Guttmann. A. 1986. Sports Spectators. New York, pp. 85–86; Willmott, D. 1994. “Early Sporting Newspapers.” Retrieved from State Library Victoria, http://latrobejournal.slv.vic.gov.au/latrobejournal/issue/latrobe-53/t1-g-t7.html [last accessed: 15 May 2020] 221 11.5 The 10 most-watched television programs in the United Kingdom in 2018. Source: “TV Since 1981.” Retrieved from BARB, https://www.barb. co.uk/resources/tv-facts/tv-since-1981/2018/top10/ [last accessed: 15 May 2020] 229 11.6 The 10 most-watched television programs in the USA in 2019. Source: Crupi, A. 2020. NFL Games Account for Nearly Three-Quarters of the

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Year’s Top 100 Broadcasts. https://adage.com/article/media/nfl-games -account-nearly-three-quarters-years-top-100-broadcasts/2225851 [last accessed: 15 May 2020] 231 11.7 Most popular sport-related magazines in the USA by circulation (as of 2016). Source: Cision Media Research. 2016. Top 10 Sports Magazines. Retrieved from https://www.cision.com/us/2016/08/top-10-sports-maga�zines-2/ [last accessed: 15 May 2020] 232 11.8 The 10 most-watched television programs in Australia in 2018. Source: Lallo, M. 2018. Most-watched programs of 2018 revealed. Retrieved from https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/most-watchedprograms-of-2018-revealed-20181130-p50jdk.html [last accessed: 15 May 2020] 232 11.9 Most popular sport-related magazines in Australia. Source: “Australian Magazine Readership, 12 months to March 2020.” Retrieved from: Roy Morgan, http://www.roymorgan.com/industries/media/readership/ magazine-readership [last accessed: 15 May 2020] 233 11.10 Lists of motives for consuming sports-related content via the media, as compiled by various authors. Sources: Aimiller, K. & Kretschmar, H. 1995. Motive des Sportzuschauens. Umfeldoptimierung durch motivationale Programmselektion (MPS). Unterföhring; Raney, A. A. 2004. “­Motives for using sport in the media: Motivational aspects of sport reception processes.” In: H. Schramm (eds.), Die Rezeption des Sports in den Medien (pp. 49–74). Cologne; Wenner, L. A. & Gantz. W. 1998. “Watching sports on television: Audience experience, gender, fanship, and marriage.” In: L. A. Wenner (ed.), MediaSport (pp. 233–251). London 235 11.11 Explanatory models for the possible effects of presentations of violence on the viewers 240 12.1 List of sponsors for the 2019 Wimbledon Championships. Source: ­Musariri, D. 2019. Wimbledon 2019 sponsors: Here’s who’s backing the tennis tournament. Retrieved from https://www.ns-businesshub.com/ business/wimbledon-2019-sponsors/ [last accessed: 15 May 2020] 248 12.2 Sports sponsoring as an instrument of communication policy. Source: Hermanns, A. & Drees, N. 1989. “Sponsoring-Märkte: Grundlagen und Thesen zur Situation der Gesponserten.” In: A. Hermanns (ed.), Sportund Kultursponsoring (pp. 88–99). Munich (p. 89, translated) 251 12.3 Costs for television rights for the Summer Olympic Games 1972–2016. Source: Watson, A. 2019. Broadcast revenue from the Summer Olympic Games from 1960 to 2016 (in million U.S. dollars). Retrieved from Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/265030/summer-olympics-broadcasting-revenue/ [last accessed: 15 May 2020] 260

Introduction Max Weber (1864–1920) and others (Robert K. Merton [1910–2003], Rodney Needham [1923–2006], etc.) have tried comprehensively and in great detail to trace the differences between the development of science in East and West back to differences in the respective social systems and cultures. The ascendancy of modern natural sciences in the West is primarily explained by these differences, but modern philosophy and other disciplines of the humanities and social sciences that developed from philosophy are also without any doubt an expression of occidental rational thinking. Disillusionment (disenchantment), secularization (transformation from religious to worldly values) and the Enlightenment (reason, logic, criticism, and freedom of thought instead of dogma, blind faith, and superstition) contributed especially to the breakthrough of sociological thinking, which is certainly an important analyzing factor within sport science, too. Sport sociological thinking contributes to a better understanding of the role of sport in society. In the last few decades, sociology of sport has established itself as a sub-discipline of sport science and sociology. The new discipline emerged in the 1960s as one of various discipline-defined approaches to sport. It started with small groups of scholars in various countries. The first association related to the sociology of sport was the International Committee for Sociology of Sport (ICSS), which was founded in Geneva in 1964, and formally constituted a year later in Warsaw. In 1995, it was renamed International Sociology of Sport Association (ISSA). Other important associations are the North American Society for Sociology of Sport (NASSS, founded in 1978), and the European Association for Sociology of Sport (eass, founded in 2001). These organizations host yearly congresses and publish journals, such as the International Review for the Sociology of Sport (published by the ICSS 1966–1995 and by the ISSA since 1996), the Sociology of Sport Journal (published by the NASSS since 1984), and the European Journal for Sport and Society (published by the eass since 2004). Other sport sociological journals are the Journal of Sport and Social Issues (since 1977), Sport, Education and Society (since 1996), Soccer and Society (since 2000), Zeitschrift für Fußball und Gesellschaft (Journal for Soccer and Society, since 2019) and Sport und Gesellschaft (Sport and Society, since 2004). These journals reflect upon the current state of discussion in the sociology of sport. Their range of topics, as well as the heterogeneity of theoretical approaches and methods used in the contributions, are indications of the rapid developments in the field of sociology of sport. Now, sport sociologists form a “flourishing international community” (Bruce 2015, p. 380). However, their work is © Waxmann Verlag GmbH, 2021 | DOI: 10.1163/9789004464711_002

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Introduction

rarely cited beyond the field (ibid., pp. 380–381). The field is most strongly represented in the USA, the United Kingdom, Germany, and South Korea. In the USA and in many other countries, sport sociologists usually work in isolation, as part of general departments of sport science or sociology; there is no institutionally concentrated critical mass of sociology of sport scholars. Bigger groups of scholars conducting research on the sociology of sport currently exist in the United Kingdom (for example, at the Universities of Bath and Brighton), as well as in Canada and New Zealand (Andrews 2015, pp. 370–371). The diversity of sociology of sport is a major reason why so far, no singular, unifying theory about the social world of sport has been developed. Theoretical sociological approaches have been successfully applied to sport in only a few cases. Sociology of sport is still in a state of definition, description and classification; it is on the way to developing theoretical concepts to explore the special social dimension of sport and its manifold dependencies on and influences from cultural value systems and social conditions, as well as its interactions with other institutions such as family, politics, economy, mass media, etc. Social facts in sport are gathered and analyzed systematically with the help of theories and sociological research methods and techniques, whereby empirical social research plays a central role. The task of empirical social research in sport is to verify theoretical statements by means of practical observations. However, the methods and instruments that were developed independently of sport-related considerations can clearly not be applied to sport without corresponding adjustment. Sociology and social sciences respectively do not provide sufficient prerequisites to enable exploration of social facts in the field of sport. Rather, it is necessary to develop object-adapted, sport sociological theories and methods, in order to arrive at empirically validated conclusions (Weiss 1999, p. 24). Initially, the researcher has to have perceptions about the social structures and functions in sport, in order to analyze them. A fundamental theoretical conception is important and can be developed by means of what the American author Charles W. Mills (1916–1962) termed the “sociological imagination” (Mills 1970). According to Giddens & Sutton (2013, p. 5), the sociological imagination “requires us, above all, to ‘think ourselves away’ from the familiar routines of our daily lives in order to look at them from a new point of view”. The reconstruction of the changing social reality on the basis of empirical social research requires permanent advancement of relevant theories and methods. If the sociology of sport reaches a higher scientific level, research will be facilitated in many ways. It will be easier to generate sport sociological theories, the standard of methods will improve, social realities of sport can be

Introduction

3

explained sooner, and sociology of sport, as a sub-discipline, can contribute more towards its integration within the field of sport science. In modern society, with its ethnically and/or culturally diverse populations, the role of sport as a vehicle for cultural dialog is of particular interest. Since different cultures increasingly influence each other, the development of sport cultures is shaped both by the internal situation within each individual society, as well as by outside factors. Due to the increasing importance of sport, the exploration of its various functions (sociocultural, sociopolitical, socioeconomic, etc.), becomes an ever more essential task for the sociology of sport. Today’s highly specialized division of labor (which means that a work process is divided into separate tasks, with each task being executed by a different person) and computing offer less and less room for the mental and emotional needs of human beings in professional life. In addition, there is a tendency towards disintegration of the modern family, and the number of divorces, single persons, single parents, and one-person households is increasing. It was no coincidence that, under these conditions, sport advanced to one of the most striking social phenomena of the present time. It meets the expectations of meaning that it is increasingly confronted with, and offers participants chances to experience forms of identity, which are often unrealizable under the conditions of modern societies, as a possibility and social value. The question that comes to mind is: What is it about the social world of sport that enables it to be a solid interpretative framework of man’s search for meaning? Along this leading question, this textbook deals with the most important aspects of the sociology of sport. While throughout the chapters a couple of concepts related to sport are discussed, the following definition of sport forms the basis of this sport sociological introductory book. definition Sport is a physical activity, which is practiced with an orientation towards performance, gameplay, competition, health and adventure. What distinguishes this definition from other attempts at defining sport is its action theoretical approach. Action theory (humans are defined as acting beings) forms the background for major parts of the book, although of course, other theories will be presented as well. After defining the main sociological and sport sociological concepts, the application of adequate theories should serve to explain social action and social processes in sport. Since sport is a human phenomenon, an understanding of human nature is a prerequisite for understanding sport. Action theories about the central anthropological and

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Introduction

social psychological characteristic feature of humans, that is, their action, seem to be particularly appropriate for this purpose. In addition to modern classical theorists like Émile Durkheim (1858–1917), George H. Mead (1863–1931), Max F. Scheler (1874–1928), Helmuth Plessner (1892–1985), Norbert Elias (1897–1990), Harold D. Lasswell (1902–1978), Talcott Parsons (1902–1979), Arnold Gehlen (1904–1976), George C. Homans (1910–1989), Erving Goffman (1922–1982), and also newer approaches by Heinrich Popitz (1925–2002), Thomas Luckmann (1927–2016), Peter L. Berger (1929–2017), Pierre Bourdieu (1930–2002), as well as Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–) and Anthony Giddens (1938–), will be taken into consideration. These theories will be illustrated by means of examples and key points. The book is structured into thirteen chapters. Each chapter includes revision questions at the end, to enhance the educational value of this textbook. In Chapters 1 and 2, the subjects of sociology and sociology of sport are described. The chapters provide an overview of both the theoretical approaches and the methods used in sociology of sport. The goal is to convey a basic knowledge required for understanding and dealing with results of ­empirical sport sociological research. Chapter 1 focuses on sociology. It introduces the two different approaches—macrosociology and microsociology—and differentiates sociology from related disciplines. Chapter 2 then concentrates on the sociology of sport and its various research questions and methods. It familiarizes students with the various functions that sport might serve in society, and the interrelationships between sport and other social subsystems, such as the healthcare system. Finally, Chapter 2 introduces various concepts and methods relating to sport sociological research, so students who want to write a paper or a thesis in this field will find much useful information there. Subsequently, the connection between sport and society is outlined. Chapter 3 illustrates that sport is an integral part of society, hence it is socially and culturally formed. In other words, the cultural characteristics of a society are reflected in sport, and sport in turn also influences the societies in which it is practiced. Each society has a characteristic interpretation of sport. For example, in the USA, society is characterized by a strong competitiveness, which is also reflected in American sport. Victory is glorified, as the following epigram of the successful football coach Vince Lombardi indicates: “Winning is not everything. It is the only thing”. A contrasting example is that of the Inuit in Alaska. In order to survive in a harsh environment, they had to learn to develop special skills and to cooperate. Thus, cooperation is also an important underlying value in their sports and games. The relativity and variety of these interpretations of sport indicate that they are sociocultural creations rather than the results of a biologically fixed human nature. In other words, sport is a cultural

Introduction

5

product. As such, it is also an indicator for the socially permitted level of physical violence, and it reflects societal distinctions and the specific ‘zeitgeist’ and habitus of people in various stages of social development. Another important point of this chapter is that the practice of sport expanded in the last fifty years. New sports are developed constantly, and now there are more opportunities than ever to practice sport. In this context, the development of trend sports is described, with inline skating as an example. Simultaneously, overall sport participation in the European Union is decreasing, which also causes increased medical expenses. In this context, the chapter introduces a welfare economic ­cost-benefit model of mass and leisure sport, which was developed by Austrian sport scientists, health economists, and social scientists. They compared the economic costs of sport accidents and injuries to the treatment costs for diseases caused by insufficient physical activity and came to the conclusion that it is not physical activity itself, but rather a lack thereof, that causes an alarmingly high amount of economic costs. The meaning given to sport may differ from society to society. For example, in a given society, the form and meaning of sport may vary according to gender and social class. People’s differing perceptions of their own bodies, which vary depending on their social situation, play an important role in this respect. Chapter 4 deals with these perceptions, as well as the socialization processes that these perceptions result from. For instance, sports in which physical strength is emphasized, such as boxing or weightlifting, are regarded as typically male in contemporary society, whereas those where the main focus is on aesthetic representation, such as gymnastics or figure skating, are regarded as typically female. Building on the topic of socialization, Chapter 5 deals with social processes in sport groups. The effects that group size, group structure and group cohesion may have on the players’ motivation and achievement are of particular interest here. For this purpose, various theories, such as the Ringelmann effect or Steiner’s Taxonomy of Tasks, are presented. It is shown, for example, that in group sports where the individual achievements cannot be easily identified and assessed, members tend to lose their motivation. In addition, the chapter introduces the concept of social facilitation, which describes an effect which the presence of others may have on people’s performance of various tasks. This is particularly significant in sport, since most sporting competitions take place in the presence of spectators. This aspect will be further elaborated in Chapter 10. Chapter 6 presents three anthropological constants—world-openness, excentricity and striving for recognition—as an aid to explore the social dimension of sport. These constants were developed in the postdoctoral thesis

6

Introduction

Sport und Gesellschaft (Sport and Society, Weiss 1990), based on various basic principles of philosophical anthropology by Max F. Scheler, Helmuth Plessner and Arnold Gehlen, as well as the social psychological concept of George H. Mead. Due to anthropological preconditions, human behavior is often characterized by the pursuit of social recognition and acknowledgment. People’s identities can be reinforced if they receive recognition from their peers and from society. In order to give examples for how this can be achieved in sport, the chapter introduces a theory by the German sociologist Heinrich Popitz, who categorized people’s need for social recognition into five types, called types of social subjectivity. It is shown that for many people, sport can be a primary way of experiencing confirmation, praise, or recognition in society. Sport can ideally satisfy the human need for identity reinforcement. Along with this social specificity of sport, various negative factors can be identified, such as a high pressure to perform, which might lead athletes to engage in aggressive behavior and doping. These factors are included in the analysis in Chapter 7. The concept of fair play is presented as a possible solution to the doping problem. In addition to the search for social recognition, there is another strong motivator for sport participation: the sheer joy of play and movement. Chapter 8 explores this aspect and introduces important relevant theories, such as Self-Determination Theory or the theory of the flow experience. Chapter 9 shows that even though actions in sport are oriented towards the body, they are also communication processes. As a social institution, sport is closely linked to communication, since sporting activities have meaning and purpose. In sport, a special form of communication takes place, because of its unity of action and representation. In contrast to the modern world, which is a complex system in which people’s real action is often not visible, sport offers a field in which significant symbols are immediately recognizable and can be understood quasi automatically. There are clear rules in sport and the athletes take on meaningful identities. These factors contribute to ensuring mutual understanding and the confirmation of identities. The production and mediation of meaning in sport, which is facilitated by the unity of action and representation, is also an important reason for its high audience appeal. Chapter 10 explores this and various other reasons why sport attracts so many people, and also deals with the problem of aggressive behavior among sport spectators. Following the discussion on the behavior of spectators who are physically present at sporting events, Chapter 11 examines the indirect participation of spectators in these events via the media, as well as media sport in general. The media examined are newspapers, radio, television, and also the new social

Introduction

7

media. One focus here is on the para-social relationship between fans and athletes in the media. This is an artificial relationship, which resembles a real social relationship in many ways. The second focus is on characterizing the reality of media sport. The basis for this is Harold D. Lasswell’s model of communication, which asks: Who says what in which channel to whom with what effect? Each element of the question represents one area of mass communication research, and each of these areas is discussed in the context of sport reporting. The mass media produce their own reality, a media culture of sport, which is connected to the characteristic nature of the media. This symbiosis between sport and the mass media has far-reaching effects on the relationship between sport and the economy. This relationship is dealt with in Chapter 12. There are various industries that profit economically from sport, such as tourism companies that accommodate sport tourists, the sporting goods industry, commercial companies such as fitness centers, etc. But also sport itself has become a huge industry. There is hardly any other phenomenon that is so well-integrated in the subsystems of free time, consumption and mass communication. At the same time, sport helps these subsystems in reaching their goals. Consequently, sport is subject to the processes of commercialization (adaptation of sport to the laws of the market), professionalization (sport becomes an occupation), and mediatization (adaptation of sport to the laws of the media). The chapter also gives a detailed introduction to the concept of sport sponsorship, which describes a special exchange relationship between a sponsor (a commercial enterprise) and a sponsee (an athlete or a sport organization). It is shown that sport is embedded in various economic processes that all influence sport in their own way. The neutrality of the body language of sport, with its technicity of rules, clarity, comparability, etc., makes sport politically interesting. It seems like the trend towards politicization of sport (instrumentalization of sport by politics) goes hand in hand with its increasing significance in modern society. In Chapter 13, this connection is shown and exemplified. Sport is part of our civilization, and our civilization is ultimately responsible for its image. Although in the past, sport was more frequently and more effectively instrumentalized for the purposes of chauvinism or premilitary training than for the purpose of peacebuilding, its fascination still remains. The social specificity of sport is characterized by the fact that sport constitutes a social world, which is considered as an ideal of society and creates meaning for billions of people. The social world of sport is extensively analyzed throughout the book. Finally, some possible measures to improve sport’s most important organizational form, the Olympic Games, will be outlined, so that this ideal of society can take better effect especially there.

8 1. 2. 3. 4.

Introduction

Revision Questions In which countries is the sociology of sport mainly represented? What is the task of empirical social research in sport science? Define sport according to this introductory chapter and name the theory that this definition is based on. What does sociological imagination mean?

chapter 1

The Subject Matter of Sociology The subject matter of sociology1 is society. In general, the term ‘society’ denotes a structure of individuals performing social actions and building relationships to satisfy individual and collective needs. As a descriptive term, society is usually defined by a list of characteristics, for example: a delimited territory, its own culture and certain organizational forms, the population consists of both genders and all age groups, etc. definition Society is a term for the social and denotes interpersonal bonds or particular kinds of social relationships, processes, actions and communications. Examples for different types of society: 1. Tribal societies: A tribal society consists of communities with a common culture, whose members are linked by social, economic, religious, or blood ties. Typically, these societies have a recognized leader. 2. Hunting and gathering societies: Societies whose existence depends on hunting animals and gathering plants. 3. Agrarian societies: Societies whose existence depends on agricultural production. 4. Industrial societies: Societies with a high capacity for division of labor that use technology for mass production. 5. Late modern and postmodern societies: The concept of late modernity describes the idea that contemporary global societies are a continuation of previous forms of modern, industrial societies. In contrast, postmodernism sees the developments in contemporary societies (such as globalization or the increasing reliance on technology), as a separate movement that goes beyond traditional, industrial societies. 6. Totalitarian, authoritarian and repressive societies: In these societies, liberal values are rejected, and public activities are controlled. 7. Democratic societies: Democracies are open societies in which the representatives to governing bodies are elected by the members of society.

1 The person who gave sociology its name (socio = community, society; logy = doctrine, science, theory) was Auguste Comte (1798–1857) in the middle of the 19th century. © Waxmann Verlag GmbH, 2021 | DOI: 10.1163/9789004464711_003

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Societies are structured according to their size and the members’ proximity to each other. We speak of local, regional, national, transnational societies and a global society. In different types of society, the behavior in sport is different, too. If society is changing, sport as a physical activity is changing as well. Both society and sport are based on values and norms which are learned and shaped in the socialization process. Learning humans are acting beings. They always act against the backdrop of values and norms. Via their actions, humans produce culture. definition Culture is a human product, which is based on the values and norms of a given society. Key point: Sport, culture, and art The term ‘culture’ has been used in various ways within the literature on sport. There are elitist definitions of the term, according to which culture only consists of forms of ‘high art’, such as music, literature, painting, and intellectual pursuits such as philosophy or history. Sport is not regarded as a part of culture according to these definitions (Jarvie 2006, p. 69). However, in this book, culture is used as a term describing the ways of life that people created on the basis of the values and norms of the society that they live in. Sport is part of these ways of life. It is a human action and thus a cultural product, which can sometimes be regarded as art. In particular in professional sport, it can happen that the player’s talent transforms the game into art. For instance, the famous boxing champion Muhammad Ali alias Cassius Clay was ‘dancing’ in the ring. Or one of the best tennis players of all times, Roger Federer, was said to be ‘floating’ across the court. Great athletes have the ability to turn sport into art. Most people regard their everyday behavior and the social structures and orders that they live in as natural. However, sociology teaches us that all of these aspects are actually “shaped by historical events and social processes” (Giddens & Sutton 2013, p. 4). The “aspects of order and regularities” of society “are identifiable only under observation” (Schulz 2008, p. 15, translated). This order prescribed to the individual indicates the system character of society. If in sociology we primarily start out from this perspective, i.e., the whole of society, we refer to a holistic perspective (macrosociology), on the basis of which sociology is defined as follows.

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definition Sociology is the science that deals with the study of social structures. Important questions therefore concern the composition of societies and are directed towards the interactions between social sub-areas (work, family, sport, etc.) and towards the effects of different structures. What influence does it have, for example, on the development of social life in a village if a company in which a large part of the local population is employed closes, and the inhabitants become unemployed? How does the increase in divorces affect the socialization of children? What is the significance of the spread of e-sports (competitive video gaming) for the development of social behavior and the ability to establish social contacts in children and adolescents? Another approach is not primarily based on structures but rather on social behavior, the way people act and human interactions. This is called the individualistic approach (microsociology). Corresponding to this is the following definition of sociology. definition Sociology is the science of social action and human interactions. Important topics, then, are the acquisition and shaping of forms of social behavior (socialization) and the reciprocal orientation of people towards each other via mutual interpretations of behavior and standards. There is interest in a basic model of human behavior in order to be able to explain action processes in a social context. Irrespective of whether the focus is on the behavior and interaction aspect or the system aspect, in sociology it is not a matter of statements about the ­individual agents, as it is the case in psychology, but the focus of interest is rather on society or the social. The keyword of sociology, social, indicates a broad practice of use. In everyday language, social expresses an ethical/moral stance: e.g., helping someone, doing a good deed, behaving caringly, kindly, and considerately. The opposite of this is anti-social: e.g., unkind, ­inconsiderate, selfish, avaricious. The word social also has a public-political dimension in the sense of supporting and protecting those who are (economically) weaker and regulating human relationships in society, which is expressed in word combinations such as social policy, social welfare, social reform, social state, etc. In sociology, ‘social’ describes all action related to other people or all action which results from the behavior of other people; it comprises both cooperation

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chapter 1 Sociology

Anthropology Anthropology aims to determine human nature and therefore plays an important role for the formation of sociological theories. Important branches of anthropology are: Anthropology of nature: discusses man’s dissociation from the animal kingdom from a biological perspective. Cultural anthropology: From an ethnological perspective, this discipline is interested in primitive societies and the specificity as well as the relativity of certain cultural forms. Philosophical anthropology: tries to build a bridge between anthropology of nature and cultural anthropology (see application in Chapter 6)

Psychology The subject of psychological research includes the psychic foundations of human behavior and experience, as they become effective in perception, thinking, feelings, motives, learning, movement and acting. Social psychology regards these foundations under the aspect of the social. Thus, social psychology represents an intersection of sociology and psychology. Both disciplines deal with important problem areas such as interactions in small groups, role behavior and socialization processes.

Economics Traditionally, sociology has many points of contact with economics, such as in the area of economic sociology or regarding the guiding theme of economy and society, which is the topic of many classical works in this field.

figure 1.1 Related disciplines of sociology

and conflict. The term ‘social’ is also used in biology. For example, we speak of the social behavior of animals and plants. There are fields such as animal sociology, plant sociology, sociobiology, etc. The most important related disciplines of sociology that deal with social behavior are anthropology, psychology and economics (figure 1.1). A specific undisputed social theory has not been developed so far. Instead there are various theoretical approaches. Table 1.1 provides an overview of the most important ones. Sociological theories and statements have to be verified based on reality, i.e., empirically. It is a matter of systematically determining social facts with procedures that make the results intersubjectively verifiable (objective) and therefore, in principle, independent of the researcher’s subjectivity. In this respect, in sociology, as a science of society, only empirical research is possible. As a fundamental social science, sociology is geared towards the theoretically based empirical study of the laws of social coexistence of humans. This is also true for the investigation (exploration) of the social world of sport. Sociology of sport is an empirical discipline, which is based on theory formation and collecting data.

THE SUBJECT MATTER OF SOCIOLOGY

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table 1.1  Selected theoretical approaches of sociology

Action theory

Humans are acting beings.

Symbolic interactionism

George H. Mead stresses the importance of symbols as fundamental elements of human interaction.

Practice theory

According to Pierre Bourdieu, habitus (socially acquired, embodied system of dispositions and predispositions) and capital (economic, social and cultural) determine human behavior.

Theory of social institutions

Social institutions, like sport, religions, governments, and families represent enduring patterns of organization or structures that serve to satisfy human needs.

Figurational theory

Norbert Elias states that figurations—evolving networks of interdependent humans—are decisive for the development of social groups or society as a whole.

Structural functionalism

Societies are social systems in which interconnected social institutions perform specific functions.

Systems theory

Society consists of a complex arrangement of elements, including individuals and their beliefs, which relate to a whole (e.g., a country).

Cultural studies

Culture creates meanings and practices of everyday life.

Feminist theory

Women are discriminated against due to gender.

Rational choice theory

The behavior of individuals is purposive, and they make choices in order to achieve their goals.

definition Empirical means based on experience. Theories and statements about social reality are verified using empirical research. While in natural sciences, empirical research and theory formation are largely merged into one entity, this is not necessarily the case in sociology. The highly abstract social theories are largely separate from empirical examination. Most of the widely accepted theories are therefore found in the field of microsociology or also in several special branches of sociology. The theory of symbolic interactionism by George H. Mead, from which the identity theory in sport is derived, is an example. In Chapters 6 and 9, the distinct feature and significance of sporting identities in contemporary society, as well as the connection between sport and communication, are explained on the basis of this theory.

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The special branches of sociology are geared towards their corresponding areas of social life. They include inter alia gender sociology, family sociology, sociology of religion, sociology of education, youth sociology, sociology of generations, economic sociology, sociology of law, military sociology, sociology of police, organizational sociology, sociology of work, leisure sociology, urban sociology, sociology of architecture, agricultural sociology, development sociology, technical sociology, sociology of science, sociology of art, sociology of literature, sociology of music, sociology of language, medical sociology, media sociology, body sociology, and sociology of sport. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Revision Questions Name and describe three different types of societies. Define the term ‘culture’. Why is sport a cultural product? Can sport be art? Describe the differences between macrosociology and microsociology. Define sociology according to both approaches. Describe the various meanings and dimensions of the term ‘social’. What are the most important related disciplines of sociology?

chapter 2

Sociology of Sport: Subject Area, Theoretical Approaches, and Different Methods While the subject matter of sociology is society, sociology of sport deals with the connection between sport and society. Sociology investigates general social aspects, whereas sociology of sport focuses in particular on the social aspects of sport. definition Sociology of sport is the science that deals with social actions, processes, and structures in sport and with the relationship between sport and society. This definition can be split into many subject areas. The following questions are based on the two main aspects of the definition. They have been chosen by way of example and aim to illustrate the range of topics of research in sociology of sport. a Examples of questions on social action, processes, and structures within sport: – What is the social specificity of sport all about? – What is the organizational structure of sport in a country? – How are the formal and informal decision making and communication channels organized in different sport organizations? – Which social problems exist in sport? – Which connections exist between team structures and team success? Is there a home advantage in team sport and, if so, for what reasons? – What role does aggression play in sport? – Is there a civilization process going on in sport? – To what extent is social integration possible in sport? – To what extent is there socialization in/through sport? – What are the specific characteristics of the role of a professional athlete/sport manager/sport teacher/coach/referee, etc.? – What does ‘identity’ mean in sport? – Why do athletes use performance-enhancing drugs, and how can this be prevented? – What is the significance of fair play in sport?

© Waxmann Verlag GmbH, 2021 | DOI: 10.1163/9789004464711_004

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b

Examples of questions on the two-way relationship between sport and society: – What is the significance of sport in society? – What are the functions of sport in society? – How are the values and norms in a society reflected in sport? – What does ‘sport appeal’ mean? – What are the social conditions leading to aggressive behavior among sport spectators? – What is the relationship between sport and the economy, and between sport and work? – What is the relationship between sport and mass media? – What influence do sport associations have on political decisions? – What influence does politics have on sport? – What is the power of sport with regard to politics? – What consequences does globalization have on sport; how does sport influence globalization? – Which cultural and religious values shape the ethos of sport? Does a sport ethos affect other social areas? – In what form does family and school socialization influence the ability and willingness to practice sport or individual forms of sport? Is it possible to transfer social skills and values acquired in sport to other areas of life? – What is the relationship between sport and gender, and sport and social class? – To what extent does the social status of an individual in society influence this person’s sporting habits? What effects does sport have on the social status of an individual? – How can sport serve as educational tool? – What is the fascination of sport based on? Sociology of sport deals with such diverse topics, questions, and problems of sport in theoretical and empirical studies. 1

Theories in Sociology of Sport

definition A theory is an effort to detect general features that explain observable regularities. Theories in sociology of sport are usually formed by referring to theories of general sociology and using these accordingly. The use of systems theory

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approaches has a long tradition in sociology of sport. Initially, structural/functional systems theory was used, and an important representative of structural functionalism is the American sociologist Talcott Parsons. He suggested four functional imperatives that all societies need to achieve in order to survive, which Loy & Booth (2002) found to be also inherent in sport. These functional imperatives are: 1. Pattern maintenance: This describes the cultural processes that all societies must develop to maintain the existing social order for future generations (Craig 2016, p. 80). In sport, there are clear rules and common values, for example those of fair play, which are passed on to young athletes. 2. Integration: Integration refers to a society’s social systems that were created to deal with deviance and discipline people into following the rules (ibid.). In sport, there are a number of regulations to punish offenders, such as anti-doping laws. 3. Goal attainment: All societies have to develop systems that allow for the achievement of goals (ibid.). The system of rules in sport provides various goals, and also a means through which the athletes can achieve them. 4. Adaptation: All societies have to adapt to changing circumstances (ibid.). An example for this is that sport’s national governing bodies have to conduct effective financial planning in order to adapt to economic changes (Giulianotti 2016, p. 9). In addition, athletes must adapt to changing rules and philosophies when a new coach is introduced (Delaney & Madigan 2015, p. 32). Sport’s adherence to these functional imperatives provides one explanation for its successful development in modern society. Following Parsons’ theory, Craig (2016, p. 81) argues that the everyday activities in sport can help to reinforce the functionally important social rules of a society. Sport has a variety of functions “that aid the process of social reproduction”. Giulianotti (2016, p. 5) suggests that another function of modern sport is “to promote social solidarity”. Social institutions such as the church are losing their power, so people are looking for alternate ways to live the experiences that these institutions provide. For example, when attending sporting events, people can experience ­feelings of connectedness in a community, and sometimes, fans even express their love for a sport team through stadium songs or by wearing the team’s colors; a practice that Giulianotti (2016, p. 6) describes as “positive rites of worship”. All of these aspects can also be experienced when practicing religion. Sport can function as a substitute for religion, whose influence is falling into decline. Furthermore, sporting events can also promote national solidarity through the singing of national anthems or the unfurling of national flags at the beginning of a game, or the attendance of leading politicians.

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Stichweh argues that in sport, records and the improvement of records have an important communicative function. The achievements of the body in sport do not serve any other external goal apart from breaking records or winning, and this is what makes the sport system unique. “Sport seems to consist of the communication of bodily achievements which are not brought about to do any work external to them. They only have a communicative function” (­Stichweh 2013, p. 93). Since the 1980s in the German-speaking area, it has been Niklas Luhmann’s (1927–1998) version of the structural/functional systems theory, in particular, to which outlines of a sociological theory of sport refer. This theory understands sport—or at least competitive/professional sport—as an independent subsystem of modern, i.e., functionally differentiated society. As such, it became differentiated, i.e., separate from other social areas, between the 18th and 20th centuries. The requirement for this differentiation is—depending on the variant of the theory—seen in the development of a specialized code via which subsystems distance themselves from each other, or in the specialization in a function for the reproduction of society. While the function and also the code of the sport system (i.e., perform/not perform or victory/defeat) are not understood in a uniform manner, there is agreement that sport as mass sport and also as professional sport provides benefits for other social sub-areas and receives benefits from these sub-­ areas (Schulze 2007, pp. 94–95). Giulianotti (2016, p. 14) calls this interaction between social subsystems “structural coupling”. In mass sport, for example, strong benefit relationships are seen in particular with the following social subsystems: healthcare system (mass sport is often practiced for health reasons and therefore supports this subsystem), education system (mass sport is seen as pedagogically valuable), political system (mass sport is encouraged at the political level on account of its presumed educational, health, and social integration benefits), family system (thinking of their children, parents see the socialization functions of practicing sport) and economic system (commercial use of mass sport by fitness centers, sporting goods manufacturers, etc.). Professional sport benefits other subsystems (economy, politics, media) via its attention-attracting event production and, in return, receives financial resources (Schimank 2001, pp. 13–18; 2008, pp. 71–72). These aspects do not only form a systems theory-related consensus but also a common basis with the empirical and theoretical sociology of sport that does not work in a systems theory-oriented manner (Schulze 2007, p. 94). One approach in sociology of sport that does not work in a systems theory-oriented manner is the theory of social institutions. According to this, sport

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is a social institution, comparable, for example, with religion, family, politics, or the economy. definition Social institution designates a generally accepted social framework that satisfies important needs and is a fundamental part of a culture. Social institutions can either arise out of the consolidation of certain patterns of social action into normatively binding forms of interaction, or out of the organization of certain societal activities into systems that are governed by a central idea. In the latter case, social institutions are characterized by four distinctive features: 1. central idea, 2. staff, 3. rules of behavior towards each other, and 4. material apparatus (Gukenbiehl 2016, p. 176; Malinowski 1944). In this sense, the modern Olympic Games can be called a migratory social institution, since they take place at different venues, but their distinctive features always remain the same (Weis 1989, p. 437). Sport in general can be understood as a social institution in the sense of a consolidated pattern of social action. Example: The modern Olympic Games as a social institution 1. Central idea: Nations are struggling for victory in sport competitions, as a contribution to world peace and the improvement of humanity 2. Staff: Functionaries of the IOC (International Olympic Committee), ­referees, athletes, etc. 3. Rules of behavior towards each other: Competition rules that are based on values such as fair play, ­ceremonies (award ceremonies, opening and closing ceremonies), etc. 4. Material apparatus: Olympic torch, stadiums, pieces of sport equipment, etc. As a social institution, sport offers values and norms, roles,1 socialization models and organizational forms. According to Craig (2016, p. 93), these values and norms originate from the social and cultural conditions of 19th-century 1 By social roles we mean behavioral expectations put on individuals in certain social positions and situations.

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­ ritain. The regulations are particularly clear in organized sport, where behavB ior is organized into social roles, with many of these perceived as an obligation or function by the people in these roles (official, coach, etc.). There are standardized rules for competitions and for measuring performances. Rule violations are penalized by disqualification or other punishments. At the Olympic Games, only certain sports are allowed. In view of these and other regulations, sport has a stabilizing function in society as a whole (Weis 1989; 2008, pp. 83–86). While institutional theory particularly keeps an eye on stability, the civilization process and figurational theory of Elias & Dunning (2008) emphasizes the process character of society. In this theory, sport is interpreted as an expression of complex social development processes and configuration occurrences. Accordingly, sport is ingrained in the civilizing process or in social configurations, which—referring to the multiple networks of interdependence that both constrain and enable actions of people—develop their own social dynamic. definition Figuration (or configuration) is the (often unplanned) dynamic and structuredness of social processes between various people (including beyond group boundaries). Modern configurations, in contrast to premodern ones, are characterized by a consolidation of the interrelationship arrangement or interdependencies. Associated with this is an increasingly differentiated regulation of behavior and a higher control of emotions. In this phase of the civilizing process, ­people—according to Elias & Dunning (2008)—need areas of action such as sport in which it is possible to experience excitement and show emotions, which does not occur, or at least not to the same extent, in situations outside of sport. This concept serves well to explain competitive and spectator sport, but it does not take into account ‘sport for all’, that is, all the instrumental, health-oriented sport practices that do not serve a competitive purpose (Haut 2013, p. 47). An appropriate tool to analyze ‘sport for all’ is Bourdieu’s (2010) practice theory-oriented research perspective. In this perspective, sport appears as a special field in which agents act depending on their respective habitus as well as their economic, social and cultural capital. definition Habitus is a complex system of thought, perception, and action patterns that determines human behavior.

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definition Economic capital refers to money, property, or land that form part of a system of material exchange. definition Social capital denotes the entirety of resources linked to a network of relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition. definition Cultural capital comprises types of knowledge, skills, and education, which confer advantages on those who acquire them. It consists of embodied (forms of speech or bodily comportment), objectified (cultural products such as works of art), or institutionalized abilities (educational qualifications). The capital determines the possible activities to engage in, while the habitus determines the preferences. That is, the agents will prefer sport that corresponds with their respective habitus. Here—in connection with habitus—the mechanism of distinction (social force that assigns different values upon different people within a given society) needs to be taken into consideration. This theory is applied in studies on class-specific involvement in sport. As well as the aforementioned theoretical approaches, many other theoretical concepts and research programs are found in sociology of sport. Table 2.1 shows how sport is conceptualized in the context of the theoretical approaches highlighted in table 1.1. The pluralism of theories and the wide range of questions correspond with a pluralism of research methods, whereas quantitative methods, especially quantitative surveys, are pre-eminent in sociology of sport (Weis & Gugutzer 2008, p. 10). One example for a quantitative survey is the Active Lives Survey, which gathered data on sport participation in England. The results were for example that 74% of English adolescents aged 16 to 24 practice sport for more than 150 minutes every week, and 11% of them practice sport between 30 and 149 minutes every week in their free time (Audickas 2017, p. 7). A survey of perhaps 20 youths on the same topic, but with the objective of recording the movement/ exercise behavior of individual adolescents in their free time in as much detail as possible and in the respective context, would be a qualitative survey. definition A quantitative survey is a method of sociological research involving the administration of standardized questionnaires to a population being studied and the statistical analysis of their replies.

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table 2.1  Investigation of sport according to theoretical approaches of sociology (as selected in table 1.1)

Theoretical approaches

Sport is described as …

Action theory

human action.

Symbolic interactionism

a special form of communication (body language).

Practice theory

an area in which agents act depending on their habitus and economic, social and cultural capital.

Theory of social institutions

a social institution with different organizational forms that serves to satisfy human needs.

Figurational theory

an expression of social development processes or configuration occurrences.

Structural functionalism

one societal component, which fulfills a particular function.

Systems theory

a social system (differentiated into types of sport).

Cultural studies

a phenomenon of everyday and popular culture.

Feminist theory

a stabilizer of gender order or a field of reproduction for traditionally male stereotypes.

Rational choice theory

a field of application of purposively rational, utility-maximizing action.

definition Quantitative research methods allow social phenomena to be measured and analyzed using statistical techniques and mathematical models. definition Qualitative research methods gather observational and conversational data to understand social aspects of human life. Qualitative surveys go into depth. They collect as much information as possible about a few cases or also only about one individual case. Here it is not a matter of distributions of characteristics but rather reconstructing or working out typical patterns in multi-case analyses. Qualitative procedures are, for example, interviews which are completely open (narrative interviews) or carried out using a list of key words, or using predetermined questions, but the answers are open and recorded precisely. Another, less common qualitative method is group discussion. In this, a group of people assembled by the researcher, called focus

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group (Giddens & Sutton 2013, p. 48), is asked to discuss a predetermined topic under the supervision of a moderator who does not belong to the group. One example of the use of this procedure is Nern’s study on soccer fans (2011). As part of this study, group discussions were carried out with German fans immediately after they had visited a stadium and after the television broadcast of a match. An English-language example is Marfell’s study of female netball players from New Zealand (2012). As part of this study, discussions were carried out in four different groups, each consisting of women who had participated in netball games in a different period. The first group had played netball during the 1940s, the second during the 1970s, the third in the 1990s, and the last in 2010. As well as the group discussion procedure and the various qualitative interview forms, qualitative content analysis (document analysis) also belongs to the qualitative methods. Its objective is to reveal the entire semantic content of a text, image, etc. Example studies were conducted by Langreiter (2006), Dart (2014), and Elling (2015). In Langreiter’s study, autobiographies of Austrian ski racers were evaluated using qualitative content analysis. Dart’s study examined the content of three sport sociological journals to identify predominant topics in discussions within the sociology of sport. Elling used qualitative content analysis to examine articles on women’s sport and gender issues, which appeared in the International Review for the Sociology of Sport. Furthermore, qualitative methods also include forms of observation which, without a standardized instrument, are geared towards providing a description of actions and observation fields that is as complete as possible. One of these forms of observation is ethnography. It is a field strategy that combines observation and direct participation of the researcher in the social situation, as well as introspection, spontaneous interviews, interviews with informants, document analysis and so on. definition Ethnography means both participatory observation and also the description of the culture of an ethnos. Ethnos comprises a number of people who see each other as a group on account of a shared culture. Examples of ethnographic studies are those of Schmidt (2002) and Wacquant (2006). Schmidt carried out participatory observations in the Berlin Yaam Club for three years, in each case from May to the start of October, in order to be able to ethnographically describe the movement culture there. In this case, to ethnographically describe meant to reveal the significance of streetball games or hip-hop for the agents in the club.

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Example: Wacquant’s study on boxing The French sociologist Loïc Wacquant (1960–) examined the culture of a boxing club in a black ghetto of Chicago. For this purpose, he trained in the club three to six times a week for three years, and during that time, he became fascinated by the sport. Even a broken nose he received when sparring did not dampen his enthusiasm. He wrote about his suffering during a break in training, which he was forced to take due to his injury, and kept a record of every training session and other field visit. On the basis of the material collected in this way, he was able to determine, for instance, how the physical/mental production of the boxing habitus takes place in the quasi-total institution2 of a boxing club. This is how he described his experience: For three years I trained alongside local boxers, both amateur and professional, at the rate of three to six sessions a week, assiduously applying myself to every phase of their rigorous preparation, from shadowboxing in front of mirrors to sparring in the ring. Much to my own surprise, and to the surprise of those close to me, I gradually got taken in by the game, to the point where I ended up spending all my afternoons at the Woodlawn gym and ‘gloving up’ with the professionals from the club on a regular basis, before climbing through the ropes for my first official fight in the Chicago Golden Gloves. In the intoxication of immersion, I even thought for a while of aborting my academic career to turn pro and thereby remain with my friends from the gym and its coach, DeeDee Armour, who had become a second father for me. (Wacquant, 2006, p. 4) Questions regarding significance and interpretation, i.e., questions about attributions and contexts of meanings, are typical questions examined using qualitative methods. Furthermore, these methods are often used solely for exploration purposes as preparation for structured surveys. definition We speak of exploration when researchers become familiar with their object of study, in order to be able to conduct an elaborate examination afterwards.

2 Total institutions are characterized by the fact that all affairs of life take place in one and the same place under one and the same authority. Examples are prisons, children’s homes, psychiatric clinics, barracks, ships, and monasteries.

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Exploration is essential if there is little information available about the object of study and if there is not much scientific knowledge. If, for example, we still know little about the significance of exceptional life events in terms of the development of attitudes towards sport, qualitative/biographical interviews can collect further information and, based on this, hypotheses can be established. definition A hypothesis is a theoretical idea about a given social situation, put forward in exact terms for empirical testing. Hypotheses are either preliminary stages of theories, or they are derived from theories. They consist of causal statements that establish a connection between at least two variables. definition A variable is a versatile size which can take any value out of a specified quantity of values. Hypotheses always reveal which variable is assumed as the cause and which as the effect in each case. For the cause, we use the term independent or explanatory variable, and for the effect, we use the term dependent or explained variable. In the hypothesis ‘As the level of education becomes higher, the range of practiced forms of sport becomes greater’, ‘education’ is the independent variable, ‘range of practiced forms of sport’ the dependent variable. For testing hypotheses, quantitative methods are used (table 2.2). The quantitative methods attempt to live up to the measuring claim. Therefore, the research instrument used for these methods is entirely standardized. For example, with a standardized interview the sequence and wording of the questions and also the possible answers are specified precisely. A special form of this type of interview, usually in paper-and-pencil form, is the sociometric test. Other quantitative procedures are, for example, standardized (structured) observation and quantitative content analysis (document analysis). In the case of the former, a scheme sets out in detail what has to be observed (e.g., the number of ball contacts and successful passes of every player in a team during a match); in the case of the latter, a category scheme precisely specifies which formal and content characteristics of the quantities of text being examined (e.g., sport reports in daily newspapers) have to be recorded. In addition, there are also specific study designs such as the longitudinal study and the experiment. In an experiment the test persons are divided into

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table 2.2  Overview of selected qualitative and quantitative methods of empirical sport sociological research

Qualitative procedures – Qualitative interview (informal discussion, narrative interview, unstructured, not very structured, partly structured, half-structured/half-standardized interview, open interview, guided interview, in-depth interview, free, biographical, focused, problem-centered, thematic interview; written: informal inquiry with experts, etc.) – Group discussion – Qualitative content analysis (document analysis) – Unstructured observation (qualitative participatory observation, ethnography) Quantitative procedures – Standardized interview: – face-to-face interview – telephone interview – written interview – online-based interview – Test (personality test etc.) – Quantitative content analysis (document analysis) – Standardized (structured) observation (also standardized video observation) – Specific designs: – experiment – longitudinal study – Behavioral measurements using technological control systems such as BARB to determine the reach of sports broadcasts on television or pedometers to record movement activities

an experimental group and a control group. Only the people in the experimental group are under the influence of the condition that is assumed to be the cause (independent variable), whose influence on the dependent variable is tested. Longitudinal studies attempt to ascertain the same facts at time intervals in order to be able to make statements about changes in social phenomena, for example changes in attitudes to high-performance/professional sport and recreational/mass sport in the population over a ten-year period. definition An experiment serves for testing hypotheses, either in an artificial situation constructed by the researcher or in naturally occurring settings. definition In longitudinal studies, the same group of participants is tested repeatedly over time.

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SOCIOLOGY OF SPORT Term

Variable

Indicators

Health consciousness

Exercise Sport

Frequency of sport participation

Medical check-up

Diet

Number of meals

Composition of meals

Frequency of health examinations

Alcohol Nicotine

Quantity of alcohol consumption

Number of cigarettes smoked

figure 2.1 Operationalization of the term ‘health consciousness’

The attitudes to sport, as well as many other complex facts, cannot be measured with a single indicator in each case, but only with several indicators pooled together in indices or scales. The attitude to participation in sport has been measured, for instance, in a survey with the following contrasting pairs, which were pooled together in an index (Wilhelm 1999, p. 432): ‘For me, doing sport is ...’ boring vs. stimulating, a pain vs. a joy, unpleasant vs. pleasant, unimportant vs. important, meaningless vs. meaningful, bad vs. good and also harmful vs. beneficial (answers in each case on a five-tier scale with the values −2, −1, 0, +1 and +2). Health consciousness, to give another example, can be measured by pooling together the indicators listed in figure 2.1, which can be determined in a survey. Since we can hardly interview or study every single person, samples are taken from a population. In order to use the results of the samples to draw conclusions about the totality of the population, it is necessary for the individual samples to actually reflect the entire universe; this is called representativeness. To ensure representativeness, two sampling techniques in particular are used: random sampling and quota sampling. In the case of the latter, the distribution of relevant characteristics in the population is assumed, for instance the number of women and men, the age distribution, or the distribution of working people in occupational groups. An attempt is made to compile a sample in which these characteristics are distributed in the same way as in the population. Random sampling, which most large market and opinion research institutes use, is more reliable than quota sampling. In random sampling, people are randomly taken from the electoral registers so that this group of people, in its composition, corresponds with the population. Or random numbers are generated for telephone surveys so that, in their structure (number of digits, initial digits, etc.), they correspond with telephone numbers in the study area. In this procedure, called random digit dialing (RDD), and in random sampling in general, every element of the population has the same chance of being included in the sample. The random selection means that, with the help of

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probability theory, statements can be made about the accuracy of the results transferred from the sample to the population. The greater the representative sample is, the more precise are the results; in other words, the random error is smaller with larger samples. For example, if in a survey of 500 people from a given population—who were determined using random sampling—there is a percentage of 50% of ‘yes’ answers for a certain question, the real value of ‘yes’ answers in the population will, with 95% probability, be between 46% and 54%. Analogously, with 1,000 people, it will be between 47% and 53% and with 2,000 people between 48% and 52%. definition A representative sample is a proportion of individuals taken from the whole population. It is characterized by the fact that the measured values of the variables are not very different to those of the population with regard to their statistical measures (mean values, dispersions, etc.), so that the values of the population can be extrapolated from the sample. definition In random sampling, every member of the population has the same chance to be included in the survey. As well as the size and the quality of the sample, validity and reliability in particular are important quality criteria of empirical research. Reliability of the measuring process, and of the measuring instrument, means that with multiple measurements under the same conditions identical results will be achieved. Validity describes the usability of research methods: Are the specific aspects that the research project aims to investigate actually tested, analyzed, observed, or asked? Does an instrument really measure what it is supposed to measure? To answer these questions, there are suitable test procedures that cannot be described here but can easily be discovered in the literature pertaining to social and sport science method introductions (e.g., Andrews, Mason & Silk 2005, Atteslander 2010, Gratton & Jones 2010, Mligo 2016, Tenenbaum & Driscol 2005). 1.

Revision Questions What are the main research interests of sociology of sport? Go through the individual questions again and try to think of three more questions that might be of interest to the sociology of sport.

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What are, according to Talcott Parsons, the four functional imperatives that all societies need to achieve in order to survive? Name two different functions of sport in society. Name some examples of how sport interacts with and influences other social subsystems. Define the term ‘social institution’. Describe the differences between quantitative and qualitative research methods. Name one quantitative and one qualitative research method. Find the independent and the dependent variable in the following hypothesis: The higher the income, the more likely a person is to practice sport in his free time.

chapter 3

Sport and Society The term ‘sport’ originally referred to English sport, which developed in England during the 18th and 19th centuries. English sport distinguished itself from earlier and coeval forms of physical exercises and games through the principles of fair play and sportsmanship (Vincent et al. 2018, p. 901), achievement, competition, and record (Guttmann 2004) and, as a consequence, through rationalization, standardization, and bureaucratization. In this way, English sport conformed to the emerging industrial society. Elias (1986, p. 22) used the term sportization to describe the process by which the leisure pursuits of former times were turned into modern sport. This took place especially in England and was aided by industrialization (Martin 2009, p. 139). Supported by the worldwide presence of the British Empire and the modern Olympic Games, English sport spread internationally. It was subsequently called modern sport, for which Parry gave the following definition: “institutionalized rule-governed contests of human physical skill” (2015, p. 171). Key point: Sport as a social phenomenon In the past, life meant work for most people; they had to work in order to survive. However, in the course of industrialization, a leisure mass developed in addition to the leisure class. According to the Norwegian-­ American economist and sociologist Thorstein B. Veblen (1857–1929), leisure class referred to noblemen who could afford to waste their time by means of entertainment. These means of entertainment became accessible to an increasing number of people, so that there was a development towards a leisure society. Other more or less accurate terms used to characterize this ‘zeitgeist’ are: late industrial society, postmaterialist society, risk society, information society, leisure society, etc. All these designations signal that something has changed or is currently changing. One result of these changes, whose factuality can hardly be doubted, is manifested in the ever-increasing importance of sport. Participation in sport can be observed across confessional, ideological, and political differences. It is through the changes of society and contexts that sport is becoming a more and more important and influential cultural and social phenomenon.

© Waxmann Verlag GmbH, 2021 | doi:10.1163/9789004464711_005

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Today, sport is a global phenomenon. For example, soccer is played by the same rules almost everywhere in the world, and in many countries, it is considered one of the most popular sports. There are transnational governing bodies, such as UEFA and FIFA, and some soccer clubs have fans who live thousands of miles away (Head 2004, p. 23). In 2006, 270 million people, that is, 4% of the world’s population, were involved in organized soccer, and in 2018, almost 3.6 billion people watched at least a minute of the 2018 Men’s World Cup matches (FIFA 2018). However, the style in which the game is played in different ­societies, and the structures of meaning and motivations associated with the game, vary.1 For example, there are different fan traditions in different countries, and the different teams have their own names, uniforms and colors (ibid.). “Football [soccer] has an extraordinary cultural plasticity […]. The game may be ­constant but the kind of style and what precisely it refers to will vary” (Critcher 1991, p. 82). On the one hand, soccer has helped to shape transnational social interconnections and forms of identity, but on the other, the game is also “a cultural arena characterized not by uniformity and convergence but rather by tensions between the local and the global” (Bleakney & Darby 2018, p. 993). There are also some countries where soccer failed to gain major popularity. In the USA, for example, baseball, American football and basketball are considered the main national sports, whereas soccer is relatively marginalized (Buffington 2012, p. 138). According to Markovits & Hellerman (2001, p. 41), one explanation for this can be found in the social and historical connections that prevented the development of a big worker’s party (or a socialist system) that would have matched the European example. It was particularly the early and comprehensive formation of a bourgeois society in the USA that caused this development. Why was soccer crowded out in this bourgeois society? First of all, the American bourgeoisie had successfully established baseball as its own national game very early. Second, the young elites at the top American universities were more interested in playing rugby, and then altering it later. Third, basketball was invented and then disseminated. America’s sport scene became filled very early and there was no space for the spread of soccer anymore. Nowadays, in the course of globalization, the obstacles to the development of soccer in the USA seem to have lost their effective force. This opens the possibility that American sport fans might regard soccer in a more favorable light in the future (ibid.).

1 Soccer in South America differs from soccer in Europe. There are differences between soccer in Northern and Southern Europe, soccer in Austria and Germany, etc.

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Sport is just as universal as it is particular. The term ‘glocalization’ describes these “local differences amid global similarity” (Jijon 2017, p. 83). It occurs when globally existing phenomena are adapted to specific local cultures. ­Specific sporting cultures developed in different societies, and they persevered, in spite of the ongoing pressure of globalization. In these particular sporting cultures, elements of English sport, in conjunction with German Turnen ­(a militaristic style of physical training), Swedish gymnastics (a health-oriented formal style of exercise), Austrian Natürliches Turnen (natural gymnastics), etc., as well as cultural and institutional particularities of the respective society, are merged. These mixtures reflect each society’s individual values and norms. 1

Sport and Culture: Values in Society and in Sport

definition Values are principles of what is desirable in a culture and give an orientation. They form the basis for decisions and motivate human behavior. definition Norms are rules of acting or behavior expected by the respective social environment to the holders of social positions and roles. They are derived from values and serve for their realization. For instance, the system of values and norms in the USA is characterized by a high orientation towards competition and profit. The Americans want winners, be it in school, business, politics, or sport. Only victory counts, and only the fittest survive. This Social Darwinist principle,2 the survival of the fittest, manifests itself in both American society and sport. Victory is glorified, as the following epigrams of successful American football coaches and sport slogans in high schools demonstrate (Sage, Eitzen & Beal 2019, pp. 62–63; Snyder & Spreitzer 1989, p. 46): 2 The biologist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) formulated the theory of evolution through selection: In a struggle for survival, the strongest ones, that is, those who are best adapted to the environment, are the winners. The sociologist Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) concluded from this that battle, destruction, and finally the survival of the fittest form the basis of progress in human societies. Spencer’s theory became very popular and had a significant influence, especially on US-American society where it led to success-oriented ethics in the name of progress and served as a means to justify poverty and exploitation (Tischler, Whitten & Hunter 2010, pp. 12–13). This social philosophy is still expressed in the subsystems of American society and it is especially predominant in American sport.

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Epigrams: – “Winning is not everything. It is the only thing”. – Vince Lombardi – “I will demand a commitment to excellence and to victory, and that is what life is all about”. – Vince Lombardi – “Winning isn’t everything, but it beats everything that comes in second”. – Paul Bryant – “Winning is living”. – George Allen – “Every time you win, you’re reborn; when you lose, you die a little”. – George Allen Sport slogans: – “A quitter never wins, a winner never quits”. – “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”. – “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog”. – “Never be willing to be second best”. – “The greatest aim in life is to succeed”. – “Win by as many points as possible”. – “They ask not how you played the game but whether you won or lost”. The American football coach Vince Lombardi was known for his autocratic leadership style. He used to scream at or even hit his players, believing that this would drive them to perform better. After an incident in which he punched a player, he stated: “I guess I was trying to get him to hate me. […] You must have that fire in them and there is nothing that stokes that fire like hate. I’m sorry, but that is the truth” (cited in Curry & Jiobu 1984, p. 48). However, Curry & Jiobu (ibid.) add that victory and winning have not always been glorified in ­American culture. The Puritans were the first Europeans who immigrated to North America in the 17th century. Religion was very important to them, and they forbade everything that could possibly interfere with it, including recreational sport. They considered success to be “a spiritual matter determined by each individual’s relation to God” (ibid.). Competitive sport, whose main goal was that of outdoing others, did not fit into their idea of success and their system of values and norms. The situation remained similar during the 18th century: People who were considered ‘successful’ were those who had achieved a reasonable income, and interpersonal competition was not considered important. It was only in the 19th century that the ideas of Charles Darwin introduced the ideology of competition into US-American society (ibid., p. 49). The importance of competition in American college sport, for example, is indicated by the results of a cross-cultural study that compared three types of motivation for sport participation between American college athletes and

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Competition USA

Competition Austria Fitness USA

Fitness Austria

Social USA

Social Austria male female

4

2

0

1989

1999

1989

1999

1989

1999

1989

1999

1989

1999

1989

1999

Figure 3.1 Means for motivation scales by country and gender in 1989 and 1999

Austrian student sport club members. The items3 included in the Competition scale of the study were ‘I participate in sport because I enjoy competition’, ‘because it is exciting’, and ‘because I enjoy winning’. The Fitness scale consisted of the items ‘I participate in sport because it makes me physically fit’, ‘because I enjoy exercise’, and ‘because it makes me physically attractive to members of the opposite sex’. The Social scale included the items ‘I participate in sport because my friends do’, ‘because it relaxes me’, and ‘because I meet new people’. The respondents were 397 college athletes drawn from three schools in Ohio and 301 University of Vienna student members of Austrian sport clubs.4 The study was carried out in 1989 and was repeated in 1999. One result of the survey was that the cultural difference between the USA and Austria had declined in the course of ten years, but that it was still obvious with regard to competition. Figure 3.1 shows the USA’s high competitiveness, and that this motive is much less important in Austria. This difference becomes particularly clear when looking at the Competition scale of female students. 3 Items are statements which the respondents can either agree or disagree with. 4 While in the German-speaking area, sport is usually practiced in clubs rather than in schools (mainly because of the neo-humanist educational tradition, which had a negative attitude towards sport), in the USA, sport is a central part of the education system and has always been organized by colleges.

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In any case, competitiveness and the desire to win are not natural but cultural phenomena. This can be illustrated when looking at societies that, in accordance with their culture and social structure, prefer entirely different sports and games. There are also societies that do not have the element of competition in their games. One example is a tribal society in New Guinea, where the US-American enthusiasm for competition would be unimaginable. Leonard (1973, p. 45) gives the following description of one of the games practiced in this society: The Tanga people of New Guinea play a popular game known as taketak, which involves throwing a spinning top into massed lots of stakes driven into the ground. There are two teams. Players of each team try to touch as many stakes with their tops as possible. In the end, however, the participants play not to win but to draw. The game must go on until an exact draw is reached. This requires great skill, since players sometimes must throw their tops into the massed stakes without touching a single one. Taketak expresses a prime value in Tangu culture, that is, the concept of moral equivalence, which is reflected in the precise sharing of food-stuffs among the people. In addition, there are reports from New Guinea according to which, after soccer was introduced there, the rules of the game were changed so that every team had to score the same number of goals. This way, the rules of soccer were adapted to the cultural ethos. The anthropologist Ruth Benedict illustrates the same cultural ethos. In ethnographic observations, she found out how the North American Zuni treat an outstanding runner: The ideal man in Zuni is a person of dignity and affability who has never tried to lead, and who has never called forth comment from his neighbors. Any conflict, even though all right is on his side, is held against him. Even in contest of skill like their foot races, if a man wins habitually he is debarred from running. They are interested in a game that a number can play with even chances, and an outstanding runner spoils the game: they will have none of him. (Benedict 1989, p. 99) Without any doubt, the game of the Zuni, where cooperation is more important than attaining distinction at the expense of others, reflects the value orientation of this Native American tribe. The Tununak village people on Nelson Island in Alaska, to mention another example, live according to the same

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values. In their struggle for survival in a rough environment, these Inuit people are dependent on each other. They developed a very strong group morale, which is also reflected in their games, as reported by the anthropologist Lynn Ager: “The kind of competition I saw was one in which everyone tried to do his best but not at anyone else’s expense” (cited from Calhoun 1987, p. 60). Not victory, but dexterity and cooperation are paramount in these games. Dubnewick et al. (2018, p. 209), whose research focused on the games of indigenous youth in Canada, point out that the traditional Inuit games serve to foster “endurance, strength, and agility that were, at one time, necessary for survival”. However, with European colonization in Canada, the settlers made efforts to eradicate these traditional games and replace them with appropriate, that is, Euro-North American sports, in order to ‘civilize’ the indigenous people. Despite this complex history, some indigenous people in Canada continue to participate in their traditional games. Calhoun reports about other similar games and shows a particular interest in the function that these games have in the respective society. He summarizes his observations in the following way: These purely skill games of simple achievement societies are quite different from the competitive sports into which games of physical skill and strategy often turn in the more complex achievement cultures. There, instead of learning skills for the common welfare, children of the same age may be trained by their elders to throw baseballs at each other’s heads and how to hold opponents in football without being detected. (Calhoun 1987, p. 72) McClelland (1976; 1995) thoroughly analyzed these complex achievement cultures that Calhoun talks about. He observed that social expectations as part of a religious dogma or another ideational structure (of the value system) of society are important prerequisites for achievement. This also applies to athletic performance, as shown in the analysis of the sporting success of various types of society in the Olympic Games. Accordingly, traditionally Protestant countries had the most success in the Summer Olympic Games from 1896 to 1972 and the Winter Olympic Games from 1948 to 1968: Their success in all the Olympic Games since 1896 was more than seven times as high to what could have been presumed compared to the population size of these countries. This success continued up to the last Games in Mexico City, where the success of these countries was still three times as high as the expected value. (Seppänen 1972, p. 145, translated)

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The explanation for this can be found in the Protestant form of asceticism, which also takes effect in sport. Protestantism, as Max Weber described it in his classical work The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (the G ­ erman original appeared in 1904/05, and was translated into English by Talcott ­Parsons in 1930), is an extreme form of inner worldly asceticism.5 What this means is a pursuit of controlling the world in an ascetic lifestyle, as a way towards salvation. This pursuit has, according to Weber, caused this work ethic, which is present in both society and sport. In other words, the high performance level in Protestant societies is seen as a result of the ethos in Protestant religion. Catholicism differs from this ethos in that it does not systematically accentuate the rational control of the worldly order or the participation in worldly institutions to the same extent as Protestantism does. This explains the lower participation of Catholics in modern working life in Germany, as observed by Weber. Regarding athletic performance, Seppänen states: The more inner-worldly the ideational structure of a society, the higher its level of athletic performance. Catholic countries are less successful than countries that are mixed Protestant/Catholic, and those are again slightly less successful than Protestant countries. (1972, p. 144, translated) While Weber, in his analysis of the role of ideational structures in societies, could only include those confessions that were present in his time, Seppänen also considered the worldly social philosophy which, in the meantime, had become the guiding ideology of an entire bloc, that is, socialism. The ideational structure of socialist societies is marked by the fact that it is not founded on religion in its traditional sense, but on a worldly kind of social philosophy. […] Its main elements stem from Marxist tradition. (ibid., p. 94, translated)

5 Weber stresses two dimensions of religious orientation. The first is the orientation towards the existing societal order, which articulates itself in the form of a dichotomy: inner worldly and otherworldly orientation. While the inner worldly position avoids a radical break with the institutional order, the otherworldly position tries to reduce contact with the existing world. The second dimension is the difference in the activities leading to salvation, between control of the world (asceticism) and adjustment to the worldly order (mysticism). From this, Weber derived a typology revealing four different religious ways or attitudes towards salvation: inner worldly asceticism, otherworldly asceticism, inner worldly mysticism and otherworldly mysticism (cited from Seppänen 1972, pp. 139–140).

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The example of socialist states showed that the inner worldly orientation in the main elements of the ideational structure of a society could be even stronger than it had ever been in Protestantism. Socialist ideology aimed for the control of the worldly order, as well as control over achievements in all fields of societal activities. In this example, the striving for control over the world manifested itself par excellence. Since this position had an even stronger inner worldly orientation than the Protestant one, higher athletic achievements could be expected: At the same time in which the success of Protestant countries decreased, the success of socialist countries showed a rising trend. In the last Games from 1960 to 1968, the socialist countries together were even more successful than the Protestant ones. (ibid., p. 145, translated) The assumption that the high level of achievement in sport is a result of the ideational ethos proved to be even more true with the socialist culture than in the case of the Protestant one. The best example is former East Germany, which was said to be not only socialist, but also Protestant. The striving for control over of the world, which was anchored twice in the country’s ideology, led to remarkable successes in sport. However, some authors suspect that these successes were achieved by means of systematic doping (Tcha 2004; pp. 315–316, Szymanski 2000, p. 210). In any case, former East Germany was the most successful sporting nation in the world. The effects of a socialist system might even last beyond the system’s ending, since cultural value orientations do not change that rapidly. For this reason, in a study on the socio-economic determinants of national medal wins at the Summer Olympic Games from 1960 to 2004, also former socialist states (which remained this way until the fall of the Iron Curtain around 1990) were categorized as socialist (Maenning & Wellbrock 2008). This study, too, showed that the presence of a ‘socialist system’ had a positive effect on Olympic medal wins. Thus, the assumption that cultural value orientations and ideologies of the surrounding society have a lasting effect on the development and performance level of sport can be confirmed. 1.1 Sport and Civilization In general, ancient Greek and modern society have remained quite close to each other throughout the ages. Performance (arete) and competition (agon) are important concepts in both societies. Ancient competitive sport and modern professional sport have a lot in common (Decker 1995, p. 10). What clearly differentiates them, however, is the degree of physical violence that was

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tolerated at sport contests. Therefore, the influence of the values and norms of the respective society on the development of sport shall be illustrated by means of another example, that is, the standard of civilization with regard to the exertion of physical violence. Elias (1969, 1982; first 1939) provided some fundamental insights to this topic. According to him, a high degree of physical violence was not only predominant in ancient societies, but also in the ancient Olympic Games. In pankration (a kind of martial arts, figure 3.2), contestants used any and every part of the body in the fight: hands, feet, elbows, head, knees, and even teeth. They were even allowed to press out their opponents’ eyes, throttle them, and dislocate fingers and arms. Naturally, fights as brutally rough as these led to horrific injuries, and often ended fatally. Sometimes, an athlete killed in an Olympic duel was posthumously declared the Olympic champion because he had fought with particular bravery. We hear of two boxers who agreed to exchange blow for blow. The first struck a blow to the head which his opponent survived. When he lowered

figure 3.2 Pankration

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his guard, the other man struck him under the ribs with his outstretched fingers, burst through his side with his hard nails, seized his bowels and killed him. (Elias 1972, p. 102) On the basis of the scale of values of modern society, this extent of physical violence would probably be dismissed as barbaric degeneration. It obviously defies the taboos of violence in society. This form of violence will become understandable only by looking at the structure, the stage of development, and the form of social organization and control of physical violence of ancient Greece. The standards of behavior and feeling in ancient Greece were different from ours; they were less civilized. The same applies to the days of the Roman Empire, where spectators visited the Colosseum mainly to see blood spill (Adubato 2016). The state of war was a normal relationship between the city states. Sport was also seen as a preparation for war, since it increased fitness, which was necessary for a successful battle (Martin 2009, p. 136). Genocide was often a calculated act and was executed for the purpose of destruction of a rival state’s military power. In ancient Greece and Rome, a massacre of the entire male population of a defeated and conquered city, as well as the sale of their wives and children as slaves, might have caused some pity, but definitely no widespread condemnation. The ritual games of the Maya and Aztecs sometimes had a fatal end as well (Sekot 2009, p. 40). The standard of European wartime society in the 13th century was similar: People found pleasure in torturing and killing others and committing atrocities did not exclude them from social life (Elias 1997, p. 268). Feelings of moral aversion, as well as guilt and shame, must have been much less pronounced than they usually are today. Such feelings probably would have turned out to be a severe handicap, considering that the exertion of physical violence was, in a certain way, vital. If necessary, every male person who was fit for action had to be ready for an attack in order to be able to defend and support or avenge his relatives. The protection of the citizens’ lives was not primarily the task of the state. In order to survive, people had to rely much more on their own physical strength and perseverance than they do today, where the exertion of violence is by and large subject to state control. Similarly, in soccer, it was only beginning in 1863 that incidents of violence on the field were punished with fines and suspensions (Cleland & Cashmore 2016, p. 125). Overall, in ancient civilizations, and also in the Middle Ages and in the Early Modern Times, the extent of physical violence used to be much higher than it is in contemporary societies in Europe. The reason for the fact that sport was much more violent and brutal in ancient times, the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Times than it is today

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can be found in the historical change that humankind is subjected to, and which, according to Elias (1969; 1982) can be called the “civilizing process”. Elias sees the course of this civilizing process as a form of pressure that people put on each other due to increasing societal interconnections. Democratization, industrialization, urbanization, traffic, and communication created a lever system of pressures to interconnect, which led to a gradual change of behavior resulting in the current standard. As examples for these changes of behavior, Elias describes the development of the current table manners (usage of cutlery instead of eating with bare fingers), the general behavior in society (using a handkerchief instead of spitting, relieving oneself only in dedicated places), and the approach to sexuality (the satisfaction of sexual impulses in public became a taboo; the bedroom became a private area of human life). In various evolutionary impacts, people learned that they had to disguise their feelings in public in order to be considered normal. This mechanism of regulating emotions became second nature to humans, so that it turned into an apparatus of self-constraints, which increasingly led to rational, also longer-term actions, and a restraint of spontaneous surges of emotion, as well as an attenuation of physical violence.6 The connections shown explain why modern sport games—compared to the folk games in societies of the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times—are much more controlled and only allow for a small extent of direct aggression in the form of physical violence (table 3.1). Generally, it can be stated that, as a society becomes more aggressive, also the sport practiced in this society will become more battle-oriented. 6 In sociology, physical self-control is called internalization of norms, and it is the result of the education process (socialization). For instance, when looking at the historical changes in the education of children, we can also find information about the development of civilized forms of behavior and of humanization. In ancient times up to the 4th century, the killing of illegitimate as well as of legitimate children was quite common. De Mause (1974) speaks of the stage of “infanticide”, followed by the stage of “abandoning” the child, which lasted approximately until the 13th century. He called the third stage that of “ambivalence” (14th to 17th centuries). The first instructions for child education emerged, whereas hard blows and whipping were the main methods of education. In that time, the adult, who was himself tormented by anti-social, sexual, egoistic, and aggressive driving forces, saw his own forbidden driving forces in the child. He tried to beat these forces out of the child. If the child screamed, this was seen as malignancy, which had to be driven out by exerting hard blows. In the 18th century, education reached the stage of “intrusion” (penetration into the child’s soul), and in the 19th century, it reached that of “socialization”. Now, the child was not to be subjected to the adult’s will anymore, but he had to be put on the right track. According to de Mause, the sixth and last stage, that of “helping”, began only after the end of the Second World War. It is marked by the parents’ attempt to meet the child’s needs and educate without violence.

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table 3.1  Structural characteristics of folk games and modern sport games (selection)

Folk games

Modern sport games

High degree of socially tolerated use of physical violence Emotional spontaneity Open and spontaneous creation of an enjoyable fighting mood Emphasis on physical strength rather than on the level of (sport) motor skills

Low degree of socially tolerated use of physical violence High degree of self-control Creation of a fighting mood (tension) that is more controlled and sublimated Emphasis on the level of (sport) motor skills rather than on physical strength

Cooperative societies have sports that minimize competition, while aggressive societies have highly competitive games. Since social life became more civilized and thereby safe, sport may offer a “mimetic version of those now removed ­dangerous and violent aspects of social life” (Martin 2009, p. 135). Sports such as soccer can be seen as a “controlled battle in an imaginary setting” (Elias 1986, p. 49). A connection between sport and war can also be noted in the vocabulary that is used in the context of American football. For instance, after a very important game, it is often said that the fans “stormed the field”. A certain kind of defense is called “blitz”, and when a player can throw the ball with strength and accuracy, he is said to have “a rifle for an arm”. This kind of terminology is clearly derived from war (Adubato 2016). In addition, the language used for descriptions in soccer journalism has some points of contact with the language of war reporting, as observed by Plumpe (2012; examples translated). This is true both for German and English. The ball is “shot”, a team “attacks”, “defends”, or “fortifies”, and has a “midfield schemer”. A “troop” has “supremacy in the air”, makes a “clearance”, “fights”, and is accompanied by “battle strollers”. The terminology of tennis reporting shows references to the military as well, as pointed out by another study (Tschusch 1994). This kind of language is used by journalists and television broadcasters to create excitement and drama. Likewise, sport terminology is sometimes present in discourses about war. For instance, metaphors deriving from American football were used in reporting on the Vietnam War. This kind of language “helps the military communicate with the American public about its strategies in more accessible ways” (Jenkins 2013, p. 246). However, critics argue that the use of sport metaphors in the context of war, and also the use of war metaphors in sport media contexts, “devalues the war experience by trivializing its horrors” (ibid., p. 245).

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In some discussions it has been directly, and provocatively, suggested “that sport provides an opportunity to satisfy our insatiable thirst for killing, meaning that through a form of ‘aesthetization of killing’ we compensate for something generally hidden deeply within us” (Sekot 2009, p. 38). This ‘something’ can be expressed, exaggeratedly, in the sense that “we need the existence of violence and bad behaviour in sports, because it is one of the ways leading to victory” (Jacobson 1998, p. 18, cited in Sekot, ibid.). In 1945, after attending a soccer match, the English writer George Orwell wrote an article called ‘The Sporting Spirit’, in which he described sport as “war minus the shooting”. He was very critical of sport, arguing that sporting contests could promote nationalism, and that both players and spectators “thrive […] on the ideals of ultra-competitiveness and the win-at-any-costs mentality” (Delaney & Madigan 2015, p. 203). He also criticized the fact that players often ignored the rules and used violence to gain a competitive edge. Sekot argues that due to the current ideal of high performance in sport, the principle of fair play is no longer valid. In some sports, it is even considered a weakness or a hindrance to the desired performance to respect the principle of fair play. Sometimes, football coaches even encourage their players to bend the rules (Craig 2016, p. 94). As a consequence, the field of sport ethics has emerged, which “is concerned with negative tendencies in sports and their impact on morality in society” (ibid., p. 43). 2

Expansion of Sport, Internal differentiation, and trends

Another aspect of the affinity between sport and society is the differentiation of sport within a society. This differentiation is to be seen not least against the background of the expansion of sport, since processes of internal differentiation can be understood as a side effect of the expansion of a societal subsystem. Key point: Factors for increasing sport participation The expansion of sport took place in many parts of the world, especially after the Second World War. The following factors are particularly important for the increase in sport participation: – Decrease in working time – Increasing level of education – Increase in wealth – A larger range of sport infrastructure – Increased orientation towards adventure – Increased striving for health

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Today, sport exists in various forms and manifestations, and this variety is still increasing. This is caused by two processes which are called differentiation and diversification. Differentiation describes the “pluralization within singular types of sport” (Wopp 1995, pp. 114–115, translated). For instance, in the sport of paragliding, various forms developed: acro (acrobatic paragliding), cross-country paragliding (which is about covering long distances without landing), triangle flights (in which a predetermined route is flown) or flying just for the joy of it (Stern 2010, p. 47). To mention another example, aerobics became a general term for a growing number of various forms of practice, such as Fat Burning Aerobics, Dance Aerobics, Step Aerobics, Box Aerobics, and Aqua Aerobics. The term diversification refers to the fact that the number of sports practiced is increasing. New sports are developed continuously, old ones are rediscovered and reinvented, and forms of exercise from different cultures are imported and marketed accordingly. If the marketing is successful, we speak of trend sports. definition The term trend sports describes those sports that show a continuous rise in the number of participants over a period of several years. Taking the economic model of the product lifecycle as a basis, ideally, the course of development of trend sports can be divided into five phases (Lamprecht, Murer & Stamm 2003): 1. Invention or discovery 2. Innovation (start of marketing) 3. Development and growth (media and industry start to pay attention) 4. Maturation and diffusion (growth and comprehensive marketing) 5. Saturation and possible decline One example for a sport that has gone through all these five phases is inline skating. In the following example, the history of inline skating is described with regard to these phases (Norden 1999, p. 22). Example: Development of inline skating It was reportedly in the year 1979, in a sport shop in Bloomington, Minnesota, that the brothers Scott and Brennan Olson discovered an inline skate that had already been put on the market by a producer from Chicago in 1966, but which had largely gone unnoticed (Phase 1). The two brothers were really enthusiastic about this device and the associated possibility of a summer training for ice hockey players, and so, in the following year,

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they founded the Rollerblade company and started the production of these skates (Phase 2). The Rollerblade skates, which formed the basis for the later trend, distinguished themselves from their predecessor model by their material (plastic) and a brake device (figure 3.3). In order to boost demand, in 1987, the company from Minnesota established a rental service for their skates in the California coastal area, where various trends had emerged in previous years, and advertised them as fitness equipment. This marketing strategy worked. Inline skates evolved into the discovery of the year and soon became a big seller in sport shops (Phase 3). A boom was born, which soon reached the inner parts of the country, and then spread across the entire continent of North America (Phase 4). From there, it spread to Europe in the mid-1990s, and also to Austria, where, within a short period of time, the percentage of roller skaters among the population quadrupled, and roller skating advanced to sixth place in a ranking of 24 types of sports by participation rates (Norden 2010a, pp. 47–48). The boom developed into a huge scene, which differentiated into a core scene (e.g., aggressive skaters in city centers), a marginal scene (e.g., sport skaters), and a scene of recreational skaters. Affiliation to the respective scene was not least expressed by the use of special skates, which, by then, had been offered in a broad variety by dozens of producers. However, after a while, even the advancing differentiation could not promote the extension of the market anymore (Phase 5).

figure 3.3 Inline skate by the ­Rollerblade brand

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In the early to mid-2000s, the saturation of the market was followed by a decrease in participation in inline skating, which—together with snowboarding, skateboarding, sandboarding, and wakeboarding, as well as windsurfing and kitesurfing—was part of a new movement culture. In the German-speaking area, this movement culture of roller sports and board sports was described using the word sliding (German: gleiten): “Sliding means to elude, to flash by, to be on the move, to be someone who cannot be captured, to be out of reach and thereby remain free and independent” (Lamprecht, Murer & Stamm 2003, p. 35, translated). In this case, the term sliding is associated with important societal values, such as ease, flexibility, and mobility, which are expressed in the sliding trend sports. These new forms of sport, such as surfing, snowboarding, and other adventure or action sports, are also called lifestyle sports, and people who participate in them often “incorporate the sport into their own identity” (Usher 2017, p. 212). These identities are then associated with certain characteristics. For example, the identity of a surfer is characterized by “environmentalism, masculinity, Whiteness, and nonconformity” (ibid., p. 213). In addition, in August 2016, it was confirmed that surfing and skateboarding were among the five new sports that will be included in the Summer Olympic Games of 2020 in Tokyo (which, due to the situation regarding COVID-19, have been postponed to 2021). This is part of an effort by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to make the Olympic Games more youthful and urban, and to include more women (Wheaton & Thorpe 2018). While some of the ‘sliding’ trend sports are closely related to youth or particular styles of youth culture (Gugutzer 2012, pp. 119–222), the trend sport of Nordic Walking, with its traditional motor characteristics, a feature that is in contrast to sliding, mainly found its distribution among the intermediate age groups. Originally, Nordic Walking was presented as an alternative to running or jogging. According to statistics by the International Nordic Walking Federation (INWA), the worldwide number of people participating in Nordic Walking has increased from 60,000 in 1998 to over 10 million in 2012 (Zurawik 2016). In Austria, the sport experienced a rapid upturn in the mid-2000s, which at first was actually at the expense of running and jogging. Today, this sport, too, is in the last phase of development of trend sports, that is, the phase of market saturation (table 3.2; figure 3.4). The overall picture, which presents itself after looking at the developments outlined of Nordic Walking and inline skating, as well as some other development trends of sport culture that will be discussed in the following, is confusing and unclear and, in parts, also contradictory (Norden 2010a, p. 29): On the one hand, the demand for endurance sport and strength training is still present or increasing. On the other, there is also a strong demand for forms

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SPORT AND SOCIETY table 3.2  Development of running/jogging and Nordic Walking in Austria, according to data by Spectra, 2000–2017a

Participants (in %) Year

2000 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Running/Jogging

Nordic Walking

regularly (at least once a week)

at least occasionally

regularly (at least once a week)

at least occasionally

13 12 15 13 14 14 15 14 12 13 14 13 12 12 18 16 14

25 26 32 24 28 27 27 27 25 23 25 25 23 22 29 29 31

.b . . 4 7 8 7 8 8 8 9 7 8 8 7 8 7

. . . 9 13 16 15 16 16 16 18 16 17 15 15 18 19

a n = 1000, representative for the Austrian population aged 15 and above. The question concerned the frequency of participation in running activities and, since 2004, the frequency of participation in Nordic Walking: regularly (at least once a week), occasionally (less than once a week), never (but I participate in other sports), never (I do not participate in any sports). b . = not covered in the survey.

of exercise that are intended to serve as a means for relaxation and peace (forms of Asian martial arts and the like). On the one hand, the demand for forms of exercise that are not oriented towards competition is also still present or increasing. On the other, the importance of sport competitions that are organized as events is growing as well. On the one hand, experience of the

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figure 3.4 Nordic Walking in the Alps

present moment and a search for fun and instantaneous well-being are paramount in sport, and some people even seek risks when doing sport. On the other, the exploitation of sport in the search for health, fitness, and stress relief is also of great significance. Many people feel a pronounced desire for experiences of nature, while simultaneously, there is a growing mechanization and proliferation of technology in sport. There is an increasing need for self-determination and independence, but likewise, we can observe the emergence of dependence in the form of addictions to sport or training. With regard to this complexity and, in part, inconsistency of value and activity orientations, sport appears as a reflection of development processes of society as a whole (Anders 2011, p. 13). It is an expression of the sociocultural system in which it is established and represents the circumstances, conditions, changes, developments, and many other aspects of a given society. Even social crises are expressed in sport. Nationalism, discrimination, violence, doping, death, etc.—all these aspects are present in both society and sport. Sport represents itself as a microcosm of society. However, sport cannot only reflect societal development processes, but it can also cause and shape them. For instance, because of the expansion of sport, the term sportiness is not only associated with sport anymore, but it also denotes everyday fashion and has become a symbol for a modern, health conscious, and performance-oriented lifestyle (Kaschuba 1989; Liebau 1989). In this sense, we can speak of a sportization of society, which, for instance, is expressed in the increasing use of sport terminology in everyday language, even when speaking of issues that are not related to sport (politics, economy, etc.) (Belyutin 2012, p. 28). For example, a strong use of metaphors related to American football can be found in the language of American corporate office work. These metaphors emerged especially in the middle of the 20th century and are—as well as the

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aforementioned use of such metaphors in reporting on the Vietnam War—an indication of the sport’s growing popularity (Gilbert 2018). Simultaneously, a lack of exercise in modern societies can be observed. This is a phenomenon of civilization caused by changes in working life, especially the tendency towards mainly sedentary activities in modern industrial society. As shown in figures 3.5 and 3.6, from 2009 to 2017, the share of people who do not engage in sport in the European Union has increased by seven percentage points. “Nearly half of Europeans never exercise or play sport, and the proportion has increased gradually in recent years” (Special Eurobarometer 2018, p. 4).

figure 3.5 How often do you exercise or play sport? (Survey 2009)

figure 3.6 How often do you exercise or play sport? (Survey 2017)

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This development in Europe is problematic especially from an economic point of view, since it has a negative impact on health, which causes increased medical expenses. In Austria, sport scientists, health economists and social scientists developed a welfare economic cost-benefit model of mass and leisure sport. Based on this model, they evaluated the economic costs of sport accidents and injuries as well as the benefits of sporting activity in Austria from a health economic point of view, focusing on the years 1998 and 2013 (Weiss et al. 2016). The aim of the model was to objectify the positive and negative effects of sport on human health. The results of the first study dating from 1998 were striking: It is not physical activity but rather the lack thereof that causes considerably higher economic costs. This is due to the fact that treatment costs incurred through sport accidents and injuries are lower than those resulting from medical conditions caused by physical inactivity. When it comes to the prevention of civilization diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes-mellitus type II, cancer or back pain, physical activity has been found to be particularly effective. Since lack of physical activity represents one of the leading causes for civilization diseases, sporting activity serves as a means to save costs. As the intangible value of sport, such as psychological, physical and social well-being, is not quantifiable, it remains as a surplus. 15 years after the first study, annual savings from sporting activity in Austria have almost tripled. This was the result of a new cost-benefit analysis of mass and leisure sport in Austria, based on data from 2013 (table 3.3). Basically, the reason why the balance has almost tripled is that throughout 15 years, the costs of treatment of civilization diseases (caused by physical inactivity) have increased significantly. In light of these results, politicians ought to do everything they can to impede or avoid developments such as the increase of people in the EU who do not engage in sport. table 3.3  Cost-benefit-analysis of sporting activity in Austria 1998 and 2013

Cost-benefit-analysis of sporting activity in Austria

Benefits of sporting activity (avoided medical expenses) Costs of sporting activity (incurred through sport accidents and injuries) Balance

1998

2013

€567m €302m

€1,110m €398m

€265m

€712m

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Promoting sport and physical activity as an integral part of the lifestyle in a modern healthcare and social security system not only leads to an improvement in health status and general well-being, but also reduces economic costs. Mass sport serves both a health function and an economic function. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Revision Questions What are values and why do we need them? Describe the system of values and norms in the USA and give examples for how they have influenced American sport. Give an example for another society whose system of values and norms is different from the US-American one. Why, according to Seppänen, have Protestant countries been particularly successful in the Olympic Games? What, according to Elias, is the civilizing process, and how does this process influence sport? Define ‘differentiation’ and ‘diversification’ of sport. Describe the five phases of the development of trend sports, using inline skating as an example. What are the main findings of the cost-benefit analysis of sporting activity in Austria?

chapter 4

Socialization and Sport Man is forced to acquire behavior patterns in the course of encountering or dealing with his environment. Unlike animals, his motor patterns are not inherited but acquired (Storch 1949). He has to learn and continuously monitor both the control over his own body, as well as the actions in his social environment. Everything that the individual has to deal with from morning to night are objects of his own creation, and the manipulations that these objects require are characterized by a tremendous diversity. Nothing of this is ‘innate’; it is all learned and appropriated by the individual. (Storch 1949, p. 28, translated) For instance, an upright posture and walking on two legs are results of the motor patterns that humans acquired. This is shown by some rare exceptional cases of so-called feral children, as documented by Blumenthal (2003). The most famous cases are those of Kaspar Hauser and the Wolf-Children of Midnapore. In the early 19th century in Germany, Kaspar Hauser was locked up, without any significant social contacts, attention, education, or support, until he was about 16 years old. He could hardly walk and did not know how to use his hands and fingers. An even more drastic example proving the fact that human behavior is not inherited but acquired are the so-called Wolf-Children of Midnapore, two girls who, in the early 20th century in India, grew up completely wild, in the presence of wolves. The girls had adapted their motor skills to the animals to the extent that they ate from the floor and slept “like pigs or dog pups, overlapping one another” (Candland 1993, p. 61). They did not know how to walk upright and moved on all fours instead. After they had been found, Reverend J. A. L. Singh and his wife took care of them and began to teach them typically human behavior. Now began a plan of exercises developed by Mrs. Singh to help Kamala [this was the name of one of the wolf children; author’s remark] use her body in human ways, to sit, stand and run. […] The wolves had not been able to teach anything especially human to their little human cubs, […] there was no sense of humor, nor […] of sorrow, very little curiosity, and no interest except in raw meat […] (Candland 1993, pp. 66–67)

© Waxmann Verlag GmbH, 2021 | doi:10.1163/9789004464711_006

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These fundamental learning processes, which the wolf-children had to catch up on, usually start during the fetal period,1 when humans go through a process of extrauterine development while being in direct contact with the outside world. This final phase of embryonic development, which, with regard to sensory performance, motor skills and language has been relocated outside, into the external world, fulfills a biological function in exposing the child to the outside world as early as possible, that is, in the stage where the child’s educability is at its highest. The physiological premature birth turns the new-born human infant into a learning being who, in order to be able to become human, is dependent on other humans. This is also demonstrated by the term “sociocultural birth” (König 1977, p. 12, translated), meaning that the first, natural birth has to be supplemented by procedures and mechanisms of a second birth into the respective culture or society. In this process, the possibilities of each individual are predetermined by his genotype (hereditary component). The genetic material determines the norm of (re)action, that is, the range within which a human organism can (re)act,2 while the actual manifestation of behavior and action patterns comes about through the impact of various environmental factors on the genetic material. The central role of mediating between the developing human being and the natural environment on the one hand, as well as the cultural and societal order on the other falls to the significant others. This term, which was developed by George H. Mead (1922, pp. 157–163), denotes reference persons to whom the individual feels strong emotional attachments, so that they have a formative influence on him. The basic and general introduction of the individual into society or into societal subgroups is the responsibility of the significant others. In other words, they perform the task of socialization.3 1 According to Portmann, the fetal period of humans extends across the first year of life, the extrauterine first year: “If we regard humans as real mammals, the time that the human infant would still have to remain in the womb in order to be as far developed at birth as precocial animals […] approximately corresponds to the first year of life after birth. Due to this contrast to the animal norm, this period appears in a special light. We call it the ‘extrauterine first year’” (Portmann 1956, p. 69, translated). 2 The biological limits of the human being are his motor equipment and the specific human sensorium. “Biological factors limit the range of social possibilities open to any individual, but the social world, which is pre-existent to each individual, in its turn imposes limits on what is biologically possible to the organism” (Berger & Luckmann 1991, pp. 201–202). 3 Socialization theory differentiates between primary and secondary socialization. Primary socialization is the basic experience through which humans, in their childhood, become members of society. It ends when the idea of the generalized other, that is, the organized community or social group, and everything that goes with it, has become firmly anchored

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definition Socialization is a process of internalization of values, norms, behavior patterns and social roles that enables the individual to find acceptance (or integration) among a society or a sector of society. In early childhood socialization, the significant others are usually the parents. They are the mediators between the child and the social reality, and they impart perspectives and criteria that make the world accessible and meaningful. One must make do with the parents that fate has regaled one with. This unfair disadvantage inherent in the situation of being a child has the obvious consequence that, although the child is not simply passive in the process of his socialization, it is the adults who set the rules of the game. The child can play the game with enthusiasm or with sullen resistance. But, alas, there is no other game around. This has an important corollary. Since the child has no choice in the selection of his significant others, his identification with them is quasi-automatic. For the same reason, his internalization of their particular reality is quasi-inevitable. The child does not internalize the world of his significant others as one of many possible worlds. He internalizes it as the world, the only existent and only conceivable world, the world tout court. (Berger & Luckmann 1991, p. 154) Parents form their children’s behavior in multiple ways, and they have a major influence on how their children think about themselves and about others; they pass on opinions and interests. It can be said that a (lifelong) interest in sport is mainly established by the parents in childhood (Heinemann 2007, p. 191). Like all socialization processes in which parents act as the significant others, this happens through the role model effect of parents’ behavior, as well as through encouragement (reward) and punishment. The danger of losing the love of his reference person has proved to be a particularly effective punishment for the child. In this process, the child temporarily takes over the perspective of his reference person,4 before he reaches complete self-awareness (Reichardt 1981, p. 126). This taking over of other people’s perspectives might also occur in in the individual’s mind (Mead 1964, pp. 216–228). Secondary socialization (which approximately starts with the beginning of school) describes any subsequent process in which an already socialized person is introduced to new sectors of the objective world (Berger & ­Luckmann 1991, pp. 149–166). 4 For example, a child might say, ‘Harry has been particularly bad today!’ By doing so, he emotionally takes over the sadness or indignation that his mother feels about the mess he has made.

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games. For instance, in role-playing games and imitative games, children take on the roles of various characters. By pretending to be someone else (a nurse, a policeman, a pirate, a Native American, etc.), the playing child learns to take over the role of another person, and that every person (that is, every holder of a social position) is confronted with expectations from the environment he lives in, to which he has to react properly. definition Social role is the normative expectation of a certain behavior in a specific situation. Awareness of expectations and anticipation of the reactions of others to behavior that is compliant or noncompliant with social expectations is a necessary requirement for the development of an identity. Mead (1964) differentiates between a personal identity, the I, and a social identity, the me. The latter consists of socially predetermined roles (such as parent or child, teacher or student), whose expectations have been internalized by the socialized person.5 In contrast, the I denotes a person’s original individuality and his related aspirations for autonomy, which are expressed in the constructive interpretation of the accepted role (role making or ego achievement). The I and the me are two often conflicting powers that together constitute a person’s identity. definition Identity denotes an individual’s perception of himself. It is the answer to the question ‘Who am I’? There is a dialectical relationship between identity and society—between individual existence and social reality. By acting upon the individual, the environment contributes to his identity formation, while human behavior likewise leads to results that leave their mark on the environment. The individual member of society externalizes his own being into the social world, and simultaneously internalizes the objective reality of society (Berger & Luckmann 1991, p. 149). This way, society changes through communicative exchange between its members, who become puppets of their own creations. In short, the individual shapes society, and society in turn also shapes the individual. This happens through processes of communication; through direct, reciprocally oriented social action. In communication processes, identity is constantly being formed and consolidated, or questioned and altered. 5 In Freudian depth psychology, the equivalent term for me is super-ego.

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The competence of communicative action is the prerequisite for humans to be able to meet society’s expectations. For this purpose, the individual has to acquire basic competencies, such as sensory, motor, interactive, intellectual, and affective abilities and skills. Mostly, these skills take shape during the first years of the individual’s life, whereas physical activity and development are of considerable importance. When establishing a connection between the body and society, it becomes clear that the way people deal with their bodies is not only individually determined, but also relates to social and cultural values. All human experiences related to the body and to movement are socially predetermined. So, for ­example, “the successfully socialized individual is incapable of functioning sexually with the ‘wrong’ sexual object and may vomit when confronted with the ‘wrong’ food” (Berger & Luckmann 1991, p. 202). Just like sexual behavior, other techniques or practices of the body (sleeping, walking, running, dancing, eating, drinking, etc.) are bearing the imprint of society. They vary from society to society and change in the course of societal developments. In his famous essay on sociocultural conditioning of the techniques of the body, published first in 1935, Marcel Mauss (1872–1950) gives some clear examples for this phenomenon: Previously we were taught to dive after having learnt to swim. And when we were learning to dive, we were taught to close our eyes and then to open them under water. Today the technique is the other way round. […] On the other hand, […] our generation has witnessed […] the breaststroke with the head out of the water replaced by the different sorts of crawl. Moreover, the habit of swallowing water and spitting it out again has gone. In my day swimmers thought of themselves as a kind of steamboat. […] The position of the arms and hands while walking form a social idiosyncrasy, they are not simply a product of some purely individual, almost completely psychical arrangements and mechanisms. For example: I think I can […] recognise a girl who has been raised in a convent. In general she will walk with her fists closed. […] Thus there exists an education in walking, too. Another example: there are polite and impolite positions for the hands at rest. Thus you can be certain that if a child at table keeps his elbows in when he is not eating he is English. A young Frenchman has no idea how to sit up straight; his elbows stick out sideways; he puts them on the table, and so on. (Mauss 2004, pp. 51–53) In his essay, Mauss also provides a description of techniques of the body based on man’s biography. He starts with the techniques of birth and obstetrics,

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followed by techniques of infancy, adolescence, and adult life. Among other things, he also mentions the techniques of sleeping: The notion that going to sleep is something natural is totally inaccurate. […] One thing is very simple: it is possible to distinguish between those societies that have nothing to sleep on except the ‘floor’, and those that have instrumental assistance. The ‘civilization of latitude 15°’ […] is characterized among other things by its use of a bench for the neck. This neck-rest is often a totem, sometimes carved with squatting figures of men and totemic animals. There are people with mats and people without (Asia, Oceania, part of America). […] There are populations which lie very close together in a ring to sleep, round a fire, or even without a fire. […] Finally there is sleep standing up. The Masai can sleep on their feet. (ibid., pp. 60–61) As shown by these examples, a fundamental part of socialization is always the socialization of the body. The use of the body and the development of complex figures of movement and their evaluation bear the imprint of socially mediated learning processes and take various social forms in different cultures and historical epochs. In 1930, Gaulhofer stated: In each time period, the associated ‘society’ has one posture which it deems to be right, elegant and beautiful. Those postures are gestures. They do not fulfill a purpose but are an expression of style. They are part of the style of a period, just like clothes, dance, music, poetry, painting, and architecture. (Gaulhofer 1969, p. 10, translated) The same applies to sport. Sport is a technique of the body, which is shaped by societal structures and values, and hence strongly based on the type and content of socialization. The complexity and profundity of the connection between socialization and sport can be demonstrated by means of a hypothesis by Zurcher & Meadow (1967) on the dependence of national sports on typical family structures. The authors’ hypothesis is based on insights from Freudian depth psychology. It argues that national sports (bullfight in Mexico, baseball in the USA) provide a possibility to release hostilities and aggressions that resulted from socialization in the family, in the context of strictly defined rules and rituals. Just like Mexican society, the structure of the Mexican family is authoritarian and hierarchical. Socialization is marked by a dominant position of the father. Children are often punished, and drunkenness, promiscuity, and (malicious) abandonment are regarded as features of machismo, and thus part

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of the behavior of the father. As a consequence, sons develop an ambivalent (passive-aggressive) attitude to their fathers, and an authoritarian character structure, which, for instance, might be expressed in a terrorization of younger siblings. Daughters seem to develop a thoroughly female society of mutual protection and, due to the hostility they feel towards their punishing fathers, they mistrust all men. According to Zurcher & Meadow, the aggression towards a negative idea of authority that arises in this family atmosphere can be released via the socially legitimated and symbolic ritual of the bullfight. The bull, in its shameless masculinity, frightening physical strength, and power to mutilate and kill, is interpreted as a symbol for the father, while the matador, whose main strength must be courage, represents the son. In the corrida, the son becomes the winner. The matador will receive the greatest respect if he manages to kill with passive aggressiveness, which is a central element of the personality structure of Mexicans. This way, the problems, sufferings and coercions that the child has suffered from his father can be compensated without punishment. The male spectators can identify with the matador’s courage, dexterity, and art, and, if the fight went badly, they can project accusations of cowardice and weakness on him, which they had to deal with in their own fights with their fathers. The female spectators can act out their aggressions towards dominant husbands, fathers, and lovers. Probably, they would prefer to see both the bull and the matador destroyed. Acting out the Mexican family situation in the corrida allows for a symbolic destruction, or at least domination over a rigid and hated authority figure. In contrast, Zurcher & Meadow argue that families in the USA are oriented towards democracy and equality between parents and children. Nevertheless, also in this case, constraints arise in socialization, which then lead to conflicts. Authoritarianism displayed by people who are not supposed to be authoritarian, or unclear role models and restrictions in the context of socialization are the breeding ground for hostilities towards authority in US-American families. Animosities and aggressions arise, which cannot be expressed directly in the presence of parents, since they appear as comrades and companions. Conflicts are often suppressed, and hostilities are only expressed very subtly. Since US-American society is very abstract, universalistic, materialistic, unpersonal, and bureaucratic, it can be expected that the legitimate outlet for hostility is just as complex, vague, and intellectualized, and that this pattern can also be found in the national sport. Accordingly, in the game of baseball, which represents the ideal of US-American society, hostility is expressed in a very abstract way. Aggressions are channeled and acted out in the context of strictly defined norms and rituals. Baseball duplicates the intellectualization of the conflict situation in the

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US-American family and represents a controlled way of releasing hostilities towards authority. The expression of hostility in US-American baseball has changed in the course of time. The focus of the game has shifted towards a vague, indirect, and disguised expression of aggression. Similarly, the modern corrida—as a consequence of Mexico’s gradual transition from a feudal society to a partially industrialized and urbanized society—reflects an intellectualized handling of hostility, as well as division of labor. The shift of emphasis from primitive killing of the bull to a more abstract, aesthetic, and acceptable control over the animal, with a cape and a muleta, can be understood in this sense. Urbanization and modernization bring about a boost of civilization and a rejection of directly acting out hostility and aggression, as it is obviously practiced in a bullfight. For instance, in the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia, bullfighting has been completely banned. Possibly, it will be replaced by a team sport. The victory over another team is certainly on a higher level of emotional abstraction than the gory killing of a bull. Hemingway (1961, p. 22) wrote: “We, in games, are not fascinated by death, its nearness and its avoidance. We are fascinated by victory and we replace the avoidance of death by the avoidance of defeat”. The outlined examples show how various personality structures come into being in the institutionalized form of social behavior in sport. These personality structures result from specific, nationally different structural settings in the family and the associated (patriarchal or democratic) educational styles and institutions. The connection between socialization and sport can be shown by means of other examples, that is, gender socialization and class-specific socialization. 1

Gender Roles in Sport

Gender roles are societal expectations regarding the behavior of men and women. By definition, they are a social and not a biological phenomenon.6 Accordingly, ethnology was able to demonstrate the variability of gender roles—especially in an intercultural comparison. It was Margaret Mead (1901–1978), in particular, who, on the basis of ethnological material, tried to prove that many, if not all, of the typically male and female characteristics are only slightly related to people’s actual sexuality (1949, pp. 3–21). Her description of the cultural tradition of the Tchambuli, a South Sea tribe, points to a 6 Of course, the organism sets limits to the behavior that it is able to engage in. Hence, gender roles must also be seen against the background of biological factors.

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psychology or metaphysics of the sexes that is opposed to the European one. Women are attributed characteristics such as active, objective, planning, and imperiousness. They go out fishing and provide for their families. Men, on the other hand, remain in the village and dedicate themselves to the production of costumes and masks, painting, dancing, and the organization of festivities. Each culture has its characteristic interpretation of gender roles, which forms the basis for the socialization of newborns. In the interaction between parent and child, gender-differentiated behaviors are, often unintentionally and unconsciously, socially determined. Interactions between peers probably have an even stronger impact on gender socialization than parent-child-interactions. In peer groups, gender-specific role models are imitated. These role models are predominant in many areas of life: in school, professional training, television, magazines, advertisements, and in the supply of consumer goods (Bilden 2002; Hagemann-White 1984). Gender-typical norms and definitions are demonstrated to or even imposed on the adolescents, and so they are guided by them. Boys, as a central element of their gender identity, are likely to develop an instrumental attitude towards their own bodies, in which physical effort with an emphasis on strength, and experiences of the body’s performance and exercise capacity are dominant (Hardin & Greer 2009, p. 221; Klomsten et al. 2005). In contrast, girls deal with their bodies in a more emotional and aesthetic way, starting, at the latest, with pubescence. This is a different quality from boys’ instrumental attitude to their bodies. As young girls approach the gender roles of adults, the female body is stylized as a medium of sexual attraction. In the course of this process, the girls’ self-determination over their bodies might even be taken away from them. There are various instructions on how to comply with female norms—regarding fashion, cosmetics, or diet plans—which are reinforced by advertising or social media. Often, unrealistic body standards are presented to young girls, which leads to insecurities and makes it much harder to develop body-related self-confidence. Body dissatisfaction affects a large proportion of young people and can have serious and long lasting consequences for health, education, and wider life outcomes. Idealised images, parents, peers and the general pressure that young people are under to be ‘perfect’ all influence body image. We know that these factors are complex, interconnected and socially embedded, although in many areas gaps remain in our understanding. (British Youth Council 2017, p. 9) Personal hygiene, body shaping, and fashionable clothing become important aspects of girls’ everyday lives, while involvement in sport is clearly decreasing during puberty. As a result, in their gender-typical development, girls do not

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experience physical achievement or strain as often as boys do, so these experiences rarely become an important element of their individual gender identity. If they do participate in sport, they mainly do so to get a slim body. xample: Young women’s attitudes to physical activities Pfister et al. (2017) conducted interviews with young Danish women aged 16–20, asking them about their attitudes to sport and exercise, and how this relates to health and physical appearance. Here are some of the main findings: – Many interviewees interpreted health not as an absence of illness, but rather as the result of vigorous training and endeavors to improve their appearance. Health was perceived as a result of work. – The girls’ strong focus on appearance was a result of peer pressure. Many girls reported that their main motivation for exercising was to be accepted among their peers. In addition, many interviewees perceived a slim body to be a prerequisite for attracting the attention of boys. In other words, by complying with the social norms and rules related to fitness and health, the girls were hoping to gain social recognition. – Young women also experience peer pressure through social networking sites such as Facebook. On the one hand, Facebook provides the opportunity for social recognition by other users, who may like certain pictures. On the other, users are exposed to various images of slim, active girls who post messages about the ‘right’ lifestyle. This can lead to feelings of insecurity and inadequacy. – Parents have a significant influence on their children’s attitudes to sport. Many of the girls who were not physically active had parents who were rather indifferent about their daughters’ lifestyles. – Some girls were reluctant to go to fitness centers or sport classes because they perceived their bodies as overweight, and considered it embarrassing to exhibit them in front of other people. – Many girls regarded physical activity as a short-term project, which ended either when the desired effects were reached, or when it became clear that they were unattainable. Most girls perceived sport as a duty; they exercised not because they enjoyed it, but because they hoped to improve their body’s appearance. The extent of the individual’s identification with societal gender norms also determines whether he/she will feel attracted to sport participation. A crucial requirement for developing an interest in a certain sport is that the sport’s values, goals, and behavior patterns correspond to the socially determined actions and gender-specific identity. The way that sport is often practiced in

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contemporary culture, it rather corresponds to the actions, traditional social roles and cultural values of men. Values such as a focus on performance and competition, which, in contemporary culture, are considered to be both part of the traditional role of men7 and important characteristics of sport, are already imparted in primary socialization. In an experimental study in the Austrian province of Tyrol, Sutter & Rützler (2010) could demonstrate that gender-specific differences with regard to competitiveness can be observed at the age of three8 (the percentage of competitive boys was 20 points higher than that of girls). With regard to sport-specific performance motivation, it can be stated that top athletes often come from families in which a high performance motivation is present and instilled during socialization (Pfetsch 1975). However, the low presence of women in professional sport can be traced back mainly to gender differentiation. Even though female presence has increased significantly in the course of the general rise of women’s sport in the last decades (Anders 2007, p. 10), there is still a primacy of men in the world of sport. This was confirmed by the findings of the Special Eurobarometer survey (2018), which collected data on sport in the European Union in 2017 and was published in the following year. With regard to gender, it was shown that men were more likely to participate in sport than women. 44% of men exercise regularly or with some regularity (that is, at least once a week) compared to 36% of women. This difference is particularly pronounced among younger people (aged 15–24): 33% of women of this age group never exercise, compared to only 15% of men. In addition, the aforementioned gender-related differences with regard to competition could be confirmed: 8% of men stated “for the spirit of competition” as a motive for their sport participation, compared to 2% of women. This difference is even stronger in the younger age group, with 17% of men aged 15–24 giving competition as a reason, compared to only 5% of women of the same age group (see table 4.2). In England, the Active Lives Survey (ALS) collects data on sport participation. Regarding gender, it was found that 63% of English men are active in sport, compared to 58% of women. Active means that they participate in sport for at least 150 minutes every week (Audickas 2017). When someone participates in sport, he usually does so in accordance with his gender identity, which is marked by cultural value and interpretation systems, such as ideals of beauty and slimness, thresholds of shame and 7 The opposite is true, for instance, for the Khasi people, a matrilineal tribal society in India. Gneezy, Leonard & List (2009) found that in this society, women show a higher competitive orientation than men. 8 Sutter & Rützler keep it open whether differences in competitiveness between men and women could also be traced back to biological factors (2010, p. 2).

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embarrassment, and attitudes to physical contact. As indicated in the following example, the system of values and norms shared by the indigenous people of New Zealand differs from that of Western civilization, which is also reflected in the high popularity of netball among Maori women. Example: History of women’s sport in New Zealand In the 1840s, the British people began colonizing New Zealand, a country that had previously been settled by the indigenous group Maori. The British settlers continued practicing the sports which were, at that time, most popular among the British middle classes, such as cricket, tennis, or golf. During early colonization (1840–1880) most British settlers were men, who had to perform hard, physical labor to “build the infrastructure necessary for a new society” (Thompson 2003, p. 252). This led to New Zealand being perceived as a man’s country, and rough sports such as rugby became increasingly popular. However, the women of New Zealand were very progressive for their time. In 1893, New Zealand became the first country in which women gained the right to vote. Women’s sports emerged in the late 19th century as well: When the safety bicycle was introduced in New Zealand in the 1880s, a large number of women began cycling, and they founded special clubs for this purpose. By the 1890s, women had started taking up numerous other sports, such as rugby, shooting, field hockey and rowing (ibid., p. 253). It is interesting to note that today, Maori women are more active in sport than other female New Zealanders, with netball being a particularly popular sport for female Maori (p. 257). The Maori come from a culture where age and rank are regarded as more important than gender, and Maori women also fought alongside men in the New Zealand Land Wars in the 1860s. In the early 20th century, female Maori participated in sports such as horse racing and cycling. Today, netball is the most popular sport for women in New Zealand. In fact, it is only practiced by women, and in 2001, 120,440 girls participated in it, which was the second highest participation rate for any sport, men’s or women’s (p. 258). Golf is the only sport with a higher participation rate of 128,860, which, however, comprises both women and men. Netball is originally a British sport, which was adapted from basketball. It was introduced to New Zealand at the turn of the 20th century and presented as a sport that was particularly suitable for women, since it is graceful and not particularly aggressive. However, the sport faces an uncertain future. It is played by few other nations, so Thompson (p. 263) fears that it might become an “endangered ‘ethnic’ game”.

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figure 4.1 Women’s soccer

There are a number of sports that are characterized by an emphasis on physical strength or the application of physical skills in direct contact with the opponent, and which, in contemporary culture, are mainly practiced by men. Among these men’s sports are wrestling, boxing, weightlifting, and the hammer throw. The term ‘soccer’ is usually associated with a sport that is played by men—particularly in those countries where it is regarded as a national sport (such as England or Germany). When soccer is played by women, the game is called ‘women’s soccer’ (figure 4.1). This use of terminology implies the common notion that soccer has always been a men’s sport and that women had only recently started playing soccer. However, this notion is false. It was only in the first half of the 20th century that soccer developed into a men’s sport.

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Example: The history of women’s soccer As demonstrated by Müller (2007, p. 121), women participated in folk football (soccer), a violent and brutal sport that was practiced during the Middle Ages. This shows that gender differences were far less pronounced during the Middle Ages than they are today. In fact, the notion that there are typically male and female character traits (such as strong, brave and rational for men vs. weak, passive and emotional for women) only emerged during the late 18th century. This does not mean that there was social equality between the sexes in the Middle Ages. Women were dominated by their husbands; however, this gender hierarchy was only secondary. The main criterion for separation, and for the decision of who was allowed to play which sports, was social class. In 19th-century England, soccer was believed to transmit values and character traits that were regarded as typically male, such as efficiency, initiative and discipline. It was seen as a vehicle for character building and a learning arena for important social competencies. Hence, the sport was mainly practiced in public schools for boys. In girls’ schools, other sports, such as netball, were practiced. Still, soccer was played among girls and women as well. In 1900, August Hermann, one of the founding fathers of German soccer, argued that the game was “completely inappropriate for girls”, and that this sport might even damage them physically: The movements are much too violent. They harden the muscles of a female body instead of shaping them flexibly, softly, and nevertheless strongly. There is an obvious danger that the organs of the female body, which are indeed there to nurture life, could be damaged playing football […]. Our German girls, virgins and women should not become ‘athletic girls’ who cannot fulfil their role and duties in many matters of their lives. (cited in Krüger et al. 2018, p. 197) Nevertheless, during the First World War, women’s soccer increased significantly in popularity, due to the fact that most men were at the front, so men’s soccer had to be temporarily stopped. Women’s soccer also remained popular after the war, particularly in England. In 1920, a game of the Dick Kerr’s Ladies against the St. Helen Ladies in Everton attracted around 50,000 spectators. The number of women’s soccer teams in England rose continuously, and in 1921, almost every English city had its own team. However, criticism of women’s soccer increased, also due to the fact that some women’s games attracted more spectators than men’s

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games. Critics argued that the game was distasteful and unsuitable for females, and on 5 December 1921, the Football Association (FA) outlawed the playing of women’s soccer on Association members’ pitches. As a consequence, on 10 December 1921, 25 women’s teams formed the English Ladies Football Association (ELFA). In Germany, women’s soccer was officially forbidden in 1955. In the early 1970s (1970 in Germany; 1971 in England), the bans were finally lifted, and women’s soccer was officially recognized by the UEFA and the FIFA. This was the result of various anti-discrimination policies and social upheavals of the 1960s. In 1984, the UEFA European Women’s Championship was founded, which, until today, is held every four years. This was followed by the establishment of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1991. In 1996, women’s soccer became an official Olympic sport (see Müller 2007, pp. 113–141). Whereas in today’s soccer women are still underrepresented, there are sports in which they are overrepresented, compared to their participation in other sports. These typical women’s sports are marked by an emphasis on aesthetic presentation and modeling of the body. Examples of these sports are gymnastics and ice skating. Some of these women’s and also of the men’s sports have been for a long time reserved for the respective gender in the program of the Olympic Games. However, in the last decade—in the course of a general gender equality process—several of the Olympic sports that had previously been reserved for men have been opened for women (the most recent ones were boxing and ski jumping). As of April 2020, the only sport reserved only for men is Nordic combined, and the two sports reserved only for women are rhythmic gymnastics and synchronized swimming. Example: Women in the Olympic Games The first modern, international Olympic Games organized by the IOC (International Olympic Committee) took place in the summer of 1896. Female athletes were excluded from these Games, since the founder of the modern Olympic Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin considered their participation inappropriate. He stated: Would such sports practiced by women constitute an edifying sight before crowds assembled for an Olympiad? […] Such is not our idea of the Olympic Games in which we feel we have tried and that we must continue to try to achieve the following definition: the solemn and periodic exaltation of male athleticism with internationalism

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as a base, loyalty as a means, art for its setting, and female applause as reward. (cited in Curry & Jiobu 1984, p. 75) At the 1900 Olympic Games in Paris, women were allowed to participate for the first time in two disciplines: tennis and golf. Only twelve women took part in these Games, and the British tennis player Charlotte Cooper became the first woman to win a gold medal. Gradually, more sports were opened to women in the early 20th century, including archery, figure skating, sailing, swimming and track and field (ibid.). Recently, various efforts have been made to include more women in the Olympic Games. The IOC wants to create more participation opportunities for women, and to create mixed-gender team sport events. The main goal is to achieve a female participation rate of 50%. In the last hundred years, participation rates of women in the Olympic Games have increased significantly, from roughly 2% in the Summer Olympic Games of 1908 in London, to around 45% at the Summer Olympic Games of 2016 in Rio. At the Summer Olympic Games of 2020 in Tokyo (which were postponed to 2021), five additional sports will be included: baseball/softball, karate, sport climbing, surfing, and skateboarding.9 Surfing and skateboarding are regarded as action sports, and in the early forms of these sports, women often participated alongside men. It has been argued that these action sports “offered the potential for alternative gender relations” (Wheaton & Thorpe 2018, p. 319). It is estimated that with the inclusion of these new sports, female participation at the Olympic Games will rise to almost 49% (ibid., pp. 315–342). In spite of this general opening, some sports still have separate sets of rules for men and women. If this is the case, the sets of rules for men include higher requirements. For instance, men participate in a decathlon, women in a heptathlon; men run 110-meter hurdles, while women run 100 meters; and the longest trail in cross-country skiing for men is 50 kilometers, while it is 30 kilometers for women (Gugutzer 2011, p. 42). In addition, there are sports whose set of rules allows men body practices that are forbidden to women. One example is ice hockey, where body checking is allowed for men but not for women (ibid.). But even if there are no differences in the sets of rules for men and women, it is sometimes obvious that the athletes act in a gender-typical 9 “IOC approves five new sports for Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.” Retrieved from https:// www.olympic.org/news/ioc-approves-five-new-sports-for-olympic-games-tokyo-2020.

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table 4.1  Gender-specific sporting preferences

Mentioned more often by men

Mentioned more often by women

Motives for doing sport to compete with others to exercise willpower for a strong physical performance Places where sport is practiced sport clubs nature

Motives for doing sport to get a beautiful body

Places where sport is practiced private sport providers (fitness centers, etc.) adult education centers at home

way. Due to women’s specific orientation to their own bodies, which is not only functional but also oriented towards experience and emotion—women are not focused on having a body, like men are, but rather on being a body (Plessner 2019)—a specific understanding of sport arises. We can speak of a specifically female sporting culture, which differentiates itself from the male sporting culture in the motives for doing sport and in the choice of places where sport is practiced, among other things (table 4.1). This female sporting culture also has to be seen specifically with regard to social stratification, since it is a phenomenon that can be found predominantly in those social classes where the gender relations are relatively egalitarian, that is, the upper and middle classes. However, in the lower social classes, we can still find a rigid, gender-specific division of labor and assignment of roles, which is reflected in the fact that women from the lower classes hardly practice sport. L esbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intergender (LGBTI) People in Sport In addition to a female and a male sporting culture, an ‘alternative’ sporting culture has developed in the recent past: that of sport participants whose gender and/or sexual preference deviates from that of the majority. In the field of leisure sport, so-called LGBTI sport clubs have been founded. The target group of these sport clubs consists primarily of homosexual, bisexual, transgender, intergender, non-binary, and queer people. As Böhlke & Müller (2020) showed, negative experience based on heteronormativity in traditional sport is not the only motivation for LGBTI people to join these clubs. Self-segregation itself seems to be an important incentive as well. The clubs can function as a space 1.1

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offering community and comfort (being queer as a ‘shared normality’), a meeting place (a networking forum and a possibility to access the LGBTI scene), or also as a mental shelter (ibid.). A survey by Menzel et al. (2019) on the situation of LGBTI people in sport in Europe found that 16% of the 5,500 LGBTI respondents have personally had negative experiences in sport due to their sexual orientation and/or gender identity within the 12 months previous to completing the survey. This share is particularly high among trans people, at 40%. A total of 5% of the respondents even stopped participating in sport due to these negative experiences. Around 20% of the respondents completely refrain from participating in the sports they would be interested in, due to their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Almost 90% of the respondents consider homophobia and/or transphobia to be a current problem in sport, and 82% of them have witnessed homo- and/or transphobic language within the 12 previous months. 2

Social Stratification in Sport

definition Social stratification designates the value-based, vertical classification of a society. Various sociologists have dealt with the causes, manifestations and effects of social stratification, since these are some of the central issues of sociology. The causes for social stratification can mainly be found in the actors’ power (political power, his power in the workplace, etc.), knowledge, education, and performance/productivity, as well as in the ownership structures (ownership of means of production and wealth), in the structures of the labor market, in the functional requirements and arrangements of opportunities of the respective society, in individual and collective actions of redistribution, in social prejudices and in natural differences (talents, etc.) (cf. Amann 1996, pp. 49–73; Hradil 2006, p. 208; Schulz 2008, p. 149; Grusky 2015, p. 707). The mechanisms that operate to enforce the inequalities caused for these or other reasons are, according to Therborn (2006), distantiation, hierarchization, exclusion, and exploitation. Of particular importance is distantiation, which refers to the process whereby some people ‘get ahead’ because they work harder or are born into an environment that gives them more assistance so they can ‘outcompete’ those without the same advantages. Exploitation is defined as “a categorial division between some superior and some inferior people, whereby the former unilaterally or asymmetrically extract values from the latter” (ibid., p. 12). The extent of exploitation varies with the system of social stratification.

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According to Giddens & Sutton (2013, pp. 482–485), there are four main systems of social stratification: slavery, caste, estates, and class. The most extreme form of these is slavery, in which members of the lower strata are owned as property by their superiors. Today, slavery is illegal in every country of the world, but unfortunately, it still exists in some places. Caste is “a form of stratification in which one’s social position is given for a lifetime” (ibid., p. 482), and where intermarriage between the strata is not allowed. Two countries where systems that prohibited all physical contact between members of different castes were in full force until recently are India and South Africa. In 1949, it became illegal in India to discriminate on the basis of caste, but particularly in the rural areas, elements of the system are still applied. Another example of a caste system was the Apartheid in South Africa, which was abolished in 1992, and where people were strictly segregated on the basis of race. The third system of social stratification, estates, was particularly applied in European feudal societies. The highest estate consisted of the aristocracy and gentry, followed by the clergy, and the lowest estate was made up of commoners, that is, serfs, free peasants, merchants, and artisans. The separation between estates was not as strict as in the caste system. Some degree of intermarriage was tolerated, and it was possible for commoners to be knighted, for instance, as a reward for giving special services to the monarch. The fourth system, class, is the one according to which contemporary societies are usually structured. Giddens & Sutton define it as “a large-scale grouping of people who share common economic resources, which strongly influence the type of lifestyle they are able to lead. Ownership of property and wealth and occupation are the chief bases of class differences” (2013, p. 485). There are four main characteristics of class that distinguish it from other, previous forms of social stratification: 1. Class systems are fluid, that is, the boundaries are not clear-cut, and intermarriage between classes is possible. 2. Class positions can be achieved; it is possible to work your way into an upper class. 3. Class is economically based, that is, it is based on “inequalities in the possession of material resources” (ibid.). 4. Class systems mainly operate through associations that are rather impersonal, for instance, between businesses and their employees. They are expressed in inequality of pay and working conditions. In previous stratification systems, these differences were expressed in personal relationships of duty, for instance, between master and servant. definition A social class consists of a group of people who, according to their social rank based on economic resources, were put into social categories.

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Researchers do not only speak of social classes when referring to the stratification system of contemporary society. In the USA, the terms white-collar and blue-collar are used, both in popular parlance and in the social sciences, when speaking of occupational groups. Blue-collar describes working-class people (white, especially male) performing manual labor, for instance, industrial workers or craftsmen. These blue-collar men are typically believed to possess qualities such as a strong work ethic, strength, courage, aggression, and toughness. On the other hand, the term white-collar refers to members of the middle and upper classes who perform office work that typically involves sitting at a desk and working on a computer (Wright 2019; Rhodes 2011, p. 357). However, it is often argued that since the 1970s, the distinction between blue-collar and white-collar work—and also the distinction between the working class and the middle class—has become increasingly difficult. In the post-industrial context, many new jobs were created that are classified as white-collar, but which are low-paid and do not require high qualifications (for instance, call-center work). According to Wright (ibid.), these new jobs have “effectively replaced manual work as a working-class form of employment”. If individuals have such a job and have a low education, we speak of status crystallization, or status consistency. definition Status is the relative rank of a person in a vertical dimension of social differences. The opposite of status consistency is status inconsistency (Lenski 1954) or status incongruence (Lundberg et al., 2009). These terms describe cases in which an individual’s ranks in the different status hierarchies in a complex society are far apart. One example for a person with a high status inconsistency is a top athlete who earns a lot of money, but has a low education level. Another example is a person who has earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree, but, for lack of other job opportunities, he is doing an unpaid internship or working as a taxi driver. These status inconsistencies especially occur in the social middle classes and, due to economic crises, they have become increasingly common since the 1970s (Schwietring 2011, pp. 204–205). Since that time modern societies have become more complex in their entireties, more differentiated concerning values, norms, positions, and social roles, and with that more social strata and gradations within these strata become recognizable. Terms used by researchers to classify these gradations or strata are social situations, social milieus, life situations or lifestyle groups (Hradil 2006, pp. 222–223; Richter 2006, pp. 12–13; Schwietring 2011, pp. 205–209; da Silva Wagner & Bug 2015). The latter term describes the idea of a present-day society in which material scarcity has

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been highly reduced. The result of this reduction would be a cultural style that is largely independent from social structures. In this case, the behavior of the members of society is not (only) determined by social class affiliation, but also by individual decisions and conceptions of status. Lifestyles, and not the specificity of social classes, are seen as characteristics of modern life. definition Lifestyle concerns typical regularities in the organization of daily life, in terms of individuality, identity, social affiliation, etc. The different lifestyles are compiled into groups on the basis of various value, behavioral and status indicators. The indicators used in this procedure include attitudes towards family and relationships, religion and politics, as well as self-image, daily routines, leisure behavior, consumer behavior, financing strategies, living conditions, and the classical criteria for social stratification (Richter 2006, pp. 13–14). Concerning the connection between social class affiliation and sport, various studies confirmed the assumption that members of the lower social classes are less convinced of the meaningfulness of sport participation and exercise less than members of the middle and upper social classes. For instance, Hartmann-Tews (2006), in a transnational study on the socio-structural determinants of sport participation, found that in all the EU countries, people with a low education status exercise less than people with a higher education status. Scheerder & Vos (2011) confirmed these results in a study over a period of 40 years (1969–2009) in Flanders (Belgium) and Studer, Schlesinger & Engel (2011, p. 161) found analogous results for Switzerland with regard to income. Based on Voigt (1992, pp. 166–167), who compiled 13 studies in Germany and Austria starting in 1953/54, Weiss10 compiled 17 more studies of the same kind, all of which confirmed a significant connection in the above-mentioned direction between social class affiliation and sport participation. Some of these studies also examined professional sport, and they concluded that top athletes tend to come from families of a middle or higher socioeconomic status. In Austria, this result has been reconfirmed in a study from 2007 (Mayrhofer, Meyer & Pucher). Warde (2006) conducted a study on gender and class-specific sport participation in Britain, and he confirmed that the middle and upper social classes exercise more often than the lower social classes. He argues that members of the educated middle classes see sport “almost as a duty to assume a personal responsibility for taking care of the body” (p. 120). 10

First German edition of the present book, 1999, pp. 102–103.

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This corresponds to the findings of the Special Eurobarometer, confirming that EU citizens who finished their education aged 20 or older mention “to improve your health”, “to improve your physical appearance”, and “to improve fitness” significantly more often as their main motives for participating in sport than those who finished education at a younger age (table 4.2). In addition, the survey showed that the longer a person stayed in education, the more he or she is likely to participate in sport. The great majority of people who left the education system aged 15 or earlier never exercise or play sport, compared to about half of those who ended education aged 16–19, and a minority of those who completed their studies aged 20 or over. Sport participation also varies according to occupational group: a quarter of managers never exercise, compared to nearly two fifths of people working in other white-collar jobs. Among manual workers, the proportion is significantly higher: nearly half of them never exercise. In addition, two thirds of people who, most of the time, have difficulties paying bills never exercise (table 4.3). In England, the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC) is the official classification system to determine socioeconomic status. Based on this system, the Active Lives Survey divided people into the following occupational classes: NS-SEC 1–2: Managerial, administrative & professional occupations NS-SEC 3: Intermediate occupations (e.g., sales, service) NS-SEC 4: Self-employed & small employers NS-SEC 5: Lower supervisory & technical occupations NS-SEC 6–7: Semi-routine & routine occupations NS-SEC 8: Long-term unemployed or never worked NS-SEC 9: Students & other For each occupational class the levels of physical activity were determined in the Active Life Survey. The survey found a similar relationship between sport participation and social class to that which was found in the Special Eurobarometer: 70% of people working in managerial, administrative and professional occupations (hence, those from a higher social class) were active in sport. Among students, participation rates were relatively high as well, with 69%. In contrast, among those who were long term unemployed or have never worked, only 49% were active in sport. Between 2005/06 and 2015/16, the gap in sport participation between the higher and lower socioeconomic classes increased. In 2005/06, 38% of the upper classes (SEC 1–4) participated in sport regularly (that is, once a week) compared to 27% of the lower classes (SEC 5–8). In 2015/16, the share of upperclass regular participants increased to 40%, while that of lower-class regular participants decreased to 26% (Audickas 2017).

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table 4.2  Motives for doing sport among EU citizens, according to gender, age, education, and frequency of exercising (2017)

EU28 Gender Men Women Age 15–24 25–39 40–54 55+ Gender and age Men 15–24 Men 25–39 Men 40–54 Men 55+ Women 15–24 Women 25–39 Women 40–54 Women 55+ Education (end of) 15– 16–19 20+ Still studying Exercise or play sport Regularly With some regularity Seldom Never

Don’t know

To improve your self-esteem To develop new skills For the spirit of competition To better integrate into society Other (SPONTANEOUS)

To control your weight

To improve fitness

To improve physical performance

To make new acquaintances To meet people from other cultures

To be with friends

To relax

To have fun

To improve your physical appearance To counteract the effects of ageing

To improve your health

QB8 Why do you engage in sport or physical activity? (MULTIPLE ANSWERS POSSIBLE) (% - EU)a

54

20

14 30 38 19 6

2 28 47 23 12 7

5

4

8

3

53 55

19 21

13 33 38 22 5 15 28 38 16 6

3 29 48 22 11 7 2 27 47 24 13 6

8 2

4 3

8 8

3 3

49 53 54 57

29 27 19 12

3 8 13 25

44 33 29 23

35 40 42 34

33 20 15 15

8 6 4 5

3 38 52 22 16 3 31 50 26 15 2 24 46 26 12 3 24 44 19 9

15 8 5 3

11 6 5 6 4 7 5 3 10 2 3 10

2 2 3 4

49 53 52 55 49 53 56 59

29 26 16 11 30 28 21 13

3 8 12 24 4 8 14 26

48 36 31 22 38 29 27 24

35 40 42 33 35 40 41 36

41 23 18 13 23 17 12 16

9 6 4 4 7 6 5 6

2 3 2 2 3 2 1 3

43 33 24 23 33 29 24 24

55 50 46 43 48 50 46 45

20 24 26 20 24 29 26 18

16 14 11 7 15 16 12 11

16 10 5 3 13 7 4 3

17 9 7 3 5 3 2 1

8 5 2 2 4 4 3 3

4 6 11 11 7 8 9 9

1 3 3 4 3 2 3 4

50 50 60 52

12 17 22 33

18 13 18 4

20 26 34 48

30 34 46 39

14 16 19 36

4 5 6 9

2 2 2 3

20 23 32 41

34 43 55 55

16 20 29 23

8 10 15 17

3 4 7 19

2 4 6 12

2 14 3 10 3 6 7 3

5 4 2 2

69 64 44 37

27 28 14 7

23 16 11 10

33 40 25 16

40 44 34 29

20 27 14 8

8 8 4 2

4 3 2 1

37 38 18 13

57 62 37 25

29 30 18 11

18 16 8 5

10 10 6 5 10 8 5 2 4 2 2 10 2 1 2 20

1 1 4 8

a Base: respondents who exercise, play sport or engage in other physical activity (N = 19,982)

75

SOCIALIZATION AND SPORT table 4.3  Sport participation in the EU according to gender, age, and socio-demographic group (2017)

a Base: All respondents (N = 28,031)

With some regularity

Seldom

Never

Don’t know

EU28 Gender Men Women Age 15–24 25–39 40–54 55+ Gender and age Men 15–24 Men 25–39 Men 40–54 Men 55+ Women 15–24 Women 25–39 Women 40–54 Women 55+ Education (end of) 15– 16–19 20+ Still studying Socio-professional category Self-employed Managers Other white collars Manual workers House persons Unemployed Retired Students Difficulties paying bills Most of the time From time to time Almost never/never

Regularly

QB1 How often do you exercise or play sport?a (% – EU)

7

33

14

46

0

8 7

36 29

16 12

40 52

0 0

9 6 7 8

53 40 32 22

14 19 17 9

24 35 44 61

0 0 0 0

12 6 6 8 6 4 7 7

59 45 35 22 47 36 29 21

14 21 20 12 14 17 14 8

15 28 39 58 33 42 50 64

0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

6 6 9 10

14 27 43 63

7 15 17 11

73 52 31 16

0 0 0 0

7 7 4 6 5 10 8 10

39 46 40 29 18 26 20 63

18 20 19 16 10 14 9 11

36 26 37 49 67 49 63 16

0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0

4 5 8

19 24 37

11 15 14

66 55 41

0 1 0

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The Special Eurobarometer and the Active Lives Survey confirmed that members of the lower social classes are less likely to participate in sport. However, the results of other studies on the connections between social class and sport participation were not so clear. For instance, Haut (2011, p. 144) and Haut & Emrich (2011, p. 317), summarizing recent studies in West Germany and ­Switzerland, only speak of a “preponderance”, or even just a “slight preponderance” (translated) of empirical evidence for the assumption that sport activity is favored by people in higher social positions. In addition to the purely quantitative differences in sport participation between members of the various social strata, there are big differences in the kinds of sports that are practiced. In other words, certain social classes prefer certain sports, and they use these sports to present their lifestyles, as will be exemplified in the following. There is a hierarchy of sports according to their participants’ social class, or according to their suitability for the representation of social differences and the right lifestyle (“lifestyle sports”, Wheaton 2004). Some explanations for this and for the link between social class affiliation and sport participation are obvious: The higher the social class affiliation, the better the economic situation and the possibilities to bear the costs of sport equipment and sport participation. Members of the higher social classes are more likely to have parents who are themselves active in sport. They experienced a more favorable family socialization with regard to sport and exercise than members of the lower social classes. Members of the higher social classes usually remain in education for a longer time, and, as a result, they experienced a more intense socialization with regard to school sport than members of the lower social classes. Pupils and students have more freedom in organizing their time, so it is easier for them to participate in sport classes than it is for apprentices of the same age or young people in employment. Members of the lower social classes are more likely to work in professions that require intensive physical efforts, which might lead them to exercise less in their free time. Furthermore, differences in health condition and in the physical habitus play an important role. 2.1 Physical Habitus, Somatic Culture, and Social Distinction In his main work Distinction: a social critique of the judgement of taste (2010, first edition in French, 1979) Bourdieu examined the social inequality of French society of the 1960s and, in the course of this, developed a theory of social space. One may visualize this space as a landscape where the different social classes are recorded on the basis of their socioeconomic situation and their lifestyles. According to Bourdieu, social classes can be determined on the basis of primarily three forms of capital: economic capital (income, wealth),

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social capital (relationships, networks), and cultural capital (education, titles, etc.). The volume of these forms of capital determines the three major classes of French society: dominant upper class (haute bourgeoisie), middle class (petite bourgeoisie) and lower class (workers and peasants). Because of their relatively similar living conditions, these classes developed specific forms of habitus. In Bourdieu’s theory, habitus is the mediating category between social class affiliation and practice. Therefore, the choice of a certain sport practice, that is, a certain type of sport, does not only depend on the main forms of capital (economic, social and cultural), but, at least to the same extent, on the habitus, and especially on one particular dimension of the habitus: the attitude towards one’s own body. The more a sport corresponds to the respective attitude towards one’s own body, the more likely it is to be chosen by the members of a social class. In any case, one only needs to be aware that the class variations in sporting activities are due as much to variations in perception and appreciation of the immediate or deferred profits they are supposed to bring, as to variations in the costs, both economic and cultural and, indeed, bodily (degree of risk and physical effort), in order to understand in its broad outlines the distribution of these activities among the classes and class fractions. Everything takes place as if the probability of taking up the different sports depended, within the limits defined by economic (and cultural) capital and spare time on perception and assessment of the intrinsic and extrinsic profits of each sport in terms of the dispositions of the habitus, and more precisely, in terms of the relation to the body, which is one aspect of this. (Bourdieu 2010, pp. 209–210) This attitude toward one’s own body shapes a person’s body awareness, which means the sum of relationships to the body. This includes not only the perception of bodily reactions but also instrumental relationships, as expressed in body control and in the way the body is dealt with. In the following, body awareness and its relation to social class affiliation will be explained by means of health behavior. This example was chosen not only because sport and health have various points of contact, but also because health takes a special place among the values and objectives by which human behavior in society is guided. Even though in a pluralistic society, it is possible and legitimate to express various, ever-changing opinions on all

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topics and problems, including the reasonableness and affordability of an impairment, and to evaluate them, there is no disagreement on the value of health as a norm. (Heinemann 1994, p. 28, translated) Despite the general recognition of the value of health, medical sociological research shows that there are a number of group-specific differences in the realization of this ideal. There is a general discrepancy between the health risks that people take and the health-promoting measures they take to mitigate these risks. Both the use of health-promoting measures and the degree of health risks taken differ according to social class affiliation. For instance, in the USA, between 2011 and 2014, the share of obese persons was lower among those who had a college degree (almost 28%) than among those who received only some college education and those who were high school graduates or dropped out of high school (roughly 40% for each) (Ogden et al., 2017). In 1999, US-American high school students in 12th grade who planned to complete a college degree were less likely to smoke than their peers who had no plans to attend college (Barbeau et al. 2004). The different levels of health risks that people take are also reflected in differences in life expectancy. In 2010, the average life expectancy at birth for a 50-year-old US-American man with a high income was 89 years, while a man of the same age earning a lower income had an average life expectancy of only 76 years (Ehrenfreund 2015). This class specificity of premature mortality can be observed in almost all modern countries (Hradil 2009, pp. 39–40). In the United Kingdom, the Black Report (DHSS, 1980) publicized the extent of health-related inequalities that exist between social classes (Giddens & Sutton 2013, pp. 457–460). One of the main findings was that members of the higher social classes are, on average, healthier and taller, and they live longer than members of the lower social classes. The greatest class differences could be found with regard to infant mortality and child deaths. The risk of dying before retirement age is twice as high for unskilled manual workers than it is for professionals from the top occupational class. In addition, people who are working tend to live longer than those who are long-term unemployed. Giddens & Sutton (ibid.) also found that people from the working class visit their doctors more often, and for a wider range of ailments, than those from the higher occupational groups. Several possible explanations were given for these class-related inequalities with regard to health. The differences result mainly from poverty, housing, and the lower classes’ poor (and often dangerous) working conditions. In addition, members of the lower classes are more likely to engage in unhealthy behavior, such as smoking, eating junk food, drinking high amounts of alcohol, and, as mentioned previously, they rarely participate in sport.

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In recent years the class-specific health inequality gap has widened, in spite of measures to reduce it. Giddens & Sutton (ibid.) argue that this is because members of the more affluent classes are more likely to consider and act on messages of public health promotion. Paradoxically, health-promoting measures might even lead to an increase of the gap which they are trying to reduce. In contrast to what Giddens & Sutton stated with regard to visiting doctors in the United Kingdom, Pochobradsky, Habl & Schleicher (2002, p. 14) found that in Austria, members of the lower social classes do not visit medical practices more often than members of the other social classes, even though they have higher premature mortality rates and, accordingly, are in a poorer state of health. Often, they are unaware of available health services, or they do not have access to them. People who regularly go to health services for medical checkups are likely to attach importance to their health, and members of the lower social classes make use of this service much more rarely than members of the upper social classes (ibid., p. 39). There also seem to be great social differences in the perception of illnesses, as shown by the example of so-called functional disorders. The term describes conditions in which the patient suffers from an ailment and presents symptoms to the doctor, while it is not yet possible to discern any organic damage using regular examination methods. Functional disorders are often based in the digestive tract, and their symptoms include stomach pains, digestive weaknesses, and bilious complaints. Some people who suffer from these functional disorders are able to perceive their body’s messages, that is, they can identify their sensations as warning symptoms. The share of patients with this ability is higher among members of the upper social classes (Boltanski 1976, p. 147). It is mainly the members of these classes who are able to give a rather detailed description of their state of disease, while for the lower classes, it is apparently more difficult to give an appropriate description, so their dialogs with doctors become problematic. These problems in doctor-patient-communication are based on class-specific differences in the general ability to verbalize, as well as on mental habits and categories of thinking. Therefore, it is more difficult for members of the lower social classes to integrate an unknown physical phenomenon into an existing element of cultural knowledge; they do not succeed in interpreting the phenomenon, since they have no thinking pattern or no term for their new experience. This reduced ability of interpretation results in a reduced ability of identification of physical sensations. Therefore, members of the lower social classes do not pay further attention to certain sensations that are unclear and unclassifiable. There are different, class-specific thresholds of intensity beyond which a sensation starts to be considered abnormal, or beyond which it is consciously

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felt, accepted and expressed. These thresholds of intensity can be understood as part of a class-specific somatic culture, that is, a code of good manners with regard to how the body is dealt with. These ‘rules of etiquette’ that define the correct way of carrying out everyday physical tasks, of walking, of getting dressed, of eating, of washing, of putting on make-up, and, for some people, of working, the correct ways in which physical interactions with others have to take place, the distance one has to keep towards a partner, the way in which one has look at him or touch him, the gestures that are appropriate in his presence depending on his gender, his age, on whether he is a relative, a friend, or a stranger, on whether he belongs to the same social class, on the place and time, and finally, perhaps especially the correct way of talking about his body, his appearance, and about physical sensations – these rules are never enforced explicitly and systematically or in the form of concrete, formal orders. When they are verbally articulated, it is always in a negative and indirect way, in the form of calls to order, ridicule, condescension, contempt, disdain, or moral indignation. All these rules form a code of good manners with regard to how the body is dealt with, which is deeply internalized and shared by all the members of a certain social group. (Boltanski 1976, p. 154, translated) This code is mostly unconscious and can be analyzed only by observing and comparing the behavior of members of different social classes. The rules governing the physical behavior of individuals, which allow them to take on behavior patterns appropriate to the somatic culture of their group, both in familiar situations and in new ones which they might get into, are of a sufficiently general character to be applicable in a myriad of special cases. (ibid., p. 155, translated) This sentence brings us closer to the habitus again, and to the associated concept of taste. Taste is “a system of classificatory schemes which may only very partially become conscious” (Bourdieu 2010, p. 169). This system varies according to social class affiliation. Bourdieu speaks of class taste and affirms that the body is the most visible expression thereof: first in the seemingly most natural features of the body, the dimensions (volume, height, weight) and shapes (round or square, stiff or supple, straight or curved) of its visible forms, which express in countless ways a

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whole relation to the body, i.e., a way of treating it, caring for it, feeding it, maintaining it, which reveals the deepest dispositions of the habitus. It is in fact through preferences with regard to food which may be perpetuated beyond their social conditions of production (as, in other areas, an accent, a walk etc.), and also, of course, through the uses of the body in work and leisure which are bound up with them, that the class distribution of bodily properties is determined. (ibid., p. 188) Bourdieu’s ideas on class taste have to be understood in a physical sense: “Taste is a culture that has become second nature, that is, it is an incorporated culture, a classification that has become physical” (Gugutzer 2004, p. 71, translated). Members of the lower social classes do not like certain foods which members of the upper social classes like—and vice versa. The reason for this can be found in class-specific socialization. In the course of this socialization, people do not only learn how to set the dining table and how to behave at the table, but also which foods are appropriate to eat. This way, a specific sense of taste is being developed. Therefore, Bourdieu also describes taste as an ­“incorporated principle of classification” (ibid.), which chooses and incorporates what is right for the body—the class-specific taste knows what is good for the body. This, of course, is also true when it comes to the choice of the right sport. The postures, movement patterns, and body images cultivated by a certain sport, as well as the specific physical contact with teammates and opponents required by the game all more or less meet the class-specific taste, and more or less correspond to the respective habitus. In connection with the habitus, one also has to consider the mechanism of social distinction when choosing a sport. Distinction is used for conscious social differentiation and in the fight of the social classes and class fractions for the determination of the “legitimate body” and for the “legitimate treatment of the body” (Bourdieu 1986, p. 99, translated). Whoever attains the power of definition in this matter can determine the legitimate sports. These sports then promise distinction profits to its practitioners, since practicing them is associated with reputation. Certain sports “owe a big part of the interest that is shown to them to the distinction profits, credits and reputation which they provide” (ibid., p. 100, translated). These distinction profits are based on the marking of the respective sport by the social characteristics of the agents (Bourdieu 1988, p. 159). As a result of this marking, oppositions between exclusive and popular sports are formed. The latter ones include many sporting disciplines that were once reserved for the upper social classes but then went through a process of popularization. The term popularization, in this case, describes the appropriation of a sport

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that used to be practiced exclusively by the upper social classes by a broader sector of the population. This process causes losses of distinction, but also the emergence of new extravagances among the participants of the upper social classes, who adopt new practices either to perpetuate their distinction or to restore it. Today, professionalized sports that appeal to the masses “combine all the features which repel the dominant class: not only the social composition of their public, which redoubles their commonness, but also the values and virtues demanded” (Bourdieu 2010, p. 212). 2.2 Sports of the Lower Social Classes According to Bourdieu (2010, p. 210), members of the working class appreciate strong, powerful bodies. For this reason, they prefer: – strength sports such as weightlifting or bodybuilding; – sports that require participants to make full use of their bodies, such as motorcycle racing; – team sports that require a high degree of physical exertion and physical contact with the opponents, such as soccer and rugby; – sports that require fighting, such as karate or wrestling; – sports that require a willingness to take hits and a certain insensitivity to pain, such as boxing. With regard to boxing, it is well documented that members of the lower classes feel a strong affinity towards it. In both the UK and the USA, boxers were among the first athletes who were celebrated as sporting heroes, which started in the 19th century. It was especially the white, working-class boxing hero who gained particular recognition (Rhodes 2011, p. 353). Often, it is even believed that members of the lower social classes are the only ones who have a chance to become successful boxers: It is believed by many in boxing circles that those in the lower socioeconomic levels make the ‘best fighters’: They say that too much education softens a man and that is why the college graduates are not good fighters. They fight emotionally on the gridiron and they fight bravely and well in our wars, but their contributions in our rings have been insignificant. The ring has been described as the refuge of the under-privileged. Out of the downtrodden have come our greatest fighters […]. Once the bell rings, they want their fighters to have no retreat, and a fighter with an education is a fighter who does not have to fight to live and he knows it […] Only for the hungry fighter is it a decent gamble. (Weinberg & Arond 1952, pp. 461–462)

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The writer George Garrett, who used to be an amateur boxer several decades ago, remembers his training: People went into this brutal and often self-destructive activity for a rich variety of motivations, most of them bitterly antisocial and verging on the psychotic. Most of the fighters I knew were wounded people who felt a deep, powerful urge to wound others at real risk to themselves. (cited from Oates 2006, p. 28) In her essay ‘On Boxing’, the American author Joyce Carol Oates writes about the fascination of boxing, and gives reasons why the sport is especially appealing for the lower social classes: Impoverished people prostitute themselves in ways available to them, and boxing on its lowest levels offers an opportunity for men to make a living of a kind. In fact, if a boxer is fortunate and isn’t injured, boxing will pay him better wages than most of the jobs available to unskilled and uneducated men in our post-industrial society. (Oates 2006, p. 34) Thus, boxing enables some of its participants to climb up the social ladder a bit. Other sports can serve this purpose as well, as indicated by the following example. Example: Sport and social mobility Curry & Jiobu (1984, pp. 73–74) describe the living conditions in Duquesne, a small town in Pennsylvania. In this town, the U.S. Steel Mill is basically the only source of employment, so most of the inhabitants are from the lower social class. The only way for boys to go to college is through a football scholarship; if they do not manage to obtain that, they are forced to work in the mill. In Duquesne, a high emphasis is put on achievement in American football, since the sport provides the only opportunity for boys to gain a college education and rise up into the middle class. This practice of awarding scholarships to college based on athletic achievement is common in the USA: “You can go from living in poverty to living in comfort to living in luxury. And sport can help you do that” (ibid., p. 74). Nevertheless, Curry & Jiobu also admit that the number of jobs available for professional athletes is limited, and that in fact, the chances of moving from the lower class to the upper class are practically nonexistent, and those of moving from the lower class to the middle class are only around one percent (p. 78). There is a myth of the American dream, which, however,

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leaves many people disappointed. Many adolescents hear stories about those few professional athletes from poor backgrounds who have made it, but then fail to achieve the same thing. A more recent study on sport and social mobility was conducted by Mackin & Walther (2011). In contrast to Curry & Jiobu, they did not examine how becoming a professional athlete facilitates social mobility, but rather how a regular sporting practice during leisure time might foster the participants’ academic performance. The researchers examined two sociological models. The first one, called ‘zero-sum model’, argues that sport participation hinders performance in school, and hence social mobility, because it takes away time that could also be spent on studying. The second one, called ‘developmental model’, suggests that sport participation positively contributes in various ways to the students’ performance in school and also in the labor market. The researchers drew their data from Add Health, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. For this study, over 14,000 American adolescents from grades 7 to 12 were asked about their school-related activities, including sport participation. The first survey took place in 1994, and several years later, in 2008, when they were 25 to 34 years old, the participants completed another survey. Mackin & Walther chose a sample of 200 men from this survey for their analysis. No support was found for the first hypothesis that sport participation would hinder academic performance. Instead, the researchers found that for African American men who regularly participate in sport, the probability of earning a college degree increases by 67%. For Hispanic men who regularly participate in sport, this probability even increases by 74%, and for white men, it increases by 71% (p. 683). The study provided support for the second hypothesis that regular sporting activity contributes to a better academic performance, and it showed that sport can indeed help its participants climb up the social ladder. This is not only true for white people, but also for African ­American and ­Hispanic participants. Although minimal, there is a chance for boxers to gain immense wealth. Oates mentions that in 1985 (two years before the first edition of her essay was published), the three highest-paid American athletes were all boxers. The highest-paid athlete, Larry Holmes, earned US$6.5 million a year, which was significantly more than what the fourth highest-paid athlete, a football player, earned, namely US$3 million (p. 36). In 2018, the highest-paid athlete in the world was the American boxer Floyd Mayweather, who earned US$275 million (Badenhausen 2018). It is also interesting to note how the annual wages of

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successful athletes have changed throughout the last 30 years. In 1985, according to Oates (2006) Muhammad Ali was the highest-paid athlete in world history, having earned US$70 million throughout his career. This is still less than what Floyd Mayweather earned only in 2018. The fact that boxing gives its participants the opportunity to rise from rags to riches is certainly a reason for the sport’s popularity among the lower social classes. This is also reflected in the following quote by the former heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey: “When you’re fighting, you’re fighting for one thing: money” (ibid.). The fighting fulfills a valuable function in society. Many boxers come from ghettos or otherwise impoverished backgrounds. They “constitute the disenfranchised of our affluent society” (ibid., p. 63), and they live in an environment where anger and fury are appropriate emotions that might even be needed in a fight for survival. Boxing offers these ghetto-born adolescents a way of venting their anger in a healthy and less harmful way: Indeed, one of the standard arguments for not abolishing boxing is in fact that it provides an outlet for the rage of disenfranchised youths, mainly black or Hispanic, who can make lives for themselves by way of fighting one another instead of fighting society. (ibid., p. 86) Similarly, Rhodes (2011, p. 363) argues that boxing serves to regulate the behavior of the lower social classes, and that it is often seen as “a sport that can direct individuals away from more unrestrained, less regulated […] forms of masculinity”. Even though the sport is open to women, it represents characteristics that are regarded as typically masculine: “In this world, strength of a certain kind—matched of course with intelligence and tirelessly developed skills—determines masculinity” (ibid., p. 72). Regarding male and female spectatorship of boxing matches, Oates notes that women rather identify with and feel empathy for the losing boxer, while men identify with the winner; they feel pleasure at his dominance (ibid., p. 73). Another thing that excites and pleases some spectators is the moment of violence inherent in the physical confrontation between two boxers who are fighting nearly naked on a raised platform, under a glaring, pitiless spotlight. This moment is symbolically reinforced by the visual experience of battered bodies that are staggering and falling, as well as the accompanying battle cries and howls. In motorsport, the racing scene, which sometimes even includes fatal accidents, is accompanied by the infernal noise of the engines. Another characteristic of the sports of the lower social classes is an associated endurance in drinking sprees. In England, for instance, an intensive cult of masculinity has developed in the sport of rugby. Behaviors such as slandering women,

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singing obscene songs, excessive drinking, an emphasis on nudity and violence, extreme physical contact in a clinch, as well as malicious damage of property were characteristic of this subculture: What is noticeable about rugby football […] is the fact that these taboos are contravened and not simply relaxed. The male ‘strip-tease’ became a firmly institutionalized part of the rugby subculture and the singing of a song entitled ‘the Zulu Warrior’ became the traditional signal for a ritualistic strip by a member of the group. This ritual is usually enacted after the match, either in the club-house bar or, if the team has been playing away, on the coach which is carrying the players home. Initiation ceremonies also became customary on such occasions. In the course of such ceremonies, the initiate is stripped – often forcibly – and his body especially his genitals, defiled with shoe polish and Vaseline. Drinking to excess also came to be firmly embedded in the rugby club tradition. While drunk, the players sing obscene songs which involve, as a central theme, the mocking, objectification and defilement of women and homosexuals. Articles of property are often either stolen or wantonly destroyed. Perhaps the most striking aspect of this pattern, however, is the fact that it became accepted as normal for members of this group by the rest of society. It did not come to be regarded as either criminal or deviant but, on the contrary, to be condoned as evidence of excusable ‘high spirits’. (Dunning & Sheard 1973, p. 7) In addition to a cult of masculinity, violence, physical strength, and little protection of one’s own body, the following features are also considered especially important characteristics of the sports practiced by the lower social classes: – The sports are not connected to nature. – The physical characteristics (e.g., muscles), devices (e.g., motorbikes) and skills (e.g., driving a vehicle, hence a correct handling of machines), which are required for the sports are typical components of the living and working environment of the lower social classes (Sage, Eitzen & Beal 2019, p. 113). In a way, the typical activities of working life, such as driving vehicles or lifting loads, are repeated in sport. – The sports show little or no connection to school (ibid.). For instance, motorsport is not practiced in schools at all, fighting sports are hardly practiced, and soccer is played only to a modest extent. In Austria, it is only with restrictions that the game of soccer can be regarded as a typical sport of the lower social classes, even though, “in the posh circles”, it is referred to as a “prole sport” (Girtler 2002, p. 365, translated). Rather, it

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is a sport that is practiced with roughly the same frequency among all social classes, and the audience interest in the game is even more pronounced among members of the middle and upper social classes than among members of the lower social classes. In the initial period, after soccer had been brought over from Great Britain to Austria as a cultural innovation, the game was, in both countries, practiced predominantly by members of the upper social classes. They were the early adopters of this cultural innovation: “Officers, doctors, teachers, students, bourgeoises, and even members of the highest imperial family either actively participate in soccer or follow its development with increasing interest”. This is how an Austrian sport magazine described the class-specific character of the sport of soccer in Vienna around 1900,11 that is, before adopters from the working classes really put their mark on the sport. The reason for the subsequent uptake of soccer by the lower social classes can be found in the development of a new leisure culture. In England, this happened in the late 19th century. This leisure culture could emerge due to reduced working hours brought about by new laws. People had more free time, and there was also a larger infrastructural supply of leisure facilities (Fürtjes 2016, p. 590). After the foundation of the Austrian First Viennese Workers’ Football Club (Erster Wiener Arbeiter-Fußball-Club) in 1897, which was later renamed SC Rapid, workers also started participating in the game. The new sport required not only physical strength, toughness, and stamina from its participants, but also spontaneous interaction and solidarity, which were regarded as important characteristics among the working classes (John 1992, pp. 77–78). Soon, the workers adopted the game as their own, and turned it into an integral part of their culture. However, this former culture does not exist any longer, as a result of societal processes of individualization and a melting away of class identities during the previous decades. Example: Socioeconomic status of soccer spectators in England and Germany After the industrial age, living conditions improved, and an increasing individualistic orientation towards consumerism, ­leisure and entertainment could be observed in postmodern societies. […] There is a widespread theory that, as a reaction to this, a large leisure, entertainment and cultural industry has emerged. (Fürtjes 2016, p. 588–589) 11

Sportnachrichten, 1 September 1905, p. 2 (translated).

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This led to a so-called commodification of soccer, and a growing interest in soccer among the upper social classes (ibid.). Fürtjes compared the employment status of soccer spectators in both England (from 1983 to 2008) and Germany (from 1977 to 2009). Subsequently, he compared this to data on the social class profile of readers of soccer magazines, which were gathered in 1954, and came to the following conclusion: It is true that from the 1990s onwards, various marketing strategies have been employed in soccer to target a larger audience. Additional entertainment aspects were added to the soccer matches, such as VIP zones and family areas in the soccer stadia, and also the way that soccer is presented on TV has changed; there is now a greater focus on show and entertainment elements. However, it is not true that these measures attracted more middle- and upper-class spectators and fans. The theory could not be verified, neither in Germany nor in England. The study on the employment status of soccer spectators showed that in both England and Germany the share of middle-class spectators amounted to around two-thirds, which is clearly higher than the share of working-class spectators. This share remained roughly the same in all the years examined. The study on the social class profile of readers of soccer magazines in 1954 showed that even during the 1950s, soccer has not been an exclusively working-class sport, as it is often wrongly believed. While it is true that a high proportion of readers (47%) consisted of working-class members, this only mirrors the high proportion of workers in the industrial society in Germany at that time (roughly 43%) (ibid., p. 600). Moreover, the share of readers from other occupational groups (businesspersons, non-manual employees, university students, etc.) roughly corresponded to the general distribution of these groups in society. Therefore, Fürtjes (pp. 600–601) concluded that As shown, football [soccer] was very popular in all classes during the 1950s and hence can be characterized as being a mass phenomenon that crossed all classes. Any characterization of football as a working-class/proletarian sport can only be ascribed to an undifferentiated perception of the structure of society during the industrial era which, by its very nature, consisted mainly of the proletariat as generally defined. Consequently, football crowds were perceived as proletarian as well. From the 1970s onwards, the share of middle-class and upper middleclass soccer spectators increased. However, this can be ascribed to a

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general rise of knowledge-based occupations and a decrease in manual labor (in both England and Germany). Therefore, soccer can be described as a “continuous mass phenomenon across all classes” (ibid., p. 603). In fact, the increased commodification and mediatization of soccer in the 1990s was only possible because the sport had already been popular also among more affluent classes. One of the important features of soccer lies in the fact that everyone can participate, regardless of social class affiliation. 2.3 Sports of the Upper Social Classes In contrast to the game of soccer, in which a person’s sense of dignity seems to be easily offended (for instance, when a player has to fling his body into the rough and tumble of the match), this sense of dignity is always respected in the sports practiced exclusively by the upper social classes, where the use of the body is much more controlled (Bourdieu 2010, p. 215). An example for a sport in which players always keep a dignified distance to their teammates or opponents is golf. In this case, the sportive exchange appears to be a highly civilized social intercourse, in which every physically vigorous man-to-man confrontation, every direct physical contact between opponents, every physical and verbal moment of violence and every anomic use of the body (that is, howls, uncontrolled movements, etc.), is banned. The players calmly—almost gently—stride along the golf course to follow the ball they have just hit; the movements required in the game are tempered, and the necessary amount of strength and energy is limited, which is why the sport can be practiced up until old age. With its spacious grounds in nature, golf meets the upper social classes’ high demands of space and keen affinity to nature. Another reason why golf suits the taste of the upper classes is that it can be played at times individually chosen, either alone or with freely chosen partners, and the game might even serve to establish professional contacts. A round of golf provides an ideal opportunity to conduct business meetings in a relaxed atmosphere. The game is played in prestigious clubs, where the distinguished people can remain among their own kind, and occasionally, the game only presents a “pretense to conduct selected meetings” for the “accumulation of social capital” (Bourdieu 1986, p. 111, translated). Accordingly, the share of members who never actually participate in the sport, or who have stopped doing so, is relatively high in these clubs—as it is also the case in other exclusive sport clubs. In this context, Girtler (2002, p. 358) quotes a lady who, due to her work, has a good insight into the golf club of a small town in Austria: The club has 227 members, but I have seen not more than 60 of them in the last year. There are many people who obediently pay their

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­ embership fee, probably so that they can proudly refer to the fact that m they are ­members of a golf club. They are only in the club because it sounds good, because nowadays, it is proper to belong to a golf club. Membership in the club certainly brings a lot of esteem in the small town where the golf course is located. There are a couple of people from the city in the club: an architect, a builder, doctors, savings bank directors, and several m ­ embers come from Vienna. There is even a certain ‘count T’. in the club! Our members like to pretend that they belong to the nobility. (translated) The alleged noblesse in these clubs is enforced by means of strict selection procedures. For instance, a special atmosphere has to be maintained in the clubhouses, which are appropriately equipped, those wishing to join can only do so if they can provide references from other members, and there are high admission and membership fees. The other costs required for the sport of golf are very high as well, so that many people cannot afford to participate. In addition to the admission and membership fees, substantial amounts have to be paid for golf clothing and golf equipment. The total number of registered golfers in Europe is 4,142,390 (as of 2018). Europe’s leading golf market is England, with 655,839 registered golfers (this is almost 6% of the population) and 1,872 courses. But only around 200,000 people (roughly 1% of the population) actively participate. Golf is still a male-dominated sport, but the participation rates of men and women in different countries vary considerably. Interestingly, only 13% of golfers in England are female. In Austria, the share of female golfers is 35%.12 Example: The history of golf in Britain and the United States After the Industrial Revolution, an affluent middle class emerged in England and Scotland. The members of this group had enough time to engage in various pastimes, and, since they were neither part of the upper nor the lower class, they needed “ways to exhibit their recently gained capital” (Ceron-Anaya 2010, p. 346), and to distinguish themselves from the other (especially lower) social classes. The sport of golf helped them to achieve this goal. Golf clubs offered a sophisticated and clean environment away from the factories and crowded city centers that emerged during the Industrial Revolution. The appropriation of golf by the middle classes led to an exclusion of the lower social classes. 12 Retrieved from KPMG, https://assets.kpmg/content/dam/kpmg/xx/pdf/2018/11/golfparticipation-report-for-europe-2018.pdf.

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According to Ceron-Anaya (ibid.), “golf underwent a process of gentrification” throughout the 19th century. The prosperous upper middle classes established rules of etiquette in the golf clubs, and the game became a “meeting point for people eager to preserve and augment their symbolic capital” (ibid.), and a means for them to cement their social position. The game also allowed the upper middle classes to create cultural links with the upper classes, for instance, through magnificent clubhouses that resembled aristocratic places. In 1898, the handicap was introduced in Britain, which describes a golfer’s playing ability. It enabled golfers whose playing skills were at different levels to play against each other, and hence introduced the notion of fair play into the sport. According to Bourdieu (1978, p. 824), fair play “is a way of playing games characteristic of those who do not get so carried away by the game as to forget it is a game”. The handicap generated a sense of exclusiveness and served to further distinguish golf from other sports by emphasizing the restraint and gentlemanlike behavior typical for the upper middle classes, as opposed to the strenuous and competitive spirit of most of the (lower class) sports and games. The handicap led to a perception of the game not as a competition, but as an “individual fight against oneself to improve your own skills” (Ceron-Anaya 2010, p. 355). Soon, the game was perceived to infuse moral superior codes to its players. By 1914, 1,200 golf clubs had been opened in Britain. The first American golf club, St. Andrews in New York, was founded in 1888. Subsequently, the sport experienced a rapid expansion also in the USA: between 1888 and 1900, nearly 1,000 new golf clubs were founded. At the turn of the century, there was much immigration to the United States, and there was also a rapid economic expansion. This led to a fast erosion of village and community life, which created anxieties among the prosperous middle classes. Like their British companions, American players used golf as a means to distinguish themselves. In addition, it was also because of its British origins that the Americans associated positive values with the game: The fact that [American] golf courses and club houses resembled aristocratic gardens and manor houses in the United Kingdom was not a mere coincidence. The British origins of this game implied a whole range of positive associations. These cultural connections became particularly significant during a period in which the nation was flooded with immigrants from all over the world. (Ceron-Anaya 2010, p. 349)

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There was also a particularly strong connection between golf and the business world in the USA. Some of the most famous American businessmen, such as John D. Rockefeller or Andrew Carnegie, were also keen golfers (ibid., p. 351). The game seemed to perfectly suit the needs of businesspeople, for various reasons: – A round of golf takes several hours, which provides players with various opportunities to discuss business matters. – The handicap, which in America was introduced in 1911, also allowed younger executives and older businessmen, who are likely to be at different playing levels, to play together. – There are numerous attitudes that are valued both by businesspeople and in the game of golf, such as risk taking, strategic thought, calculation, and individualism. Golf became a “metaphor of the businessmen’s daily reality”. (ibid.) Of course, just like in Austria, the high costs for golf club membership and golf equipment were another means to exclude the lower social classes from the sport—and this still applies today. In Britain, average annual club fees are €821, and in the USA, green fees (that is, the fees that have to be paid for playing on a golf course) are up to US$500 for every round (Perkins 2010, p. 317). Veblen argued that the main goal of upper-class sports such as golf was that of being conspicuously wasteful, meaning that these sports had no other purpose than to demonstrate high status. Members of the upper classes used these sports to show that they could afford to waste money, by spending high amounts on equipment and club membership fees. Sport can serve as a status symbol for the upper classes, similar to expensive cars or fashionable clothes (Curry & Jiobu 1984, p. 70). In addition to the equipment and participation costs, geographic conditions are an important factor with regard to the position of certain sports in their hierarchy according to participants’ social class affiliation. For instance, while skiing is regarded as a very exclusive sport in Belgium (Scheerder et al. 2002, p. 237), in Austria it is considered normal, not least because of the ­appropriate regional circumstances. It is considered the national sport of Austria and presents an important economic factor, so that its mass distribution is systematically promoted (for instance, by means of school ski trips). Nevertheless, also in Austria, skiing is practiced by members of the upper and middle social classes rather than by members of the lower social classes. Another sport that shows a similar connection to social class affiliation is tennis. In England, tennis became popular in the late 19th century, and it

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replaced badminton and croquet as the preferred game of the upper social classes. In 1874, the Englishman Major Walter C. Wingfield published a set of rules for the game and began to market its basic equipment. The game was also introduced in the USA in the same year. In both countries, private tennis clubs with elaborate rules of etiquette and dress codes were formed, which tended to exclude the lower social classes and offered distinction profits to the upper social classes, but the upper middle classes also used the game to acquire cultural capital. Due to the growing number of participants from the middle classes, the upper classes soon dropped the game, or continued playing only in exclusive clubs, sometimes outside of the developing association structures. In 1912, the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF) was founded to govern tennis throughout the world (Cooper 2004, pp. 104–120). It soon turned into a game where “protocol, behavioral restraint, dress codes and ‘fair play’” (Falcous & McLeod 2012, p. 18) were the most important characteristics. It is interesting to note that tennis was regarded as a suitable physical activity for women. In the 19th century, women’s sports were strictly monitored and regulated. Women had to show restraint in their sporting activities and behave in a ladylike manner. Usually, women’s and men’s sports remained segregated. One of the few exceptions to this rule was croquet. But later, even though it is a more energetic physical activity than croquet, tennis was “generally deemed to be a socially acceptable activity for females” (ibid., p. 115). Nevertheless, women’s tennis was still taken less seriously than the men’s game. At first, women played tennis hidden from public view, in private gardens in country houses, and later in exclusive private clubs. The main objective of women’s tennis was to socialize. It was popular for men and women to play mixed doubles, since they “provided an alternative means of introduction and courtship” (ibid., p. 117). Falcous & McLeod (2012) conducted an ethnographic study in a tennis club in New Zealand. They focused on the youth section of the club, which was aimed at children aged 9 to 13, and conducted interviews with the children and their parents. Most of the participants belonged to the middle and upper middle classes, and they were asked about their attitudes to tennis. One of the fathers argued that he valued tennis because it taught his son important life lessons, especially the importance of taking individual responsibility, which he would also need later at university or in the job market. This individual responsibility is definitely present in tennis, since it is not a team sport but played alone (doubles excepted), and it imparts a sense of competition that can also be found in other areas of social life. According to Falcous & McLeod, tennis “reflects the aspiring upper middle classes’ preoccupation with self-improvement and, particularly, social mobility” (ibid., p. 21). Just as we have seen in the

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example of golf, tennis reflects values and characteristics that are regarded as important in the social classes in which it is mainly practiced. Example: Country Clubs Country clubs, which are particularly common in the USA, are privately owned clubs that often have strict membership requirements. They are usually located in the outskirts of a city, and they feature substantial grounds for outdoor activities and sports, such as golf or tennis. In the USA, the first country clubs were founded by the upper classes in the late 19th century, and only “people of the proper class, race, ethnic group, and religion” (Guttmann 1986, p. 96) were admitted. In Austria, tennis experienced a booming development during the 1970s and 1980s (Norden 2010b, p. 226). In this period, the share of tennis players among the population quadrupled, so that, with regard to the dissemination among the population, this elegant game temporarily even took the top spot away from the mass sport of soccer. In the course of this popularization, the benefit of distinction that belonged to tennis slowly dissolved. The number of players from less-privileged social classes did not increase more strongly, but equally with that of players from privileged social classes. However, the increase in players was mainly caused by social climbers (ibid., pp. 234–235). Along with its progressive professionalization, tennis developed into a sport oriented towards spectacular presentation, which probably, in addition to the influx of social climbers, caused it to lose its distinctive profits. Due to this professionalization, players increasingly internalized new definitions of the body, such as physical strength, physical exertion, and toughness, which did not correspond to the definitions and the habitus of the upper social classes (that is, the classes in which tennis originally developed). Moreover, new material developments (rackets made of graphite, highly elastic strings) favored the emergence of so-called power tennis. This went hand in hand with the development of tennis into a spectacular sporting event. In the past, there was a distinguished quiet on the tennis courts that now seems to be gone. There was a “code of spectatorship” in tennis, according to which the spectators had to sit in silence during the game, and only sometimes, when there was a particularly well-played point, one could hear “polite applause” (Guttmann 1986, p. 97), just like in the theater or at concerts. Today, however, whistles and other emotional impulses can be heard throughout the game (Winkler 1995, p. 270). Along with all these developments, the upper-class tennis enthusiasts tried to either keep or restore their distance of distinction. For instance, they widened the gulf

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between, on the one hand, the well-versed celebrities, who watch the competitions between professional athletes from VIP lounges and then get together at parties and gala dinners, and on the other, the ‘laymen reduced to the status of mere consumers’, to whom a spectacle is offered. Other attempts at keeping distinction included the hosting of exclusive tournaments (celebrity tennis tournaments), admission bans into prestigious clubs (which, certainly, have long been lifted), segregation with regard to time (deliberately playing at an hour where others are unable to do so), putting emphasis on a particular way of playing (playing the game in its pure form, and not the ‘vulgar’ form of some professional players), and the implementation of traditional dress codes in the sport that is not consistently white anymore (clothing may be colorful now, but it has to be chic) (Norden 2010b, p. 235). Tennis players of the upper classes began dressing in white in the 19th century because they wanted to “symbolize their distance from dirty work” (Guttmann 1986, p. 97). Some members of the tennis-oriented upper class who were concerned about their exclusivity switched to golf as their preferred sport. In Austria, the interest in tennis decreased around the turn of the last century but is now increasing again due to the enormous popularity and successes of the Austrian tennis player Dominic Thiem. Still, the sport has lost its distinction as a consequence of its increasing dissemination—and now, the same fate threatens the sport of golf. If social climbers keep filling the golf courses in high numbers, high society might retreat to the polo grounds (Richter 2006, p. 19). Polo, which is basically a hockey game on horseback, is considered a “bastion of aristocrats and moneyed men” (Girtler 2002, p. 364, translated) in sport. The fact that it is referred to as one of the last bastions emphasizes the nobleman’s problem with imitators from less noble social circles. However, this problem seems to be less serious in the case of polo. For one thing, a particularly high proficiency in horseback riding is required for this game, which also goes by the telling name of sport of kings. On the other hand, the costs of exercise are excessive, so that the sport is not easily affordable for the common man. Apart from the riding equipment and the polo mallets (which also symbolize status), every player needs at least two horses, but usually, he owns four of them, since horses have to be changed after every period of the game. The horses are of a special breed and have to be treated with appropriate care and be laboriously transported to tournaments. In light of this great effort required, it is not surprising that in Austria, the sport of polo is not very ­popular—also considering that the Austrian upper social class is less wealthy than, for instance, the US-American one. There are only a few polo clubs in Austria, and about 30 Austrian players.

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However, in England and in the USA, the sport is much more popular. In England, there are 70 polo clubs and 2,757 players, and in the USA, there are 300 polo clubs and 5,300 players.13 One of the most prestigious clubs in England is Guards Polo Club in Windsor, Berkshire. The club was founded in 1955, with Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh († 2021) as president. It hosts more than 500 matches every year, and it has around 160 playing members. Players have to pay a joining fee of £22,000, and then an annual membership fee of up to £7,475. In addition, those wishing to join the club have to provide a recommendation by a current playing member and pass an interview. The club also offers a social membership for non-players who only wish to watch the games and dine in the iconic Clubhouse. The entrance fee for non-playing members is £400, and the subsequent annual membership fee is £440.14 These high membership fees certainly serve to ensure that only the most affluent social classes can participate in polo and watch the games. Another sport that is popular among the upper social classes is cricket, which, in England, has been associated “with gentlemanly conduct and aristocratic status” (Guttmann 1986, p. 101) since the early 19th century. It was expensive to watch cricket games, and the spectators dressed well and wanted to be admired for their elegance and finery. In contrast, in Australia, cricket did not remain an exclusively upper-class game. From the 1880s onwards, it became increasingly popular among the lower classes, who often caused crowd disturbances during the games (ibid., p. 102). Polo, tennis, golf, cricket, and skiing are sports that are rich in tradition. But what about the attitude of the upper social classes towards newer sports? Concerning this matter, Heinemann (2007, p. 245) formed the following theory: The newer a sport, the higher the social class affiliation of the people who will first adopt it. Other researchers changed this theory, by rather considering the middle social classes as the early adopters of new sports. For instance, Liebau (1989) considers the academically educated middle social classes as the main trendsetters of a new sporting culture, and Winkler (1995, p. 267) refers to an affinity of the middle classes towards new understandings of sport and new types of sport. According to Baur (1989, p. 220), the modern fitness movement, whose practices (e.g., jogging, aerobics, training in modern fitness centers) are characterized by a connection between motives of presentation and of health, is more widespread among the middle social classes than among the lower 13 14

“Polo in numbers”, retrieved from Polo+10, https://www.poloplus10.com/polo-in-numbers63934/. Retrieved from Guards Polo Club, https://www.guardspoloclub.com/club-memberships#nonplaying.

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social classes. This also corresponds to the results of studies on the acceptance of health-oriented sport programs. It was shown that these programs do not reach, or only occasionally reach, those people for whom they would be most necessary, according to existing study results on morbidity and premature mortality: the members of the lower social classes (Opper 1998). And besides, even if the lower classes are reached, the preventive effects of the fitness programs are still lower among these classes than among members of the middle and upper social classes (Schlicht & Strauss 2003, p. 109). For the most part, health sports are a privilege of the middle and upper social classes, whose members particularly benefit from them. They just know how to use their privileges. To a large extent, this knowledge, and the access to sport and movement in general (table 4.4), is socially inherited by the next generation in the course of socialization processes in the family. Parents function as behavior models to their children; they offer opportunities to move their bodies, provide sporting equipment, and support and encourage their children appropriately. Accordingly, children from socially privileged families, whose parents are frequently active in sport themselves, are more likely to participate in organized sporting activities than children from less privileged families (Schmiade & Mutz 2012). As demonstrated in this chapter, Bourdieu argued that members of the different social classes have different tastes, that is, they have different preferences regarding art, music, literature, and also sport. He conducted his studies in France during the mid-1960s. However, more recent studies have criticized Bourdieu’s views, arguing that his ideas are outdated and that, in fact, there are many members of the higher social classes who regularly consume both highbrow culture and popular culture, while members of the lower social classes tend to restrict their consumption to popularized forms of culture. Accordingly, table 4.4  Ideal-typical contrasts of class-specific sporting preferences

Upper social classes

Lower social classes

Sports with a health-promoting orientation towards the body New sports Sports with an individual performance component Sports where aesthetics can be demonstrated Sports with no physical contact Sports that are connected to nature

Sports with a strength-promoting orientation towards the body Traditional, popular sports Sports with a collective performance component Sports where physical strength and insensibility to pain can be demonstrated Sports with physical contact Sports with no connection to nature

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Peterson (1992) described the members of the higher social classes as “omnivorous”, meaning that they are open to various forms of culture, while those of the lower social classes were described as “univorous” (Widdop & Cutts 2013, p. 108). In their study, Widdop & Cutts could verify that this omnivore theory is also valid with regard to sport. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Revision Questions Define socialization. What is Zurcher’s & Meadow’s hypothesis on the connection between socialization and sport? Describe the different attitudes that men and women typically have towards sport and physical appearance. Name some examples for how the International Olympic Committee (IOC) deals with gender. What is the difference between white-collar and blue-collar occupations? Define the term ‘lifestyle’. Name some of the class-specific differences that were found in research regarding the frequency of sport participation and health behavior. What are some possible reasons for these differences? Name some examples for sports preferred by the lower social classes. What are the characteristics of these sports? Why does the sport of golf particularly suit the taste of the upper social classes?

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Sport and the Social Group Research on social group is an essential task, since humans predominantly learn and adopt culturally necessary behavior patterns as members of a group, that is, a family, playgroup, working group, a group of friends, sport group, etc. In every group, interaction takes place, which leads to certain outcomes for each member. This way, the social group significantly influences the lifestyle and life quality of the individual. Key point: Features of social groups A social group is formed when several people develop feelings of solidarity due to shared characteristics, which lead them to establish social relations with each other and build systematic patterns of interaction. Social groups are usually characterized by the following traits: – shared motives, goals, and interests; – a common language that might be specific to the group (in-group jargon); – a shared system of values and norms that accompanies the regularities of actions in the social relations of the group members; – a sense of togetherness and camaraderie (group solidarity); – a collaboration between the group members that lasts over a longer period of time. definition A social group consists of several people who continuously work together to reach certain goals. We distinguish between different types of groups, which might overlap: 1. Small group: There is a small number of members, so face-to-face relationships or direct, personal contacts between all the individual members are possible and manageable. A small group consists of up to about 20 persons.1 In both everyday life and in sport, the majority of social groups can be classified as small groups. 1 According to Simmel (1958, p. 40), a small group must consist of at least three members. Dyads, that is, groups of two people, should be regarded as social connections of a special kind, since they differ considerably from groups of three people (triads) in their relationship © Waxmann Verlag GmbH, 2021 | DOI: 10.1163/9789004464711_007

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2.

Large group: Direct, personal interaction between all the individual members is no longer easily manageable, due to their large number. Large groups consist of at least 20 members. Some examples are unions, political parties, or associations. 3. Primary group: There are high levels of emotional attachment and control, and the group is not so much characterized by predefined social rules, but rather by the members’ personal characteristics, their spontaneity and individuality. This is the case in families and partly also in homogenous age groups of adolescents (peer groups, cliques, etc.). 4. Formal group: The association is based on statutes and divisions of powers. Relationships between the members become impersonal, and there is a function-specific organization based on particular purposes. Examples include research teams, and basically also sport teams. 5. Informal group: Small groups based on immediate face-to-face interactions that are spontaneously formed, mostly as internal systems of formal organizations (e.g., friendships and cliques that are formed in a sport team, a sport club, a school class, or a company). 6. Total group: The behaviors prescribed by social norms comprise an individual’s entire range of action. In this case, the individual has almost no capacity to take an active role, and there are no possibilities for self-realization and individual fulfillment. These groups can typically be found in sects, prisons, and partly also in professional sport. From the perspective of the individual, we distinguish between in-group (of which the individual is a member) and out-group (of which the individual is not a member). Out-groups can function as reference groups and exert a great influence on the individual’s behavior. Reference groups are groups that the individual uses as a standard for his own actions. For instance, an individual might compare his own social status to that of members of a higher status group and try to imitate their lifestyle. For children and adolescents, peer groups, that is, friendship groups consisting of individuals of the same age, are vitally important with regard to their lifestyle. It often happens that in the course of socialization the parents’ influence decreases in favor of these groups. Giddens & Sutton (2013, p. 340) argue qualities and possibilities. Regarding the upper limit, Homans (1968, p. 1) defines the small group as “a number of persons who communicate with one another often over a span of time, and who are few enough so that each person is able to communicate with all the others, not at secondhand, through other people, but face-to-face”. According to Wilbert E. Moore (1963), the number of possible dyads in a group can be calculated using the well-known formula n × (n−1)/2 (n = number of group members). For instance, if n = 7, there are 21 possible dyads.

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that due to the increasing number of households where both parents are working, friendships and groups formed in schools will probably become even more important than they were in previous decades. Peer groups can form in early childhood, starting at the age of four or five, whereas these groups initially have a simple structure. In tests with young children, Jacob L. Moreno (1892–1974) found that, as the group members get older, their group structures become more complex. From the ages of 4 to 9 years, children are in the so-called pre-socialized period. In the first socialized period (7–9 years to 13–14 years), children already form groups in which they have functions. From 13–14 years onwards, adolescents enter the second socialized period, where they form new and more complex group structures. What is characteristic about this process is that the structures of the preceding phase are included in the subsequent, more complex phase (Moreno 1953). The science for measuring group structures is sociometry, which was developed by Moreno in the Interwar period, and which he defined as “the science of social measurement, an architectonically structured system of social measurements with sociometric tests as its base” (1960, p. 127). In a sociometric test, researchers try to determine social structures by measuring attractions or rejections that exist between members of a group. For instance, in a school class, one can measure the group dimension of popularity by asking about guests at birthday parties (Who will invite whom to their birthday parties?), or that of competence by asking about desired members for a work group. Group structures can be illustrated either by means of a sociomatrix (table 5.1), a reciprocal matrix (figure 5.1), a bar chart (figure 5.2), or a sociogram (figure 5.3). The basic table used for illustrating decisions on who to choose is the sociomatrix (table 5.1). Pupils were asked which of their classmates they would or would not like to sit next to. The first (vertical) column and the first (horizontal) row both list the names of all the students. At the beginning of each row, the name of the (actively) choosing student is given, and on the header of each column, we see the name of the selected (passive) student. Accordingly, Alfred remains at the center of this small group, in which Franz remains ignored, Gregor is excluded, and Chris’ position is controversial. By adding the column values, ranks can be determined. In order to gain a clear picture of the students’ reciprocal attitudes towards each other, one has to display the data by means of a reciprocal matrix. In this case, the pupils’ rows do not only display their own choices, but also who chose them (figure 5.1). This matrix shows each relationship twice, by means of different symbols. The two halves of the matrix, which are separated by a diagonal, are reciprocal, that is, they are inversely related. For instance, as we have

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table 5.1  Sociomatrix

Active selection (chooser)

Passive selection (chosen)a

Negative choices given

Names Alfred Bruno Chris Daniel Edgar Franz Gregor Alfred + + Bruno + + Chris + + Daniel + + Edgar + + Franz + + Gregor + + choices received 5 3 3 1 2 0 0 rejections received 0 0 3 0 1 0 4

2 0 1 2 2 0 1

a + = choice - = rejection

seen in table 5.1, Alfred actively chose Bruno (B) and Edgar (E), so the symbol | was drawn in his row under both their names. He rejected Chris and Gregor, which is expressed by /. For the choices he received from Bruno, Chris, Daniel, Edgar and Gregor, in each case, the symbol – was added to his row. Mutual choices, such as those between Bruno-Alfred, Bruno-Chris, Alfred-Edgar, and Daniel-Edgar, are represented by the symbol , while the mutual rejection between Edgar and Gregor is displayed by ×. The ambivalent relationships (between Gregor-Alfred, Chris-Alfred and Gregor-Chris) are expressed using the symbols and . The various ranks can also be displayed by means of a bar chart (figure 5.2). Starting from a horizontal line, a bar of a certain length is drawn upwards for each positive choice received while negative choices or rejections are displayed by drawing a bar that goes downwards from the main line. In the ordinate of a sociogram (figure 5.3), the number of positive choices received is displayed. Comparability between groups of different sizes is guaranteed only when the ordinate displays relative values (in % of the total choices), instead of the total number of choices received. The illustration of the sociogram, which dates back to Moreno, uses symbols. However, the sociogram is suitable only for small groups. When analyzing these figures and tables used for illustrating group structures, various indices are determined. These indices serve to better define the

+

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SPORT AND THE SOCIAL GROUP A

B

C

D

E

F

G

Alfred

2

Bruno

0

Chris

1

Daniel

2

Edgar

2

Franz

0

Gregor

1

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

choices received

5

3

3

1

2

0

0

rejections received

0

0

3

0

1

0

4

attentions received

5

3

6

1

3

0

4

active

passive

| = he chooses

– = he is chosen

/ = he rejects

\ = he is rejected

figure 5.1 Reciprocal matrix 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 Choices received

Rejections received

Alfred

Bruno

Chris

Daniel

Edgar

Franz

Gregor

Choices received

5

3

3

2

1

0

0

Rejections received

0

0

-3

-1

0

0

-4

figure 5.2 Bar chart

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40%

5 A

4

3

30%

B

C E

2 1

10%

D F

20%

5%

G

choice

rejection

mutual choice

mutual rejection

figure 5.3 Sociogram

characteristic features of groups, and to compare different groups. We differentiate between basic indices (such as the number of choices and rejections given or received), which can be deduced from the sociomatrix, reciprocal matrix, bar chart, or sociogram without further calculations, and complex indices, which result from calculations. Examples for these complex indices are: 1. a person’s positive sociometric status (SS+), which is calculated by the formula2 number of choices received SS+ = number of group members-1 2. a person’s negative sociometric status (SS−), which is calculated by the formula number of rejections received SS− = number of group members-1

2 In the denominator, it says “number of group members −1”, since the respondent cannot choose himself.

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The range of values of the positive and negative sociometric status lies between 0 and +1 (Mayntz, Holm & Hübner 1978, pp. 127–133). For instance, in our example, Alfred received 5 and thereby the highest number of positive choices in a group of 7 people. His positive sociometric status (SS+) is 5/6, which is around 0.833. He received no rejections, so his negative sociometric status (SS−) equals 0. On the other hand, Franz and Gregor, who received no positive choices, both have an SS+ of 0. Franz received no rejections either, so his SS− is 0 as well, while Gregor received 4 rejections, so his SS− is 4/6, that is, around 0.667. For more information about calculations of indices and methods for sociometric measurement, see Mayntz, Holm & Hübner (ibid.) and Moreno (1960). An example for a comparative sociometric study is one by Hosny (1999), who compared the sociometric structures of three soccer teams in Tyrol: a professional team, an amateur team, and a recreational team.3 Other studies were conducted by Sabin et al. (2014), who evaluated the connections within a soccer team of an elementary school in Romania, consisting of 10 pupils aged 7 to 11, and Grimminger (2012), who used sociometric methods in a study on school sport in Germany. 1

Social Processes in Sport Groups

Sport is predominantly practiced in a group context. The majority of sport groups, such as teams, groups in sport clubs, training groups, and also school classes, represent social groups as defined above. Regarding the group formation process, various stages are proposed in the pertinent literature. The sequence of these stages can differ in groups of various sports. Example: Group Dynamics in the Himalayas In a study analyzing the nature of group formation and development during a trekking expedition through the Himalayas Allison et al. (1991) described the following six stages: Stage One: Group Formation Stage Two: Getting-To-Know-You-Stage Stage Three: Group Comfort Stage Four: Group Saturation Stage Five: Group Confrontation Stage Six: Group Coasting 3 Professionals make a living with an income from sport. Amateurs play championships and make a living in a profession outside of sport. Recreational teams play occasionally in their free time.

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Usually, according to other studies, conflict occurs quite early in group development (stage two). A mountain climbing group however, as Allison et al. argue, requires coordinated activity for survival and therefore might experience a different sequencing of stages than groups where interdependence is not as essential to the survival of its members. Once it has been formed, a sport group can become an indispensable part of an individual’s life, and it might also serve as “an important identity vehicle” (Schlesinger & Nagel 2015, p. 58) for its members. In addition, reference groups such as spectators, mass media, sport federations, political bodies, and the industry all play an important role in sport, especially because certain configurations result from the interactions within and between these groups. The term configuration (Chapter 2) describes the interdependencies between people, as well as the resulting constraints. In sport, there are configurations at various levels: between players and teams, managers, referees, spectators, etc. Configurations change in the course of long-term social processes, including especially the ongoing process of man’s civilization (see Elias 1969; 1982). In this process, the transformations of man’s personality structures (his psychogenesis) and those of the larger social structures (sociogenesis) are mutually dependent. Due to the high interdependencies between individuals, there is an increasing degree of social disciplining of individuals, in the course of which new configurations are formed. Based on the example of the dynamics in sport groups, Elias & Dunning (1966) outline such configurations, which result from the individuals’ interdependencies on each other. They found that the playing level in soccer does not vary only due to certain characteristics of individual players, but also due to the players’ configuration towards each other. On the basis of changes to the offside rule in soccer, Elias & Dunning demonstrate how a fluid configuration of players evolved out of a configuration that was stabilized by controls and formal rules. Apart from configurational theory studies, so far the main research topic in studies on social processes in sport groups has been the performance of sport teams. Group theoretical findings from other application fields of sport, such as school sport, health-related sport, or recreational sport, are rather sparse. The main research themes include questions on group size, group task, the composition of groups (gender, age, skills, motivation of the members), group structure (distribution of roles, internal hierarchy), as well as the relationship between group cohesion and group performance. 1.1 Group Size and Group Task in Sport In the 1880s, the French agricultural engineer Maximilien Ringelmann (1861– 1931) conducted an experimental study on the connection between group size

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and group performance. He observed individuals as well as groups of two, three, and eight persons in a tug of war, and came to the following conclusion: Even though the total group performance increases when more people pull a rope, the individual contributions of group members decrease the more people are involved. In other words: Group performance becomes relatively weaker if the number of members rises. The larger a group, the less it will fulfill its performance potential (table 5.2). This effect of group size leading to a reduction in efficiency became known as the Ringelmann effect in research literature (Kravitz & Martin 1986). Almost a century after Ringelmann conducted his study, Ingham et al. (1974) repeated the experiment with groups of up to six persons. They found a continuous decrease in relative group performance (actual performance expressed in % of potential performance) in groups of two and three persons, while in larger groups, group performance evened out at a lower level. Accordingly, the decrease in relative group performance with increasing group size is not linear but curvilinear (study I, table 5.2). The decrease can be traced back to, on the one hand, a loss of motivation, and, on the other, a lack of coordination of the group members’ (inter)actions. The more coordination is required between members in a sport team, the more a lack thereof will take effect. This is particularly obvious in teams playing ball games. Possibly, an excellent coordination could bring advantages to a team that, on paper, does not play as well as the opposing team. In racket sports (such as tennis or badminton), two great individual players do not necessarily perform well in a double. The improvement of team coordination is therefore an important goal of team training. In order to separate losses of coordination from those of motivation as explanations for the identified decrease in relative group performance with increasing group size, Ingham et al. (1974) conducted another experiment, this time with pseudo-groups. The subjects were talked into thinking that they were pulling the rope in a group, while in reality, they were alone. This way, it was possible to exclude loss of coordination as an explanation. Still, a curvilinear decrease in relative group performance with increasing group size became evident once again (study II, table 5.2). Now, it was clear that the decrease was connected to the group members’ losses of motivation. The reduced individual effort in a group due to losses of motivation has been called “social loafing” by Latané, Williams & Harkins (1979). Since then, this phenomenon has been examined in various studies (for instance, with regard to swimming, by Williams et al., 1989, and rowing, by Anshel 1995). It can be observed regardless of the individual’s culture (Czyz et al. 2016, p. 756), and it occurs especially when group members believe that it is impossible for an observer to identify and evaluate the individual performances, or when the actors cannot evaluate each other’s performances. In order to avoid

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table 5.2  Connection between group size and group performance in a tug of war

Actual group performance in percent of potential group performance (= result of an ideal combination of all individual performances) in groups with different numbers of members

Ringelmann Ingham (Study I) Ingham (Study IIa)

1

2

3

4

5

6

100 100 100

93 91 90

85 82 85

78 86

78 84

78 85

8 49

a Study with pseudo-groups

social loafing in sport groups and teams, it is important to bring individual contributions to light, and also to reward them, as emphasized, inter alia, by Carron (1988) and Hardy (1990). Anshel (1995) argues that, if the athletes generally have a high level of skills in their field, social loafing can be eliminated by introducing elements of competition. Social loafing also decreases when the individual attaches personal meaning to a task, or when the group members know each other. In addition, social loafing was found to be lower among women (Karau & Williams 1993). Czyz et al. (2016) conducted a study on social loafing in which they tested the hypothesis that the degree of social loafing is lower among people who regularly participate in team sports. The 72 male participants were divided into three groups depending on their experiences in team sports participation. In the experiment, they had to pull a rope, both individually and in groups of different sizes. The results supported the hypothesis: Social loafing was found to be significantly lower among those who participate in team sports than among those who never do so. But among people who participate in individual sports, the effects of social loafing were lower than among those who never participate in any sports (p. 764). In larger groups, there is not only an increased probability of social loafing, but possibly also a reduced degree of satisfaction among the members. The theory of a decline in subjective satisfaction among group members with an increase in group size has been confirmed by Carron, Brawley & Widmeyer (1990) with regard to fitness groups, and by Widmeyer (1990) with regard to recreational volleyball groups. However, in this context, the individual particularities and preferences of group members also play an important role, as well as the group task, that is, the sport or the kind of physical activity (Steiner 1972).

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SPORT AND THE SOCIAL GROUP table 5.3  Steiner’s taxonomy of tasks

Question

Answer

Type of task

Examples

What is the relationship between individual performances and the group product? As above

Individual performances are added

Additive

Putting letters in envelopes, shoveling snow

Group product is the average of individual assessments

Compensatory

As above

Group chooses a Disjunctive product out of the entirety of individual assessments All group members Conjunctive contribute to the product Group can decide Discretionary on the relationship between individual performances and the group product

Mean value of individual estimates on the number of beans in a tin, on the weight of an object, or on the room temperature Questions requiring yes/no answers, e.g. mathematical problems, puzzles, decisions between several alternatives Climbing a mountain together, eating together, marching (in the military) Deciding how to shovel snow together, choosing the best answer to a mathematical problem, letting the leader answer a question

As above

As above

Depending on the task, Steiner’s Taxonomy of Tasks includes five different types of tasks (table 5.3), which Thomas (1992, pp. 163–166) describes the following way: 1. Additive tasks: The overall group performance consists of the sum of individual performances. Examples are team competitions in bowling, horseback riding, and ski jumping. 2. Compensatory tasks: The overall group performance consists of the average of individual performances. It is particularly high when some members succeed in compensating mistakes or weaknesses of other members. 3. Disjunctive tasks: In disjunctive tasks, group performance is high when there is a competent member who knows the right solution to a task, and who is able to present his proposed solution in such a way that it

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is accepted among the group (or who receives support from the other group members in doing so). In tasks with a solution that is immediately plausible, that is, where group members experience a so-called eureka effect or Aha! moment, it is easier for the competent member to assert his solution than in tasks where the solution is less plausible. 4. Conjunctive tasks: In contrast to disjunctive tasks, in which group performance depends largely on the most competent member, in conjunctive tasks, all group members contribute to the solution of a task. If a conjunctive task is not divisible, the group result will correspond to the performance of the weakest member. For instance, in a dance group where all the dancers have to perform identical movements at the same time, the quality of the group performance will be high only if all the dancers display an equally high quality of movement. If there is one weaker dancer, the overall picture of coordinated movements will be disturbed, and, accordingly, group performance will decrease. The level of quality is determined by the weakest dancer. However, in most cases, conjunctive tasks are divisible, so that overall group performance can be significantly better than the performance of the weakest member. For instance, this is the case in soccer, handball, and basketball. 5. Discretionary tasks: Group members have the possibility to decide for themselves how to complete a task, and how to combine individual and group contributions. The analysis of types of tasks and the consideration of individual and group work indicate a great diversity of problems. It is by no means possible to clearly identify the relationship between group performance and individual performance, since in reality, groups rarely perform at the level that would be possible under optimal internal and external conditions. Various studies have shown that group performance significantly depends on the type of task. It has been suggested that in conjunctive and additive tasks, less-capable group members tend to increase their efforts, especially when the task is highly independent. When these less-capable individuals perform the tasks better as part of a group than they normally would on their own, we speak of the Köhler effect, since this phenomenon was first observed by the German industrial psychologist Otto Köhler in the 1920s (Osborn et al. 2012, pp. 1–2). What mainly motivates the weaker members to perform better is their perceived indispensability in the successful completion of the group task. In addition, the less-capable members are most motivated to perform better when their performance is around 1.4 times lower than that of other group members. If the discrepancy is too large, the weaker members are more likely to suffer losses in motivation, since they will probably feel that they can never

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keep up with the high performance level (ibid., p. 2). Osborn et al. (2012) conducted two studies on gains and losses in motivation in sport groups, which shall be described in more detail in the following example: Example: Gains and losses in motivation in sport groups The studies by Osborn et al. (2012) focused on gains and losses in motivation in groups performing two different sports: swimming (Study 1) and track and field (Study 2). In Study 1, the 68 participants were members of the NCAA’s (U.S. National Collegiate Athletic Association) 200-yard swimming relay teams. They were divided into 17 teams consisting of four members each. In Study 2, 156 high school students participating in two track and field disciplines, shot put and discus, were examined. They were divided into 52 groups consisting of three members each. All three of these tasks examined (swimming, shot put, and discus) do require a certain amount of proficiency, but once this proficiency is established, the tasks are mainly effort-based. In all three cases, the group tasks are additive; each individual contributes equally to the overall group performance. In Study 1, each participant first had to swim individually, and then as part of a relay in a group. Subsequently, the athletes’ individual times were compared with the times they later swam within the relay. In 95% of the swimming groups, the weakest member performed better in the relay. The same applies to the majority of third- and second-best swimmers. In swimming relays, the members depend on each other for a successful task completion, so “this interdependency allows for motivation gains to occur” (Osborn et al. 2012, p. 7). Only the best swimmers in each group (that is, the ones with the fastest individual times) did not improve their individual performances in the relay. In fact, sometimes they even swam slower within the relay than they did on their own. Similarly, in most of the triads examined in Study 2, the weakest members displayed the highest increases in performance when they were part of a group. However, here too, the best-ranked members showed slight decreases in their performances in groups. The study could show that both the Köhler effect and social loafing might occur in the same group performing the same task. In addition, in sport groups, communication structured by the rules of the sport takes place, both within a team and between different teams. In this process, the competing teams, who have an intergroup relationship, perform

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a kind of interaction and exert mutual influence upon each other, which can be understood as a process within a general and overarching group. Lüschen (1970) called this interaction between competitors “association”, and differentiates it from “cooperation”, which takes place between members of a team. 1.2 Group Cohesion in Sport In the past, the phenomenon of group cohesion was among the most frequently examined group characteristics in the context of sport. One topic that is of particular interest to sport science is the connection between cohesion and success in sport teams. For instance, do sport teams with harmonious group relationships perform better than those with group conflicts? Accordingly, the main goal of analyses on group cohesion is that of optimizing the performance of sport teams. However, the number of empirical studies conducted and published on this topic is continually decreasing, as indicated by the bibliographical references in this subchapter. In the last twenty years, sport sociological research on group cohesion has practically come to a standstill. It is hoped that this important area of research will no longer be ignored and will gain in importance in the future. definition Group cohesion denotes the degree of connectedness among the group members, as well as the group members’ desire to remain in a group. Group cohesion is expressed in the group members’ wish to establish contacts with other members, as well as a willingness to work hard in contributing to reach the group goals. Accordingly, cohesion is often divided into task cohesion (connected to athletic goals) and social cohesion (relationship-oriented cohesion, that is, development and maintenance of harmonious interpersonal relationships). Another distinction is made between individual and community perspective. The former viewpoint describes how attractive group membership is for the individual, while the latter illustrates the perception of the entire group in its closed nature. Again, in both perspectives, one can differentiate between social and task-oriented aspects. Cohesion can be understood as a four-dimensional construct: – Group Integration – Task – Group Integration – Social – Individual Attractions to the Group – Task – Individual Attractions to the Group – Social (Estabrooks & Carron 2000, pp. 242–243)

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In order to measure these dimensions, and thus the entire construct, the Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ) was developed. It consists of four subscales and, altogether, 18 items.4 These items are, for example: – “We all take responsibility for any loss or poor performance of our team” (Subscale Group Integration – Task). – “Members of our group sometimes socialize together outside of activity time” (Subscale Group Integration – Social). – “This physical activity group does not provide me with enough opportunities to improve my personal fitness” (Subscale Individual Attractions to the Group – Task). – “Some of my good friends are in this physical activity group” (Subscale Individual Attractions to the Group – Social). Recently, the GEQ and its German version KIT-L have been the most frequently used instruments for measuring group cohesion in sport (Lau & Stoll 2007, pp. 156–157; Ohlert, Kleinknecht & Kleinert 2015). Previously, the most dominant questionnaire in research was the Sport Cohesiveness Questionnaire (SCQ) (Meding 1989, p. 255). The SCQ aimed for an integration of various measurements of cohesion, and includes three categories of items: The first category measures group connections. Each player has to evaluate each of his fellow players in terms of: – how he estimates his personal relationship to the player (“interpersonal attraction”); – the influence that this player has on the other team members and on the coach (“interpersonal influence”). The second category measures the attractiveness of group membership. Players evaluate their personal bond to the team and, in comparison to other teams, they state: – how much they enjoy playing on their team (“enjoyment”); – to what extent they feel a sense of belonging to their team (“sense of belonging”); – what kind of value they attach to their membership in this team (“value of membership”). The third category directly measures group attraction. The players evaluate their team as a whole by assessing: – the quality of cooperation within the team (“teamwork”); – the degree of closeness within the team (“closeness”).

4 Items are statements which the respondents can either agree or disagree with.

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Just like the GEQ, this instrument made up of these items can be used in various sports. In addition to procedures for measuring cohesion across different sports, there are also several instruments that were developed for application in specific sports, such as the Multidimensional Sport Cohesion Instrument (MSCI), which has been developed for basketball. Regardless of which instrument is being applied, there are always two main questions examined in the relevant research: 1. What does group cohesion depend on? 2. Is it possible to determine a connection between group cohesion and success (performance)? Subsequently, an attempt shall be made to briefly summarize the results of sport research concerning these questions. These results are partly contradictory. Ad question 1: The development of group cohesion depends, among other things, on situational factors, such as group size. Roughly, it can be said that usually, the smaller a group, the greater its overall cohesion will be (Carron, Shapcott & Burke 2007, pp. 120–121; Pulg 2008). If we just look at task cohesion, it can be declared that it increases as the level of competition rises, which indicates that this dimension of cohesion is especially significant for top teams (Lau & Stoll 2007, p. 158). However, social cohesion (or relationship-oriented cohesion) does not depend on the level of competition (ibid.) or might even be stronger when the level of competition is lower (Carron, Shapcott & Burke 2007, p. 121). In a comparison of teams of five different sport games, no differences in the two dimensions of cohesion (task cohesion and social cohesion) could be determined. Equally, no such differences could be determined between teams of men and teams of women (Lau & Stoll 2007, p. 158). Ad question 2: Most of the present studies confirm the expectation that teams with higher levels of cohesion will be more successful. Nevertheless, it should be noted that in some studies, no connection between cohesion and success could be found, and some studies even found a negative connection (Weiss 2008, p. 156). This inconsistency of results can be explained by various reasons. For instance, the studies differ from each other in their conception and in the measuring instruments used. However, even if, like Meding (1989, pp. 255–256) did, we only consider studies in which the same measuring instrument was used (in Meding’s case, it was the Sport Cohesiveness Questionnaire [SCQ], which was widely used in research in the 1980s), the inconsistency of results does not completely dissolve. Still, at least the vast majority of the studies

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SPORT AND THE SOCIAL GROUP table 5.4  Results of sports studies conducted using the SCQ

Authors and year of publication

Correlations SCQ factors separating successful from less successful teams

Martens/Peterson 1971 Landers/Crum 1971 Arnold/Straub 1972 Melnick/Chemers 1974 Landers/Lüschen 1974a Ball/Carron 1976 and Carron/Ball 1977 Bird 1977b

+ + + 0 +

Teamwork, Closeness, Value of Membership Teamwork, Closeness Teamwork, Closeness

+

Widmeyer/Martens 1978

+

Williams/Hacker 1982

+

Ruder/Gill 1982c Landers/Wilkinson/ Hatfield/Barber 1982

+ +

Value of Membership, Interpersonal Attraction Teamwork, Closeness, Value of Membership, Enjoyment, Sense of Belonging Teamwork, Closeness, Value of Membership, Enjoyment Teamwork, Closeness Teamwork, Closeness, Interpersonal Attraction

Interpersonal Attraction Teamwork, Closeness, Enjoyment

a Only Interpersonal Attraction and Influence were measured. b Only Interpersonal Attraction and Value of Membership were measured. c Interpersonal Attraction and Influence were not measured.

examined by Meding (that is, nine out of eleven) showed a positive correlation between cohesion and success (table 5.4). It also becomes clear that the items “teamwork” and “closeness” (Category 3 of the SCQ) best differentiate between successful and less successful sport teams. Accordingly, teams that are characterized by closeness and good teamwork are more successful. Lau & Stoll (2007, p. 159) reached the same conclusion, at least regarding “teamwork”, in their overview of results of studies that were conducted using either the Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ) or two-dimensional instruments, that is, instruments illustrating task and social cohesion. Accordingly, teams in which task cohesion is stronger than in other teams of their league tend to be more successful. Social cohesion is not regarded as essential for success.

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On the other hand, in their meta-analysis of data from 46 sport studies, Carron et al. (2002) came to the conclusion that social cohesion and task cohesion are equally important for team success. Altogether, the authors determined a positive correlation between cohesion and success of r = .655. This correlation is stronger in women’s teams than in men’s teams. However, according to Carron et al. (ibid.), no differences in the degree of correlation could be found when differentiating according to the task structure of teams (interdependent or independent). An independent task structure is present when team members all have to complete the same task and are hardly dependent on each other. They more or less act next to each other or are separated, and the overall team performance is determined by adding the individual performances. Teams with this task structure are called coacting groups. An interdependent task structure means that interaction between the team members is essential for team performance. Teams whose tasks require this structure are called interacting groups. The findings by Carron et al. are in contrast to the results of other studies, according to which cohesion positively correlates with team performance, especially if the team has to fulfill a task with an interdependent structure (e.g., in soccer or volleyball), while in teams that have to fulfill tasks with an independent structure (for instance, in rowing teams or in relay race), cohesion is not necessarily (positively) related to team performance (Voigt 1992, p. 214). Various other studies, each focusing on one particular team sport, confirmed the positive effect of cohesion on sport teams whose tasks require an interdependent structure. Such studies exist, for instance, with regard to American football (Stogdill 1963), baseball (Landers & Crum 1971), ice hockey (Carron & Ball 1977), and volleyball (Bird 1977; Ruder & Gill 1982). However, some studies on sports with an independent task structure, such as bowling (Landers & Lüschen 1974) and shooting (McGrath 1962), showed a negative correlation between cohesion and success. With regard to basketball, several studies (Nixon 1977, Widmeyer & Martens 1978, Landers et al. 1982) found a positive correlation, while Melnick & Chemers (1974) found no significant connection between cohesion and success. When a correlation between cohesion and team performance has been determined—whether or not the teams’ task structures have been considered—the question concerning the causal relationship remains: Does cohesion influence performance? Or is it the other way around: Does success influence cohesion? The answer is that the influence works in both directions, however, many researchers believe that the effect of cohesion on performance is weaker than the effect of previous sporting successes on cohesion (Schlicht & Strauss 2003, p. 79; Lau & Stoll 2007, p. 159). In any case, today, most researchers assume that there is an interplay between cohesion and success. They presume that

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successes bring a team closer together, and a higher degree of (task-related) team cohesion will increase the chances of success. In addition to the effects on team success, also other effects of group cohesion have occasionally been examined. In most of these studies, the positive effect of group cohesion was demonstrated. For instance, in recreational and health-related sport groups in which cohesion was perceived to be high, the members are more satisfied and dropout rates are lower (Carron, Shapcott & Burke 2007, p. 124; Brawley 1990, p. 360). Social cohesion especially seems to foster satisfaction and well-being of the group members (Schlicht & Strauss 2003, p. 81). 2

Social Facilitation

definition Social facilitation refers to the positive influence on the performance of various tasks by other participants or spectators. Studies on this topic were conducted before the First World War, the first one by Norman Triplett in 1898, which is sometimes labeled the first experiment in social and sport psychology (Lau, Schwarz & Stoll 2019, p. 98). Triplett departed from three different records that were measured in US-American cycling: the first in a race against time by a single individual (without a pacemaker), the second in an individual race against time where a pacemaker was present, and the third in a paced competition. The best times were achieved in the third type of competition, where both a pacemaker and other competitors were present, while cyclists in the individual race without a pacemaker scored the lowest records. On this basis, Triplett conducted an experiment with schoolchildren. He gave them the task of winding up fishing lines as fast as possible, first by themselves, and then in the presence of others. Under the latter circumstances, 20 out of 40 subjects performed the task faster than they did alone, 10 children became slower, and the remaining 10 children became neither faster nor slower. According to Triplett (1898), this provided some evidence for the assumption that the physical presence of competitors releases potential energies that the individual might not have otherwise. In 1913, Walther Moede conducted a study on students’ performances of physical strength in isolation, in the presence of spectators (in front of the class), in a duel, and in a group competition. The best results were scored in the group competition, followed by the duel, and then by the performance in the presence of spectators (Moede 1920, pp. 155–190). The phenomenon that

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performances of physical strength improve in the presence of spectators had already been observed by Ernst Meumann in a study on weightlifters in the early 1900s (cf. Lavallee et al. 2004, p. 184; Kremer & Moran 2008, p. 180). In later studies, whose methods were controlled more effectively, this result has been confirmed, and also in tasks of speed and stamina, which predominantly require a high degree of fitness, improvements in performance in the presence of spectators have been documented. However, in tasks that predominantly require coordination (gymnastics, etc.), performance often decreases in the presence of spectators (social inhibition)5 (Alfermann & Stoll 2005, p. 247). Thus, the influence that the presence of the audience has on athletic performance differs according to the type of sporting challenge. Further studies made distinctions according to the difficulty of the task, the athletes’ level of skills, and the meaning and conditions of the competition, or they took other factors into account, such as specific features of the audience (number of spectators, density, kind of behavior, the extent to which they are attentive or evaluating, etc.), or situational factors of interaction between the spectators and the athletes (size and type of the sport venue, which could be like a seething cauldron of emotions, etc.). A special factor that should be mentioned here is the home advantage, on which numerous studies exist. definition Home advantage is the increased probability of successfully completing a sporting competition under domestic conditions. Many studies could verify the presence of the home advantage in various team sports, leagues, and competitions. For instance, an analysis of all the home games that had thus far been held as part of the continental championships in soccer (Euros, Africa Cup of Nations, Asian Nations Cup, etc.) showed that 62% of these games were won by the host countries, 19% ended in a draw, and 19% were away wins (Strauss & Welberg 2008, p. 67). Out of all the games of the German Bundesliga (soccer league) which took place between 1963/64 and 1994/95, 53% were won by the home team, 26% ended in a draw, and 21% were 5 Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, who was the heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, also made the observation that spectators can be rather disruptive in the solution of tasks that mainly require coordination skills, based on his own experience in sport shooting. He was known as an excellent shooter, and, on the occasion of his participation in a sport festival in Malukpett (India) in 1893, he wrote in his diary: “I was also asked to compete, however, there were lots of spectators present, in which case I always seem to lose my calmness of nerves, which is so important for a shooter, so I did not shoot well…” (Höfer 2010, p. 68, translated).

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away wins (Strauss 2004, p. 210). Of course, one may ask about the reasons for this obvious home advantage. Some of the factors that have been discussed in this context are related to traveling, preparation for the game, the degree of familiarity with the sport venue, identification with the territory, the players’ aggressiveness and expectation formation, and the influence of spectators and of the referee. In a study on matches of the UEFA Champions League and Europa League 2009/2010 and 2010/2011, for example, Goumas (2014) found that referees gave members of away teams more yellow and red cards and thus favored the home team. A much more decisive factor for the home advantage, however, is generally seen in the influence of the spectators, when supposing that there is a cheering crowd supporting the home team. Many players are convinced that such a cheering crowd helps them win the matches during home games. However, the studies conducted on this topic showed conflicting results and there are no empirical results supporting the theory that home teams are always at an advantage due to the increased support they receive from the audience. According to Strauss, there are no signs that higher numbers of spectators are advantageous for the home team. So far, no study has convincingly confirmed the theory that supporting audience behavior, like cheering, has any effect on the athletes’ subsequent performance (Strauss 2004, p. 214). Now, after these explanations regarding the home advantage in team sports, the question remains whether there is a home advantage in individual sports as well. Indeed, there are only a few studies on this topic. For instance, one study on the individual games of the men’s Tischtennis-Bundesliga (the top professional table tennis league) in the Federal Republic of Germany came to the conclusion that there was no home advantage present (Klein-Soetebier & Senff 2014). Another study on the Olympic Games from 1896 to 1996 could prove the existence of a home advantage, however, it was only present in a few individual sports, namely those where the referee provided subjective evaluations (gymnastics, boxing, figure skating, freestyle skiing, etc.) (Balmer et al. 2001 and 2003). In these disciplines, the home advantage can be traced back to the influence of the referee. It can be stated that the home advantage exists only in a few individual sports, but in many team sports. The reasons for the home advantage in team sports are unclear. In any case, spectators and their behavior are not responsible. Rather, it can be assumed that at especially important games, which are therefore well attended, spectators exert social pressure, which might lead to unexpected losses of performance in the home team. This phenomenon is called “choking under pressure” (Strauss 2004, pp. 215–218), and can be traced back to “a kind of neural glitch” (Syed 2010, p. 199) that might occur in situations of particularly high pressure.

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Wallace et al. (2005) examined the phenomenon of choking under pressure in detail. They found that the influence of the audience in sporting events greatly depended on the type of tasks the athletes had to fulfill. In tasks requiring effort, a cheering audience mostly has a positive effect on performance. However, similar to the aforementioned findings by Alfermann & Stoll (2005) on social inhibition, Wallace et al. argue that in sports where performance depends on skill, the presence of an audience might have a detrimental effect on the athletes’ performance. Skill is a learned ability involving automatic processes. When acquiring a new skill, a novice has to engage in “repetitive practice using intense conscious concentration, but over time the responses become increasingly automatic and less conscious” (p. 431). As soon as the skilled task becomes automatic, the athlete can perform it effortlessly, without concentrating on it too hard. Effort, on the other hand, is “more subject to immediate conscious control than skill” (ibid.), meaning that a person can consciously decide to increase effort relatively quickly, while developing a skill takes time and practice and cannot immediately be achieved through force of will. Once athletes have learned to perform some elements of their task automatically, they are better able to concentrate on other elements which demand more conscious attention. However, when an audience is present, athletes might become self-conscious, which causes them to shift their attention. They want to do their best to perform well, so they start concentrating on elements which they would normally perform automatically. As a result, they cannot concentrate as well on the tasks that would actually need their attention, and so their performance decreases. In addition, this shift in attention might also reduce performance speed, which can cause problems, since high performance speed is crucial in many sports. The athletes’ “efforts to ensure success can ironically cause them to fail” (ibid.). Another reason for choking under pressure when performing skilled tasks is that in the presence of an audience, athletes often start focusing on avoiding failure rather than on attaining success, which causes them to become more cautious, leading to negative performance outcomes (ibid., p. 432). Even though supportive spectators mean well, for the athletes, their presence magnifies “both the rewards of success and the costs of failure” (ibid., p. 433). However, this depends on how the athletes perceive their audience. If they believe that their fans will continue to support them, regardless of whether they win or lose, they will feel less pressure (and will be less inclined to choke) than if they feel that the “support of their audience is contingent on their success” (ibid., p. 434).

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Of course, not all athletes choke under pressure. As already mentioned, when performing tasks that require more effort than skill (such as weightlifting, or defense in team sports such as soccer), a cheering audience usually leads to an increase in performance. In addition, audience support can induce additional motivation, which would otherwise be missing. Wallace et al. (ibid.) also argue that an athlete’s susceptibility to choking under pressure greatly depends on whether he is used to performing in front of an audience (amateurs will be more likely to choke than experienced professional athletes who have performed in front of spectators many times), and on his personality traits. Individuals with low self-esteem, who are concerned about protecting themselves from failure and feel uncertain about their ability to perform well, are more likely to choke under pressure. On the other hand, people with a narcissistic personality structure, who are overly confident about their abilities, are less likely to do so. Often, they even need a certain amount of pressure to perform well, since being admired by others is their main motivation for performing tasks: “If no glory opportunity is detected, narcissists lose interest and perform below their capabilities” (ibid., p. 436). Choking under pressure is a phenomenon whose occurrence depends on various factors: the type of task required, as well as the athlete’s motivation, experience and personality structure. 1.

Revision Questions

Define the term ‘social group’ and name some of the most important prerequisites for the existence of a social group. 2. Name and describe at least three different types of group. 3. What is the science for measuring group structures, and who developed it? 4. Describe a few figures that are used to illustrate group structures. 5. What is the Ringelmann effect? 6. Describe the phenomenon of social loafing. 7. Define ‘group cohesion’. 8. Name one questionnaire used for measuring group cohesion. 9. What is the home advantage in sport? 10. What is social facilitation? 11. Why do athletes sometimes choke under pressure when performing skilled tasks?

Chapter 6

Sport, Social Recognition, and Identity In different societies, sport is different. Sport appears as a microcosm of society. It cannot only reveal aspects of society that are expressed by hardly any other symbol system, but it can also offer a platform that makes it possible for the members of society to gain social recognition. This can be achieved in various ways: A person might want to be taken seriously as a member of a sport team, or a professional tennis player might feel that his opinion of himself depends on his placement in the world ranking list. Others may wish to find social fulfillment in their recognition as good skiers, fast runners, or fair soccer players. Successful task completion in sport ensures high social compensation in the form of prestige, status, etc. Sport is able to meet the needs for recognition. This point shall be further explained in this chapter. 1

Anthropological Constants

The first introduction to this topic will be given by means of anthropological1 constants, since sport is an exclusively human phenomenon. Even though also animals play games, no other species is known to play sport with rules, referees, and spectators. Sport marks a social field of action, in which man represents himself. It is necessary to come up with basic statements and assumptions about man in order to make his actions understandable. These anthropological constants that define man, and hence determine his sporting activities, shall be discussed. It shall be demonstrated that human nature actually only exists in the form of anthropological constants, which make cultural creations by humans, such as the cultural phenomenon of sport, possible, but also restrict them. 1 Anthropology is the study of human nature, aiming for a comprehensive description and determination of the human being (Portmann 1956, p. 129). We distinguish between several branches of anthropology: morphological, biological, social, etc. The following explanations can be understood primarily in the sense of philosophical anthropology (Plessner 2019), a school of thought that is located between philosophy, biology, anthropology, and sociology. It developed in the first half of the 20th century, and its main objective was to gain philosophical interpretations from the biological prerequisites of the human species. Philosophical anthropology forms the basis for the theory of symbolic interactionism, which, in the following, will serve to describe the social world of sport. © Waxmann Verlag GmbH, 2021 | doi:10.1163/9789004464711_008

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1.1 World-Openness First, we shall take up the constant of anthropology which has been called world-openness2 by Scheler and which, according to systems theory, results in a “reduction of the complexity of the environment” (Luhmann 1975, translated). In contrast to animals, whose behavior patterns are innate, instinct-driven and triggered by key stimuli, humans always have to acquire their behavioral safety. As Portmann (1969, p. 86) states: “Environmentally oriented and secured by instincts – this is how we can briefly and simplistically describe animal behavior. In contrast, humans might be described as being world-open and free to make their own decisions” (translated). definition World-openness denotes man’s special position in nature; he can develop drives and tendencies that are infinitely variable. As a world-open being, man is superior to all other living beings. Speaking, acting, and creating, that is, the behavioral patterns responsible for the “civilizing process” (Elias 1969; 1982), serve as counterparts to the fact that humans are “biologically underprivileged” (Herder 1911, translated). Since humans have underdeveloped instincts, no fangs or sharp teeth, no protective fur and no claws or horns, Gehlen, with reference to Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803), has described them as “deficient beings” (1988, p. 13).3 Accordingly, man is not characterized by a certain biological equipment (bodily features, predetermined behavioral patterns), but rather by the fact that he lacks this equipment. Since man does not have such an equipment, his behavior cannot consist merely of reactions. Man has a disposition to be world-open and free to make his own decisions. Accordingly, Gehlen defines man as an “acting being” (ibid., p. 16). In a creative act, man has to build his reality, an artificial environment. In the course of this, a vast field of possible actions becomes accessible to man, which have to be learned and tested.

2 In the present context, world-openness describes the complexity of individual development or the diversity of possible actions that humans can take. Scheler (2009) gives further explanations on this topic. The anthropological implications of human world-openness have been discussed primarily by Plessner (2003a) and Gehlen (1988). 3 However, the characterization of man as a deficient being seems misleading. Aristotle proclaimed that humans have the most advantageous ratio between brain mass and body mass, or that the length of the forearm in relation to the total length of the arm is more advantageous in humans than it is in apes and monkeys, and that technically, the human hand is an immensely useful organ (Popitz 1989, p. 53).

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The consequences of this characterization lie in the fact that human groups and societies only consist in their actions. In its infinite openness, the world presents the available setting for selective human actions, whereby the possibilities of each individual are predisposed by his genotype. In the framework of social interaction, world-openness opens up a broad spectrum of various cultural elements, possibilities of living, motivations, and behaviors to man. If one out of various possibilities of experience and action is chosen, the complexity of the world is reduced. For instance, a typical feature of modern sport is the aim of surpassing opponents, which serves as a means for reducing complexity. But certainly, the real world of sport could also be structured differently, since it is based on artificial, that is, cultural mechanisms of selection. 1.2 Excentricity What do we actually mean when we speak of the artificiality of man? An approach to answering this question shall be introduced by means of another anthropological constant, which Plessner (2019) described as man’s “situation of excentricity”. The term excentricity refers to the relationship that man has to himself (his bodily existence). This relationship between the self and the experience of one’s own body is excentric. Man is his body, and, at the same time, he has a body at his disposal. He can experience his body both as a subject and as an object—his body is both seeing and visible (Merleau-Ponty 2012)—man is physical just as he is intellectual. He experiences himself as a being who is not identical to his body, but rather as someone who has a body at his disposal. His body is of instrumental character, since he experiences it as a medium that he has at his command. With this awareness of himself and knowledge about himself, man can regard himself from the outside. When you are playing tennis, you can see yourself playing, when you are speaking, you can hear yourself speaking, etc. To a certain extent, it is possible to confront one’s own actions, movements, and feelings, and to react to them. Man observes and evaluates his own behavior. He is in a relationship with himself—he possesses self-awareness. This self-awareness refers to other people, since man is equipped with a sense for others (who have the same capacity). Man is able to put himself in someone else’s position and to participate in the internal processes of other people. He experiences himself not directly, but indirectly, from the point of view of other members of the societal group to which he belongs. “Self-interpretation and self-awareness can only come about through other people and other things. The way inside requires external grounding” (Plessner 2003a, p.

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62, translated). In this sense, the behavior of a single individual can be understood only in connection to the behavior of the entire societal group in which he and all the other members are integrated. “Everyone is, but does not have himself; or more precisely, everyone only experiences himself as ‘someone’ indirectly, via other people” (Plessner 2003a, p. 60, translated). This means that the individual sees himself and his behavior from the point of view of all those groups that he belongs to, or that he aspires to belong to. According to Mead (1934), this happens by means of role taking. Man (mentally) takes over the role of another person, views himself from this person’s perspective, and imagines this person’s reactions to himself. The socialized person controls his own reactions by identifying with others. In doing so, he reacts in the way that the others (would) supposedly react. Within a social environment, or an experiential or behavioral context, the individual takes over the attitudes that the others supposedly have towards himself. He can intellectually integrate the reactions from his environment, which Mead understands as the reactions of the generalized other,4 into his own behavior and adjust it accordingly. The process of anticipating the reactions of others is the central factor in the development of the self (Mead 1934, pp. 135–144). The self, which is acquired in continuous interactions with others (first with significant others and later with generalized others), allows man to not only put himself in someone else’s place, but also to interact with himself; he can act towards himself: the interaction is social – a form of communication, with the person addressing himself as a person and responding thereto. We can clearly recognize such interaction in ourselves as each of us notes that he is angry with himself, or that he has to spur himself on his tasks, or that he reminds himself to do this or that, or that he is talking to himself in working out some plan of action. (Blumer 1986, p. 13) Since man is able to communicate with himself, as well as create attitudes in himself that he also creates in others, he can participate in the process that takes place in other persons due to his behavior, and control and adjust his actions (between his own behavioral expectations and those of others). He 4 Man’s ability of looking at himself from the perspectives of various others is called taking over the role of the generalized other in Mead’s terminology (1922, p. 161). The generalized other is an abstraction of the roles and expectations of concrete significant others. This abstraction materializes when the individual does not identify with concrete others, but with a generality of others, that is, with a society or a societal group (ibid.).

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permanently finds himself in a dialectic between self-expectation and the expectations of others. According to Mead, this dialectic explanation of human actions becomes visible through the interaction between the I and the me. Man is both trying to realize and fulfill his own bodily needs and impulses, which are part of his own personality, and to appropriately satisfy the expectations from his environment (Mead 1934, pp. 173–178). Therefore, man can regard himself from the outside; to look at himself, and to evaluate himself. Self-interpretation and self-awareness are only possible in an interplay with an environment. To use Berger’s & Luckmann’s words: Man’s self-production is always, and of necessity, a social enterprise. Men together produce a human environment, with the totality of its socio-cultural and psychological formations. […] Just as it is impossible for man to develop as man in isolation, so it is impossible for man in isolation to produce a human environment. […] Man’s specific humanity and his sociality are inextricably intertwined. Homo sapiens is always, and in the same measure, homo socius. (1966, p. 69) Man’s sociality, or his perception of a shared world, stems from his excentric positionality, which forces him to construct and make sense of himself and his world. By acting, he has to determine and create his own sphere. The starting position, in which “everyone is but does not have himself” (Plessner 2003a, p. 61, translated), puts man under pressure to act, and his body serves him as a tool. The dispositions of man acquire a function, or a purposeful meaning, via the forms of articulation and action of the body. “Only behavior explains the body, and only modes of behavior such as speaking, acting, shaping, and laughing and crying, all of which are peculiar to man in conformity with his apprehension and positing of goals, make the human body intelligible, complete its anatomy” (Plessner 1970, p. 23). Man constantly finds himself having to use his body as a means to live his life. He is constantly creating constructs that lie outside himself, in and with the help of which he can find himself. He has to construct reality. As a world-open and unfinished being, man has to act, and to leave marks, which first have a social-public meaning and then gain a private one. In doing so, man can use his body as means. The body forms the basic instrument in the social interaction process. These descriptions demonstrate man’s total instrumentality. He has to make use of his body, since he only has it at his command through objectification and instrumentalization. Man explores reality via instruments and schemes. The characteristics of human activity come about through the forms

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of articulation and action of the body. What ensues is an extension of man,5 which manifests itself in artefacts, technology, or in sport. The world of sport, as a concrete, objective reality organized into meaningful symbols and social roles (as, for instance, those of the 100-meter dash), becomes an instrument by which pleasure, joy, aesthetics, health, movement, and a feeling for one’s own body and thus for oneself, are conveyed to the athlete. It becomes clear that man finds himself and realizes his full potential with and within forms of representation and art—that is, extensions. The intentionality of human action is based on the premise that human experience of the world and of situations, as well as the resulting behavior, takes place via cultural symbols, that is, via a complex system of extensions. Man is naturally designed for culture: Since the human is forced by his type of existence to lead the life that he lives, to fashion what he is – because he is only insofar as he performs – he needs a complement of a non-natural, nonorganic kind. Therefore, because of his form of existence, he is by nature artificial. As an excentric being without equilibrium, standing out of place and time in nothingness, constitutively homeless, he must ‘become something’ and create his own equilibrium. […] The human wants to escape the unbearable excentricity of his being; he wants to compensate for the dividedness of his own form of life, and he can achieve this only with things that are substantial enough to counterbalance the weight of his own existence. The excentric form of life and the need for completion constitute one and the same state of affairs. Need, however, should not be understood here in a subjective or psychological sense. This need is presupposed in all needs, in every urge, every drive, every tendency, every volition of the human. In this neediness or nakedness lies the motive of all specifically human activity – that is, activity using artificial means that is directed toward the unreal. In it lies the ultimate ground for the tool and for that which it serves – that is, culture. (Plessner 2019) This quote shows that between the environment on the one hand and human behavior on the other, there are cultural links—so-called objectivations or extensions—fulfilling decisive selective functions and controlling human experience and human action. World-openness materializes in an artificially created environment. Plessner (2019) argues that man is “by nature artificial”. 5 Cooley (1909) came to this conclusion. According to the Canadian cultural anthropologist Edward Hall (1977, p. 40), the entire human culture is a complex system of extensions. Examples for these extensions are infrastructure, cars, airplanes, and sport.

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This leads to the anthropological realization that no naturalness per se can be found in the human condition; naturalness is certainly a construction.6 Sport is not natural, but it is a cultural product. It can generate naturalness as a specific quality, even though sport itself is artificial. As a product of human action, the reality of sport is the result of sociocultural processes. The structures and processes of sport are culture-specific and socially formed. The key point necessary for understanding sport is that it is not a natural product but a cultural product, an extension of man. 1.3 Striving for Recognition In addition to the anthropological constants—world-openness and excentricity—another one should be mentioned: man’s striving for recognition in his human environment. Ultimately, these constants can be separated only for analytical reasons, because they basically describe the same facts. The individual explanation of these constants generally allows for a better understanding of society and specifically the identification of sport as a social phenomenon. As an “animal ambitiosum” (Girtler 2002, p. 12), man is eager for honor and strives for recognition and applause. In order to reach this goal, he draws upon diverse capabilities, such as language competence, great memory, outstanding achievements in sport, etc., as well as gestures and habits, and many other abilities that leave a favorable impression. The fact that people are trying in various ways to leave a favorable impression among their fellow human beings is also a central topic for Erving Goffman (1959). In his work The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Goffman analyses the diverse practices, ploys and tricks that the individual applies in his attempt to present the best possible version of himself to other people. Just like actors who, instructed by an invisible director, want to create a certain impression by means of their actions and words, their clothes and gestures, we all play theater. In everyday life, individuals or groups stage situations, for instance, in order to convince business partners or work colleagues of their own abilities, whether they are real or feigned. For these and other similar purposes, man uses a considerable amount of energy for face work, in order to maintain a favorable image7 of his persona. 6 Even the satisfaction of elementary biological needs – when and how we sleep, eat, or are involved in sexual acts, etc.—depends on norms. For more information about the manifestation of and especially the changes in seemingly natural, elementary behaviors in a historical context, see Elias (1969; 1982) and Mauss (2004). 7 Goffman defines image, or “face”, “as the positive social value a person effectively claims for himself by the line others assume he has taken during a particular contact. Face is an image of self delineated in terms of approved social attributes—albeit an image that others may

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Man constantly reflects on how others identify him in his everyday life. When endeavoring to present himself in a favorable light, his main intention is to receive positive reactions from his environment. This fundamental human need or instinct must be satisfied. Even the smallest child knows it can win its mother’s attention with a smile. Every individual does, in principle, act on this natural characteristic. There are various possibilities of triggering desired reactions in other people. Often, people try to maneuver themselves into better positions by disparaging others. In addition, many people feel uplifted when others commit a faux pas or suffer setbacks. Apparently, human self-realization occasionally tends to take such forms. Human self-realization has to be regarded in relation to man as an excentric being. As such, man is unbalanced, so he has to try to create an equilibrium. In other words, the relationship between man and the social world is a balancing act: Man’s desires, which are mentally and socially influenced, and the possibilities he realizes have to be constantly balanced. For this purpose, man performs works and deeds in which he finds fulfillment: So, man is the strange being who is able to take privations and make efforts and sacrifices of every kind, and who, indeed, constantly does so. Man is an incurable ‘idealist’, who climbs mountains, crosses ice deserts, flies into space, writes poems, produces operas, operettas and ideologies, who plays—and who still feels comfortable doing all this, while on the other hand, he can fall into despair in an abundance of ‘feed’, of everything that is biologically necessary. (Krockow 1974b, p. 11, translated) This statement by Krockow clearly demonstrates the nature of the human being. “Human behavior is never just acting ‘per se’, but man always acts both for himself and for others. Human acting is self-staging and self-representation, that is, a kind of ‘presentation’ that aims for success as a form of recognition” (ibid., translated). This anthropological constant, which has been termed recognition, is not new. It frequently appears in different variants; for instance, in Veblen’s work (1899) as a desire for prestige, in Homans’ work (1961) as an elementary form of social behavior, and also Mead writes about it, arguing that the individual believes that he is basically better than other people. This belief gives him a

share, as when a person makes a good showing for his profession or religion by making a good showing for himself” (1955, p. 213).

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feeling of superiority, which—as indicated in the following quote—is intensified in groups: The sense of superiority is magnified when it belongs to a self that identifies itself with the group. It is aggravated in our patriotism, where we legitimize an assertion of superiority. […] It seems to be perfectly legitimate to assert the superiority of the nation to which one belongs over other nations, to brand the conduct of other nationalities in black colors in order that we may bring out values in the conduct of those that make up our own nation. It is just as true in politics and religion in the putting of one sect over against the others. This took the place of the exclusive expressions of nationalism in the early period, the period of religious wars. One belonged to one group that was superior to other groups and could assert himself confidently because he had God on his side. (Mead 1934, p. 207) We can find another interpretation of recognition in Goldschmidt’s work, who localizes this element as a drive, and calls it a “need for positive affect”: Need for positive affect means that each person craves response from his human environment. It may be viewed as a hunger, not unlike that for food, but more generalized. Under varying conditions it may be expressed as a desire for contact, for recognition and acceptance, for approval, for esteem, or for mastery. (Goldschmidt 1959, p. 26) This need for positive affect strongly influences man’s social interactions. In Goldschmidt’s following statements, the extreme shapes that this human drive can take, and thus its enormous significance in the societal interaction process, become obvious once again: As we examine human behavior, we find that persons not only universally live in social systems, which is to say they are drawn together, but also universally act in such ways as to attain the approval of their fellow men. In this search for approval, they willingly and often eagerly undergo physical torture, mental harassment, or death. (ibid., pp. 28–29) The phenomena described above, which can be observed in everyday life again and again, serve to shed some light on the assumption of the existence of a human need for recognition. Nevertheless, it is a postulate for which there is no proof, and which probably cannot be proved. This is also indicated by

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Goldschmidt; however, he mentions some studies which could at least support this assumption. For instance, he refers to a comparative study that was conducted by René Spitz in two children’s homes in 1935. In both institutions, the infants’ physical needs were met, while typically parental care was given in only one institution. In the other children’s home, the infants did not receive any personal attention. As a result, the mortality rate was higher among these infants, and they were more often in poor health. Spitz (1965, pp. 277–284) used the term hospitalism to describe the pathological consequences of a lack of personal care during a longer stay in hospitals or similar institutions. Especially in infants, a lack of affectionate care can lead to severe and partly irreversible physical, psychological, mental and social damages. The vital help and support that infants need due to their care dependency can be seen as a biological guarantee for first social contacts. In this context, reference shall be made to the terms sociability and sociality (Wössner 1979, p. 39). definition Sociability denotes the human ability to establish and maintain social relationships. definition Sociality denotes the human dependency on social recognition and identity confirmation. Sociality and sociability depend on each other, whereby sociability is a precondition for the fulfillment of sociality. In general, man’s dependence on, and, at the same time, his orientation towards other people serves for the conservation and development of human existence. This presupposes the existence of a society or societal group. In order to achieve recognition in a society or social group, which is decisive for man, he takes over the group’s perspectives and criteria and endeavors to do what the group asks of him. Whether or not his efforts are successful and his needs for recognition can be met depends on the state of the respective social milieu. 1.3.1 Durkheim’s Study on Suicides The social milieu can create a type that cannot find any patterns of recognition as a social self. This was shown by Durkheim (2006, first in French, 1897) in his classical study on suicide. Instead of seeing suicide as an isolated, individual act, which would, in each case, require an individual examination, Durkheim regarded the entirety of suicides that were committed in a society and in a

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given time frame. In a systematic, empirical study, he determined that the entirety of suicides does not simply constitute the sum of independent individual cases, but that it creates a new fact of its own, which is of eminent social significance. Durkheim refers to the fact that, due to industrialization, people are forced to leave rural communities and live in cities, where they generally find better economic possibilities. However, this migration into urban areas characterized by anonymity often entails a separation from family and friends. If an individual’s family and home dissolve, he will suffer from deficits in his social life. He will lose his sense of purpose, and his will to live will decrease. In this case, suicide is not a personal act, but a product of social forces: collective forces. In reality, the actions of the affected person are part of the consequences and prolonged impact of a social state that manifests itself through these actions. When we said of every human society that it has a more or less pronounced inclination for suicide, this was not intended to be taken metaphorically: the statement was based on things as they are. Each social group really does have a collective tendency towards this act which is peculiar to it and from which individual tendencies derive (instead of its deriving from them). (Durkheim 2006, p. 332) Starting from the assumption of an affinity between individual and social environment, Durkheim showed that the degree to which suicide had taken its toll depended on the collective forces of the respective society. This means that every society collectively carries its own inclination for suicide within itself. The condition of the respective social milieu influences the suicide rate.8 The suicide rates in the different classes of population depend on the degree of civilization in the respective class. In fact, the kind of suicide that is sad and tragic only occurs in civilized societies.9 In Central Europe, people from different backgrounds conglomerated in the cities, forming civilized societies. Parallel to this development, suicide rates increased in these cities. The same causality applies to gender. Women are less involved in the struggles arising 8 Durkheim’s theses are not uncontroversial. Due to the difficulties arising from the application of statistical methods to the analysis of suicide, some researchers, like Douglas (1967) in the United States and Baechler (1979) in France, began to generally question research on suicides. 9 The kind of suicide that can be observed in less highly developed societies has another symptomatic value. It is not an act of hopelessness, but one that is enforced by moral or religious rules.

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from civilization than men are, so the suicide rate among women is four times lower than it is among men (ibid., p. 379). Durkheim assumed that a low degree of solidarity and integration10 was connected to high suicide rates. In order to test this hypothesis, he compared the suicide rates of Protestant countries, communities, and provinces to those of Catholic ones. He expected suicide rates to be higher among Protestants, since Protestantism emphasizes a stronger individual relationship to God, so that community bonds fade into the background. The results of the comparison were in accordance with his hypothesis, so Durkheim concluded that the reason why susceptibility to suicide was higher among Protestants was that this confession had a less integrating effect than the Catholic one.11 In addition, Durkheim argued that married people were more group-­ oriented—that is, they participated more actively and consistently in group activities—than unmarried people; people who had children were more group-oriented than those who had no children, uneducated people more than educated people, and Jews more than people from other confessions. The test results regarding these groups’ susceptibility to suicide also confirmed his theory, according to which a person’s vulnerability to suicide was in inverse ratio to his degree of integration in the social groups to which he belonged. More current studies on suicide refer to Durkheim’s theory as well. For instance, several studies came to the conclusion that adolescents who are active in sport contemplate suicide more rarely than those who do not participate in sport, which is explained by the integration in sport groups, teams, etc. (Sabo et al. 2005; Taliaferro et al. 2011). In an American study, it was determined that before and during major sport events, suicide rates among the population were below average, which was traced back to the integrative effect of these events (Curtis, Loy & Karnilowicz 1986). During these events, it is easier to come into contact with other people (e.g., at public viewing events), and to receive social acknowledgment (e.g., as a well-informed viewer). In the following, we shall continue our reflections on sport as a place of social recognition and develop some explanatory hypotheses on sport’s meaning as a social phenomenon, and its meaning for spectators on site and mass media viewers. 10 11

This is characterized by an increase in individual choices (the individual is mainly responsible for himself and his conscience), and a lower attachment to group standards. On the other hand, the fact that Catholics commit suicide less often than Protestants do could also be traced back to other factors than those of solidarity or integration. For instance, another possible reason could be that in Catholicism, suicide is considered to be the gravest sin, since it is the only sin that cannot be confessed anymore.

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Social Recognition in Sport

Man needs recognition and acknowledgment by other people. Even the seemingly most independent person depends on others and needs them for a confirmation of his own self. Usually, this confirmation is given on the basis of the respective system of values and norms of a society. Since sport both reflects this system of values and norms, and, as a specific world, also retroacts on this system, it offers its participants an opportunity to experience identity confirmation and social recognition. In other words, in sporting activities that are based on social and cultural values, behavior patterns that are connected to social acceptance are formed. As a place of social recognition, sport offers chances of self-realization to its participants. In active sport, man’s self-production is a balancing act between being a body and having a body. The anthropological prerequisite for this balancing act lies in man’s excentric positionality. In sport, this excentric relationship between being a body and having a body, being identical with one’s body and being able to dispose of it, has consequences with regard to man’s relationships with his environment. In the framework of physical activity, the individual takes over the attitudes that other people have towards himself, and thus becomes an object for himself. This reflexiveness, or man’s ability to create an inner representation of the perspectives of others, enables him to establish relationships to others and to himself. Man’s perception of himself always entails the process of becoming aware of how others perceive him. By planning his action from the perspective of those who observe him or seeing himself as a participant in an interaction from the point of view of the other person, the athlete catches sight of himself and becomes aware of the instrumentality of his body. The relationship he has to himself (that is, his bodily existence), is the driving force for his sporting activity and refers to the society or the societal group to which he belongs. For example, in a team, all the doings of the individual are controlled by the fact that he knows all the other members of the team, and their attitudes influence his own specific actions. Mead illustrates this with the example of cooperative games of competition, where “the child must have the attitude of all the others involved in that game. The attitudes of the other players which the participant assumes organize into a sort of unit, and it is that organization which controls the response of the individual” (1934, p. 154). In the individual’s ability to accept and follow the rules of a game, his developed skill of taking over the attitudes of the other players involved in the game is reflected. Every cooperative game requires its individual players to be able to see themselves from the perspectives of various other positions. Mead calls this the ability to take over the role of the generalized other.

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It is only with regard to the generalized other, whose attitudes towards himself the individual takes over, that the individual becomes aware of himself as an object or individual and that he can find self-fulfillment. As an example, Mead mentions a baseball player who plays just like his teammates expect him to play. This draws on the double aspect of the self, that is, the interplay between I and me. Through the me, the individual player becomes a member of a team. Through the I, he makes it clear that he is trying to maintain his own unique identity (e.g., as a pitcher). On the one hand, through the me (the expectations of others), restrictions are put on the I (for instance, the obligation to play in a way that is beneficial for the team). On the other, it is only through the me that the I can express its characteristic features. Mead acknowledges that the I reacts to this situation by adapting itself (1934, pp. 175–176). However, since the I always brings a new factor—the player’s creative reaction to supposed expectations—into the game, it is also changing the entire process, since its contribution is integrated into the others’ me via role taking. In sport, the generalized other does not necessarily have to be a team, but mostly, it refers to the attitudes of other individuals (friends, acquaintances, etc.), or society as a whole. In his self-awareness, the athlete fulfills functions as an individual, as a member of a sport team, or as a representative of his country, since he generalizes the behavioral expectations of the respective members of the group and/or society. In his thinking and acting, the others are present as ‘one’: He knows what one expects of him, and he measures his sporting activities by the (assumed) expectations of the others. This is possible because, with regard to his athletic achievement, he takes over the organized attitudes of society, or the attitudes of the respective societal group or community. He can only confirm his self if and when he takes over the attitudes of the others and interprets his athletic achievement accordingly. The individual becomes aware of himself by adhering to the others’ real or also just assumed behavioral expectations and receiving recognition for it.12 Sport offers its participants various opportunities to receive recognition, as it will become clear in the following overview, which was created based on the work of Popitz (2017). He categorized man’s needs for recognition in the historical context into five “types of social subjectivity”.13 12 13

James (1998, first 1890) saw his concept of the “social self” as the result of the recognition or evaluation that an individual receives from others. Popitz (2017, p. 97) uses this term to describe the typical link between the subjective and the social, that is, the link between self-recognition and social recognition. Consequently, he provides an explanation for the phenomenon of authority: “Authoritative power […] is exercised by one who consciously makes use of others’ fixation on recognition in order to steer their way of thinking and their behavior” (ibid., p. 93). By way of illustration, Popitz outlines the changes in forms of authority based on the historical sequence of the five types of social subjectivity.

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2.1 Recognition as a Member of a Group The first type of social subjectivity refers to the need to be recognized as a member of a group: Being acknowledged, here, aims at being like others, at identity in terms of comembership, of co-inclusion. The experience of belonging is a fundamental form of social experience; the certainty of belonging is a fundamental form of social self-approval. All societies we know, from the primordial nomadic hordes to industrial society, make this experience possible. They put it on offer by forming a plurality of social units, each of which draws certain boundaries toward the outside and in this fashion defines distinctions between ‘us’ and ‘the others’. (Popitz 2017, pp. 98–99) This type, which has a low level of individuality, can most likely be found in sports that have mass character and are based in clubs. For instance, one might think of a member of a soccer club in a small town. The high degree of social control is reached via an omnipresent group authority, that is, the group as a whole, each and every one, creates a common sentiment of trust or mistrust towards the member. The factor of closeness and the securing of belonging are permanently tested via symbolic rituals. The players’ communication on the playing field, and later while having communal drinks, has one main goal: that of confirming their membership and belonging. Facetious shouting, friendly teasing, or communal singing always serve this purpose. Most forms of contemporary sport are practiced in groups and are therefore based on these social conditions. 2.2 Recognition in an Ascribed Role The second type of social subjectivity focuses on man’s pursuit of recognition in an ascribed role. The patterns of conduct of ascribed roles are associated with features recognizable from birth: age, gender, descent, and possibly social rank. Self-esteem can thus be socialized, from birth on, with reference to such patterns of conduct. (Popitz 2017, p. 100) This type’s pursuit of recognition is more specified. What is essential here is not merely being equal to other group members, but the individual’s special social function or role. For this reason, the achievements through which the individual wants to prove himself must be more clearly defined. In sport, this means that a certain social component is particularly emphasized in an athletic activity: masculinity is emphasized in the practice of strength sports,

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such as weightlifting or wrestling, femininity is emphasized in gymnastics, and youthfulness is emphasized in the practice of sports that are popular mainly among young people, such as slacklining. 2.3 Recognition in an Achieved Role In type three, social subjectivity refers to recognition in an achieved role: In this case, the claim for recognition regards two kinds of performances. First, as with the ascribed role, the competence required to accomplish a task (role probation). But to this is added the success in attaining a role. One has attained something, has ‘become’ something not determined as from one’s cradle. (Popitz 2017, p. 101) This type is based on an additional specification, since it does not only refer to role probation, that is, the task of fulfilling one’s role effectively, but also to that of successfully attaining a role. With regard to sport, this type offers the basic prerequisite for today’s professional sport, since success in the role of an athlete can only be achieved by means of excellent performances. This role is never innate; it can only be acquired on the basis of special skills and achievements. 2.4 Recognition in a Public Role The fourth type of social subjectivity describes the need to be recognized in a public role: Wherever many come together, ready to watch and listen, a space offers itself for the impact of public roles. Courtly and religious festivities, political assemblies, crowds on the square, court cases, theatre, sport, and circus need interpreters who perform something of general interest. (Popitz 2017, p. 103) Here, the special dimension of social subjectivity lies in the emphasis of the public role. The audience expects achievement that is visibly represented. Sport can fulfill this need in an outstanding way, whether in the form of competitive events or in the form of media sport, especially via electronic media. 2.5 Recognition of Personal Identity The fifth type of social subjectivity articulates the pursuit of social recognition of one’s own individuality. “Such social subjectivity […] demands a social approval granted to an existence in the singular. Societal approval is supposed to go to being different, to being like no one else” (Popitz 2017, p. 104).

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This type seeks recognition not for being equal to everybody else, but for being special. In this case, the individual wants his own person to be recognized as a singular entity. In sport, this has the effect that people try to consciously practice it in the form of individual sports, like skiing, golf, horseback riding or tennis, and in particular in those cases where the athlete’s talent transforms the sport into art. It is also practiced without the elements of competition and achievement, and instead, experiences of nature and social contacts are paramount. Suitable possibilities to achieve this type of recognition are offered for instance by alternative sports, whose main goal is not to force the body to perform well, but rather to gain experiences that are beneficial for the mind and body. Other examples are bodybuilding, where muscle development constitutes a kind of status symbol, or extreme sports that are based on exceptional athletic achievements. All these types of social subjectivity can be achieved in sport. For different individuals (children, adolescents, adults, the elderly people, people with disabilities, and other minorities), sport can be a primary way of experiencing confirmation, praise, or recognition. This is true for both professional sport as well as recreational sport. Sport in general is an ideal area for identity reinforcement. Example: People with disabilities in sport It is often especially difficult to strengthen the identities of people with disabilities. In sport activities, they have an excellent opportunity to test their bodies, since the results are immediately available, measurable, and visible. For instance, sport competitions offer them a chance to show what they are worth. They see what they can actually do; they can realize their abilities and learn what challenges them. They develop responsibility for their own behavior and experience themselves as the creators of their own achievements. Therefore, self-activation and self-actualization in sport are always connected with individual experiences: experiences of capability, sometimes of failure, of tension and relaxation, of possibilities, but also of limitations, autonomy, and dependency. Through his physical activities, the disabled person realizes that he himself can achieve something. Success and failure are experienced immediately and directly as being self-induced, and these experiences give rise to feelings of independence and self-control. This is an important motivation for disabled people who participate, for instance, in the Special Olympics, and who, by means of their performances, demonstrate that they are superior to their suffering. They gain certainty about their achievements and receive the kind of recognition that is important for identity formation. If man learns

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to set goals in his sport activities and does more than what is necessary, he can show his superiority over situations and circumstances and creates more opportunities for himself and more individual independence. 3

African Americans in Sport

In general, the various dimensions of activity in sport prove to be important fields of representation of one’s own individuality, offering a great variety of roles with high recognition values. It was no coincidence that sport became a refuge for underprivileged members of US society. Often, it proves to be their only possibility to experience acknowledgment, praise, and recognition in society. A drastic example for this fact is that of African Americans in the USA, for whom sport is at least one possibility to escape societal deprivation. In sport, they can show something which, for centuries, culture and society have denied them. Accordingly, they are overrepresented in professional sport. However, this overrepresentation corresponds to an underrepresentation in positions of economic power of roughly the same proportions (Syed 2010, p. 275). “This suggests that the sporting success of African Americans is the consequence not of genetics but of unequal opportunity; that blacks are driven into professional sport due to barriers to entry in other spheres of economic life” (ibid.). When there are no alternatives, people who have little hope for the future can move to sport, even if it only provides an uncertain chance of success. Social opposition and the feeling of suffering a great misfortune, as well as the individual and societal benefits that athletic success can bring are the breeding grounds for optimal motivation. The story of the hungry boxer is not fiction but a fact: he fights for recognition. In boxing circles, there is the common opinion that members of the lower socioeconomic classes make the best fighters. This professional culture of boxers is reflected quite impressively in the influx of minorities in the USA. In previous times, the sport was mainly taken up by Irishmen, Italians and Jews, later by African Americans, and soon, Hispanics might be the ones who increasingly push their way into the sport. In 2019, Andy Ruiz Jr. became the first Mexican boxer to win the heavyweight championship (Vilchis 2019). Occasionally, sport conceals the underlying structures of inequality and—since it provides a means of escape from oppression and social discrimination—it becomes a subject of ambition and a channel for social advancement. Through compassionate participation, spectators from discriminated minorities take an interest in the upward mobility of the athletes who also belong to the minorities. The successful role models,

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who could also be doctors, lawyers, or architects, focus the attention of, for instance, African American adolescents, on the romantic ideas that accompany the world of sport celebrities. In the USA, the role models who form the basis for African American adolescents’ ambitions are often African American sport idols, with whose successes the adolescents identify. When it comes to making professional or other important decisions and finding an orientation, they follow those who have made it—and, among African Americans in the USA, those who have made it are mainly athletes. A vivid example for this is provided by the following statement of a student, who was asked how he viewed his role as an African American: The role of being a Black male colors all my other roles. The reason I became interested in sport and then later education is due to my personal response to social racism. The desire to be accepted into the dominate social structure motivated me to adopt these roles. For many Blacks this is the traditional path to success. (Curry 1986, p. 72) Example: A short history of African American sport African Americans have participated in sport since the early 19th century. One of the first African American sport heroes was the boxer Tom Molineaux. There is little information about his origins, but it is believed that he was a former slave. In 1810, he came to England to start his boxing career. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Jim Crow laws were enacted in the USA, separating white and black people in most areas of life. As a result of this racial segregation, exclusively black neighborhoods, churches, businesses, and also sport clubs emerged. There were dominant stereotypes of African Americans being good athletes (and also good entertainers), but, since sport competitions remained segregated, black athletes had no chance of demonstrating their skills (and possibly their superiority over white athletes). However, the segregation did not apply to boxing. In 1908, the African American boxer Jack Johnson became the first black athlete to win the heavyweight championship. Subsequently, white boxing fans began searching for a Great White Hope, that is, a white boxer who could beat Johnson. When the white athlete Jim Jeffries failed to beat him, fights ensued between the races. White boxing fans felt humiliated and began to attack the African American fans. Johnson was able to keep his title until 1915, when he lost it to the white boxer Jess Willard.

Sport, Social Recognition, and Identity

In 1937, Joe Louis became the second black heavyweight champion. He was received more favorably by the public, as the Jim Crow laws were slowly losing their power. They were abolished in 1964, and simultaneously African American athletes increasingly began asserting their social and political independence by means of boycotts and demonstrations (Curry & Jiobu 1984, pp. 88–99). African Americans make up around 12% of the US population, but as mentioned above, black athletes are overrepresented in US-American professional sport today. In 2015, 74% of players in the NBA (National Basketball Association) were African Americans (Lapchick & Guiao 2015, p. 2), and in 2018, African Americans made up 70% of NFL (National Football League) players (Sonnad 2018). In baseball, however, the number has decreased: In 2018, only 8% of players in the MLB (Major League Baseball) were black (Howard 2018). The share of black players is similarly high in women’s basketball. In the WNBA (Women’s National Basketball Association), 67% of players are black (Lapchick 2019, p. 7). In the American National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the share of women of color among basketball players is very high as well, at roughly 66%. According to data from 2014, in the sports of outdoor track and field (almost 43%) and softball (almost 37%), the number of black female participants is exceptionally high as well (Women’s Sports Foundation Report). Example: Female African American athletes There are numerous African American women who have achieved great successes in sport. In this example, some of these female athletes shall be briefly introduced. Ora Washington was an exceptional tennis and basketball player. She was born in a rural area of Virginia and later moved to Philadelphia with her family, where she started playing tennis. In 1924, she won the singles, doubles, and mixed doubles at the city championships in Wilmington, Delaware. One year later, at the American Tennis Association national tournament, she won the women’s doubles competition. From 1925 to 1936, she won twelve straight doubles titles. In 1929, she briefly moved to Chicago, where she won the Women’s Singles Championship. She wanted to play in the United States Lawn Tennis Association, which, however, had a policy of racial segregation that lasted until 1948. In 1930,

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Washington began playing basketball professionally, and joined the Germantown Hornets in Philadelphia. At the end of the 1930–31 season, they reached a 22–1 record and became black national champions. On average, Washington scored 13 points per game. While building her basketball career, she also remained a successful tennis player. From 1929 to 1937, she won seven of eight singles championship titles in tennis. For several years, she played basketball in the winter and tennis in the summer, while also working as a housekeeper, since the money she earned from sport was not enough to pay the bills. Because of her exceptional skills in both tennis and basketball, Washington is considered the first female African American sport star (Grundy 2006, pp. 79–92). Alice Coachman was a high jumper who, in 1948, became the first African American woman to win an Olympic gold medal. Before this big success, she had already won 36 track-and-field national championships. She was inducted into nine halls of fame, including the US Olympic Hall of Fame. In the 1950s, she also became the first African American woman to appear in print ads for Coca-Cola (Lansbury 2006, pp. 147–161). Althea Gibson (figure 6.1) was a tennis player and golfer. She was the first African American to win the French Championships, Wimbledon and the US Nationals (the precursor of the US Open). Altogether, she won five Grand Slam titles in the 1950s. After her tennis career, Gibson also became the first female African American professional golf player who won an LPGA event (Ladies Professional Golf Association) (Festle 2006, pp. 187–205). Wilma Rudolph was a track-and-field athlete who won three gold medals at the Summer Olympic Games of 1960 in Rome. She had to overcome great adversity to become one of the most successful African American athletes of her time: not only because she grew up in poor conditions, but also because she suffered from several illnesses when she was a child. At the age of five, she contracted polio, after which she lost strength in one of her legs and had to wear a leg brace until the age of twelve. Rudolph’s career as a professional athlete started while she was still in high school, when the track-and-field coach of Tennessee State University, Ed Temple, discovered her talent and invited her to join his training program. Because of her enormous athletic abilities, she was called ‘the black gazelle’ by the press (Wilson 2006, pp. 206–221). Gabrielle Douglas is an African American artistic gymnast. In 2012, she won two Olympic gold medals in the all-around competitions and the

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figure 6.1  Stamp of Althea Gibson

team competitions, thereby becoming the first American gymnast to win both competitions at the same Olympic Games. She was also the first African American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in the allaround competitions. At the Olympic Games of 2016, she won another gold medal at the team competitions. Her other accomplishments include gold medals at the World Championships in 2011 and 2015, as well as a gold medal at the 2016 AT&T American Cup.14 14

“Gabrielle Douglas,” retrieved from https://gabrielledouglas.com/biography.

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Example: Stacking in sport While there is clearly a disproportionately high number of African American athletes, this does not mean that there are no racial barriers in US-American sport. In the sports of the upper classes, such as polo, yachting, or the training of racehorses, African Americans are hardly present. But also in some popular team sports, such as American football or baseball, African Americans are rather nominated for positions that are relatively unimportant and less decisive for the game. This practice, where the important positions are reserved for white athletes, is called ‘stacking’ (Curry & Jiobu 1984, p. 107). As mentioned above, around 70% of all NFL players are black. In American football, the most important and prestigious position is that of the quarterback. African Americans occupy only 25% of the quarterback positions (Kimes 2017). However, in 2014, 85% of running backs were black (Reid & McManus, n.y.). Running backs have the highest injury rates in American football. A high number of African Americans have to end their careers early due to injuries, and it also means that black football players earn less during their athletic careers. According to Delaney & Madigan (2015, p. 261), this is also connected with a racist stereotype of black athletes being better at ‘reacting’ than at ‘thinking’. The quarterback is thought of as a position that requires ‘thinking’, while the running back merely has to ‘react’. The phenomenon of stacking is also present in baseball. In this sport, African Americans are primarily assigned the position of outfielders: in both 2001 and 2011, about a quarter of outfielders were black (Martin 2015, p. 76). In this position, the player is isolated from his teammates, so he does not have much opportunity for interaction. Many former athletes go into coaching or management positions after their retirement, but in baseball, this requires them to have previously occupied more central positions with a high degree of leadership and interaction, such as infielders or catchers. Thus, also in this respect, African Americans are at a disadvantage. If former black athletes do acquire coaching positions, they usually end up coaching players of the typically black positions, which they themselves held previously. Another important factor is that the Jim Crow laws also prohibited African Americans from taking up any positions in which they were superior to whites. Even though these laws are now abolished, their repercussions can still be felt in many sports, as, for instance, indicated by the low number of black quarterbacks, who do have a central, leading position.

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In addition, many young African Americans see black athletes as their role models. When they want to pursue a career in sport, they usually strive for the same position as their heroes, who, however, often play stacked positions. So, stacking can lead to more stacking (Curry & Jiobu 1984, pp. 109–110). To summarize, society’s racial segregation is reproduced in the racially different casting of positions that are central or less central. The discrimination of African Americans in US-American sport has been discussed frequently and in more detail by North American sociologists (see Curry & Jiobu 1984, pp. 87–114; Leonard 1984, pp. 157–186; and Sage, Eitzen & Beal 2019, pp. 145–150). In spite of this discrimination in some sports, there are still more African American athletes than there are, for instance, African American lawyers, doctors or teachers. In fact, there is no other profession or area of life in which African Americans are overrepresented to such an extent. The reason for this is that in sport, man’s personal contribution—his performance—counts and becomes visible. The specific world of sport has allowed some African American athletes to become ‘idols’ and gain particular recognition, especially in the sport of basketball. In the following example, some of today’s most famous African American basketball idols, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, as well as the sisters Chinenye and Nnemkadi Ogwumike, shall be introduced. Example: African American basketball idols LeBron James LeBron James was born on December 30, 1984 in Akron, Ohio. He grew up in poor conditions, so just like the aforementioned boxing heroes, he is one of the athletes whose athletic abilities enabled them to rise ‘from rags to riches’. His mother was only 16 years old when he was born, and his father, who was not involved in his life, had a criminal record. Because of his mother’s difficulty in finding steady work, they frequently moved from apartment to apartment. His mother wanted to provide him with a more stable family environment, and so James moved in with the family of a local youth football coach, Frank Walkner, who introduced him to basketball. In fifth grade, James began playing organized basketball. While he was still in high school, the media started paying attention to his enormous athletic successes. He became the first high school basketball underclassman to appear on the cover of the magazine Sports Illustrated, where he

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was referred to as ‘The Chosen One’. In 2003, he joined the NBA as part of the Cleveland Cavaliers. He remained in this team for seven years until 2010, and during this time, he won the NBA Most Valuable Player Award twice, in 2009 and 2010. However, after failing to win a championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers, he left the team and joined the Miami Heat instead. In 2012 and 2013, as part of the Miami Heat, he won two NBA championships. James returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2014 and won his third NBA championship in 2016. In 2018, he switched teams again and became part of the Los Angeles Lakers. In addition to his successes in the NBA, James was also a member of the US-American Olympic basketball team that won two gold medals at the Olympic Games of 2008 in Beijing and the Olympic Games of 2012 in London (Augustyn 2019). As a result of his NBA salary and his numerous endorsement contracts with companies such as Coca-Cola or Nike, he became the fourth highest-paid athlete of the decade, having earned US$680 million from 2010–2019 (Badenhausen 2019). As of November 2019, James is also the most followed basketball player on the social networking site Instagram (Littal 2019). Kobe Bryant Kobe Bryant was born on August 23, 1978 in Philadelphia, as the son of former NBA player Joe ‘Jellybean’ Bryant. He started playing basketball at the age of three. When he was six, his father retired from the NBA and moved his family to Italy, where he continued playing professional basketball at a lower level. During his time in Italy, Kobe Bryant began playing basketball seriously, and when he was thirteen, his family moved back to Philadelphia. Just like LeBron James, he gained recognition as a basketball player in high school. He was the first freshman in decades to join his school’s varsity basketball team, and he ended his high school career as Southeastern Pennsylvania’s all-time leading scorer. After his graduation in 1996, he went directly into the NBA, joining the Los Angeles Lakers. He was the youngest NBA starter, and remained with the Los Angeles Lakers until the end of his career. At the age of 23, he became the youngest player to win three NBA championships, after winning them consecutively in 2000, 2001 and 2002. He won five championships altogether, his fourth one in 2009, and his fifth in 2010. In 2012, at the age of 34, he became the youngest player in history to score 30,000 points. After the 2015–2016 season, he retired from basketball, following a number of injuries.

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Like LeBron James, he won two gold medals at the Olympic Games in 2008 and 2012, as part of the United States national team. During his final six seasons, he had the highest NBA salary, and earned around US$800 million throughout his playing career (Badenhausen 2017). In addition, in 2018, he became the first African American (and also the first former professional athlete) to win an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, for his film Dear Basketball. On January 26, 2020, Bryant tragically died in a helicopter accident, along with his 13-year-old daughter (Carlson 2020). Chinenye and Nnemkadi Ogwumike The sisters Chinenye and Nnemkadi Ogwumike are second-generation immigrants from Nigeria, and they are currently among the most successful female basketball players in the USA. Both of them are part of the Women’s National Basketball Association and have won numerous awards for their athletic achievements: Nnemkadi became Stanford University’s all-time leading scorer and won the Rookie of the Year Award, the Most Valuable Player Award as well as a WNBA championship, among others. Chinenye won Rookie of the Year too, as well as other awards, and recently began focusing on a television career in sport reporting (Zenquis & Mwaniki 2019). The biographies of these athletes prove that sport offers its participants unprecedented chances of self-realization. In basketball, the athletes’ skin color does not matter—all that matters is the players’ personal contribution to the game. Hence, the sport of basketball conceals the racial barriers that are still present in other areas of society and allows its participants to show their specific talents. Kobe Bryant’s sudden death caused worldwide sorrow and consternation. He was a role model for millions of people, especially young African Americans, which is illustrated by the following statement by Isaac Bryan, director of the Black Policy Project at the University of California: “We didn’t just lose a basketball player. This was someone who was becoming a pillar of the community beyond athleticism. It’s hard to find things for black people in LA to look up to. We don’t have those historic leaders the way we once did” (cited in Gumbel 2020). Bryant’s life story can be seen as a practical example for the theories explained in this chapter. Even though racial discrimination and stacking are still present in sport, the players’ talent usually becomes visible and is recognized accordingly. The athletes’ outstanding achievements can hardly be ignored or concealed.

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It is not only for underprivileged members of society, such as African Americans in the USA, that sport proves to be an excellent instance for gratification, but sport also fulfills this role for many other people in modern societies. By claiming the basic principles of modern society for itself, sport offers a possibility of representation, or an outlet for the creative urge that can only rarely be released in working life. As a consequence of the modernization of societal structures, and especially the development into an “organizational society” (Coleman 1982) and digital world, people find themselves in an impersonal bureaucratic society. The individual’s feelings of helplessness in the face of powerful organizations, social dislocation, lack of social relationships, and disintegration of groups and societies are some of the keywords to describe the problems of modern societies. What also contributes to these problems is the structural alienation that accompanied the emergence of mass media and social media. There is criticism that the second or third-hand experiences that these media provide suppress the possibility of finding fulfillment in reality via personal experiences. Mass communication increasingly substitutes original, direct experiences of the world. Instead of gaining autonomous, primary, active and authentic experiences, people suffer from a “disorientation” and “loss of reality”, due to their increasing media consumption (Schelsky 1979a, p. 394; 1979b, pp. 308–311, translated). If we take this modern pathos seriously and interpret sport in this context, we can come to the conclusion that in sport, a world that allows for direct, primary experiences unfolds. Sport is an answer to the all-dominant abstractedness and anonymity of modern society. Sport is delightful, because it compensates for the worries in everyday life and at work with the suspense and relaxation of the contest and competitive play. It offers possibilities of fulfilling desires in society, and it manifests itself as a field of communicative use in which identity can be built and maintained. 4

Action and Representation in Society and in Sport

The social specificity of sport can be shown on the basis of action and representation. Action and representation are the components of human achievement. The question of whether or not something has been achieved is decided by the reference group responsible for the actor,15 and the underlying societal value system forms the basis for this decision. From the values of a society, 15

Parsons’ definition of achievement as “the valued results of the actions of individuals” (1954, p. 103) provides the starting point for the further explanations.

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norms and standards are derived, such as sport-related standards for achievement (winning a competition), social standards for achievement (fair play, camaraderie, group solidarity), or economic standards for achievement (the income achieved). An achievement only exists with regard to these evaluation standards, out of which an observer emphasizes and recognizes certain characteristics that are considered as criteria for achievement (Gebauer 1972, p. 188). Gebauer speaks of objective criteria, “which – only seemingly – allow for the measurement of an ‘achievement’; what is measured is not ‘achievement’ itself, but rather the criteria for ‘achievement’” (ibid., p. 186, translated). These objective criteria are extremely different and variable. The entirety of possible criteria for achievement is as diverse as the entirety of human behavior, and so it constitutes an open quantity. Depending on the situation and the context of the activity, new criteria might be added. If the values in a society change, the standards, and also the criteria for achievement, will change as well. Newly formed combinations of criteria might develop, constituting new types of achievement. Achievement is not a uniform phenomenon, but it stands in the context of the respective social order. What is considered to be an achievement can vary from society to society, depending on the respective values and social standards, but it can also vary within a society. The societal system of values and norms forms the basis for statements regarding achievements, which are experienced subjectively but recognized objectively. The result of the recognition of an individual’s achievements by others is success. Success or failure is the medium in which achievement is reflected, and it always refers to the social group in which the individual acts.16 Often, the individual has to dramatically enact the criteria of his achievement, so that observers pay attention to the achievement and recognize it. In this process, a second kind of achievement comes into play: that of representation, which consists in bringing about the recognition of an action as an achievement (ibid., p. 189). Consequently, an individual has to be able to stage his actions appropriately. He has to have a great repertoire of forms of expression and representation at his disposal.17 Therefore, achievement in society results 16 17

Since an individual’s achievements have to be evaluated, an achievement-oriented society is necessarily also a success-oriented society. In many cases, it is even more difficult to sell oneself as a trustworthy achiever than it is to actually deliver the achievement of action that is meant to be sold. This statement has been confirmed in recent economic history, since nowadays, top managers and politicians have to spend most of their working time on face work, or a cultivation of their image. It often remains unclear what kind of work they are actually doing, and their achievements of action which they performed (or failed to perform) become visible only after several years. This is indicated, for instance, by economic or financial crises.

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from an action that meets certain, socially established ‘criteria for achievement’, and from its representation as an action that corresponds to society’s ‘norms of achievement’. We can say that an action that is socially recognized as ‘achievement’ consists of an ‘achievement of action’ and an ‘achievement of representation’. (Gebauer 1972, p. 189, translated) Gebauer suggests performance, a term that was originally used by Goffman in this context, as an appropriate designation for the achievement of representation. “A ‘performance’ may be defined as all the activity of a given participant on a given occasion which serves to influence in any way any of the other participants” (Goffman 1959, p. 26). This means that the individual will have to act in such a way that the others will somehow be impressed by him. Goffman continues: To be a given kind of person, then, is not merely to possess the required attributes, but also to sustain the standards of conduct and appearance that one’s social grouping attaches thereto. […] A status, a position, a social place is not a material thing, to be possessed and then displayed; it is a pattern of appropriate conduct, coherent, embellished, and well articulated. Performed with ease or clumsiness, awareness or not, guile or good faith, it is none the less something that must be realized. (ibid., p. 81) The realization of a behavioral model always refers to the society or social group to which the individual belongs. An individual who seeks social recognition has to make the criteria of his achievement transparent; he has to draw the observer’s attention to it. It is only through a successful performance that the achievement of action is socially accepted and recognized. The recognition by society is reflected back into the individual’s self-esteem as an elementary confirmation of his achievements. “An ‘achievement’ is constituted when an individual performs an action in a certain way, and an observer values this kind of performed action as an ‘achievement’” (Gebauer 1972, pp. 185–186, translated). Action and evaluation are the interdependent conditions that human achievement and human behavior are subject to. The achievement that is constituted in this way is an important, if not the most important principle of allocation in contemporary society. People say that those who have more have also achieved more. This way, the unequal distribution of goods and the different social situations of the members of society are justified. The principle of achievement is considered a regulator for the distribution of goods and positions. But in reality, the rule of success through achievement is only partly valid. How can the achievements of researchers, managers, or artists be

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measured and compared to the achievements of workers, farmers, or athletes? Because of the impossibility of establishing binding criteria, the principle of achievement is merely fiction.18 Modern society is not achievement-oriented, but success-oriented. Due to differentiation and the division of labor, but also automatization and digitalization, achievements are becoming obscure; the only thing that can finally be recognized is success. And what is constitutive for success is an impressive representation, which brings about social acceptance and recognition on the part of the social environment. Due to its reduction of complexity into clarity and transparency, two factors which often remain hidden in modern societies, sport becomes accessible as a unique social phenomenon. The distinctive symbols of sport, which reduce complexity and are communicable, are the reasons for its social comprehensibility. They motivate athletes to achieve top performances and delight billions of fans around the world. With regard to its clarity and comprehensibility, sport is in obvious contrast to other social subareas, which are becoming increasingly complex. The growing ambiguity of action and the disintegration of doing and evaluation that accompany the dissolution of traditional ways of life and cause alienation in modern society, are brought to a unity in sport. Krockow does not only see a significant characteristic of competitive sport in this artificial reduction of complexity into clear, communicative symbols, but he also sees this reduction of complexity as the main reason for sport’s popularity and power to fascinate: “What distinguishes competitive sport, what it symbolizes, is the straightforward, clear and commonly understandable unity of action and representation, a unity that hardly exists anywhere else anymore” (Krockow 1974b, p. 15, translated). In sport, achievement is reduced to quantifiable dimensions: only goals, seconds, points, etc., count. This reduction of complexity into clear symbols blends action and representation and confirms the athlete’s identity. Success as recognition arrives immediately, since in sport, it is only obtained through achievement governed by rules, while in other areas, such as in industrial firms, in school-related learning, or in academic work, achievement remains obscure and often, it can only be appreciated by experts. In contrast, athletic achievements are comprehensible—not only for a small minority, but for many people. In sport, both the athletes and the spectators are familiar with the standards for achievement, and the recognition of the athletes rises and falls according to how close they come to these standards. It can hardly be concealed where the athletes 18

For instance, the success of a businessman might be based on dubious practices—maybe on systematic tax evasion—or the rise of a politician could be traced back to total opportunism (Krockow 1974b, p. 15).

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stand with regard to these standards, and it is not possible to provide fake data. This means that a successful athlete does not necessarily have to be an expert in representation. The difference between a goal and a bad pass, or between aces and double faults cannot be blurred, no matter how much a bigmouthed athlete might protest. Similarly, it would make no sense to conduct an opinion poll on who is the best tennis player in the world. The public’s opinion on this matter is not relevant, since the best tennis player in the world is always the one who is in first place in the world rankings. In sport, the winner always remains the winner, and he will almost automatically enjoy the appropriate prestige. In sport, a true connection between doing and recognition is established, which substantially supports self-esteem. Sport proves itself as an instance of social well-being, since the individual can find social fulfillment in the recognition of his roles that are connected to his sporting activities. Of course, this is also possible in other areas of society. The opportunity to earn awards or a good reputation is not limited to physical activity. Sport is not the only social institution in which the kind of recognition that is necessary for identity is offered. However, in modern societies, there is hardly any other social institution that is available to so many people—regardless of gender, race, age, or level of education and income—as a system of acknowledgment by others. In professional sport, where, in the media age, sport professionals are often portrayed as extraordinary personalities, this might affect the athletes and cause identity problems among them.19 The image of an athlete, which is often positively exaggerated, might lead to disruptions in his self-perception, because it could complicate interactions with other people, or because the athlete might experience deep emotional wounds from a failure that does not fit his glorious image. Obviously, the athlete desperately needs success for his self-esteem (and for the formation of his identity). This causes a certain dependency, as Abraham states with regard to rhythmic gymnastics: The more successes the gymnasts achieve in the course of their careers on a national or international level, the more important these achievements become for them – and the more they become dependent on the requirements for achievement that others put on them. (Abraham 1986, p. 409, translated) 19

Abraham (1986) was able to determine “identity problems in rhythmic gymnastics” (translated), based on in-depth interviews. The conditions of this sport left a number of massive deficits in the personality structure of former female gymnasts. This way, Abraham called attention to a central problem which takes effect especially in professional sport and must not be underestimated, because each athlete is affected by it.

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This example from rhythmic gymnastics poses the question of why this individuality that is lived out in sport often cannot be realized in other areas of life. The answer is connected to the concurrence of action and representation. This way, the athlete is fully taken up by the sport, which fundamentally shapes his identity. To remain with the example of rhythmic gymnastics: The aura of delicate elegance and harmonious femininity that surrounds rhythmic gymnastics allows its participants to identify with attributes such as ‘beauty’, ‘grace’ and ‘aesthetics’, and, with the help of these symbols, to constitute a self-image of female attractiveness. (ibid., p. 398, translated) This allows for the reduction of complexity implemented in sport, which unites action and representation. What results is the decisive fact that distinguishes sport as a social phenomenon, namely that in sport, the societal values and norms are more clearly visible and experienceable than anywhere else, due to the concurrence of action and representation. This is why Krockow, following Helmuth Plessner, describes sport as the symbolic and most concentrated representation of the basic principles of industrial society. “Sport expresses the principles of industrial society much better than industrial society itself” (Krockow 1974a, p. 96, translated). The aspects of equal opportunity, competition, general comprehensibility of achievements, objectivity, exactness, comparability, measurability, allocation of ranking positions according to achievement, transparency of the differentiation of achievement, and many more besides, are better implemented in sport than in other areas of modern society. This is supported, for instance, by the fact that many athletes who are no longer capable of great achievements are afraid of acquiring a mass identity that perishes in a mass culture; that is, they dread the end of their careers. The danger of loss of identity and psychological breakdown is especially high if, for an individual, sport loses its function as a producer of identity. When his career is over, the athlete will no longer dispose of symbols that he could base his identity on. In the gray reality of everyday life, the clear symbols of sport are lacking. They have to be replaced by other symbols (such as cooperation, empathy, etc.), which, outside of sport, are usually much harder to present transparently. The unity of action and representation, of doing and recognition, finds an ideal possibility of realization in sport. It provides an essential explanation for the dominance of African Americans in US-American sport. After having remained in the shadow of social progress for centuries, this minority can finally test independence and personal ability in athletic achievements, as well as demonstrate superiority. African Americans are socially accepted as national

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representatives in sport. The social acknowledgment of their abilities gives rise to a special quality of self-esteem: a reflection on a self characterized by special skills. Via athletic achievements, it is possible to develop and affirm identities. This is especially true for young people. In adolescence, where the main problem lies in discovering and strengthening one’s own identity, young people can test their bodies in sport, where the results are immediately accessible, measurable, and visible. This way, competitions offer the adolescents a possibility to demonstrate their superiority over others—especially over older people—in order to show their self-worth. They gain certainty about their achievements and receive the kind of recognition that is necessary for identity. There are various examples for how adolescents found self-confidence, security, and inner balance in their athletic achievements. These achievements gave the young people a chance to develop their own identities and their individual characteristics, and to experience self-realization as a social value. In their attempts to prove to themselves that their bodies—and thus their selves—are superior, adolescents who are uncertain about their worth in other areas might be tempted to put themselves in danger: They drive their cars at full speed or take high risks in sport. That is to say, the primary and authentic experience that is given in sport can contribute to an athlete’s confirmation of identity (Weiss 2015a, pp. 4720– 4722). Thus, arousing the admiration of others and strengthening one’s own self-esteem in this way is an important motive for sport participation. 5

Sporting Identity

In the previous explanations, it was shown that the need for recognition and identity formation determines human behavior. The reason why this need can be fulfilled in sport is that it carries the conditions, forms and processes that shape social life in modern societies within itself. Losing and winning, getting up and staying on the ground, competition and cooperation, together and against each other, suffering and happiness, ability and inability, victory and defeat, humiliation and elevation, pride and fall, old and young together, all against one and one against all, community and individualism, mass and isolation, drama and aesthetics, the heroic and the common, generosity and egoism, deception and fairness, the fight between the rules of chivalry and the pursuit of achievement and success. All of this and much more applies to sport in both its small and its large forms, and to both participants and spectators. (Grupe 1987, pp. 59–60, translated)

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Sport represents a field in which the basic principles of society are applied, and in which social relations are established. Through the system of social norms, which become visible in sport due to its interconnectedness with society, sport facilitates the building and the confirmation of identities, and thus the desired social integration, that is, a recognition of achievements that are important in the existing culture. The athlete can use his skills and “exhibit attributes valued in the wider social world, such as dexterity, strength, knowledge, intelligence, courage, and self-control” (Goffman 1961, p. 68). However, it is not only true that the values and behavior patterns that are pursued in sport correspond to the qualities that are desired and acknowledged in society as a whole, but in addition, in sport, these values and behavior patterns are more clearly visible and experienceable than anywhere else. Due to the generally evident unity of action and representation that manifests itself in physical activity, the application of these values and behavior patterns immediately leads to success. This is an essential reason why sport offers itself as an excellent opportunity for social acknowledgment, recognition, and consolidation of self-esteem. Krockow points out that, for instance, achievement, success, cooperation and competition can be emphasized in sport in an especially clear, explicit and comprehensible way. The ideal-typical, quantifiable measurement units and the technical nature and neutrality of rules, which reduce sporting activities into clear symbols and through which sport becomes accessible as social action in an idealized form, turn sport into a universal form of communication that everyone can understand. Similarly, Ashworth (1976) speaks of sport as a “symbolic dialogue”. As we have seen so far, sport can be a potential area for athletes to gain social recognition and identity reinforcement. What is decisive is that the acknowledgment or reinforcement of identity can be maintained only on the basis of the value and norm system of the surrounding society or social group. Since this system is reflected very clearly in sport, sport offers an almost unique opportunity for acknowledgment and reinforcement of the athletes’ identity, i.e., sport has a special potential for identity formation. To build on this, in the course of a cross-cultural study that one of the authors of this book, Otmar Weiss, conducted together with Tim Curry at The Ohio State University, the following hypothesis was constructed: When social systems grant sport a higher social significance, then those who practice sport will also enjoy a higher degree of social recognition and identity reinforcement than is the case when social systems grant sport a less high social significance. They will have a stronger sporting identity (figure 6.2). In order to measure sporting identity, the scales ‘personal sporting identity’ and ‘social sporting identity’ were constructed. The personal sporting identity is a measure for how much one attributes the role of being an athlete to

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figure 6.2 Sporting identity

oneself. It consists of the statements listed in figure 6.3 (in this case with regard to volleyball). The social sporting identity is a measure for how much a person identifies with the role of the athlete attributed to him or her by society or by a social group. It is defined by the following statements listed in figure 6.4. The graphs demonstrate that the personal and social sporting identities of Austrian top volleyball players were less developed that those of US-American top volleyball players. Interestingly, US-American top volleyball players show better achievements and are much more successful than Austrian top volleyball players. From an empirical point of view, it would be worth testing whether high performance in sport goes hand in hand with strong sporting identities. In line with the aforementioned hypothesis, a possible explanation for both stronger sporting identity and higher performance is that the social significance of volleyball is much higher in the United States. In Austria, skiing is considered much more important than volleyball. Therefore, it is believed that the sporting identity of alpine skiers is more strongly developed than those of athletes practicing other sports. This is, not surprisingly, due to the fact that alpine skiing is Austria’s national sport and enjoys great popularity. From this, it follows that Austrian alpine skiers receive correspondingly higher social recognition and prestige. Austrian skiing champions are often seen as personifications of all the characteristics considered of

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Sport, Social Recognition, and Identity Items: 1. Participating in volleyball has given me confidence in myself. 2. Through volleyball I have developed a sense of inner strength. 3. Through participation in volleyball, I have learned to keep my body in a good physical condition. 4. I feel that volleyball has taught me how to set and achieve goals in my personals life.

AUSTRIA (n=348)

very strongly 5 agree 4 3

USA (n=359)

4,1

4,2

3,4

3,3

male

female

2 1 very strongly disagree 0

figure 6.3 Scale: Personal Sporting Identity / Means by Country and Gender

Items: 1. Many people think of me in terms of being a volleyball player. 2. It is important to my friends and relatives that I continue to participate in volleyball. 3. Other people think that volleyball is important to me. 4. Many people I know accept and acknowledge me as a volleyball player. very strongly 5 agree 4 3

AUSTRIA (n=348)

USA (n=359)

4,2

3,9

3,3

3,2

male

female

2 1 very strongly 0 disagree

figure 6.4 Scale: Social Sporting Identity / Means by Country and Gender

value in this country. These athletes usually come from simple Alpine backgrounds, train rigorously, never give up, accomplish great things, and—above all—remain modest. If they act according to these values, they are admired

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and honored. For instance, the image of skiing was used to construct a national Austrian identity after the Second World War. Nations too are concerned with the question ‘Who am I?’ For this reason, they make use of sport to reflect the image of what they would like to be. Sport can provide a society with a sense of prestige and national identity. Still, the question rises whether the social significance of skiing in Austria or that of volleyball in the United States is really so high. Contributions to these discussions are for the most part gross estimations on the social importance of sport, resulting from a lack of empirical evidence in this particular subject. In other words, the first part of the hypothesis above has not been proven yet. In order to measure the social significance of sport in different countries, the European Sport Index was created. It contains seven indicators that depict the social significance of recreational sport, club sport, school sport, the populations’ access to sport, the socio-political and economic significance of sport, and the significance of professional sport within the observed countries. These indicators were ranked through the benchmarking method from the field of statistics.

figure 6.5 European Sport Index: The significance of sport in the 28 EU member countries

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Figure 6.5 shows the resulting ranking of the 28 EU member states (as of 2016). The leading EU countries, Germany and France, display the highest Sport Index values. The ‘Motherland of Sport’, the United Kingdom (which is no longer part of the EU), comes below Denmark in fourth place. Malta, Greece, Portugal, and Bulgaria make up the lower end of the rankings. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Revision Questions Define ‘sociality’ and describe how it relates to sport. Name some examples from everyday life that illustrate man’s constant pursuit of recognition. What is the result of Durkheim’s study on suicides? Describe the ways in which individuals can find social recognition through sport, by means of the five types of social subjectivity by Popitz. Why are African Americans overrepresented in US-American sport? Explain the unity of action and representation with regard to achievement in sport.

chapter 7

Violence and Doping in Sport The higher the social significance of sport, the more important it is that positive values, such as health, trust or fair play, are in place. Whether or not this is the case depends on the values and structures of each particular society. To think along the same lines as Norbert Elias, we could say it depends on how far the civilizing process has progressed in a given society. The more civilized a society is, the higher its moral consciousness and sense of responsibility. In relation to sport this means: if the standard of behavior and culture of, say, society A is more civilized than that of society B, then A’s sports will be more civilized than B’s. In other words, sport is not and cannot be better than the society it is practiced in. We have seen this time and again, and so far, there is no reason to believe it will be different in the future. This sounds pessimistic only if we are convinced that society is becoming less moral, less civilized. But, fortunately, the opposite development is also possible. It is all a matter of societal values and norms. (Weiss 2015, p. 121) One of the most important values of sport is fair play, which will be presented as a possible solution to the problem of violence and doping in this chapter. The kind of acknowledgment that sport potentially offers can become addictive. If an athlete does not receive the recognition he needs, this lack is often compensated by an exaggerated striving for an excellent performance. This entails a number of problems, including violence and doping. Indeed, sport has become a huge industry, in which market-related actions and economic success are becoming increasingly important. The enormous economic importance of sporting successes has contributed to the fact that more and more athletes are engaging in instrumental violence. Deliberate foul play combined with absolute toughness are part of the agenda. For instance, the Brazilian soccer manager Luiz Felipe Scolari is known for his quote, “The team that fouls best will win”. Another saying among soccer coaches is, “You don’t have to play soccer, but instead make sure that the opponent cannot play soccer”. The emphasis on the achievement principle, according to which success justifies foul means, encompasses more and more areas of sport. In less violent sports where personal contact between the players is not allowed, such as basketball, fouls can often be used to tactical advantage. Any team that is © Waxmann Verlag GmbH, 2021 | doi:10.1163/9789004464711_009

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tactically well-advised will use intentional fouls to optimize performance. In light of this extreme roughness and brutality in professional sport, an athlete is fighting a losing battle if he is not willing to ride for a fall. Even in women’s sport physical violence is being used increasingly in the interests of winning. It seems that sport has completely taken over the success mentality of contemporary society. Equally problematic are acts of physical violence, exerted either by athletes against themselves, or by functionaries and sport physicians against athletes. The spectrum of physical manipulation covers cortisone and vitamin injections, autotransfusions, improvements of the blood’s flow properties, the use of beta-receptor blockers (such as Librium, Valium, etc.), local anesthetics and electrical stimulations, as well as the application of growth inhibitors, and even gene doping, surgical interventions and pregnancies are used to optimize motion sequences. The medical ethos, or the Hippocratic Oath, is sacrificed to the goal of achieving sporting success. When considering a top athlete’s tremendous possibilities of social success and advancement and, at the same time, the enormous competitiveness among the athletes, then it is not surprising that the temptation to take illegal, performance-enhancing drugs becomes bigger. Without a doubt, the global doping fraud is one of sport’s biggest problems and it is, in fact, not new. In ancient Greece athletes were taking substances to boost their performance. In these times, many athletes also believed in a higher power and used dream interpretation and magic in order to get an idea of or increase their chances of winning (Decker 1995, p. 13). Today, top athletes, coaches, doctors, sponsors, organizers, the media, associations, the state, the judiciary, and politics are all part of a gigantic, internationally operating doping network that is powered by a greed for profit and a thirst for glory (Digel 2007). There have been doping offenses in almost all Olympic disciplines, and almost every athletic achievement is suspected of having been performed in an unfair manner. Since doping manipulations occur in situations that defy public observation and control, the true scale of the doping problem is unknown. Again and again, new doping substances and methods are developed (such as gene doping), which are not easy to detect. Doping tests are circumvented and various tricks (such as enzyme preparations in urine samples) are deployed in order to not test positively. In his decision on whether he should dope or not, an athlete has to weigh the pros or benefits (improvement of his chances of winning) and the cons (health risks and risks of penalty) of his behavior. If the chances of winning are perceived to be more important than (future) health detriments and the danger

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to be caught doping, hardly anyone would flinch from doing it. In addition, an athlete must always take his opponents’ behavior into account. If he himself dopes but his opponent does not, he will have the biggest chances of winning, but if his opponent dopes and he himself does not, he will be unlikely to win. Hence, there is an especially great danger for successful athletes to dope. They are under an ever-increasing pressure to perform and confronted with expectations that are inhuman, and which the athletes could not meet without doping. In fact, there are special substances indicated for certain performances, some of which even protect the athletes’ health rather than harming it. Hoberman (2005) states that a “drug-free” sport is an illusion and provides a sobering outlook: This is especially true at elite levels, where athletes are subjected to constant physical and psychological stresses that are treated with drugs [...]. Doping has also spread to recreational sport and even sport for the handicapped, demonstrating once again how the modern fascination with performance extends far beyond the exclusive ranks of elite performers. (p. 275) What is equally widespread is neuroenhancement, that is, taking prescription medications, supplements and stimulants in everyday (professional) life. The dividing line between a moderate use of supplements and medications to their misuse, culminating in conscious doping, is often blurred. The main problem lies in the ignorance and carelessness when dealing with supplements. The underlying intention when taking these substances is to increase the individual (especially cognitive) performance (concentration, creativity, etc.), in order to be accepted in society. In this respect, the goal of medicine is no longer only to find cures, but also to increase performance. Example: Frequency of doping among competitive athletes The magnitude of the doping problem is documented by the results of studies on the frequency of doping in professional sport. For instance, using the Randomized Response Technique (RRT),1 Pitsch, Maats & 1 RRT: Embarrassing or even threatening questions in any field of social research often lead to biased results due to suppositions of social desirability by the interviewees. The RRT deals with this bias by inhibiting inference about the behavior of the respondent from his or her answers and provides insights into the proportion of people in the collective who display the sensitive attribute. In this case, one of the embarrassing questions the athletes were asked was: ‘Have you ever used illicit drugs or methods in order to enhance your sporting performance?’ Before the interviewee answered this question, he or she received an

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Emrich (2009), could show that 10 to 35% of German competitive athletes dope. In addition, other randomized-response surveys by Ulrich et al. (2018) found that at least 30% of participants in the 2011 Athletics Federations World Championships in Athletics (WCA) in South Korea, and 45% of athletes participating in the 2011 Pan-Arab Games in Qatar used performance-enhancing drugs. The doping problem has not been solved yet. Franke & Ludwig (2007, pp. 221– 253) have suggested a number of measures that could be taken to improve the situation and work towards a doping-free sport, which are summarized below: 1. Television stations should be prohibited from showing live broadcasts of sports with more than three cases of doping in a year. One step in this direction was taken in 2007, when the German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF stopped their transmission of the Tour de France after the cyclist Patrik Sinkewitz was caught doping. 2. When an athlete is tested positive for doping, he usually faces a period of ineligibility of two years. Franke & Ludwig (ibid.) demand tougher sanctions for doping offenders, with the maximum penalty being a ban for life. However, the punishment shall be reduced if the athlete gets involved in prevention measures. In addition, the doctors who administer the doping substances shall face more severe punishments as well. 3. The authors also demand more and stricter doping controls. Anti-doping agencies must act independently of sport organizations (who want to keep their doping offenses a secret), and there should be an international doping police who are allowed to travel anywhere considered necessary. There should also be more surprise controls and measures to prevent athletes from manipulating test results. 4. More programs to raise awareness of the doping problem would be useful, starting in schools: young people who dream of becoming professional athletes should learn from a young age about the dangers of doping, and ideally, athletes (who are often the role models of these a­ dditional instruction: ‘If your mother was born in the months of January, February, March or April, please answer “Yes,” irrespective of whether you have ever behaved in that way. If your mother was born in any other month, please answer honestly’. The proportion of ‘Yes’ answers derived from this instruction can be calculated using the distribution of births over the months which is well known from population censuses. This makes it possible to estimate the proportion of dopers in the collective without threatening honestly answering deviant athletes. It remains unknown for each individual ‘Yes’ answer whether it refers to the athletes’ behavior or to the month of birth of his or her mother. Thus, this technique allows deviators to answer honestly.

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a­ dolescents) shall be obligated to participate in these prevention programs. Even experienced athletes often do not know about the side effects of the doping substances they are taking, so they should learn about them. Key point: Trust and fair play as long-term solutions to violence and doping in sport In order to find a long-term solution to the major problems of modern sport, violence, and doping, it is important to start questioning the success mentality of contemporary sport, and focus on the values of trust and fair play. The idea of fair play was first invented in sport and is its moral compass. Fair play means: – equal opportunities for all participants; – respect for the opponent; – strict adherence to the rules. It is very easy to say, but rather difficult to achieve. History tells us how difficult it is to put the principle of fair play into practice, be it in sport or in everyday life. The appreciation of fair play was not part of sport from the start. Many authors (Elias [1972], Guttmann [1978], and Weiler [1991], to name a few) have come to the conclusion that there was practically no such thing as fair play as we understand it today in the contests of antiquity. It has been said that conditions such as assistance of one or the other by the Gods, mockery of the losers, or breaking rules by using trickery and deception were usual then—which contradict every item of the above definition of fair play. The original development of fair play took place in England in the 18th and 19th centuries. Here, the ideal of the perfect gentleman played an important role. He was a highly respectable character, of good family and a decent way of life. In the public schools, the ideal of the gentleman was transferred to sporting contests. Preservation of the equality of an opponent or opposing team, strict adherence to the rules, forgoing any unjustified advantages, and honest and honorable behavior towards the opponent were intrinsic elements in the educative ideal of fair play in English public schools. The items in our frame definition have thus all been fulfilled. The process of democratization and education in English public schools made it possible for fair play to develop in sport. Thus, England was the model-setting country, where according to Elias (1986, p. 151), some leisure activities involving bodily exertion assumed the structural characteristics that are identified in modern sports. A central part of this ‘sportization’

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process involved the development of a stricter framework of rules governing sporting competitions. The rules became more precise, more explicit, and more differentiated, while supervision of the observance of those rules became more efficient and penalties for offences against the rules became less escapable. A new measure to secure fair play in soccer is to employ video assistant referees (VARs), who make use of video footage to review the decisions made by the head referee. Video recordings are especially effective to display the clear body language of sport, and they make it easier to detect whether an offense has been committed. In addition, a computer system called ‘hawk-eye’ is employed in sports such as tennis, cricket, or badminton, to visually track the ball’s trajectory and calculate its statistically most likely path. One of the central objectives, perhaps ‘the’ central objective, of these new technologies and the tightening up of the rules was to ensure that sporting competitions were carried out with proper regard for fair play, the most important element of which is probably the idea that all competitors should have an equal chance of winning. Fair play has the potential for creating a peaceful and compassionate society. It is a value that both society and sport desperately need. In sport, fair play is the answer to violence, doping, and all the other negative factors. Solving the doping problem is not just a matter of punishing the perpetrator, but rather a matter of trust. The opponents in sport have to trust each other not to use performance enhancing drugs. Trust is the fundamental element of social relationships. Just like democracy and solidarity, trust is among the basic values that contribute to making relationships work. Successful relationships are what makes people happiest and what motivates them the most. Trust and fair play can control human achievements in competitive situations in a humane manner. The true and pure victory is based on fair play, which is the most important play. Fair play creates meaning and sets an example for a better world. The role of fair play within sport is therefore all the more important. It can be interpreted as the moral principle of society and sport. Moral behavior is the highest stage of human development. There is no area of human community exempt from moral assessment and moral consciousness. “The identity of an athlete should no longer be an identity based on success at all costs. Success does not justify foul means and […] it does matter how the game is played. Winning by any means is not the aim” (Weiss 2015, p. 128). The identity of sportsmen and women should be a fair play identity which refers to a system of virtue. The humanistic values

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of trust and fair play should be conveyed to the athletes, and particularly to the young people aiming for a career in sport. Four types of fair competition According to Karen & Washington (2015, pp. 13–15), there are four types of fair competition. The first type is contest fairness, meaning that all players have to follow the same rules, which definitely applies to sport. The second type is access fairness, according to which there must be open access for everybody to participate. This principle is also present in sport: access to participation is usually based on the individual’s talent, rather than on their class, ethnicity, or race. The third type is resource fairness. Resources are not always shared equally in sport, since wealthier teams often have advantages over poorer teams when it comes to acquiring talented players and thereby winning the games. The fourth type is pipeline fairness, which refers to a concept of fairness according to which athletes of different genders, social classes and ethnicities should not only have equal opportunities to participate in sport, but also to develop their physical skills. Competitive sport does provide a means to gain social recognition for members of different social classes and genders, however, the opportunity to develop one’s abilities is not equally available to everybody. 1. 2. 3. 4.

Revision Questions Why do athletes take performance-enhancing drugs? How widespread is doping according to various surveys conducted among athletes? How can doping be prevented? How could fair play develop in sport?

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Towards the Joy of Play and Movement in Sport Play is a fundamental element of human culture. A definition of the term ‘play’ that has now become classic was given by the Dutch historian Johan Huizinga (1872–1945). According to him, play is a “free activity”, which is “not serious” and felt as “standing quite consciously outside ‘ordinary’ life”, but which is still capable of “absorbing the player intensely and utterly”. It is an activity “connected with no material interest”, from which “no profit” is expected, which “proceeds within its own proper boundaries of time and space according to fixed rules and in an orderly manner”, and which “promotes the formation of social groupings” (Huizinga 1998, p. 13). Huizinga continues that play, as it is understood here, is a formative element of human culture, but it is not specific to humans; it also exists among animals: We have only to watch young dogs to see that all the essentials of human play are present in their merry gambols. They invite one another to play by a certain ceremoniousness of attitude and gesture. They keep to the rule that you shall not bite, or not bite hard, your brother’s ear. They p ­ retend to get terribly angry. And – what is most important – in all these doings they plainly experience tremendous fun and enjoyment. (ibid., p. 1) Tremendous fun and enjoyment can also often be observed among playing children, which has led some people to romanticize and idealize children’s play. In this context, Sutton-Smith (1986) notes that “these nostalgic strivings are interpreted in terms of culturally unconscious desires to recreate in our adult lives feelings that we did not achieve or have lost from our childhood” (p. 94). However, he criticizes this view and points out that this perceived freedom and innocence is not always present in children’s play. In fact, children are often excluded from playgroups if they do not meet certain expectations, and sometimes, children’s play can even be quite brutal. Therefore, Sutton-Smith argues that “voluntariness, intrinsic motivation, or freedom of choice are not essential concepts to any universal definition of play” (ibid., p. 97). What constitutes play for Sutton-Smith is that we pretend to be people that we are not. We allow ourselves actions that are not part of our everyday lives (we scream, we run, we sing, we chant, we skip, we punch with gloves, or we kick footballs). Furthermore, we © Waxmann Verlag GmbH, 2021 | DOI: 10.1163/9789004464711_010

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engage in reciprocal role reversal systems where we take turns at shifts in power and action: We go on attack and then on defense. First, we are the winners, then the losers. We establish order, then we bring it into disorder. Having established disorder, we return to order. Having accepted, we reject; having chased, we escape; having approached, we avoid; and so on. (ibid., pp. 99–100) He further argues that what mainly differentiates sport and play is that play is private while sport is public and institutionalized: Play and sport probably differ in their degree of access to private versus public emotion, in their informality or their institutionalization, in their potential randomness versus their relative conservatism. Play is more likely to be irruptive, disruptive, more private, and of less widespread social consequence. (ibid., p. 102) All the same, play can be regarded as a classical motive for doing sport. Man mainly practices sport or plays because it is fun. For instance, the joy of being capable is generally one of the purest and most fulfilling pleasures. People are pleased by the fact that their bodies work well. Pavlov (1955) spoke of a “muscular joy”, and before him, Harvey (1889) indicated that there was a “silent music of the body”. The joy humans find in their actions and movements is one of the most important intrinsic motives for their participation in sport or play. There is this charm or sport appeal that lies solely in visible, joyful, and boisterous movement, which has its own reward. definition Intrinsic motivation denotes the will to do something out of one’s own decision, because it is pleasurable and meaningful. Intrinsic equals self-determined or autonomous.1 The opposite is extrinsic, or other-directed. Extrinsic motivational factors incentivize people from the outside, through reward and punishment. The interplay between extrinsic 1 Dryden (n.y.) defines autonomy as “an individual’s capacity for self-determination or self-governance”. The concept of autonomy can be traced back to the Age of Enlightenment. According to the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), the principles by which humans make decisions should not be determined by society or political leaders, but by their own free will. “Instead of being obedient to an externally imposed law or religious precept, one should be obedient to one’s own self-imposed law. The former he [Kant] called heteronomy; the latter autonomy” (ibid.).

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forces and intrinsic needs and motives that are inherent in human nature is the subject of Self-Determination Theory (SDT) (Ryan & Deci 2016). In sport, SDT focuses, inter alia, on how social and cultural conditions improve people’s sense of volition and initiative, their well-being, as well as the quality of their performance. If these conditions support the human needs for autonomy (feeling ownership of one’s behavior), competence (controlling the outcome of a task and experiencing mastery) and relatedness (feeling connected to others), the individual is likely to be highly motivated and hence perform better. As shown in the following example, self-determination is crucial for efficient learning. If children are granted self-determination in education, they become more creative, and their self-esteem increases. Example: ‘Psychomotricity’ in school In a research project (Weiss et al. 2020) conducted in an elementary school and in a New Secondary School (Neue Mittelschule, comprising children aged 10 to 14) in Austria from 2014–2018, it was shown that good learning outcomes can primarily be expected when the children’s motivation is based on self-determination rather than on other-directedness. Accordingly, Pablo Picasso said: “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up” (Davidson 1976). The prerequisite for efficient learning is that the children’s interests and needs—especially their urge to move—are taken into account in the lessons. Based on this, the new academic discipline of ‘psychomotricity’ was developed, which focuses on the importance of physical activity for learning and self-development. Through the psychomotor teaching and learning method, intrinsic motivation is encouraged, since the urge to move is inherent in every child. The project aimed to examine the effects of this method on the children’s scholastic abilities. If children are given the possibility to move, they will approach new experiences with more enthusiasm. From the ages of 6 to 10, children are naturally lively and full of motion. Movement supports the brain’s oxygen intake, so it does not disturb concentration, but actually enables it. Learning and movement go hand in hand. In order to be able to conceive the meaning of concepts such as speed or gravity, it is helpful to encounter them via joyful experiences of movement. Words, numbers, but also more complex learning contents can be integrated into a game of movement. In this manner, children will understand and remember these concepts more easily. For example, in order to teach children certain letters, they might be given the task of walking along the form of the letter in the classroom. This way, the letter’s form will be internalized via the body

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and via numerous senses. It is only via the senses that the concepts can enter the mind, or that experiences turn into knowledge. Among elementary school pupils, the study showed that those children who were taught via the psychomotor teaching and learning method showed significant improvements in the fields of integration, classroom climate, self-concept and the feeling of being accepted. Their visual-spatial functions were also more highly developed than those of the children who were taught using traditional teaching methods. Pupils of the New Secondary School who experienced psychomotor training showed significant improvements in their self-esteem. Overall, the study clearly showed the positive impact of movement on children’s development. Our education system is still mainly based on extrinsic motivational factors, even though it is scientifically proven that intrinsic motivational factors have a stronger impact than extrinsic ones. In sport, top performances are usually based on intrinsic factors. People, of their own accord, want to distinguish themselves through their performances to prove to both themselves and to others that they are capable of outstanding achievements. No matter how far they have already come, they always want to extend the limits of their achievement, as indicated by the following quote by Michael Phelps, one of the best swimmers of all time: “You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the further you get” (cited in Weiss & Eichberg 2014, p. 13). Or, as the Kenyan long-distance runner Eliud Kipchoge puts it, “No human is limited”. In sport, man pushes his achievement further and further, like the horizon, the more he approaches it. It seems like there are no limits to how far an achievement in sport can be improved. 1

The Flow Experience in Sport

The theory of the flow experience (Csikszentmihalyi 1990) says that people can forget themselves in an activity, if they are fully able to cope with the relevant task (imposed on them either by themselves or by others). In this case, people are not working towards an external reward, but the activity itself, and becoming oblivious to one’s surroundings while performing it, is the goal. Csikszentmihalyi speaks of ‘autotelic activities’ (Greek ‘auto’ = self, ‘telos’ = goal). In these activities, the actor experiences the sequence of his actions as a process of uniform flow from one moment to the next. These flow experiences give rise to a spontaneous joy about the relevant activity. Sport offers possibilities for such experiences.

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According to Holt (2020), everyday tasks are often either perceived as uninteresting or too daunting, which leads to internal conflicts. In the flow experience, these conflicts can be resolved, and in addition, Holt argues that there is a strong connection between flow and aesthetics: As distinct from ordinary, boring experiences, flow likewise involves an intense, harmonious response to ongoing activities, a resolution of conflict not only between mind and body but also, in the psychological realm, between the intellect and the emotions, which on my account is precisely what constitutes aesthetic experiences. (p. 33) Sport appeal stands for such aesthetic experiences and denotes the fascination of movement. The sheer delight of being able to do something is a very gratifying feeling. With regard to brain physiology, the flow experience is characterized by a demonstrable release of the happiness hormones dopamine and serotonin. These messengers or endorphins allow for a quality of experience that, indeed, works like a drug—a healthy drug. Accordingly, sport is also used in prevention and therapy. There is no medication that has as many positive effects as sport with regard to physical, social, and psychological well-being. Physically (Saltin 2000), it fosters perseverance, strength, speed, mobility, and coordination. It also prevents so-called civilization diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, osteoporosis, and diabetes. Socially, it brings people together and thus reduces isolation and provides social recognition. Psychologically (Diamond 2013), sport positively influences stress regulation and the executive functions of the brain, including working memory (the ability to store information temporarily), cognitive inhibition (the ability to disregard stimuli which are irrelevant to the current task) and cognitive flexibility (the ability to think about multiple concepts at the same time, and to switch between them). These effects could occur to a particular extent when sport participants reach the state of flow. Once an athlete experiences flow and reaches a very high level of skill, sport transforms into art. This can happen in every type of sport and depends on the athlete’s talent. Key point: Sport as art If flow experiences in sport activities are based on a very high level of skill, sport turns into art. The search for the flow, or for self-determination, is a very strong motivator for the practice of sport. Self-determination and social recognition both

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trigger feelings. In sport, the feelings of self-determination and social recognition may overlap and action and representation coincide. In other areas of ­society, action and representation are increasingly falling apart. The fascination of sport is based primarily on the unity of action and representation, or of self-­determination (intrinsic motivation) and social recognition (identity reinforcement). Key point: The social psychological dimension of sport The following three phrases – being a body and having a body – action and representation – self-determination and social recognition relate to identical experiences that are essential for mental and social well-being in sport. 1. 2. 3.

Revision Questions Describe the theory of the flow experience. Describe the role of self-determination in sport. What constitutes the fascination of sport?

chapter 9

Sport and Communication In this chapter, sport is described as a special form of communication, and as a basic social process. The starting point for the theoretical description is symbolic interactionism,1 which regards man as an acting being. Human groups are seen as consisting of human beings who are engaging in action. The action consists of the multitudinous activities that the individuals perform in their life as they encounter one another and as they deal with the succession of situations confronting them. (Blumer 1986, p. 6) Human groups and societies can exist only through action, which presupposes interaction between the members. What is decisive in this respect is that man does not only live in a natural environment, but that he mainly creates an artificial, or a symbolic environment (with which he is connected as a social being). As a “social product” (Blumer 1986, p. 5), the meaning of everything and everyone is the result of manifold processes of definition and interpretation that occur between human beings. In short, human coexistence is a process in which objects are created, confirmed, adapted, and dismissed. This requires communication, which, in this sense, can be understood as a process of “mediation of meaning between living beings” (Maletzke 1978, p. 18, translated). The beginning of communication is the transmission of gestures. Mead (1934, p. 97) understands a gesture to mean every impulse of an organism that acts as a stimulus on other living beings: movement (= motoric gesture), facial expression (= mimic gesture), or sound (= vocal gesture). According to Mead, the gesture constitutes the initial stage of every form of social behavior. For instance, an infant is born with a very high sensitivity for mimic gestures and reacts to facial expressions earlier than to most other stimuli. Later, a gesture, 1 According to Blumer (1986, p. 2), the action-theoretical understanding of symbolic interactionism rests on three premises: 1. Human beings act toward things on the basis of the meanings that these things have for them—whereas the term things can be understood as everything that the human being is able to perceive (physical objects, as well as persons, ideas, etc.). 2. The meaning of things is derived from the social interaction between human beings. 3. Throughout the years, these meanings can change in an interpretative process due to concrete experiences and analyses of these things. © Waxmann Verlag GmbH, 2021 | DOI: 10.1163/9789004464711_011

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such as waving at someone, becomes a symbol and thus facilitates symbolically mediated interaction, that is, human communication. As an “animal symbolicum” (Cassirer 1962), man is able to not only react to symbols (signs)2 and their associated meanings, as it is supposedly the case in animals, but man can also understand these meanings.3 Man possesses the ability to assign certain thoughts, opinions, ideas, and meanings to a sign. Through this allocation of meaning, it is possible to “develop a characteristic attitude towards objects in absentia, which is called ‘thinking of’ or ‘referring to’” (Langer 1948, p. 24). The linguistic symbol of fair play does not refer to a concrete object, but rather to a way or condition of acting, a feeling, etc., that is, an area of reality that can only be perceived via indicators (substitutes). Equally, the Olympic flag does not symbolize an object that is directly perceptible, but it represents the connection of the five continents and the Olympic idea: Taking part is what counts, which is an attitude, an ethos, etc. When people act communicatively, they want to share meanings and pursue certain interests. The main criterion lies in the achievement of the objective: understanding. We speak of communication when the people acting communicatively can understand each other. For this purpose, a mediating authority, that is, a medium, is necessary. This can be language, facial expressions, gestures, etc. It is only with the help of these means of expression that meaningful contents take shape. Finally, every single medium has a more or less large number of means of expression at its disposal. “For instance, via the medium of ‘language’, it is possible to develop and to combine a variety (a potentially limitless number) of linguistic signs, and thus express a wide range of different meaningful contents” (Burkart 2002, p. 39, translated). In this sense, words can be described as symbols (or signs). For example, the word spoon is a symbol that is used to describe the object we use for eating soup. This way, the symbolic character of human communication becomes apparent. Understanding (or communication) can occur only when similar meanings are updated in the consciousness of the communication partners. This presupposes a supply of signs, which, for the respective communication 2 The original definition of ‘sign’, which can be traced back to medieval scholasticism, is “aliquid stat pro aliquo” (something stands for something else) (Pelz 1975, cited in Burkart 2002, p. 49). Symbols appear as signs when they represent something (an object, a condition, an event, etc.). They trigger opinions, ideas, and thoughts in an individual’s mind which are usually only triggered by this particular object, condition, or event (ibid.). 3 According to Plessner (2003b, p. 407), animals cannot move beyond the contact with things. Human beings, in contrast, can intellectually grasp the meaning of things (for fundamental information on this issue, see Mead 1934).

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partners, refer to the same objects (items, states of being, ideas, opinions, concepts, etc.). Those signs (symbols) that accomplish this are called significant symbols by Mead. Accordingly, significant symbols are signs that have the same meaning for the communication partners; they evoke the same attitudes in the individual who is setting the symbol as they do in the individual who is reacting to it (Mead 1934, p. 103). This form of communication, which makes use of significant symbols, is characterized by the fact that it is directed not only to others but also to the individual himself. […] But it is where one does respond to that which he addresses to another and where that response of his own becomes a part of his conduct, where he not only hears himself but responds to himself, talks and replies to himself as truly as the other person replies to him, that we have behavior in which the individuals become objects to themselves. (ibid., p. 216) Taking over of the roles of other people is constitutive for becoming aware of one’s self,4 or for the formation of one’s respective specific identity. Man as an acting being always needs social experiences—that is, interaction (communication)—in order to fulfill his needs for recognition and strengthen his self-esteem. Communication proves to be a prerequisite for becoming human and for being human. The formation of identity and self-awareness is only possible via communication with other people (in the course of role taking). definition Self-awareness denotes the adoption of the attitudes that we supposedly trigger in others. The continuous acquisition of a self, as a lifelong process, implies social relationships, that is, communicative encounters with other people. The use of significant symbols and the mutual taking over of roles in the framework of interpersonal communication are elementary conditions for the development 4 The self consists of a set of different identities or roles (identities and roles denote the same concept, while the former term regards it under subjective aspects, and the latter from the viewpoint of another person or other persons). “The term role will be used to refer to a cluster of related meanings and values that guide and direct an individual’s behavior in a given social setting; common roles are those of a father, a physician, a colleague, a friend, a service club member, a pedestrian. A person plays one of these roles in each social relationship he enters. A person is thus likely to play many roles in the course of a day, and role-playing constitutes much of his behavior” (Rose 1962, p. 10).

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of the self. In this way, man can realize a confirmation of his identity (and thus also reinforcement of his self-awareness). Through his communicative actions, man tries to realize his potential and to achieve a breakthrough of his interests. Man is forced to communicate: “Without his unique ability of symbolic communication, the human being, the way he has become so far, and the way he is developing every day, would not be conceivable” (Burkart 2002, p. 165, translated). definition Communication is the basic element of every social relationship between people, in which mutually oriented behavior (through gestures, facial expressions, language, etc.) is the means for reaching understanding. In light of this, the social component of sporting identity becomes accessible as a communicative situation. The individual experiences himself as an athlete—not directly, but indirectly—from the point of view of the sport group (sport club) or from the generalized point of view of the society (or nation) to which he belongs. He brings his own experience as a sport personality, or his sport-related identity, into the game—not only directly, by becoming a subject to himself, but also indirectly, by becoming an object to himself, in the course of which he takes over the attitudes that other individuals have towards himself. The cooperative share that everyone should contribute is being standardized into an unpersonal role, such as the role of a goalkeeper. Successful participation in the game requires the individuals to see themselves from the points of view of various other positions. (Helle 2001, p. 79, translated) For example, when an individual member of a basketball team takes over the attitude of the team, he can develop his identity and then find confirmation for this identity. According to Mead, the logic of a competition allows for the development of a strong, unified identity: There is a definite end to be obtained; the actions of the different individuals are all related to each other with reference to that end so that they do not conflict; one is not in conflict with himself in the attitude of another man on the team. If one has the attitude of the person throwing the ball he can also have the response of catching the ball. The two are related so that they further the purpose of the game itself. They are interrelated in a unitary, organic fashion. (Mead 1934, p. 240)

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When man engages in sporting activity, he arouses in himself those meanings (attitudes, opinions, ideas, etc.) which he also evokes in the consciousness of the others (with whom he plays handball, for example). Becoming aware of how another person will act, and then adjusting one’s attitude accordingly, is the basis or prerequisite for the development of identity and self-awareness. In sport, as well as in other areas of life, this mechanism occurs via significant symbols. The dimensions of speed, weight, space, and time, which are experienced in movement and in proficiency, are objectified and reduced in the form of significant symbols, which can be regarded as common meanings and values shared with others. In this sense, through the concurrence of action and representation, the complex and manifold reality of sport becomes comprehensible and clear. It takes effect through the instrumental values of goals, seconds, points, etc. In contrast to modern society, a complex structure that demands increasing virtuosity in role-playing and in which there is in many areas little scope for creating an identity, the significant symbols of sport label and classify social values and norms very clearly and visibly. (Weiss 2001, p. 401) The individual athlete builds and develops his symbols and their meanings out of personal, subjective context of adventure and experience. The symbolic structure of sport is not objective. All those involved in the competition, that is, actors, referees, judges, functionaries and spectators, each have their own ideas of what is meant by sport. However, in support of the social dimension of sport, the fact remains that the individual’s subjective world of experience generally shares common features with that of his fellow human beings. “Practically all the symbols a man learns he learns through communication (interaction) with other people, and therefore most symbols can be thought of as common or shared meanings and values” (Rose 1962, pp. 5–6). Accordingly, the physical actions in a game are woven into comprehensive symbol systems: When a game of soccer begins, single individuals become teams, goal areas become danger zones, the opponent becomes an enemy, one’s own actions become means of resistance, the ball in motion becomes a desired object, and shooting a goal becomes a triumph over the enemy […]. In this sense, all the participants in a game perform a symbolic interpretation, in such a way that all of them build a symbol system which, in each case, is equal in its essential structures. Every individual player

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constitutes a symbol system, but the system itself is public, societal and conventional. (Gebauer 1983, pp. 159–160, translated) In their sporting activities, the social actors form symbolically mediated relationships with each other; they want to share meanings. We have something like a discourse, which has to be harmonized by the actors. The athletes behave towards each other in a meaningful way if they mutually recognize each other in their special identities, for instance, as strikers or defenders in a game of soccer. It is only then that their actions take on meanings and only then, there are motives to perform these actions. Before the interaction partners have communicated about the possible roles that they could take over in certain situations, they are not able to act communicatively and intentionally. The social dimension of sport becomes accessible via significant symbols (meanings shared with others). The actors in sport can perform achievements of presentation in a much more convincing way than is possible in other areas of life. Through the unity of action and representation in sporting activities, clear and explicit symbols—significant symbols—are expressed.5 The key criterion for communication is to achieve understanding and this is exactly what significant symbols are for. Significant symbols in sport guarantee understanding and a confirmation of identities. The importance of communication lies in the fact that man can only develop in the course of communicative encounters with other people. The homo socius is always and to the same extent a homo communicans. Accordingly, Fine (1986, pp. 159–169) examined small groups in sport from a symbolic interactionist perspective. He described the following concepts as important points of analysis: 1. Sport rituals: Athletes often perform rituals before or during important contests. These rituals may be carried out both individually or together by the entire team, and they give players additional confidence. An important ritual, especially in baseball, is cheering or chatter, which “provides a means by which players can symbolically affirm their team relationships. Cooperative in-group relationships and competitive out-group relationships are defined and emphasized through cheering and chatter” (p. 163). 2. Sport rhetoric: This includes the way the coaches speak to their players. Often, the importance of teamwork is emphasized in the coaches’ speeches during practice or after the games. Fine gives the following example for such a speech: “Pull for your team. We don’t have room for a 5 However, also in sport, disturbances in communication can occur, especially through doping and violence.

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bunch of individuals. Every one of us must do our best. Last year we had a lot of prima donnas, and we only came in third” (p. 164). 3. Momentum and history: In most team sports, the individual games are embedded within seasons, so the goal is not just to perform well at one particular game, but throughout the entire season. Therefore, the attention of the team is not only on what is happening in a given moment, but also on the previous or subsequent games. The dynamics in a sport team are constantly changing, because “a sport team is concerned with its evolving history and believes that strategic change can alter its past record” (p. 165). Throughout this process, teams generate meanings for themselves, which is “a key fact for the symbolic interactionist perspective on group dynamics” (p. 166). 4. Team culture: Every group creates its own culture, called ‘idioculture’, which is defined as “a system of knowledge, beliefs, behaviors, and customs shared by members of an interacting group to which members can refer and can employ as the basis of further interaction” (p. 166). A team’s culture serves to enhance group cohesion, and it might be expressed in certain rules that apply only to this particular team. 5. Failure: Inevitably, there is both a winner and a loser in each contest. When considering an entire season, then we have significantly more losers than winners. Therefore, the way a team deals with failure is also an important topic of analysis. According to Fine, “Both success and failure carry with them symbolic meaning about self and group. However, these meanings are not inevitable and are subject to social construction by the members of the team” (ibid., p. 169). Physical activity manifests itself in the form of significant symbols and presents ideal communicative conditions for social action. Sport is communication via the body. The body (bodily actions or movements) is the medium of expression and communication. Socialization is always also a socialization of the body. The symbols of the body are learned and understood automatically, because socialization is mainly an unconscious process. As the body language of sport is culturally shaped, it is comprehensible. In light of the communicative deficiencies in modern societies, a unique field of communicative use arises in sport. Sport presents itself as a form of communication that is able to convey a confirmation of identities and fulfill needs for recognition. This sense of identity increases self-esteem. As a social and communicative instance of recognition, sport has a functional meaning. This was clearly shown in a study on the role of sport in the lives of young, Muslim female immigrants in Norway (Walseth 2006, p. 461), which will be described in more detail in the following example.

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Example: Sport and belonging Walseth (2006) conducted a study based on interviews with 21 young ­Norwegian Muslim women, who, at the time of the study, were between 16 and 25 years old. They were second-generation immigrants, meaning that they were either born in Norway, or they had moved to Norway together with their parents. The main question was whether and in which way these young women experienced a sense of belonging through the sports they practiced. Walseth found that there were three main ways that athletes could develop feelings of belonging through sport: “belonging due to social support and reciprocity, belonging due to sport being a ‘place of refuge’ and belonging due to identity confirmation” (p. 460). In the first case, a feeling of belonging arises out of collectively defined practices and a sense of togetherness and camaraderie in a team. The basis for this type of belonging is reciprocity, meaning that the team members support each other (in the sport context, but also outside of it), and they receive recognition as a member of a group, as well as recognition in their role as athletes. One of the interviewees, Noora, reported that she was part of a team that mainly consisted of players from a minority background. Due to this shared characteristic, the team members felt a sense of closeness. They also enjoyed surprising people by being good players, challenging the common view that only locals performed well in sport. The second type refers to the fact that sport might serve as a place of refuge, or a free space, especially to those who experience difficult situations in their everyday life. One interviewee, Zelma, said that she had a lot of responsibility at home, since she had to take care of her younger siblings, in addition to her schoolwork. Her participation in basketball offered her a space where she could escape from all her duties at school and at home and pursue her own interests, instead of only acting according to her parents’ wishes. Sport offered Zelma a possibility to construct her own, individual identity, which is different from the traditional forms of femininity that are valued in Islamic culture. The third type, belonging due to identity confirmation, ties in with this idea: Sport is perceived as a means of building and confirming one’s own identity. Kleo, another participant in the study, said that she quit soccer and started playing basketball because the latter sport fitted better with her personality. Her sense of belonging to her basketball team “was based on the feeling that she was one of them” (ibid., p. 458). The sport of basketball is particularly attached to a specific lifestyle, so it offers ideal conditions for identity building and confirmation. Walseth (p. 459) stated

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that the young women who experienced this form of identity work in sport did not feel a particularly strong sense of belonging to a group. Their feeling of belonging, rather, was directed toward the activity itself. In fact, Walseth argues that these “expressive communities” (p. 462), where identity confirmation and individuality seem to be more important than friendship and social support, are becoming increasingly popular in sport. This can also be seen by the emergence of new, so-called “lifestyle sports”, such as snowboarding or street dance (Wheaton 2004). This way of developing feelings of belonging through sport corresponds best with the understanding of how sport might contribute to a recognition of personal identity, meaning that a person can receive social approval for being special, different and unique. This form of recognition can most likely be achieved in individual sports, like skiing or horseback riding, as well as alternative sports, extreme sports, or lifestyle sports. However, in the case of the Muslim women interviewed in Walseth’s study, the fact that they were even involved in any sport at all was enough for them to be recognized as being different from other Muslim women. It is still quite uncommon for young Muslim women to practice sport regularly. In fact, according to a study by Sport England, only 18% of Muslim women living in England practice sport regularly, that is, at least once a week.6 Walseth also admits that participation in sport does not necessarily lead to feelings of belonging among the athletes. In fact, two of the young Muslim women felt isolated and excluded from their soccer teams. Both of them were ambitious players and had changed into a new sport club outside their neighborhood, which played at a higher level. However, the members of this new club were all from the majority population, and mostly from the upper social classes. Hence, both the minority/majority divide and social class differences made it harder for the Muslim women to form new friendships. This story illustrates that “social class can be a barrier for belonging to develop” (p. 460). The study clearly showed that sport provides an excellent possibility of fulfilling the human need for identity confirmation and social recognition. This is especially true for minority groups, such as African American men or Muslim women, who often have a hard time achieving this recognition in other areas of life.

6 “Equity in Sports Participation,” downloaded from Sport England, https://www.sportengland.org/ research/understanding-audiences/faith/.

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Revision Questions What is the main idea of symbolic interactionism? Define the term ‘gestures’, according to Mead. What is the main criterion for successful communication? What are significant symbols? Give some examples with regard to sport. Can sport be regarded as communication? Summarize the main findings of Walseth’s study on young Muslim women in sport.

chapter 10

Sport Spectators The social communicability of sport applies to both athletes and spectators. The peculiarities of the reality of sport, such as clarity, exactness and integrity,1 provide for a transparency that is not even remotely given in other areas, neither in economy, nor in art, or politics. Krockow speaks of a simplicity, clarity and transparency of the main principles of sport, which he sees as a counterpart to the constantly progressing complication of the modern state of being: Modern competitive sport presents an extreme case of artificial reduction of complexity. Within the set of rules of the respective sport it is possible to turn the […] increasingly onerous ambiguity of human action and its evaluation into absolute clarity. (Krockow 1974c, p. 22, translated) In sport, one can be guided by simple dichotomies, such as goal or goal against, victory or defeat, teammate or opponent. This possibility of orientation towards simple categories is one of the prerequisites for the passive participation of a mass audience. Everyone can understand sport, everyone can comment on it, everyone can feel like an expert and everyone can communicate about sport with everyone. This simple communicability and comprehensibility of sport is only one factor of its audience appeal. Other important factors are the possibilities for social integration, for identification, and for experiencing suspense and showing intense emotions. Moreover, sport can offer a substitute for religion. 1

Social Integration

When speaking to stadium visitors, in addition to their declared interest in the respective sport, it becomes clear that they are mainly there to experience community. Wann et al. (2001, pp. 31–32) speak of “group affiliation” or “the desire to spend time with others” as the central motive for spectators. Accordingly, spectators mostly visit sport events together with friends or family members. Often, they also travel to the event together, which can be an integrative experience: 1 Integrity in sport has its limits, as illustrated in Chapter 7, by means of violence and doping. © Waxmann Verlag GmbH, 2021 | DOI: 10.1163/9789004464711_012

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People are flocking together from everywhere; busses and trains are filling with kindred spirits. It almost seems as if on game day, the whole city knows only one topic and one destination: the stadium. (Bausenwein 2006, p. 13, translated) Once arrived at the stadium, people feel integrated into a “focused gathering” (Goffman 1961, pp. 9–10). A focused gathering is a social construct that is neither stable enough to be called a group, nor unstructured enough to be called a mass. We also speak of a “focused interaction” when “people effectively agree to sustain for a time a single focus of cognitive and visual attention” (ibid., p. 7), which is definitely the case when people gather in a stadium to watch a game. The relationship between the stadium visitors is characterized by an “unconditional closeness” (Heyer 1998, p. 36, translated). They feel a sense of community without having to participate socially (ibid.). This feeling of community, the atmosphere and the mood of the audience, as well as the individual’s own inclusion in this mood constitute central moments of experience. After the event, the experience is often concluded in a celebration or a drink of consolation, depending on whether the team one supports has won or lost the game. 2 Identification definition Identification is an unconscious orientation towards a person or group with a resulting feeling of close emotional association. Teams or athletes are often seen as representatives of larger social units, or they have their own fan communities to whose members they offer excellent possibilities of identification2 (“representational sport”, Guttman 1986, p. 182). Accordingly, more than 85% of sport spectators identify to a greater or lesser extent with an athlete or a team (Stollenwerk 1996, p. 82). When spectators identify with the respective team, they talk about it as if they themselves would belong to it. For instance, they say, ‘Today, we will play…’, or ‘We have beaten…’. This is not only the case when the respective team is a regional or the national team, but to the same extent, or even more so, when the preferred club team 2 In psychoanalysis, identification is known as the earliest expression of an emotional tie with another person (Freud 1949, p. 59). In the process of identification, the individual can experience certain drives as fulfilled, whose satisfaction is denied to him in real life, partly for societal and partly for individual reasons.

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is playing.3 In this case, the team constitutes an “extension” (Wann et al. 2001, p. 4) of the individual fan. Fans must be distinguished from mere consumers or customers, who only visit the event for entertainment purposes or because they find joy in the technical or aesthetic quality of the game. Schlicht & Strauss give the following explanation for the term fan: If we speak of a fan, we mean someone who builds part of his self-concept through his connection to a sport team, sport association, or also to an athlete. Fans completely (or at least to a large extent) adjust their social identities to the expectations which the group to whom they feel a sense of belonging supposedly puts on them. Identification is the process in which this connection is built, maintained and, of course, also shown. (2003, p. 140, translated) For fans, their club or their team is part of their identity. Therefore, they share the thrill with the players of their team in the stadium. This form of compassion allows for an experience that has the character of a personal participation. A fan watching the scorer having a shot on goal experiences the same feelings as the scorer himself (if he belongs to the fan’s preferred team): He is feeling the same suspense, he is holding his breath, his legs are twitching as if he would have a shot on goal himself, and when the goal is finally scored, he will also raise his arms and erupt with jubilation. Even at the physiological level, witnessing the sport event can trigger the same activation symptoms— or “bioelectrical activities” (Röthig 2003, p. 172, translated)—in the spectators as in the active participants. Through his identification with the active participants, the individual fan experiences the game at firsthand, and his compassion for his team’s success or failure is shared by many other fans. What results is an ideal situation for the fan’s identity confirmation. The other fans, who are equally involved in the event through compassionate participation, send him signals of confirmation and recognition. By identifying with a team or with an idol, fans also experience a mutual identification. Every fan knows that he is not alone with his feelings, but that these feelings are shared by other fans; thus, he is part of a community of feeling. In this community of feeling, fans can reciprocally intensify each other’s

3 According to studies by Hognestad (2009), the fans’ bond to the national team depends more on the team’s successes and is more superficial than the bond that passionate fans feel with their club team.

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feelings. For instance, they all feel boundless joy when their own team or their own idol triumphs over the other one. The idol is a social figure who leaves traces of action, also as a representative of all those who can only or have to act in a less visible, and maybe also less meaningful way in their everyday lives. It is just because sport idols are persons who have achieved successes through their own efforts, and who thereby show acts of empowerment to the audience in a very real way, that they are worshipped by their fans. (Bette 2010, p. 109, translated) Idols constitute focal points of sport enthusiasm, or generally of emotionality in sport. The fans’ identification with a sport idol can also go so far that the athletes are perceived as “the embodiment of a collectivity” (Guttmann 1986, p. 182), or, in other words, they can be seen as representatives of a whole school, nation, race, or religion. This is, for instance, demonstrated by the example of the black boxers. In 1908, the white boxer Jim Jeffries failed to beat the African American heavyweight champion Jack Johnson, which caused race riots among the fans. Another example for the African Americans’ strong identification with sport idols can be seen in the following account of the African American writer Maya Angelou, who described how African Americans from poor backgrounds gathered at her grandmother’s store to listen to radio broadcasts of fights of the black boxer Joe Louis. When Louis was in trouble, the African Americans interpreted it as an allegory for the sufferings of their race: It was not just one black man against the ropes, it was our people falling. It was another lynching, yet another black man hanging on a tree. One more woman ambushed and raped. A black boy whipped and maimed. It was hounds on the trail of a man running through slimy swamps. It was a white woman slapping her maid for being forgetful. We didn’t breathe. We didn’t hope. We waited. (cited in Guttmann 1986, p. 182) The African Americans were very proud when in 1938, Joe Louis beat the ­German boxer Max Schmeling in the first round after a fight that only took two minutes and four seconds, and they celebrated this victory on the streets with great enthusiasm. The performance of an idol or team with which sport fans identify can also influence the fans’ judgments of their personal capabilities. Highly identifying fans who have just witnessed a victory often experience an increase in self-­ esteem and are more likely to believe themselves capable of performing certain mental, social, and motor skill tasks than highly identifying fans who have

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just witnessed a defeat. Davis & End (2010) confirmed that highly identifying fans often suffer a decrease in self-esteem after witnessing a defeat of their preferred team. Another study by Schwarz et al. (1987) found that German citizens reported higher levels of life satisfaction after their national soccer team had won than prior to the game. Booksh Burns (2014) argued that this increased life satisfaction can also have positive effects on job satisfaction and performance. 3

Experiencing Suspense and Showing Intense Emotions

Stadium visitors can be pleased with their idol’s or their team’s victory, they can be angry about a defeat, and they can participate in exciting moments. In a time and phase of the civilizing process where in general, tensions are tightly controlled, and feelings of boredom arise, sport offers its spectators a possibility to satisfy their “quest for excitement” (Elias 1986). In the stadium, visitors can express spontaneous emotions, which have to be contained in other areas of society, both verbally and even physically, without the fear of being reprimanded. Everyday norms are suspended for a while, as they are, for instance, also in the annual carnival celebrations (Heyer 1998, p. 37; Bausenwein 2006, pp. 17–18). Therefore, the stadium offers a free space for an excessive expression of emotions. Here, the spectators are allowed to hug, to kiss, they can jump into the air, rage, sing, whistle, yell, roar, groan, wail, boo, rant, curse, scream, and shout. “Where, in everyday life, can you open your mouth and scream as loudly as you can, and as uninhibitedly as you want, without any restrictions? A shout is always acceptable when a goal is scored, but also shouts of rage are allowed” (Theweleit 2008, p. 49, translated). The individual spectator can not only share his anger and his joy with his companions, but also with surrounding strangers, to whom, in part, he is in close physical contact. Towards these complete strangers, he can simply act on an emotional level, without having to give complicated explanations. The sport event offers excellent possibilities for this. 4

Sport and Religion

Sport and religion are institutions in which ritualized behavior plays an important role. Rituals promote a sense of community and impart meaning. In comparison to the ancient world, where religion was turned into sport (Olympic Games were held in honor of the gods), it is the other way around today. Sport is taking the place of religion. Some researchers interpret the sport

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events themselves and, even more so, the fan activities surrounding them, as events or practices of quasi-religious character.4 According to Hansen (2000), Martinez (2002, pp. 30–31), Bauer (2006), Neuhold (2008, pp. 23–24), Schediwy (2012, pp. 22–24), Melnick & Wann (2010, p. 457) and Boyle (2001, p. 44), the following similarities between sport and religion can be stressed: – fan clubs appear as church communities; – game days appear as religious holidays, and the match calendar, with its highlights at special times of the year, appears as a liturgical calendar; – the clubs’ flags and other fan merchandise appear as ritual objects; – the ignition of incense candles or sparklers is seen as a ritualistic act, and the smoke of candles, smoke grenades, or Bengal lights is regarded as frankincense; – garments showing the club emblem, or garments in the club colors, appear as religious frocks; – players are regarded as priests, and ball boys as altar boys; – star players appear as saints who are worshipped; – the star players’ autographs, goalkeeper gloves, sweaty jerseys, and so forth, appear as relics; – the arrangements of such relics, as well as of photographs, souvenirs, etc. in the fans’ living rooms appear as house altars; – the introduction of the players, especially of the star players, by the stadium announcer appears as a Litany of the Saints; – interviews with players or coaches appear as sermons; – the referee appears as the Pope, who makes infallible decisions; – the stadium appears as a totem (as a journalist described the Melbourne Cricket Ground), a temple, cathedral or parish church (as, for instance, in Saint Hanappi, referring to the Gerhard Hanappi Stadium in Vienna), and the playing field appears as a sanctuary that can only be entered by certain actors (the sacred grass); – the fans’ journey to the game appears as a pilgrimage or procession; – the fans’ songs appear as cultic chants; – stadium waves and clapping rhythms appear as trance-like, collective ritual acts; – the collective experience in the stadium appears as the Holy Communion; – victory is seen as life, and defeat as death; 4 This is not surprising, given that the ancient Olympic Games were also celebrated as religious rituals, and the runners were seen as “representations of the gods” (Guttmann 1986, p. 177). Edwards (1973) argued that the universal “popular” religion of the United States is sport. He referred to 13 essential features that sport shares with religion.

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– the delirious state one finds oneself in after a victory is described as being drunk on God (or soccer itself is seen as God); – raising the winner’s cup, so that fans can see it, is seen as a showing of the monstrance or the chalice; – the tales of classic games or great players appear as mythical commemorations. Indeed, if one bears in mind that in England, for instance, soccer associations offer fan-specific tombs (“football funerals”; Sharpe 2001, p. 9), the comparison of fan communities to religious communities does not seem too far-fetched. The formation of fan communities must be seen against the background of the development of modern societies. One of these developments is the decrease in Christian ecclesiastical religiousness; therefore, the room for substitute religions is increasing (Höllinger 2005). Delaney & Madigan quote trending data from the United States, indicating that sport is growing in popularity while religion is losing some of its popularity (2015, p. 349–350). For instance, in 1990, 8% of the U.S. population was religiously unaffiliated, and in a survey from 2012, 20% of American adults stated that they had no religious preference. Another report from 2012 showed that two out of three American adults believed that religion was losing its influence. The number of American sport fans, however, is clearly increasing. In 2012, 6 in 10 Americans considered themselves as sport fans, whereas 50 years earlier, only 30% of Americans reported being sport fans. Another development is the differentiation of modern societies into highly complex structures. In their current awareness and personality structure, many people cannot keep up with the complexity and abstractness of these systems anymore, so that their basic social expectations remain unfulfilled. What is more, there is a loss of traditional community and group affiliations (in the family, etc.), in favor of patterns that are more society oriented. The possibility of realizing an emotional experience of a social unity is becoming increasingly rare, since all social relationships are immersed in an “acid bath of competition” (Beck 1992, p. 94), which dissolves communalities and gives rise to strong feelings of social insecurity. In this situation of uncertainty and disintegration (Beck 1999), communities, such as those of fans, offer orientation, a bit of meaning, and a feeling of belonging and security, which is also expressed in the lyrics of the official anthem of the soccer club Liverpool FC, ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’: “When you walk through a storm Hold your head up high And don’t be afraid of the dark

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[…] Walk on, walk on With hope in your heart And you’ll never walk alone” Example: Liverpool FC Liverpool FC was founded in 1892 and is one of the most successful and most popular soccer clubs in England, with around 100 million fans worldwide (Kerr & Emery 2011, p. 880). The club’s fans also call themselves Kopites, since the terrace where they usually stand during home games in the Anfield stadium is called the Kop. The fans of the club have been involved in two major tragedies. In 1985, at a game of Liverpool against Juventus, hooligan supporters of Liverpool FC caused a mass panic at Heysel stadium in Brussels, which led to the death of 39, mainly Italian, fans. In 1989, during a soccer match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, which took place at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, 96 Liverpool fans lost their lives in a human crush against perimeter fencing. For years, police blamed the fans for causing the crush, and even some British newspapers, such as The Sun or the Daily Mail, published articles disparaging the fans. However, it turned out later that the police had made serious mistakes leading to the tragedy. After the Hillsborough disaster, the soccer grounds at Anfield stadium became part of “a mass popular religious rite” (Taylor 1989). The ground was bedecked with flowers and different kinds of soccer memorabilia, and over a million people visited the stadium in the two weeks following the tragedy (Boyle 2001, pp. 43–44). The song ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ was originally released in 1945, as part of the musical ‘Carousel’. In 1963, the band Gerry and the Pacemakers from Liverpool released a cover version of it, and fans of Liverpool FC soon started singing it at the stadium before the matches began. Many fans could identify with the themes of the song—struggle, community, and hope for the future—so that it soon became Liverpool FC’s official anthem (Williams 2001, p. 103). Following the Hillsborough tragedy, the quote “You’ll Never Walk Alone” became part of the club emblem (figure 10.1). Today, according to Liverpool FC’s official website,5 the club has over 300 Official Supporters Clubs in over 90 countries. Kerr & Emery (2011) investigated the motivations and consuming habits of these foreign fans, or “satellite supporters” (p. 881). They argue that usually, team 5 “Official LFC Supporters Clubs,” retrieved from Liverpool FC, https://www.liverpoolfc.com/ fans/official-lfc-supporters-clubs.

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figure 10.1 Liverpool FC Club Emblem

identification brings psychological benefits, since it can “facilitate social connections with others” (ibid.). However, when the team is geographically distant, these benefits are usually not given to the same extent, since supporters often do not have the chance to meet up with likeminded fans or attend the team’s matches. Their only possibility to interact with fellow supporters is through online fan communities, which, however, cannot substitute for face-to-face interactions. 5

On Aggression among Sport Spectators

One of the negative side effects of modern sport is the problem of some spectators’ disposition to aggression. It is not only the active athletes who provide spectacular topics for conversation by engaging in violent behavior, but also certain groups among sport fans. On the sidelines of soccer, a specific structure arose, which has turned into a youth subculture that is regarded as suspicious and norm violating by the general public.6 Derogative terms7 such as rowdyism or hooliganism refer to the problem of aggression in passive sport. 6 Becker and Pilz describe the world of the fans as a “mirror of the living environment and living conditions, and of the hopes and hardships of young people in our society” (1988, p. 11, translated). 7 Becker (1963) rightly takes a stand against the stigmatization and labeling of fan behavior through terms such as vandalism or rowdyism, because thereby, a population group is excluded

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definition Aggression in sport describes an intended, physical and/or psychological injury to a person by another person. Following Gabler (1987, pp. 51–52), we can distinguish three forms of aggression among sport spectators: verbal, symbolic and physical. Verbal aggressions among spectators include laughing at the athletes, catcalling them, as well as snide remarks that aim for a personal harassment of the players of the opposing team, of the opposing fans, or of the referee. Another example for this is the singing of provocative songs that insult the opposing team, which is a longstanding tradition among English soccer fans (Penn 2016, p. 156). Symbolic aggressions of sport spectators are, for instance, raising one’s fist to somebody, as well as derogatory gestures and hand signals. Physical aggressions can occur both with or without auxiliary means (such as missiles, brass knuckles, knives, etc.), and mostly, they are directed against the referee, other sport spectators, or sometimes also against players of the opposing team, passersby, or policemen (Gabler 1987, pp. 51–52). In an online survey in Austria, 18% of soccer fans reported that they had been involved in physical confrontations in the last five years before the survey (Winter & Klob 2011, p. 128). The fans most frequently mentioned alcohol consumption, the course of the game, as well as an overbearing police presence as triggers of violence (ibid., p. 125f). Occasionally, violence does not even need any special triggers, that is, when it becomes an end in itself. This type of violence, which Leistner (2008) describes as “violence that is independent of the game day and is expressed, for instance, in gang-typical confrontations” (translated), might exceed the scope of the respective sport event. 5.1 Causes for Aggressive Behavior In the following, four theoretical interpretations of the genesis of aggression shall be briefly depicted and regarded in relation to sport spectators’ aggression: 1. Approaches of drive theory, instinct theory, and catharsis theory These approaches can be traced back to comparative behavioral research by Lorenz, and Freud’s psychoanalysis. At the beginning of the last century, Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) dealt with the question concerning the causes of aggressive behavior. The construction of his drive theory is based on the antagonism between Thanatos, the drive of death and destruction, and Eros, the sex drive. What results of these drives is a form of behavior that is more or less from the field of normal culture, without respecting the autonomy of this subculture.

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aggressive or affectionate, depending on the proportion and combination of the existing drives. According to Freud, the death drive expresses itself in an aggressive confrontation with the environment. Similarly, Lorenz (1995, first 1963) speaks of an aggression drive which, from time to time, presses for a discharge in the form of aggressive actions. Just like the force of the death drive according to Freud, also the force of the aggression drive can be reduced if the human being gives vent to this energy in destructions which are socially acceptable. Sport competitions between nations are particularly suitable for this aim, since they allow for a form of venting that is not dangerous for society. A ritualized, special form of combat, which was developed in human cultural life, is sport. […] It prevents aggression from taking an effect that is damaging to society, and simultaneously, it preserves all of man’s efforts for the conservation of the species. […] In addition, sport has a benedictory function, by allowing for a truly enthusiastic competition between […] communities. (Lorenz 1995, p. 303, translated) Accordingly, sport has a subliming, cleansing power through catharsis.8 In this sense, the viewing experience of sport competitions should lead to a catharsis. The catharsis theory has also been supported by Neo-Marxist scholars, who believe that capitalist society requires its members to repress their sexual energies. These energies have to be sublimated into “productive labor” (Guttmann 1986, p. 149), which then brings profits to the capitalist owners. However, there might be repressed energies left that could not be sublimated at work, and these are “potentially explosive and must be dealt with”, because they are a threat to the “entire system of economic exploitation and political control” (ibid.). Sport offers an outlet for these surplus aggressions—however, Neo-Marxists believe that the anger that the sport fans direct against the opposing team should actually be directed against the ruling class. They criticize sport for preventing the spectators from taking political action. Through their identification with a team, the spectators join vicariously in the violent release achieved by the players on the field. Drained of all hostility by the spectacle of aggression, the fans are devoid of any interest in political action. They are apathetic, infantilized, cretinized, in a word dehumanized. The catharsis is complete. Sport is capitalism’s safety valve (ibid., p. 150). 8 In the Oxford Dictionary of English (2010), catharsis (Greek: purification), is defined as “the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions”.

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However, so far, there has been no empirical evidence for neither the catharsis theory, nor for the Neo-Marxist idea that sport prevents its fans from becoming politically active. A number of studies showed that those who are athletically active are also more likely to be politically active, and that spectators “tended to show increased rather than diminished aggressiveness after the sports events” (ibid., pp. 154–155). Thus, the idea of the catharsis function of spectator sport only plays a minor role in today’s scientific discussion (Rulofs 2009, p. 183). 2. Frustration-aggression hypothesis According to the frustration-aggression hypothesis, experiencing frustration9 increases the probability of aggressive behavior (Dollard 1998). With regard to crowd disturbances in sport, we can distinguish two interpretations of this hypothesis. The first one assumes that aggressions arise due to frustrating conditions in society as a whole (long-term model), while the second one assumes that it is, rather, frustrating conditions within the sport that cause aggressions (short-term model). According to the second variant, the causes for aggressions might be, for instance, unfair decisions by the referee or a disappointing game. Delaney & Madigan (2015, p. 225) argue that some fans experience frustration because they themselves do not have the power to influence the outcome of the game. The experience of a defeat of the preferred team could constitute a concrete, momentarily frustrating surrounding condition for crowd disturbances. If this was the case, the spectators supporting the losing team ought to be more aggressive after the sport competition than they were during the event or before it started; to a larger extent than neutral spectators or those whose preferred team had won. However, a measurement of the testosterone level10 did not show a corresponding increase in the levels among fans who had just experienced a defeat of their team11 (Bernhardt et al. 1998). Another study, which was conducted some time ago, also delivered results contradicting the short-term model of the frustration-aggression hypothesis (Goldstein & Arms 1971, cited in Pilz 1988, p. 160). The long-term model, which is very plausible but difficult to verify—according to which frustrating conditions in society as a whole are responsible for 9

10 11

The term ‘frustration’ is defined as a condition “which exists when a goal-response suffers interference” (Dollard 1998, p. 8), that is, when this goal-response is disturbed, whereas the connection between the variables frustration and aggression is mainly understood on the basis of stimulus-response theory. The male sex hormone testosterone does not only control sexual behavior, but also aggressiveness. Bernhard et al. (1998) could only determine an increase in the testosterone levels among fans of the winning team. However, in a more recent study, this winner effect could not be confirmed (van der Meij et al. 2012).

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aggressive reactions among spectators—has been supported particularly by Vinnai (1970), Hortleder (1974), and Plessner (1975). According to the latter, it is especially a “need for aggression that is cultivated by the industrial world of work, but whose satisfaction is prevented at the same time”, that takes effect in sport (ibid., p. 24, translated). 3. Learning theoretical approaches These approaches see aggressive actions as the consequences of a learning process that is particularly shaped by observational learning and learning from successes and failures. Accordingly, aggressive actions by sport spectators result from imitation: “One is aggressive and violent because others are too” (Prenner 1972, p. 341, translated), or also from reinforcement: The process of socialization via the fan group is also a process of modeling and habituation of masculine and aggressive values, attitudes and behavior styles. It is through reinforcement, punishment and modeling that aggressive behaviors are learned. (Schulz 1986, p. 122, translated) There is ample empirical evidence both for the learning of aggressive behaviors through reinforcement (learning from success), and for observational learning of aggression. For instance, it could be shown that, after having experienced a soccer game, the spectators’ willingness to act aggressively is, on average, higher than before (Pilz 1982, p. 63; Schulz 1986, p. 149). This increase in aggression is significantly higher after ‘rough’ games (including numerous and brutal fouls). In this case, the players act as model figures for aggressive behavior, which, under certain circumstances, is imitated by the spectators. This imitation is particularly probable among sport spectators who, due to their ­subcultural norm system, positively evaluate aggressive actions and reinforce them. 4. Identity Concept For the purpose of finding his identity and strengthening his self-esteem, man is constantly eager to experience social acknowledgment. If there is a lack of social attention, a damage in self-esteem occurs, which takes effect in the form of aggression.12

12

This is in line with findings from neurobiology, according to which man does not only respond to the infliction of physical pain with a higher inclination towards aggression, but also to social exclusion. The human brain perceives the latter just like physical pain (Bauer 2011).

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Aggressive behavior among sport fans refers to a self-esteem that has been damaged in this way, particularly as those fans are mostly young people13 who receive too little attention and hardly any recognition in their families, neighborhoods, or at work. In their study on British soccer fans’ view of violence, Cleland & Cashmore interviewed a male fan whose statement corresponds to this theory: Kids from deprived backgrounds with little or no chance of employment tend to lack self-esteem. Being part of a group of football [soccer] casuals gives them an identity and a form of self-worth. This in turn provides them with confidence and an escape mechanism that, at times, translates itself into violence. (2016, p. 131) In England, it was especially during the 1960s that soccer fans from the lower social classes engaged in violent behavior during the matches. For these fans, the games “became an opportunity to publicly demonstrate a resistance to authority” (Cleland & Cashmore 2016, p. 126). Guttmann (1986, p. 168) cited a sample consisting of 652 people who were arrested for soccer-related violence by London’s Metropolitan Police from 1974 to 1976. Of these fans, 99% were male, their average age was 19, and the majority of them (68%) were manual workers (10% were unemployed and 10% were schoolboys). However, other fans interviewed by Cleland & Cashmore did not see hooliganism as solely a working-class problem. One interviewee claimed: “Social status is irrelevant to hooliganism. If you are into it, you are welcome” (ibid., p. 131). There are also hooligans who are not excluded but incorporated into mainstream society, but who, nevertheless, feel that there is something missing in their lives, as illustrated by another interviewed fan: “People who engage in violence have something missing from their lives (perhaps genuinely through no fault of their own) and unfortunately use football [soccer] violence in a twisted sense of at least belonging to something and having a sense of pride/ worth” (ibid.). They use violence14 as a means of drawing the attention which they are missing to themselves and to acquire status within the fan group. 13 14

In the United Kingdom, in 2010, the vast majority of soccer fans who were banned from the stadium due to violent behavior were between 20 and 29 years old (Bridge 2010). The term ‘violence’, in this context, refers to behaviors that are aimed at causing damage to the environment (including, for instance, vandalism). However, when speaking of behaviors that purely aim at causing damage to other people, the term aggression shall be used.

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According to the Austrian sociologist Roland Girtler (2008, p. 44), the status hierarchy and the career path of individual fans can be described in the following way: 1. The young people. They are called Greenies if they are fans of the Austrian soccer club Rapid Vienna. This group comprises the youngest visitors who have to learn from the older fans. 2. The ruffians. This group comprises fans aged 12 to 17. They dress in the club colors and ‘go into battle’ against the fans of the opposing team. 3. The hooligans. If one has been a ruffian for some time and acquired a good reputation in this role, there is a chance of moving up to become a hooligan. For this purpose, one has to perform some ‘heroic deeds’ in violent confrontations. “A heroic deed is particularly ‘honorable’ when a newspaper reports on it” (ibid., p. 45, translated). 4. The leaders. They are in ‘supreme command’ in confrontations, and often, they have a reputation of being good drinkers. 5. The old guard. This group consists of older fans who have gained great honor for their ‘heroic deeds’, and who proudly refer to injuries that they might have received. In conflict situations, they stand by the younger and impetuous fans, but apart from that, they usually keep a low profile. These fans’ self-worth is determined by their conflictual differentiation from fans of the opponent, regular spectators, policemen and citizens. In this context, aggressive actions serve to increase self-worth. The stadium in which one’s own team is playing can also contribute to an individual’s self-affirmation. It is a place worth defending. Just like tribes defending their territories, fan groups try to defend their areas in the stadium, or to ‘conquer’ the areas of opposing fans (Girtler 2008, p. 43), leading not only to the development of symbolic conquest rituals (such as running through the opposing fan section), but also to violent confrontations. Delaney & Madigan (2015, p. 225) mention the example of violent soccer fans, who see the soccer team they support as “an extension of the community in which they are based”. As a consequence, the violent fan might feel the need to protect ‘his’ team, and therefore views the fans of the opposing teams as ‘enemies’. This also corresponds to the ideas of the emergent norms theory by Turner and Killian (1972), who argue that there are ‘emergent norms’ within the crowd—or, in other words, that hooligans create their own norms. Even though the behavior of violent sport fans might look uncontrolled and lawless from the outside, it actually follows specific norms “that are not envisaged in the larger society” (Turner and Killian 1972, p. 5, cited in Guttmann 1986, p. 168).

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In addition to the outlined theoretical interpretations on the genesis of aggression, the following situational factors could further contribute to violence among sport spectators, according to Delaney & Madigan (2015, pp. 225–226): – Hypermasculinity: This term is defined as a “belief among young males that honor and respect are the result of one’s ability to physically dominate another” (p. 225). The concept is especially important to males of the lower social classes. When several men who value toughness and other typically masculine qualities meet, the probability that this meeting turns violent increases. – Alcohol consumption: Not surprisingly, excessive drinking lowers inhibitions, which increases the risk of violent behaviors. – A dense and/or large crowd: A dense crowd can create anxiety or also frustration among spectators, as they may experience this as a violation of their personal space. Being in a big crowd can lead some people to feel a sense of power, because they realize that the number of spectators is larger than that of the security forces. In addition, some individuals may lose their sense of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ when they are part of a large crowd. They “abandon rational reasoning and become submerged into the group’s acts and mood” (ibid., p. 226). As an example, the authors mention the common practice of soccer spectators to storm the field and attempt to tear down the goal posts. – Important games: Most fans become especially passionate (and therefore also more violent) at important games, such as championships. While we can definitely gain new insights from looking at the theories on the genesis of aggression, most of these theories have not been verified, since it is almost impossible to make general statements on the large number of individual instances of spectator violence. Guttmann (1986, p. 168) argues that the best way to understand the causes for spectator violence is by examining both the historical context in which the actions take place, and the individual spectators’ age, gender, and social class. These factors do not only influence spectator violence, but also the kind of sport the individual chooses to actively engage in and the degree of violence that is applied in the practice of this sport. 5.2 History of Violence in Spectator Sport The sports in ancient Greece and Rome were so aggressive and violent that they are not compatible with the norms and values of contemporary society. Not only athletes but also spectators regularly engaged in violent behavior, so that in ancient Greece, there were assistants who had to keep both spectators and athletes under control. The women of ancient societies were interested in sport as well, however, Greek women were excluded from watching and

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participating in the first Olympic contests, which probably took place in the 8th century BC. Slaves and foreigners were not allowed to participate either, but they could watch the contests (Guttmann 1986, pp. 17–22). One ancient spectator sporting event that featured violence was chariot racing, a contest between teams consisting of a driver in a small, two-wheeled vehicle drawn by horses. The contests became part of the ancient Olympic Games in 680 BC, and they took place in large stadiums which had room for more than 350,000 spectators. Jewell et al. give the following description of this sport: The races consisted of 12 laps around a track (‘circus’) with sharp turns around posts at both ends. The turns around the posts were the most exciting and dangerous part of the race; most of the excitement was for the spectators, and all the danger was for the participants. Deliberately running into another charioteer was illegal, but penalties for doing so were infrequently enforced. […] The Greek charioteer generally held the reins in his hands, while the custom for the Roman charioteer was to wrap the reins around his waist. If a Roman charioteer was knocked from his perch, he would be dragged around the circus, an outcome that, no doubt, made the spectacle just that much more exciting to watch. (2012, p. 19) Another sport with a huge potential for violence and mayhem were the gladiatorial fights. The spectators of this sport mainly came to the Colosseum to see blood spill, and they took the deaths of others for granted. There were also female gladiators, women were sometimes pitted against dwarves, or there were fights between men and animals. Today, spectacles of such violence would clearly be considered atrocious and barbaric. However, at that time, there were some ancient Christian moralists who considered these contests to be cruel and inhuman, and who were appalled by the frenzy of the spectators. For instance, Salvian, a bishop who lived in the fifth century, wrote: there is almost no crime or vice that does not accompany the games. In these the greatest pleasure is to have men die, or, what is worse and more cruel than death, to have them torn to pieces, to have the bellies of wild beasts gorged with human flesh; to have men eaten, to the great joy of the bystanders and the delight of onlookers, so that the victims seem devoured almost as much by the eyes of the audience as by the teeth of the beasts. (Salvian 1930, p. 160, cited in Guttmann 1986, p. 26)

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At tournaments in the Middle Ages, there were riots between supporters of opposing teams, or between members of different social classes. Later, rules were introduced to prevent such riots, which, however, turned out to be ineffective. In general, in medieval soccer, it was difficult to distinguish the players from the spectators, usually because everyone was involved in the game (­Guttmann 1986, p. 49). In the Early Modern Times, so-called blood sports were popular, which involved pitting animals against each other. Examples included bearbaiting, bullbaiting, cockfighting, and dogfighting. These sports were popular among spectators from both the lower and upper classes, and even Queen Elizabeth I was delighted by them. However, they were also criticized for their cruelty, especially by members of the middle classes, and, just like the sports of ancient Greece and Rome, they would be unimaginable today. It was only in 1824 that the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was founded in England, after which many of these blood sports were prohibited. Other popular sports during the Early Modern Times were boxing, or combat sports in general, and sword fights. In contrast to today, boxers used to fight with their bare knuckles, that is, without the protection of gloves, which made the sport much more violent and meant that the boxers often suffered serious injuries (ibid., pp. 54–71; Elias 1986). It was by the middle of the 19th century that the sports practiced in Europe and the USA “had assumed their characteristically modern form” (Guttmann 1986, p. 83). They began developing their own rules, regulations and rituals. The rules that were introduced were not only directed towards the athletes, but also towards spectators. Rules of spectator conduct were mainly formed by sport organizations, such as the Football Association (founded in 1863 in England). In the 1880s, when newspapers began to “carry disapproving notices of unruly soccer crowds” (ibid., p. 105), the Football Association introduced a number of measures to control the crowds, such as turnstiles, security guards and gate money. The price to enter the stadium was, however, still affordable for the workers, who formed the majority of the spectators. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the sponsors of modern sport had the task of turning the uncontrolled mob into a crowd of enthusiastic but nonetheless well-behaved (or at least nonviolent) spectators. One way to achieve this was to preach the doctrine of fair play, good sportsmanship, and gentlemanly spectatorship. This was done in schools and universities, in the press, and in juvenile literature. (ibid., p. 121) In general, crowd disturbances in football before the First World War were spontaneous rather than organized. There are few reported incidents of spectator violence from this time, but this was also because officials had a much

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more lenient attitude towards crowd disturbances, as long as they did not interfere with the game. The subsequent Interwar period was relatively calm with regard to soccer violence; most of the reported crowd disturbances consisted of vocal protests against decisions by the referee. In addition, the number of women attending soccer matches increased significantly, and they even felt safe enough to bring their young children. From the 1950s onwards, soccer matches—and thereby also incidents of spectator violence—began to be broadcast live on television, which, according to some historians, led to an increase in crowd disturbances. Many viewers felt encouraged by the depictions on television to engage in violent behavior themselves. By the 1960s and 1970s, hooligan groups emerged, which often identified themselves separately from the soccer teams and used match days as occasions for confrontations with rival groups. However, some of the gravest stadium disasters in history, such as the aforementioned Hillsborough tragedy, were not caused by disorderly behavior by spectators, but rather by mistakes by the police and bad planning. There is not always a direct causal connection between stadium disasters and spectator violence (Frosdick & Marsh 2005, pp. 16–24). The following catastrophe was an extreme, tragic case of spectator violence, in which riots by fans escalated and led to an actual, short war. Example: Soccer war The ‘soccer war’ between Honduras and El Salvador was a brief war that was started after three World Cup qualifying matches between El Salvador and Honduras in 1969. This war “may not have been caused by the soccer matches directly, but […] is a prime example of how the emotions and violence stirred up in the games can easily spill over from the pitch onto the streets” (Veytskin et al. 2013). Before the matches, there had been conflicts between these two nations, due to the larger number of Salvadoran workers who had migrated to Honduras. Honduras is roughly five times as large as El Salvador, but at the time of the match, the population of Honduras (2.3 million) was smaller than that of El Salvador (3 million). The immigrants from El Salvador took jobs in Honduras, which led to resentment among the Honduran workers. At the time of the soccer matches in 1969, 300,000 people from El Salvador were living and working in Honduras. There had been riots between fans throughout the matches, and when El Salvador won the final match, diplomatic relations between the two countries’ governments were broken off. The soccer war officially lasted from 14 July to 18 July 1969 and killed around 3,000 people (Delaney & Madigan 2015, p. 334; Veytskin et al. 2013).

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Today, the number of violent soccer fans in Britain is much lower than it was during the 1960s and 1970s. In the season of 2017–2018, only 3.5 per 100,000 fans were arrested for violent behavior. In the season of 1987–88, the number of soccer-related arrests was even more than three times higher (Fitzpatrick 2019). However, this decrease in spectator violence does not necessarily mean that the audience interest in violence in sporting contests is declining as well, as indicated, for instance, by the popularity of combat sports such as wrestling or mixed martial arts. Jewell et al. describe wrestling as “more a circus than sport, with its mock violence, dramatic staging, and soap-operatic side stories” (2012, p. 12). Usually, the winner is already decided before the match, and the sequence is scripted, choreographed and enriched with show elements and storylines. The wrestling television programs by the American media organization World Wrestling Entertainment are broadcast to more than 180 countries in 28 languages. In the USA, the programs are, on average, watched by around 11 million fans. Mixed martial arts is a relatively new sport in which the disciplines of wrestling, boxing, jiu-jitsu, and kickboxing are combined. In 2008, Forbes magazine reported that the biggest promotion company of mixed martial arts, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), was worth US$1 billion (Jewell et al. 2012, p. 13), and by 2016, the company’s net worth increased to US$4 billion (Wyman 2016). This increasing popularity of contemporary combat sports seems to be in contradiction to Elias’ claim of the ongoing civilizing process, according to which violence is more and more suppressed in contemporary society. However, Elias also acknowledges that there might be relapses in the civilizing process. Hence, phenomena such as wrestling and mixed martial arts, as well as hooliganism and crowd disturbances in spectator sport show that the civilizing process does not evolve continuously but in waves, and that setbacks are part of the process. For those responsible in sport, there is no alternative to strictly observing and adhering to the relevant rules. That is why officials need to feel obligated towards their own rules. This applies in the same way to athletes and coaches, but also to those others who participate directly or indirectly in high-performance sport. The principle of fair play directs and guides human performance in situations of competition in a non-aggressive way. As a popular cultural asset, sport is worthwhile promoting in contemporary society, because it provides an opportunity for demonstrating the possibilities of human performance in an excellent manner. It is a growing area and takes over functions, which, in former times, were reserved to the family, tradition, religion, etc. Sport can have this substitutional function only if it is practiced with decency and integrity.

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If there is any suggestion to the interested public that the achievements of athletes might be manipulated, that cheating has become normal in sport, then this cultural asset has lost its credibility and its quality and sport no longer deserves public support. Professional sport can receive public support only if it adheres to its rules. Everyone involved in sport is obligated to do this, especially those responsible in the associations, the athletes and coaches, but also those who follow sport should feel this obligation. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Revision Questions Define the term ‘focused gathering’ and describe its relevance for sport. What distinguishes fans from other consumers? Explain Elias’ & Dunning’s theory of quest for excitement as a motive for sport fans to watch matches at the stadium. In which ways can sport events or the associated fan practices be of quasi-religious character? Name at least two examples. How is the sport fans’ identification with their idols and favorite teams expressed? What are the three forms of aggression according to Gabler? Describe at least two theoretical interpretations for the genesis of aggression.

chapter 11

Sport and Mass Communication The term ‘mass communication’ describes all forms of communication in which statements are mediated publicly (without a limited, personally defined audience), via technical dissemination means (media), indirectly (at a spatial or temporal or spatiotemporal distance between the communication partners), and one-sidedly (without a change of roles between the speakers and the recipients) to a disperse audience (in contrast to a present audience) (Maletzke 1978, p. 32). As a central intermediary between sport and society, mass communication is becoming increasingly important. Sport perfectly fits into the algorithm of leisure, consumption and mass communication and, in turn, helps these subsystems achieve their goals. Without a doubt, the smooth interaction between sport and other subsystems is attributable to the successful catalyst effect of mass media. Through its mediation via mass media, the sporting world goes far beyond the circle of the participants and spectators who are directly involved in it, and it becomes a commodity for everyone who is interested in sport. Mass media allow for the passive participation of a mass audience, which constitutes an essential characteristic of modern sport. The audience that sport can reach thanks to the mass media is ultimately a global one. definition Mass media or means of mass communication have the purpose of disseminating contents to an audience. Mass media include flyers, posters, press, books, radio, records, cassettes, CDs, films, television, infoscreens, and the internet. Sport, as it is presented in the mass media, is a topic of research whose significance has been emphasized by Lawrence A. Wenner in his monograph MediaSport, published in 1998. Since then, a number of studies on media sport have been conducted, most of them on its structure. However, there have been hardly any studies on the impact of media sport. With regard to the latter topic, recourse has to be made to information from other fields of research on mass communication in the following presentation. The presentation is oriented towards Lasswell’s classic model of communication, which asks ‘Who says what in which channel to whom with what effect?’. Accordingly, research on mass communication consists of the following fields (table 11.1).

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SPORT AND MASS COMMUNICATION table 11.1  Research fields of mass communication, according to Lasswell’s model of communication

Who Communicator research

1

says what Content analysis

in which channel Media research

to whom Audience research

with what effect Impact research

Communicator Research

This field is about the social figure of the sport journalist and his role in connection to technical and organizational conditions. Sport journalists are people who transmit news about sport events, while also selecting important events and interpreting them in a certain way. This selection, however, leads to a reduction, and reduction always causes a misrepresentation of reality. Or, to put it in a more positive light: Reduction of reality (relating to the eventfulness of sport) is the basic prerequisite for the transmission of sport via mass media. In communicator research, analyses of the processes of selection have been conducted since the 1950s. In this context, we speak of the journalist as a gatekeeper,1 who, out of various unprepared news items, selects what to report on. This term refers to the fact that in the flow of news, there are obviously locks and gates at which people decide on what kind of information can pass and what will be thrown away. Some of the factors that are relevant in this respect are listed in table 11.2. In the sport desks, these factors have an influence on which parts of the news spectrum will be passed on. In the following section, these conditions will be described in more detail, especially with regard to the sport journalists’ situation in the United Kingdom, the USA, and Australia. a) Structural Conditions Sport journalists have to work under a particularly high pressure to be up-todate. Often, texts have to be sent to the editorial departments as soon as 1 The term ‘gatekeeper’ was coined by Lewin (1951) in his study on the selection criteria that housewives apply while shopping. The point of departure for earlier gatekeeper studies was the selection behavior of individual editors, such as, for instance, Mr. Gates in the classical study by White (1950). Today, through the influence of social media, the task of gatekeeping is not reserved to the journalists anymore. Laypeople can now act as leakers and whistleblowers as well, by spreading messages via social media.

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table 11.2  Conditions influencing the selection of news

a) Structural conditions

b) Editorial conditions

c) Personal conditions

– production conditions

– attitudes, values and goals of the editor

– the journalists’ experience

– given space and time

– results of analyses of the recipients’ behavior

– their characteristic perceptions (stereotypes)

– prescribed layout

– political climate in the editorial department

– degree of versatility of their interests

– time pressure (pressure – political and journalistic to be up to date) position of the editor in chief

– self-image

– financial possibilities

– occupational image

– editorial equipment

– sales strategies

– everyday knowledge about sport

– number of employees

the sport competition is over. Sport journalists are often not able to watch a competition and then reflect on it and write down what they have observed. Rather, they have to observe the course of the competition and write simultaneously, or they broadcast their journalistic product live. While doing so, they often find themselves in bad working conditions (high noise level at competitions, inadequate technical equipment at the stadiums, etc.) (Bertling & Bruns 2009; Wiske 2017). Usually, they have to be ‘always on’, meaning that they always need to be available via phone or email to report on new events (Boyle & Haynes 2009, p. 178). Finally, the structural conditions also include the situations of contact between the journalists and the athletes whom they have to report on. During some major sport events, sport reporters usually spend all their time with the athletes. They live in the same hotel with them, and also sit together with them in the evenings. Under these conditions, it is very hard to report on the athletes critically. Since journalists sometimes become ‘buddies’ with athletes and functionaries, they might take a biased position in their reporting. b) Editorial Conditions In Britain, print media are differentiated into two categories: the tabloids and the qualities (or broadsheets). This difference is replicated in the terms sport

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reporters (working for the tabloids) and sport writers (working for the qualities). The tabloids are reader-driven and use sensationalism to engage the readers. Often, they contain numerous photographs, and the reporters are opinionated in their writing. The qualities include in-depth coverage, the texts should be written in an objective style, and they are aimed at educated readers. All this, of course, has an influence on the language used in these newspapers, and on the social class of the readership. Boyle & Haynes describe the tabloids as “cynically exploitative of sport and its personnel according to the demands of market-based profit maximization” (2009, p. 168). These class-based divisions in the newspaper market are also reflected in the different sports covered by the tabloids and the broadsheets, with the broadsheets being far less interested in sports that were traditionally perceived to be popular among the lower classes, such as soccer (Boyle 2006, p. 39). However, according to Boyle (ibid., p. 36), the boundaries between the tabloids and broadsheets have blurred since the 1990s. c) Personal Conditions The journalists’ experience and characteristic perceptions: In an online survey aimed at Australian sport journalists conducted by Nicholson et al. in 2011 (p. 87), the average age of the participants was 36. Sport journalism was shown to be a predominantly youthful profession, with 30% of the participants being under 30, and only 19% being older than 50. The proportion of female sport journalists participating in the online survey was around 10%, which roughly reflects the general distribution of women in sport reporting (ibid., p. 88). The journalists’ characteristic perceptions inevitably arise on account of the unequal gender distribution in sport resorts. Degree of versatility of interests: Most British sport journalists do not cover more than two or three sports, and sometimes, they even report on just one sport throughout their careers (Boyle & Haynes 2009, p. 166). Nicholson et al. (2011, p. 91) found that more than half of the Australian respondents worked across multiple media platforms (for both newspapers and online platforms, for instance). Self-image and occupational image: The survey just mentioned revealed that 8% of the participants had worked as professional athletes before becoming sport journalists (ibid., p. 92). Still, these former professional athletes often do not view themselves as professional journalists, since most of them did not obtain a university degree in journalism. Overall, more than half of the participants in the survey had a university degree: 61% obtained a diploma or bachelor’s degree, and 7% had a graduate degree (ibid., p. 90). However, there is still a stereotype of sport reporters being failed journalists, and sport

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is sometimes perceived as trivial in comparison to other current world events. In addition, in Britain, journalists who cover sports that are associated with the working class (such as soccer) have a lower reputation than those covering middle- or upper-class sports, such as cricket or rugby (Boyle & Haynes 2009, p. 165). There is also an increasing number of freelance journalists in Great Britain (ibid., p. 179). In the USA, from the 1920s onwards, “the sports writing community has developed a class system. Syndicated columnists and full-time baseball writers were the nobility; all others, commoners” (Koppett 2003, p. 11; cited in Boyle 2006, p. 34). Koppett was himself a distinguished sport journalist, who joined the New York Post in the 1950s. He stated that, because sport was not regarded as serious news, sport journalists had greater artistic freedom compared to the journalists specializing in other fields: “We had total ‘artistic freedom’, encouraged to be amusing, allowed to be opinionated. […] This was heaven for a writer. We could do anything we wanted, any way we wanted, as long as it was amusing or informative for the reader” (ibid., p. 113). In addition, in the USA, journalists “were often encouraged to extend their linguistic range” (Boyle 2006, p. 35), so that a number of writers of remarkable literary skill emerged, which was not the case among British journalists. Another characteristic feature of US-American sport journalism is that the style of sport reporting is “imbued with the myths of the American dream” (ibid., p. 37). The articles often suggest to the readers that, if you had talent and worked hard enough, anyone could become a sport champion and enjoy the appropriate financial rewards and prestige. This also helps to explain the popularity of sport reporting in the USA. In addition, the style of sport reporting changed with the emergence of television. In the times before sport was broadcast on TV, sport articles in the press were written in a very descriptive and visual style, so that readers could form a picture of the games and players in their minds. However, from the 1960s onwards, particularly in the USA, the “sportswriter was interested in the wider social, cultural, economic position of sport” (ibid., p. 37), and the sport journalists’ personal comments and opinions became increasingly important. It also needs to be noted that today, in the age of new digital media, sport clubs and sport stars are increasingly trying to deliver news stories directly to the audience, thus “seeking to bypass the traditional journalistic communication structure” (ibid., p. 171). The conditions for this can be deemed as favorable, in light of the magnitude of some of the respective online communities. For instance, as of June 2020, the FC Barcelona has roughly 103 million followers on Facebook and 32 million followers on Twitter, and Cristiano Ronaldo has around 122 million fans on Facebook. These fans and followers are regularly

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kept up to date with relevant news. Another effect of the new digital media is that more and more people do not buy newspapers anymore but prefer to read the news online. We have a decline of traditional journalists and a rise of fanzines and blogs run by fans. 2

Content Analysis

This field of research aims to examine the contents and presentation form of sport reporting via the mass media. Among other things, content analysis determines to what extent the variety of manifestations of sport is taken into account in sport reporting, which stylistic devices are used, and whether certain stereotypes2 are imparted through the coverage. In these analyses, different approaches can be determined. Especially in the past, it was assumed that the world of sport as it was presented in the media provided an accurate picture of reality. The media were regarded as mirrors of the sport events. A strong counterargument to this opinion is that one would misjudge the specific character of sport reporting in the media if one were to reduce it only to its function of display. It is especially the details, backgrounds and connections, the drama and sensation, that give significance and meaning to sport-related information. This is the basis for the actual mediating function of sport reporting. Therefore, we can conclude that the media themselves are shaping forces in society. They have the potential to produce realities. The picture of sport as portrayed by the media, or the reality of media sport, should be seen as the result of a multi-stage process of transformation. In this process, the reality outside the media is observed, selected and staged according to specific logics. What is symptomatic and characteristic of sport in this respect is that the logic of journalistic mediation is superimposed by the logic of a presentation of sport competitions that is, if possible, customized to suit the audience and economically successful (Marr 2009, p. 21). This logic requires journalists to meet the audience’s need for suspense and excitement. Accordingly, sport reporting in the media is centered on particularly exciting moments, which, in soccer, include offside decisions, fouls leading to penalties, goalscoring opportunities and goals. By accentuating these aspects of the sport events, drama is guaranteed. 2 Stereotypes are perceptions of groups or categories of persons (according to gender, age, etc.). In these perceptions, certain features are particularly emphasized, while others are put into the background.

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2.1 Content Analysis of Television Sport Professional sport is dramaturgically exciting and can be staged in a particularly affective way, which is why it is the area of sport that is mainly dealt with by the media. Topics such as school or youth sport, popular and recreational sport, sport and health, sports for the disabled, but also the political backgrounds of the developments in sport and the related social problems or economic interrelations are largely omitted. The media are mainly interested in major professional sport events. By the 1990s in Europe, live TV coverage of such events has largely shifted from free-to-air television to pay TV. This allowed for more sports to be broadcast, including those that did not receive much attention previously (such as yachting, netball or badminton), and it generally created a larger amount of television content. For instance, in 1989 in the United Kingdom, free-to-air broadcasters produced 2,800 hours of TV sport. In contrast, in 2012, the pay TV channel BSkyB alone provided 35,000 hours of sport programming per year across four different channels (Smith et al. 2015). Due to this strong increase in the amount of sport programming on pay TV, concerns have been expressed that some viewers from the lower classes might not be able to afford the fees for pay TV and thus would be excluded from watching professional sport events on TV. Therefore in 1997, in the Television Without Frontiers Directive, the European legislator introduced the list of major events mechanism. The list allows each EU member state to compile a list of events that are deemed to be of major interest for society. These events should be broadcast on free-to-air television, so that a “substantial proportion of the public” (Evens & Lefever 2011, p. 42) has the possibility to watch them. In the UK (though no longer part of the EU) these events are divided into Group A and Group B events. Group A events must be offered to the five major television channels in the UK that are available without charge to 95% or more of the population (BBC 1, BBC 2, Channel 3, Channel 4, and Channel 5) on fair and reasonable terms. Group B events may be shown exclusively by other broadcasters, provided that the five major channels were offered the opportunity to broadcast edited highlights or delayed coverage. A list of Group A and Group B events is provided in table 11.3: The following sports are deemed to be particularly important and popular in the UK: soccer (or men’s soccer, to be precise), horse racing, tennis, and rugby (Group A), as well as cricket, athletics and golf (Group B), with soccer competitions clearly dominating the list of Group A events. Accordingly, soccer and rugby are the two most popular sports in the UK. In a survey conducted in December 2003, 45% of British adults said they had an interest in soccer, and 27% expressed an interest in rugby (Ipsos MORI 2003). In the USA, advertising channels have always been dominant in the sport rights market, and “pay channels are a supplement rather than a competitor to ad-based television” (Evens & Lefever 2011, p. 35). Therefore, there is also

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SPORT AND MASS COMMUNICATION table 11.3  Events of national importance in the United Kingdom

Group A events

Group B events

The Olympic Games (both summer and winter games) The FIFA World Cup Finals Tournament

Cricket Test Matches played in England

The FA Cup Final The Scottish FA Cup Final (in Scotland) The Grand National The Derby The Wimbledon Tennis Finals

The European Football Championship Finals Tournament The Rugby League Challenge Cup Final The Rugby World Cup Final

Non-Finals play in the Wimbledon Tournament All other matches in the Rugby World Cup Finals Tournament Six Nations Tournament Matches involving Home Countries The Commonwealth Games The World Athletics Championship The Cricket World Cup – the Final, Semifinals and Matches involving Home Nations’ Teams The Ryder Cup The Open Golf Championship  

no major events legislation in the USA (Smith et al. 2015). The most popular sports to watch on TV in the USA are American football, baseball, basketball, stock car racing and ice hockey. In 2015, the Super Bowl XLIX, an important American football event, attracted an audience of 114.4 million viewers, making it the most watched program in US TV history (Nielsen 2019). In a recent survey, 37% of Americans said that American football was their favorite sport to watch. The second and third most popular spectator sports are basketball (11%) and baseball (9%) (Norman 2018). In Australia, free-to-air broadcasters are given priority in the acquisition of broadcast rights. In addition, just like in the European countries, there is a major events legislation. The list of major events, however, is much more extensive than in the United Kingdom. From 2006 to 2010, it covered over 1,800 events in a given year (Smith et al. 2015). Games by the NRL (National Rugby League) had a cumulative audience of more than 94 million people during the 2018 season, making rugby the most popular sport on Australian television (Carney 2018). The second-most popular sport is Australian football, with the AFL (Australian Football League) Grand Final receiving a television audience of 3.4 million (Lallo 2018).

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2.2 Content Analysis of Sport Reporting in Newspapers Of course, different newspapers apply different strategies and have different styles of sport reporting. Furthermore, the style of sport reporting has changed over time. Various content analyses have been conducted to examine these differences and changes. In the following, several international examples of such content analyses shall be given: 1. Reicher (2013) examined the reports of Austrian daily newspapers about the Winter Olympic Games of 1932, 1936, 1956, 1960, 1972, 1976, and 2006. He came to the following conclusions: Until the 1970s, the sport sections, on average, only made up a small share of the total content in the newspaper editions, but then the share increased significantly. Concerning text types, the share of short messages, lists of results, tables, etc. decreased during the investigation period, while the share of commentaries, interviews and reports increased. It follows, therefore, that purely informational news items were pushed back in favor of entertaining elements in sport reporting. This corresponds to changes in the style of writing and the patterns of narration: Instead of full sentences, the journalists increasingly used ellipses (incomplete sentences). While initially, the narrations were kept simple and down-to-earth, the 1970s marked the beginning of an emotionalization and personalization in sport reporting. Now, reports on stars and successes are dominant in the coverage. 2. Dimitriou & Mortsch (2007) examined the reporting of six Austrian daily newspapers on the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2007 in Åre. In total, they analyzed 1,095 articles and found that the tabloids—compared to the quality newspapers—reported more comprehensively on the World Ski Championships. Both quantitatively and qualitatively, the tabloids focused more on national athletes in their reporting. In this context, not only the athletes’ successes, but also their personality traits were important selection criteria. The tabloids also used pronouns, bynames, nicknames, and name creations more often, which facilitated the identification with athletes. Furthermore, hyperbole (exaggeration) was used more often as a stylistic device by the tabloids. 3. Vincent et al. (2018) conducted a content analysis to examine how the Summer Olympic Games of 2012 in London were covered by different British newspapers. They were especially interested in how British national identity was (re)constructed in the articles. Hard copies of two broadsheet newspapers (The Times and The Daily Telegraph) and three popular (tabloid) newspapers (the Daily Mail, The Sun, and the Daily Mirror) were examined. The newspapers were collected every day for the duration of the Olympic Games, which lasted from July 27 to August 12, 2012. Among other things, it was shown that the newspaper narratives

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generally presented Britain as “welcoming, progressive, inclusive, and cosmopolitan” (p. 916). Since London is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in Europe, the narratives often focused on the multicultural backgrounds of several successful British Olympians. In addition, there was a “self-congratulatory euphoria” (ibid.) in many articles, since Team GB won 65 medals and achieved third place in the medal table. Earlier articles were concerned about the high costs of hosting the Olympic Games, but then, the unprecedented success of British athletes led to more articles featuring “uplifting, inspirational stories” (p. 895). A study by Scott et al. (2018) examined the presentation of the 2015 Rugby World Cup (RWC) in Australian, New Zealand and South African newspapers—three nations that all have a strong rugby culture. The study focused on whether nationalism and patriotism were accentuated in the coverage. One of the results was that all newspapers reported predominantly about their nation’s home team. This focus was strongest in South Africa, since after the apartheid era, rugby has been used for nation building in this country. Nicholson et al. (2016) analyzed how eight major Australian newspapers (all of which had a daily circulation of over 100,000) reported on the 2010 FIFA World Cup, focusing on articles dealing with the themes of loss and national identity. Australia first won 2–1 against New Zealand, but then lost to Germany 0–4. The researchers found that the tone and content of the newspaper coverage changed significantly after this loss. The articles began attributing the failure to external factors (for instance, they blamed the ball, the referee, or the coach). In addition, several journalists began devaluing soccer in their articles, arguing that the sport, at its highest levels, was corrupt, and therefore not aligned with the typical Australian values of fair play and loyalty. The Australian team’s failure at the World Cup posed a threat to national identity, so putting the blame on other aspects was the journalists’ way of dealing with this threat.

2.3 Sport Reporting and Gender In general, men are still clearly dominant in the world of sport reporting. This is reflected in the fact that male sport receives more coverage than women’s sport, and that the narratives and images in sport reporting “tend to reproduce traditional ideas and beliefs about gender” (Coakley & Pike 2014, p. 420). This topic has been the focus of several content analyses as well, the results of which are summarized below: 1. Vincent & Crossman (2009) conducted a content analysis of the coverage of three Australian newspapers (The Age, The Australian, and The Herald Sun) on the female Australian tennis player Alicia Molik, during

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the Australian Open in 2005. Whereas newspaper coverage on female athletes often focuses on their reliance on their fathers, coaches or other male mentors, as well as their physical appearance, the articles on Alicia Molik focused on her athletic ability. She performed particularly well at the tournament, which strengthened the Australians’ sense of national identity. The researchers concluded that “where gender intersects with national identity, possibilities exist for greater gender equality in mediated accounts of female and male athletes” (p. 274). Weber & Carini (2012) analyzed the covers of Sports Illustrated from 2000 to 2011. Sports Illustrated is the most popular American sport magazine. It is read weekly by around 21 million adults, and it is known for its sexist representations of women. The readership is predominantly male: 8 in 10 subscribers are men. The researchers found that only 35 of the 716 covers analyzed featured women (which equals about 5%). Of these 35 covers, – only 18 featured a woman as the primary or sole image; – three covers included women as insets (that is, a small, boxed image of a woman, or women as part of a collage background of male and female athletes); – three covers featured women who were not athletes themselves, but fans or family members of male athletes; – eleven covers featured a woman in a comparable pose with a man; – only three covers featured female athletes who practiced traditionally male sports: one showed a picture of soccer player Mia Hamm, and the other two featured race car driver Danica Patrick; – there were three covers in which the female athletes depicted posed seductively for the camera. According to Weber & Carini, these were “blatant examples of sexual objectification” (p. 200). These results are indeed alarming, and the researchers expressed their concern about the message that Sports Illustrated conveys to its female readers: “These images serve as role models for millions of females, who receive the message that athleticism and skill are not enough, but should be supplemented or even replaced by beauty and sexiness” (p. 201). Domeneghetti (2019) analyzed the gendered narratives in English tabloid newspaper coverage of the 2016 UEFA European Championship soccer tournament. Four different newspapers (the Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror, The Sun, and the Daily Star) were analyzed over a period of 40 days, from June 2 to July 11, 2016. Altogether, the researcher identified and analyzed 115 articles dealing with women. Most articles (79%) were about the male soccer players’ wives and girlfriends, but occasionally, also female fans or models were dealt with. Domeneghetti showed that these women were

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mostly “portrayed as hyper-feminine, glamorous and decorative, often being objectified in sexualized ‘bikini’ or ‘lingerie’ photos” (p. 878). He identified the portrayal of women in a large number of articles in each newspaper as sexualized (83% of the articles on women in the Daily Star, 76% in The Sun, almost 63% in the Daily Mirror, and 41% in the Daily Mail). But also the remaining articles did not portray women in a very positive light. Women were either shown in a passive, supportive role, as ‘domesticated mother figures’, or as ‘space invaders’ who were distracting the male players. Domeneghetti came to the conclusion that despite improvements in the coverage of female athletes, coverage of other women associated with sport, particularly female non-athletes (re)presented in coverage of men’s football [soccer], remains highly resistant to change and continues to demonstrate entrenched gender ideologies and dominant representations of femininity. (p. 884) In addition, Rulofs (2010) summarized the results of various other studies that have been conducted on this topic: – According to international studies, not more than 15% of the daily sport coverage in print media and on television deals with women’s sport. Coakley & Pike (2014, pp. 420–421) state that this figure is even lower in the United Kingdom, where women’s sports receives 5% or less than 5% of the total sport coverage in the media. However, studies that focus on the coverage of individual major sporting events, like the Olympic Games or world championships, often determine significantly higher shares of reporting on women, which come close to the actual share of participation of women in these sport events. – The majority of the studies on sport reporting and gender comes to the conclusion that athletes are preferably depicted in so-called gender-typical sports. For instance, in the reporting on male athletes, sports that correspond to the male stereotype of aggressive physical confrontation (such as soccer), or sports involving a risky operation of vehicles (motorsport) are dominant. The reporting on female athletes focuses on individual sports that do not require any direct physical contact with the opponent (such as skiing), or that involve aesthetic performances (such as figure skating). This difference used to be even more pronounced in the past. – Regarding the visual representation of athletic performances, most studies come to the conclusion that in the print media, male athletes are shown in active situations (that is, while practicing their sport) significantly more often than female athletes. In contrast, the pictures of female athletes often

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convey a passive impression, since sportswomen are frequently depicted in staged situations that are not related to sport. Those pictures often focus on the physical appearance and the attractive charisma of the female athletes. – According to most studies, reporting on female athletes often focuses on human interest, that is, information about the athletes’ character, their emotions, as well as events in their private lives. – The media coverage of sportswomen focuses significantly more often on the athletes’ attractive appearance than the media coverage of sportsmen. In other words, the female athletes’ bodies are assessed from an aesthetic point of view. These tendencies towards a conveyance of conventional roles and values are also the result of an orientation towards the presumed preferences of the predominantly male recipients, and of the low number of female sport journalists. According to a 2005 survey, of 160 journalists writing for the sport sections of the national press in the UK, only 14 were female. In total, only around 9% of British sport journalists are female (Boyle 2006, p. 154). As mentioned previously, the proportion of women among Australian sport journalists is similarly low (Nicholson et al. 2011, p. 88). The low presence of women in sport journalism is a global phenomenon. Horky & Nieland (2011) and Toft (2011) conducted a multination study of 17,777 sport-related articles in 80 newspapers from 22 countries. Only 8% of these articles were written by women. In addition, 85% of the articles dealt with men’s sport, while only 9% focused on women’s sport (cited from Coakley & Pike 2014, p. 422). Example: Media representations of African American sportswomen Another problem in sport journalism with regard to gender is that African American sportswomen are frequently portrayed in a disparaging, racist, and sexist way by the media. According to McKay & Johnson, a muscular woman might disturb the dominant notions of sex and gender, or the “masculine hegemony in sport”, and therefore, the denigration of female athletes by the media is seen as a “recuperative strategy” (2008, p. 492). Just like their male counterparts, African American women have achieved great successes in sport. However, in many media accounts, their achievements are trivialized, and the emphasis is rather on their physical appearance. In addition, African American sportswomen have often been compared to animals, especially in sports such as running or jumping. For instance, the sprinter Florence Griffith-Joyner, who won three gold medals at the Olympic Games of 1988, was called “la tigresse noire”, or described as running “faster than a cheetah” (ibid., p. 494).

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Another sport in which reporters often focus excessively on the female athletes’ physique and appearance is tennis. It is not only black women who are affected by this, but also several white female tennis players. Tennis is a sport that continues to be dominated by white people from the middle and upper classes, but there are a few exceptions, such as the sisters Venus and Serena Williams, who are currently two of the most successful female African American tennis players. Together, they won 30 Grand Slam titles (Serena won 23 and Venus seven), 14 Grand Slam doubles titles, and eight Olympic gold medals (each of them won four). The sisters grew up in an impoverished area of Los Angeles, and their father was a sharecropper’s son. They have been called ‘ghetto Cinderellas’ and are now among the best-paid female athletes in the world. However, many sport reporters did not recognize their outstanding achievements, but rather focused on their outfits and criticized them for being “arrogant, aloof, and self-absorbed” (McKay & Johnson 2008, p. 496). During a match in which Serena Williams played against her sister, comments made by Facebook followers such as ‘Monkey Tennis’, or ‘Reminds me of a gorilla. Lol’ were common (Litchfield et al. 2018, p. 163). This shows that female African American athletes often do not receive the same kind of social recognition for their sporting achievements as their white and/or male counterparts. 3

Media Research

This research area deals with the historical and technical development of mass media, as well as the history of sport journalism. From the 19th century onwards, sport journalism helped to drive sales for newspapers, and also sport clubs benefitted economically from their exposure in newspapers. Newspapers were also largely involved in the creation of sport stars (Boyle 2006, p. 32). The country that is considered the motherland of modern sport journalism, and also of modern sport in general, is England. In 1792, the world’s first general sport journal, The Sporting Magazine, was founded there (Guttmann 1986, p. 85). In 1817, the British paper Morning Herald and Daily Adviser was the world’s first daily newspaper to introduce a sport section. A year later, The Globe started doing so too, and The Times started in 1829. However, these sport sections were only featured occasionally. It was only at the end of the 19th century that daily newspapers began to include sport sections every day. These sections, however, were very sparse compared to the sport coverage in today’s newspapers. Usually, they consisted of “a few notices about upcoming

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activities, a short story or two about races or club matches, and possibly some scores of local games” (Coakley & Pike 2014, p. 416). In 1821, the first daily sport paper, Sporting Life, was founded, also in England. In 1824, the paper Life in London and Sporting Guide was launched by Pierce Egan, who was considered the first great sport reporter. Before launching his own paper, Egan reported on horse racing and bare-knuckle fighting for the Weekly Dispatch. Another pioneer in sport reporting in London was William Denison who, in the 1840s, began reporting on cricket matches for The Times and also launched his own magazine, Cricketer’s Companion. The British sport papers predated the American ones and were regarded as role models for US-American sport journals (Boyle 2006, p. 31). But the Americans soon followed suit. In 1819, John Skinner founded American Farmer, a journal that helped popularize horse racing. In 1831, the American weekly newspaper The Spirit of the Times: A Chronicle of the Turf, Agriculture, Field Sports, Literature and the Stage was founded by William T. Porter (figure 11.1). By 1856, it had 40,000 subscribers. The sports that British and American readers of the early 19th century were most interested in, and which were therefore most frequently featured in the papers, were horse racing, field sports, and pugilism. In the middle of the 19th century, sport journals in the United States started featuring baseball, while British papers were showing an increased interest in soccer (Guttmann 1986, p. 129). Other important sport periodicals founded in the later 19th century include the New York Clipper, the French biweekly paper Le Sport, The Police Gazette (which had 150,000 subscribers by the 1880s) and the Austrian paper Allgemeine Sport-Zeitung, which was founded in Vienna in 1880 by Victor Silberer (figure 11.2, Guttmann 1986, pp. 85–86). After the publishers realized that “weekly and monthly publications were not enough to slake the insatiable thirst for sports news” (Guttmann 1986, p. 85), numerous daily sport newspapers were founded in the late 19th century, such as Le Vélo and Sport im Wort. The most famous French publication, L’Équipe, had a daily readership of 2,225,000 by the middle of the 20th century (ibid.). In Australia, horse racing was a particularly popular sport during the 19th century, so Australian newspapers, such as the Sydney Gazette, started reporting on the sport and promoting it. The first general Australian sport journals were founded in the late 19th century, some of the earliest being The Sportsman and The Referee. These journals predominantly focused on horse racing, but also featured cricket and Australian football (Willmott 1994; see also table 11.4). In fact, according to Hutchinson (1998, p. 87), cricket was covered extensively by Australian newspapers from the 1830s onwards, also because various cricket players additionally worked as editors of newspapers. For instance,

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figure 11.1 Title page of the American sporting magazine The Spirit of the Times (from 17 January 1877)

from 1836 to 1839, the cricketer George Cavenagh was the editor of the Sydney Gazette (ibid.). By the end of the 19th century, hundreds of journals specializing in certain sports had emerged. These single-sport periodicals are popular even today— probably every sport has its corresponding journal(s) by now. However, due to the extensive sport coverage by the daily newspapers—sport sections often

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figure 11.2 Victor Silberer, successful rower and founder of the ­Allgemeine Sport-Zeitung

make up about 25% of the total content of British newspapers (Coakley & Pike 2014, p. 416)—numerous sport-related magazines had to close down in recent years. For instance, the weekly UK magazine Sport had a circulation of 306,384 (in 2016) and was among the top 100 magazines in Britain. Nevertheless, it closed down in 2017 (Goodfellow 2017). Still, there are a number of popular magazines focusing on particular sports, such as soccer, cricket, or horse racing. In addition to newspapers and newsreels in the cinema, in the 1920s, radio emerged as another medium for sport reporting. Radio reports were able to include listeners in the sporting world in an unprecedented way, by creating

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SPORT AND MASS COMMUNICATION table 11.4  Important sports journals (from the late 18th to the 20th century) and their countries of origin and founding years

Journal The Sporting Magazine American Farmer Sporting Life Bell’s Life Life in London and Sporting Guide The Spirit of the Times Cricketer’s Companion New York Clipper The Field Le Sport The Sportsman Sporting Chronicle James Lillywhite’s Cricketers’ Annual Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News Athletic News and Cyclists’ Journal The Police Gazette Allgemeine Sport-Zeitung The Sportsman Outing Cricket – A Weekly Record of the Game Horse and Hound The Referee Sporting Wire Sporting Echo Le Vélo Sport im Wort The Sporting Globe Sporting Don L’Équipe Sports Illustrated

Country

Founding year

GB USA GB GB GB USA GB USA GB FR GB GB GB GB GB USA AT AU USA GB GB AU AU AU FR DE AU AU FR USA

1792 1819 1821 1822 1824 1831 1844 1853 1853 1854 1865 1871 1872 1874 1875 1877 1880 1881 1882 1882 1884 1886 1889 1889 1891 1899 1922 1924 1946 1954

a simultaneity of the sport events, the reporting, and the experience of the audience. However, this simultaneity also resulted in celebrations among fans that sometimes turned violent (Guttmann 1986, p. 133).

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In the USA, the first radio broadcast of a sport event was the boxing match between world heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey and world light-heavyweight champion Georges Carpentier by the station WJZ in 1921 (ibid.). The first European radio station that carried a sport event live was the Irish state broadcaster 2RN, covering a hurling match in 1926. It might seem surprising that the first sport radio broadcast in Europe was not done by the BBC. The reason for this is that sport was regarded as news rather than as entertainment, and the BBC was not allowed to broadcast news before 7 p.m., because of fears that this would have a negative impact on newspaper sales. However, this convention was changed soon afterwards, so that the BBC could broadcast a rugby match in 1927 (Boyle 2006, p. 59). In Australia, the first sport radio broadcast was of a cricket match in Sydney in 1922, indicating that cricket continued to be a popular sport in the early 20th century. Throughout the 1920s, the radio stations continued to give regular commentaries on cricket matches (Williamson 2005). All these events were broadcast locally. What was much more difficult, and therefore even called a technical marvel by contemporaries, was the live radio broadcast of the international soccer match of England against Austria on December 7, 1932, which was transmitted from London to Austria. For this purpose, telephone and radio, which, back then, were the fastest media, were combined. By means of a telephone cable laid down on the seabed, the transmission was first sent to Brussels, and then, via telephone, further to Cologne. From there, it was sent to the transmitter masts, which passed it on via medium and long wave. This transmission was broadcast by all Central European and several East European stations. The new radio broadcasts presented a competition for newspapers, but they certainly did not replace them. In newspaper articles, it was possible to reflect on an event, and the sportswriters “helped create a wider understanding of sport” (Boyle 2006, p. 61). At least in its early days, where the focus was on immediacy, this was not done via the radio. Still, radio was the most popular medium for sport reporting in the 1930s and 1940s (Guttmann 1986, p. 133), until it was replaced by television. Example: Television broadcasts of the Olympic Games Even before the invention of television, parts of the Olympic contests were filmed. The oldest known filmed record of an Olympic competition is from the Summer Olympic Games of 1908 in London. In the early 20th century, these short films were then shown as newsreels in movie theaters. At the 1924 Olympic Games, the first full-length feature films

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documenting both the Winter Olympic Games (in Chamonix) and the Summer Olympic Games (in Paris) were produced. These films were primarily shown in serialized formats in Britain and France, while most audiences in other countries continued watching the Olympic Games through newsreels (Billings et al. 2018, pp. 16–18). In 1936, the Summer Olympic Games in Berlin became the first Olympic Games to be broadcast live on television and they were also “the world’s first major television event” (Guttmann 1986, p. 134). The Opening Ceremonies, as well as 175 competitions, were broadcast over the course of 138 hours. Since most people did not own a television set at that time, the broadcasts were sent to several public viewing halls throughout Berlin, Potsdam, and Leipzig, and over 160,000 people came to watch them. In Britain, the USA, and Australia, viewers had to wait longer for the first televised broadcasts of the Olympic Games, even though television channels started transmitting other sport contests. The first major sport event covered by the BBC was an Oxford-Cambridge boat race in 1937, and the USA followed with a baseball match covered by the NBC in 1939. However, it was only in 1948, when the Summer Olympic Games took place in London, that the Olympic Games were broadcast on British television for the first time. The events were televised both live and in a delayed format showing the highlights. It is estimated that around 80,000 TV sets were installed during that time, and that the transmissions reached approximately 500,000 people (Billings et al. 2018, p. 24). In addition, for the first time, post-competition interviews were conducted with athletes, as well as studio interviews with coaches and managers. The 1956 Winter Olympic Games in Cortina, Italy, were the first to be transmitted to a larger international audience. The RAI (Radiotelevisione Italiana) obtained the exclusive television rights for the Olympic Games, and then distributed the material to foreign networks. This way, live coverage could be televised in eight countries (Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Holland, France, Belgium, and Great Britain), and in six different languages (ibid., p. 27). In Australia, the first televised Olympic Games were the Melbourne Summer Olympic Games in 1956. However, this transmission had a limited reach, since only approximately 5,000 Australian households owned a TV at that time (ibid., p. 28). Because of the long distance, broadcasters from other countries had little interest in covering the Olympic Games, so the only live TV broadcasts of the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games existed in Australia.

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In the USA, it was only in 1960 that viewers got to see the first televised Olympic Games live, when the CBS broadcast the Winter Olympic Games in Squaw Valley. Later, the rights for broadcasting the Olympic Games passed to ABC, where the Olympic Games were transmitted from 1964 to 1988 (ibid., pp. 30–31). In 1964, the Olympic Games in Tokyo were the first to be televised via satellite, and the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico were the first to be broadcast live and in color. When the Summer Olympic Games took place in London in 2012, the BBC paid £40–£50 million for broadcasting rights. During the Olympic Games, the channel presented 5,800 hours of sport coverage altogether. In 2016, the Summer Olympic Games in Rio were broadcast on 584 different television channels and 270 digital platforms. According to the IOC, it is estimated that 3.2 billion people watched the Olympic Games on TV at least for a minute, and 2.6 billion people watched them for at least 15 minutes. Considering all these statistics, the Olympic Games can rightly be described as “the biggest show on earth” (ibid., p. 15). Sport events were also an early test field for technical developments in television. Technologically, the broadcasts are becoming more and more sophisticated and elaborate. For instance, at the World Ski Championship 1958 in Bad Gastein (Austria), it was enough to position five cameras along the racecourse, while at the downhill races at the Streif in Kitzbühel (also in Austria) in 2017, 40 cameras were in use, and in addition, 50 kms of cable were laid. Some of the cameras were responsible for the delayed recording of those passages at the upper section of the slope that could not be shown live due to the start intervals. This enabled the viewers to follow the spectacular passages of the race. In addition, the most spectacular moments of the race action were highlighted in quick cuts and slow-motion replays and brought closer to the audience via close-ups and special camera perspectives. These camera perspectives, as well as other stylistic devices (display of the time measurement, inclusion of statistics to provide more information, reports on sport stars, commentaries that are both emotional and professional, etc.) served to create tension and constructed a reality of sport that, on site, could only be watched at the video walls in the finish area, and therefore remained invisible to most spectators along the race track. Coakley & Pike (2014, pp. 403–404) argue that the media representations usually highlight the dramatic aspects of sport. In the United Kingdom, for instance, the sport media commentaries and images emphasize aspects such as competition, aggression, action, individual heroism, and achievement. The media construct stories around the sport events and turn them into soap

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operas, including plots with twists, heroes, villains, and underdogs—while still making the audience believe that what they see is the reality of sport. Today, the sport television broadcasts are also shown online, via live streaming. Streaming services are increasingly acquiring the rights to broadcast sporting events, thereby replacing traditional television channels. This way, the sporting events can be shown to a wider international audience. According to Richelieu (2019, p. 19), globally, 61% of sport viewers regularly follow sport online, and in 2017, Amazon paid US$50 million for the streaming rights of Thursday night games of the NFL. Amazon will further stream 20 English Premier League games a year, starting with the 2019–2020 season, over a period of three years. The internet is developing incredibly fast, and it can be used almost everywhere on mobile devices. Among the first sport events where the internet was used for information purposes were the Olympic Games of 1996 (Atlanta), and the 1998 FIFA World Cup (France). Since then, the internet has advanced to another key medium of modern sport communication. Nowadays, it is used at every major sport event, and of course, sport organizations, top athletes and fan groups all have their own websites by now. In addition, the major TV stations and daily papers usually have online presences dedicated to sport. The information presented on these websites partly corresponds to the information provided by the classical media, but sometimes the websites also provide additional information. Aside from the range of information provided, the sport portals also offer various opportunities for an exchange of views, for instance, in online communities (e.g., discussion forums on certain topics, chat rooms), or through the possibility of commenting on articles. In addition, most athletes and sport clubs have their own accounts on social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. These new media allow them to interact with the fans directly, bypassing the journalists and editors, who act as gatekeepers of content in the traditional media by constructing their own interpretations of the events. This, of course, also brings advantages to the fans, who can now interact with other fans more easily, or even with the athletes themselves. During the Summer Olympic Games of 2012 in ­London, fans could find a plethora of information about the Olympic Games on social media: Altogether, there were 150 million tweets and one billion official ­Facebook pages related to the Olympic Games (Coakley & Pike 2014, p. 405). Another website where sport fans can find a large amount of interesting material is the video-sharing site YouTube. It does not only feature numerous clips of sport events to watch, but it also gives fans the opportunity to upload their own videos of sport events, or of their own sport-related performances. Coakley & Pike mention the example of parkour, “an activity in which young men and a few young women use their bodies to move rapidly and efficiently

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through existing landscapes” (2014, p. 406). It is especially practiced in urban areas but can be done anywhere. Numerous young people have filmed and uploaded their own parkour performances on YouTube, which caught the attention of other parkour athletes and allowed them to achieve widespread recognition, with some videos gaining millions of views. 4

Audience Research

Some of the questions of sport-specific audience research include: How big is the audience of sport reporting in the mass media, and what are some of the characteristics of the spectators? What is the reach of different sport media in the total population and in different population groups? Which motives for the consumption of sport-related content via the media can be determined? What kind of relationships do the consumers of media sport develop to media sport figures? These questions are at the basis of the following subchapter, which deals with the reach of sport media in the United Kingdom, the USA, and ­Australia. In this context, the term reach describes the share of persons (expressed as a percentage) who use television, radio or internet each day (daily reach) or who read a print medium in a given publication period. The relevant data are collected by media research organizations and form the basis for decisions on the insertion of advertising in the mass media. Some of the most important media research organizations are Ofcom, RAJAR and BARB (UK), Nielsen (USA), OzTAM and RegionalTAM (Australia). definition Ofcom (Office of Communications) is the regulator for communication services in the United Kingdom. The organization ensures that “people get the best from their broadband, home phone and mobile services”.3 For this purpose, it compiles a number of annual reports, such as the Media Nations Report, which determines key trends in the television and radio sector, as well as the Online Nation Report, which looks at what people are doing online. definition RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) “is the official body in charge of measuring radio audiences in the UK”. It conducts a survey in which participants are asked to keep a diary for a week, in which they record their radio listening habits. They have to state which station they listened to, where, and on 3 “What is Ofcom?,” retrieved from Ofcom, https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/whatis-ofcom.

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which platform. Every year, over 54,000 people, who must be over the age of 15, participate.4 definition BARB (Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board) is an organization that is responsible for measuring the viewing behavior of the United Kingdom’s 27 million households that own a TV. The BARB panel, representing “television viewing across the nation”, consists of over 12,000 people living in 5,300 households. In their homes, a meter is attached on their TV (or on any other device they use to watch television), and the family members have to use a headset to register when they are watching. Each household member has a button labelled just for them, so that the researchers can determine who is watching. All individuals aged 4+ are measured. To ensure that the data collected is correct, quality control procedures are carried out continuously.5 definition Nielsen is the company responsible for audience measurement in the USA. It asks people to become Nielsen families, that is, to allow Nielsen to measure what they watch on television and what they listen to on the radio. The participants are divided into panels, which are groups of people who share the same traits (such as race, gender, etc.). The Nielsen families are selected randomly and contacted to participate.6 definition OzTAM is the official Australian television audience measurement (TAM) research firm that is responsible for collecting television data ratings in Australia’s five mainland metropolitan markets (that is, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth). It collects data from 5,250 panel homes.7 definition RegionalTAM is the ratings provider for the television audience measured in regional Australia. It represents 3,198 panel homes in Queensland, Northern New South Wales, Southern New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, and Western Australia.8 4 https://www.rajar.co.uk/listening/quarterly_listening.php. 5 “What is the BARB panel,” retrieved from BARB, https://www.barb.co.uk/about-us/how-wedo-what-we-do/the-barb-panel-2/. 6 “Nielsen TV and Radio Ratings,” retrieved from Nielsen, https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/ about-us/panels/ratings-and-families/. 7 Retrieved from Oztam (home page), https://oztam.com.au/Default.aspx. 8 Retrieved from RegionalTAM (home page), https://www.regionaltam.com.au/.

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4.1 Audience Research in the United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, watching television is one of the most popular pastimes. In 2017, people, on average, watched TV for 3 hours and 23 minutes every day. However, in this calculation, only broadcast television is included. If we also consider the time people spend watching other audiovisual content online, such as YouTube, or subscription services such as Netflix or Amazon Prime, the average daily viewing time increases to 5 hours and 1 minute per day. Broadcast television only makes up 71% of people’s daily audiovisual viewing hours. Especially among the younger population (aged 16–34), non-broadcast content is becoming increasingly popular. On average, they watch this content for 2 hours and 37 minutes every day, but they only watch 2 hours and 11 minutes of traditional television per day (based on data from 2017) (Ofcom Media Nations 2019, p. 4). Of course, only a small part of this time is actually spent watching sport-related content. Nevertheless, sport broadcasts are among the programs with the highest reach. In 2018, 97% of the population of the UK (that is, almost everybody) watched at least one sporting broadcast on TV. In the same year, sport claimed almost 9% of all television viewing (BARB Viewing Report 2019). The broadcast of the soccer match of Croatia v England at the semi-final of the World Cup in Russia was the most-watched television program in 2018. It aired on July 11 and reached an audience of over 20 million people, which, at that time, was a 71% share of viewing. Altogether, there are seven sport events in the list of the 10 most-watched television programs in the UK. All of them covered the 2018 FIFA World Cup—which is another indication for the high popularity of soccer in the UK. It is also interesting to note that all of the matches in the list were played by the national team (table 11.5). Altogether, the FIFA World Cup 2018 reached an audience of 53.1 million people in the UK. The Winter Olympic Games of 2018 were also among the most popular sport programs to watch that year, even though none of the associated events are on the list. In total, they reached 44.1 million viewers in the UK9 (BARB Viewing Report 2019, p. 27). In addition, according to the Ofcom Media Nations Report (2019, p. 32), the women’s FIFA World Cup of 2019 also attracted a large number of viewers: England’s semi-final match against the USA on July 2, 2019 was watched by 8.9 million people. The radio is another popular medium in the United Kingdom. A total of 89% of the population turn on the radio every week, and, on average, each 9 According to BARB, viewers are defined as individuals aged 4+ who viewed the program for at least 3 consecutive minutes.

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SPORT AND MASS COMMUNICATION table 11.5  The 10 most-watched television programs in the United Kingdom in 2018

Program World Cup 2018: Croatia v England World Cup 2018: Sweden v England World Cup 2018: Colombia v England World Cup 2018: Tunisia v England Bodyguard I’m a Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here! World Cup 2018: England v Belgium World Cup 2018: Post-match World Cup 2018: England v Panama Strictly Come Dancing: The Final

Audience (millions) 20.73 17.40 17.22 16.87 14.34 13.69 13.64 13.44 12.89 12.86

individual spends 20.8 hours per week listening to it (RAJAR Data Release, Quarter 2, 2019). Most of the listeners (63%) prefer radio stations that are focused on music. Among those listeners who prefer speech-based radio stations, 40% claimed they did this listening activity in order to keep up with the news. But also sport programs are popular on speech-based radio stations, with 27% of listeners (who prefer speech-based radio) saying that they listen to them (Communications Market Report 2017). Sport programs are usually part of the general news programs, however, there are also a number of radio stations that focus on sport, such as BBC Radio 5 (which has a partner station, BBC Radio 5 live sports extra, that only operates live during sporting events), talkSPORT, and talkSPORT2. In addition to radio and television, the sport pages in newspapers are also a popular source of information on sport. The five British newspapers with the highest circulation are The Sun (almost 1.4 million), the Daily Mail (1.2 million), ‘The Sun on Sunday’ (1.1 million), The Mail on Sunday (997.55), and The Sunday Times (707.60). All the other newspapers have circulations of less than 500,000 copies (Statista 2019). Usually, these newspapers feature sport pages or even sport supplements. For example, every Monday, The Times features a sport supplement called The Game, which focuses on soccer and has about 474,000 readers every week. Most of these readers are also active in sport themselves, since they are 34% more likely than others to have played soccer in the last 12 months (News UK 2019). The sport journals and sections are mainly read by young to middle-aged men, and therefore, they contain advertisements that

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are believed to be of special interest for this target group (for car supplies, alcoholic beverages, sporting goods, etc.). These advertisements “generate considerable revenues for most newspapers” (ibid.). Nowadays, most newspapers also have an internet presence, where users can read articles online. According to the Online Nation Report 2019, 87% of UK households now have internet access, and on average, adults who use the internet spend 3 hours and 15 minutes every day online. The internet is also becoming increasingly popular among children and young adults, so that they already spend more time online than they do watching television (ibid., p. 2). The internet offers various possibilities to consume sport content. Users can not only read articles on sport, but also watch video clips of sporting events. The most popular website for this purpose is YouTube. A total of 92% of UK internet users stated that they accessed YouTube once a month, for, on average, 27 minutes every day. Of these users, 29% stated that they used YouTube for watching sport or soccer-related video clips (ibid., p. 10). 4.2 Audience Research in the USA The average time that the Americans spend watching audiovisual media every day (including television, but also videos on internet streaming services), is around 6 hours, which is considerably higher than in the UK. Nielsen published some surprising numbers showing how much people are already dependent on electronic media. According to a Nielsen report from 2018, the total time that Americans spend consuming electronic media content every day is, on average, 11 hours and 6 minutes. This includes not only the time spent watching live television (which accounts for most of this period, namely 4 hours 10 minutes), but also time spent on a smartphone (which comes in second, at 2 hours 22 minutes), listening to the radio (1 hour and 46 minutes), using a tablet (47 minutes), using the internet on a computer (39 minutes), as well as timeshifted television (36 minutes), watching DVDs, or playing games on a console (46 minutes) (Nielsen 2018). In the USA, broadcasts of sport events are definitely the most popular programs to watch on television. In 2019, seven of the ten most-watched TV programs were sport events (table 11.6). All of them were games by the National Football League (NFL), which clearly demonstrates the high popularity of American football in the USA. The endgame of the Super Bowl LIII of the New England Patriots against the Los Angeles Rams attracted around 98,200,000 viewers. NFL games accounted for 41 of the 50 most-watched television broadcasts of 2019, and 73 of the top 100. American football and baseball were the two sports that were featured in the Top 100 list of US Broadcasts in 2019

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SPORT AND MASS COMMUNICATION table 11.6  The 10 most-watched television programs in the USA 2019

Program Super Bowl LIII, NE-LAR AFC Championship Game, NE-KC (CBS) State of the Union Address NFC Championship Game, LAR-NO Border Address/Dem Response NFC Divisional Playoff, PHL-NO NFC Wild Card Playoff, PHL-CHI NFC Divisional Playoff, DAL-LAR Thanksgiving Day Game, BUF-DAL 91st Academy Awards

Audience (millions) 98.2 53.9 46.8 44.1 39.8 38.2 35.9 33.4 32.6 29.6

(Crupi 2020). For instance, the annual Super Bowl in the USA (the championship game of the National Football League) features a huge spectacle every year, with various famous singers performing the American national anthem or giving concerts during the halftime shows. This indicates the recent development of “sportainment”, which Richelieu defines as “the merger of sport and entertainment, where the marketing of a unique set of experiences and emotions becomes the catalyst that helps sell a sporting event” (2019, p. 14). The radio is also a very popular medium for following sport-related news and events in the USA. There are a number of American sport radio stations (such as ESPN Radio or CBS Sports Radio), broadcasting sport-related news, talk shows, as well as live coverage of major sport events. This live coverage is the reason why the numbers of people listening to these stations always rise significantly during important games (Nielsen 2017). In addition to the sport pages in newspapers (such as USA Today or The New York Times), American sport fans can also read about their topic of interest in various magazines dedicated entirely to sport. Some of them cover various sports, while others specialize in a certain sport. Table 11.7 provides an overview of the most-read sport-related magazines in the USA. 4.3 Audience Research in Australia According to reports from RegionalTAM (2018), and Nielsen (2018b), Australians spend, on average, 2 hours and 27 minutes a day watching television, which does not include the time spent watching videos, films, and tv shows online. This form of consuming audiovisual content is most popular among

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table 11.7  Most popular sport-related magazines in the USA by circulation (as of 2016)

Magazine

Circulation

Topic

Athlon Sports

8,770,390

Sports Illustrated Hoop ESPN The Magazine Golf Digest STACK Runner’s World Sports Illustrated Kids Tennis Sporting Kid

3,023,939 2,900,000 2,153,657 1,664,590 810,000 665,376 661,686 603,916 400,000

features various magazines specializing in different sports, such as American football, baseball, basketball, racing and golf general sport basketball general sport golf general sport running general sport tennis general sport

18- to 24-year-olds, who spend around 22 hours per month watching videos via a desktop, laptop, smartphone, or tablet. When looking at the list of the top 10 most-watched TV programs in Australia in 2018 (table 11.8), it becomes clear that sport is just as popular there as it is in the United Kingdom and the United States, with seven of these programs table 11.8  The 10 most-watched television programs in Australia in 2018

Program

Sport (if the event is sport-related)

Audience (millions)

State of Origin Game 1 AFL Grand Final: West Coast vs Collingwood AFL Grand Final presentations State of Origin Game 2 NRL Grand Final Day The Block: Winner Announcement Commonwealth Games: Opening Ceremony State of Origin Game 3 Royal Wedding: Harry and Meghan Ceremony Married at First Sight: Finale

Rugby Australian football Australian football Rugby Rugby

3.44 3.40 3.33 3.20 3.06 2.89 2.79 2.67 2.64 2.59

General sports Rugby

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SPORT AND MASS COMMUNICATION table 11.9  Most popular sport-related magazines in Australia

Sport magazine AFL Record Inside Sport Big League Golf Australia

Readership in % of population aged 14+ (as of March 2020)

Number of readers

0.9 0.4 0.4 0.2

180,000 92,000 79,000 37,000

being sport-related. The list once again illustrates the high popularity of rugby and Australian football. The high popularity of rugby and Australian football also becomes obvious when looking at the most popular sport-related Australian magazines (table 11.9). In June 2019, AFL Record, a magazine dealing with Australian football, had a readership of around 192,000, which equals almost 1% of the population aged 14 or over. In terms of readership, it is followed by the general sport magazine Inside Sport. Other popular Australian sport magazines are Big League (a magazine dealing with rugby) and Golf Australia: Example: Women’s interest in television sport According to the report ‘Women and Sport’ by Nielsen (2016), the gap between women’s and men’s interest in sport has narrowed over the last 50 years. For the report, women around the world were asked about their interest in sport. Among the younger women (under 50), 17% stated that they were very interested, 31% claimed to be interested, and 28% were a little interested. Women over 50 were slightly less interested in sport, but still, more than half of them described themselves as either a little interested (30%), interested (24%), or very interested (12%). The report also demonstrated which sports women in different countries preferred to watch on television. It is interesting to note that in both the United Kingdom and the United States, more than half of the female participants stated that they watch specific sports on television, either sometimes or regularly. In the USA, both men and women preferred to watch American football, with 89% of men and 77% of women showing an interest in it. This is followed by baseball and then basketball, while the proportion of male viewers is slightly higher for both sports. While in America, men and women apparently prefer the same sports, their tastes differ considerably in the United Kingdom. There, the most popular

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television sport among women is tennis (68%), followed closely by soccer (66%) and athletics (61%). British men, however, clearly prefer soccer (85%), followed by tennis (58%), and motorsport (56%). The 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup attracted a particularly large number of female TV spectators. Overall, the event was watched more by men than by women, but in some individual countries, the matches even attracted more female than male TV spectators. Women made up the majority of viewers in South Africa (68%), Japan (52%) and the Korean Republic (51%). In other important markets, such as Europe, the Americas and Australasia, female audiences ranged between 26% (in China) and 46% (in Canada). The 2014 FIFA Men’s World Cup also reached considerably high percentages of female TV spectators. Among the countries with the top percentages of women watching the matches were Brazil (49%), Korean Republic (48%) and Argentina (48%) (Kantar Media 2014 & 2015; cited in Toffoletti 2017, pp. 17–18). 4.4 Motives for Consuming Media Sport In general, people who actively participate in a certain sport show more interest in the media reporting about this same sport than other consumers of media sport. Furthermore, active sport participants might also follow the media reporting about their sport in order to learn something for their own sport practice (improvement of techniques, acquisition of standards for their own sporting activities, etc.). In addition to this specific learning motive, the literature states various other motives for consuming sport-related content via the media. Table 11.10 gives an idea of the diversity of the identified motives. The most important related theoretical approaches are the recreation theory (consuming sport content via the media in order to relax), diversion theory (escaping from everyday life and distracting oneself), stress and stimulation seeking theory (experiencing suspense and excitement), catharsis theory (releasing aggression), entertainment theory (consuming sport for entertainment), achievement-seeking theory (increasing self-esteem by identifying with athletes), and para-social interaction theory. The latter theory, which shall be examined in greater detail, dates back to an essay by Horton & Wohl (1956). They used the term para-social interaction to describe the seeming interaction between, on the one hand, persons seen on TV (so-called personae), and, on the other, television viewers: The more a performer seems to adjust his performance to the supposed response of the audience, the more the audience tends to make the

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SPORT AND MASS COMMUNICATION table 11.10  Lists of motives for consuming sports-related content via the media, as compiled by various authors

Raney (2004)

Wenner & Gantz (1998)

Aimiller & Kretschmar (1995)

Singular motives: Entertainment Eustress (positive stress) Self-esteem Escape Learning Aesthetic Release Companionship Group affiliation Family Economics (sport gambling)

Singular motives: Identification Desire to thrill in victory To get psyched up To let off steam To let loose To kill or pass time Opportunity to have a few beers or drinks To be together with friends To be together with the family Information and much else

Superordinate categories: Emotional motivations Cognitive motivations Behavioral and social motivations

Motive dimensions: Fanship Dimension Release Dimension Filler Dimension Companionship Dimension Learning Dimension

Singular motives: Show/aesthetics/exclusivity Who wins? Taking sides Emotionality/involvement/ live experience Parasocial interaction Formation of opinion/ information Entertainment/suspense Sensation mongering Escapism/pastime Experience of community Being together with the family Learning (for your own sports activity) Visual experience Superordinate categories: Social motives Parasocial motives Relaxation Stimulation

response anticipated. This simulacrum of conversational give and take may be called a para-social interaction. (Horton & Wohl 1956, p. 215) The relationship that results from this seeming interaction between personae and recipients is called para-social relationship. This artificial social relationship is not restricted to the periods when the viewer is actually consuming the media, but it often continues even when the television is turned off or the newspaper is closed. For instance, in interviews with fans, it could be shown that they develop of a bundle of ongoing feelings for their heroes from the media, and that they often see these persons, who are basically unknown to

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them, as father figures, role models or friends. This kind of pseudo-social relationship might fill gaps in an individual’s actual social world. Some fans identify so strongly with an athlete that, when they are watching the game, they start feeling the same emotions that the active, participating athletes feel, as indicated by the following description of an American football fan: I spent […] Sundays with a few bottles of beer at the Parrot, eyes fixed on the television screen, cheering for my team. Cheering is a paltry description. The giants were my delight, my folly, my anodyne, my intellectual stimulation. With Huff I ‘stunted’ up and down the room among the bar stools, preparing to ‘shoot the gap’; with Shofner I faked two defenders ‘out of their cleats’, took high, swimming passes over my right shoulder and trotted, dipsy-doodle-like, into the end zone; with Robustelli I swept into backfields and with cruel distain flung flatfooted, helpless quarterbacks to the turf. (Exley 1968, p. 2) Often, the result of the admiration for an idol is the development of a new I (or identity), in which the original I is combined with the conception of the admired figure. In sport, we can find a large number of examples for this phenomenon. For instance, most athletes are shaped by their media role models. Even successful professional athletes report on this role play, and their orientation towards an idol. This orientation is so common that sport reporters regularly ask athletes about their role models. What is typical of the relationships with these role-models is that the imitation of sport behavior is part of a more profound influence. In the following statement by a tennis player, a further-reaching imitation of lifestyles and values is indicated: I’m extremely aggressive on the court, I guess. I really like Jimmy Connor’s game. I model myself after him. I read somewhere that he said he wants to play every point like it’s match point at Wimbledon. […] I like the individualism of tennis. It’s not a team sport; it’s an ego trip. You get all the glory yourself. That’s what I thrive on, ego. […] I want to become No. 1 in the world and become a millionaire. […] I want to become like Vitas Gerulaitis, with the cars, the shopping in Paris, and the girls. (Caughey 1986, p. 242) However, there are also pathological para-social relationships with extreme consequences, as demonstrated by the case of Günter Parche. On 30 April 1993, during a break in a tennis match, he attacked tennis player Monica Seles

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with a knife, in order to save his hero, Steffi Graf, from a defeat. According to ­psychological analyses, Parche suffered from an abnormal personality structure and an idealized fixation on Steffi Graf, who had become the center of his psychic life. Many fans try to establish direct contacts to the athletes they know from the media (for instance, during autograph sessions), turning their para-social contacts into social contacts, which seems to be part of normal fan behavior (Gleich 2009, p. 169). This is even intensified with the emergence of social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, where (sport) celebrities can directly interact with their fans (Kassing & Sanderson 2015). If such an online contact between sport star and fan is established, we speak of a “circumsocial (fan-athlete) interaction” (ibid., p. 12). What is also considered as normal fan behavior is collecting as much information as possible about the respective media heroes. There are thousands of soccer fans who do not only know all the names of their favorite players, but, of course, also their clubs, positions in the team, injuries, the stages of their career, etc. A tennis fan knows his favorite players equally well. He knows their last successes, their technical features, the brands of their clothes and their racquets, etc. This kind of information seems to be superfluous, but in many situations, it is of social significance. A fan might show his knowledge to his family, acquaintances, or even to strangers, both in his free time and in his professional life. The information provides a common topic of conversation. In fact, particularly British men frequently mention which soccer team they support when first introducing themselves to strangers (Penn 2016, p. 159). An admiration of a (sport) star or team can also lead to real, face-to-face interactions and friendships, which is also evidenced, for instance, by the formation of fan clubs. The media instruct us about values, and in sport, the values of society are represented very clearly and visibly. Athletes are seen as heroes: often they come from simple backgrounds, but, thanks to vigorous training, they are able to accomplish great things. The media’s portrayal of these athletes suggests that their kind of success and recognition is open to anyone, if they are willing to try hard enough. Media sport presents a social ideal, where action and representation are united. This is hardly the case in other areas of life, where success mostly depends on subjective evaluations by critics or teachers. Many people, such as workers at a conveyor belt or also office workers, work very hard but do not receive much recognition. They experience the opposite of the ideal represented in sport. Media sport does not only suggest that success can be achieved simply by performing and trying hard enough, but it also offers its spectators para-social relationships and acts as a form of social substitution.

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For these reasons, it is not surprising that so many people find refuge in sport. Media figures might “invade the individuals’ fantasies” (Weiss 1996, p. 113) and thereby, they can affect the individuals’ decision making, as well as their economic and political behavior. In addition, according to a theory by Elias & Dunning (1970), the display of strong emotions is increasingly controlled in modern society. However, excitement and the expression thereof is a basic human need. Sport competitions, as well as the admiration of sport idols, offer possibilities of fulfilling this need. Accordingly, Mutz & Wahnschaffe argue that the appeal of watching sport events “lies primarily in the excitement, tension and intense emotions which are, frequently but not necessarily, induced by the event” (2016, p. 326). They support the stress and stimulation seeking theory, arguing that sport events create excitement and intense feelings, which have mostly disappeared from modern, rational life. The results of their study seem to support this. They analyzed the television ratings of sport events and found that the course of a soccer game indeed affects the number of TV viewers. As long as the game remains exciting (e.g., when the two teams are equally strong), there are many viewers, but the number of viewers decreases as soon as the outcome of a game becomes clear. In addition, they found that if the team that is usually stronger is not in the lead, ratings typically increase by 18% during the last 15 minutes of the game. As a possible explanation for this, they propose that “an underdog fascinates people because this asserts widespread and deeply rooted norms of fairness and justice” (p. 336). 5

Impact Research

This research area deals with media effects, which include all the changes that can be traced back to the media or to the information transmitted via the media. These changes can concern both individuals as well as systems and institutions. To a large extent, the history of the research in this area can be described as a history of the erroneous and unsatisfactory theories on the effects of mass communication. 5.1 Theory of the Omnipotence of the Media From 1920 to 1944, the mass media were believed to have the omnipotence to set stimuli that would lead to certain, predetermined reactions among the audience. The radio drama ‘The War of the Worlds’, which was broadcast on October 30, 1938 and has since become famous, was considered to be proof for this thesis. In the USA, millions of listeners panicked as they heard that Martians had landed on Earth. The stimulus-response model, which was

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introduced to the social sciences in the first third of the 20th century, seemed to be viable. The right stimulus—a terrifying media message—led to a panicky reaction of the defenseless recipients. 5.2 Theory of the Relative Ineffectiveness of the Media From 1944 to 1970, there was more and more evidence for the relative ineffectiveness (or impotence) of the media. A groundbreaking study in this field was the one on ‘People’s Choice’ during the American presidential election campaign of Wilkie contra Roosevelt. In their investigations, Lazarsfeld, Berelson & Gaudet (1948) could show that the influence of radio and press had been highly overestimated and that various other factors are taking effect when forming an opinion, such as social class affiliation and circle of friends. In 1970, the theory of the omnipotence became popular again, especially regarding the long-term and cumulative effects of mass communication. In this context, referring to the formative influence of television, Noelle-Neumann formulated the catchphrase of the “elephant in disguise” (1992, translated). The question of whether we can also speak of an elephant in disguise with regard to television sport remains open, since to date, sport-related empirical impact research has only been conducted to some extent. Therefore, the effects of the reality of media sport on the recipients are still largely unknown. Coakley & Pike (2014, p. 401) argue that the media do without a doubt influence people’s thoughts, worldviews and social worlds, but, since they have the power to think critically, this does not mean that they are defenseless, passive recipients: We use media images and narratives as we evaluate ourselves, give meaning to other people and events, form ideas and envision the future. This does not mean that we are slaves to the media or passive dupes of those who control media content and the ways it is represented to us. The media do not tell us what to think, but they greatly influence what we think about and, therefore, what we talk about in our relationships. Our experiences and our social worlds are clearly informed by media content, and if the media did not exist, our lives would be different. In addition, there is one key question over which the scientific community is divided, which is about the impact of presentations of violence in the media. Following Kunczik & Zipfel (2006, pp. 84–169), table 11.11 provides an overview of the most popular hypotheses that were formulated in the attempts to answer this question.

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table 11.11  Explanatory models for the possible effects of presentations of violence on the viewers

Catharsis hypothesis Inhibition hypothesis

Stimulation hypothesis Habitualization hypothesis

Cultivation hypothesis

Hypothesis of ineffectiveness

Assumes that there is an innate aggression drive and a release of aggression through the expression of the media. The presentations of violence in the media inhibit aggressive behavioral tendencies, since they cause fear among the recipients, rather than a willingness to act aggressively. Violence in the media teaches aggressive behavior and encourages it (learning from role models, or observational learning). Increasing duration and intensification of presentations of violence in the media will gradually lead to negative effects, such as effects of habituation and trivializations of violence. This is especially the case when the individuals concerned also experience violence in their everyday lives. When recipients frequently watch television for a long time, their worldview will be shaped more by the television contents, which often do not correspond to reality, than by reality itself. Violence in the media does not have an impact on the formation of real violence.

In empirical research, there is no evidence for the catharsis hypothesis, that is, the assumption that the reception of aggressive sport events conveyed by the media has a cathartic effect and that it would keep recipients from engaging in violent behavior themselves. Rather, there are some indications for the stimulation hypothesis, according to which the sport-related aggressions presented by the media could lead to an increase of the viewers’ own aggressive tendencies (Gleich 2004, p. 201). Accordingly, the aggressive behavior of athletes in the media can serve as a model for the viewers’ imitative behavior. Adubato (2016) conducted a study to test this hypothesis, where she examined the statistics of domestic violence arrests for specific days in 2009 in Philadelphia. She measured 20 American football gamedays and compared them to 22 regular days on which no American football match took place. The result was surprising: on gamedays, the number of domestic violence arrests was, on average, almost twice as high as on other days. This would clearly suggest that violent sport programs on television do, in fact, create more violence among

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the audience. However, Adubato also acknowledges that numerous other influencing factors must be taken into account as well, and that further research is necessary to strengthen the stimulation hypothesis. It can be assumed that there is a complex relationship of cause and effect with regard to the impact of presentations of sport-related violence in the media. Of course, not all the sport contests depicted in the media are violent. Sport reporting on television often accentuates the violent aspects of sport in order to create drama and excitement. Coakley & Pike (2014, p. 426) argue that watching non-violent sport contests can have a positive effect on children. If they have the opportunity to do so, children often copy what they see on television. They have active imaginations, and when they see athletes and identify with them, they might want to start participating in sport to pursue their television-inspired dreams. However, often, this participation does not last long, when children realize how much practice it takes to compete successfully in sport. The symbolic transfer of sport constitutes a new communicative dimension and has an impact on sport culture. Despite the rise of media sport, there is still a relatively low participation rate in active sport in modern societies, which is incommensurate with the enormous significance of the consumption of media sport. Many people do not participate in sport themselves, but intensively consume sport content via the media. According to the cultivation hypothesis, these people might get an idea of sport being all about maximum performance, competition and striving for risk—just like it is portrayed in the media. They might rather be deterred from practicing sport themselves, because the performance standards presented in the media seem out of reach, and they see no reason to put themselves under the pressure of competition or to accept risks voluntarily in their free time. Therefore, an increased reporting on alternative movement cultures should be promoted (Marcinkowski & Gehrau 2009, p. 239). 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Revision Questions Define the term ‘mass media’. What is the main question in Lasswell’s model of communication, and what are the fields of research that result from it? Describe the concept of the journalist as a gatekeeper. Describe at least two conditions that influence the journalists’ selection of news. In which ways is it possible to notice a gender bias in sport reporting? Name two examples.

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Name two examples for sport magazines that were founded in the 19th century. 7. Give an example for a sport event that was broadcast by the radio in the 1920s or 1930s. 8. What are the most popular sports to watch on television in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia? 9. Name and describe at least three of the hypotheses for the possible effects of presentations of violence on television viewers. 10. What is a para-social relationship?

chapter 12

Sport and the Economy definition Sport economy is the science dealing with the connection between sport and the economy. The organization of sport is increasingly aligned with structures that are typical for the economy in contemporary society. Sport is getting caught up in the maelstrom of rationally organized economy. As a result, three major trends take place in sport: commercialization, professionalization, and mediatization. Key point: Commercialization of sport More and more frequently, market-based actions and economic successes coexist with the actual athletic goals. Sport-economic aspects are becoming increasingly important. In this sense, the commercialization of sport mirrors the process of its marketing according to profit-based principles. Since the turn of the 20th century, the commercialization of sport has taken place at different speeds in various types of sport (Karlsch & Kleinschmidt 2019, p. 302). Sport represents a multi-billion-dollar industry: In 2014, the contribution of sport to EU gross value added was €294 billion, which equals 3% of total EU gross value added (European Commission 2014). According to Plunkett Research, the Global Sport Industry Revenue reached US$1,333.9 billion in 2018.1 The main stakeholders that profit from sport economically are: – tourism companies that accommodate and cater to sport tourists; – the sporting goods industry, which breaks into new markets by selling sportswear and sport equipment; – enterprises that build and maintain sport facilities; – commercial enterprises offering the use of sport facilities and sport lessons (fitness centers, dance studios, tennis courts, operators of skiing facilities, as well as schools for sailing, windsurfing, diving, combat sport, horseback riding, etc.); 1 “Global Sports Industry Revenues, 2017–2018, Business and Industry Statistics.” Retrieved from Plunkett Research, https://www.plunkettresearch.com/statistics/Industry-Statistics-GlobalSports-Industry-Revenues-2017-2018/. © Waxmann Verlag GmbH, 2021 | DOI: 10.1163/9789004464711_014

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– – – – –

organizers of sport events; sport betting providers; the media that report on sport; marketing and advertising companies using and promoting sport; clubs with professional teams and athletes offering entertainment and earning money for it. Major sport events, like the European championships, the world championships, or the Olympic Games, are organized as “mega-events” (Bailey et al. 2017). They increasingly serve commercial interests and their magnitude is secured only by extensive commercial exploitation. During this exploitation, external effects occur, by which society or different groups in the host country are affected in various ways. In this context, the following example serves to summarize the main economic successes that London has achieved from hosting the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, but also the concerns that were expressed prior to the Olympic Games: Example: 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London: Criticism and economic impacts The 2012 Olympic Games were one of the largest events that have ever been hosted in London. However, as described by Giulianotti et al. (2015), there were also a number of critical voices in the run-up to these Olympic Games. The main points of criticism were: – the overall costs of the Olympic Games, which were as high as £24 billion; – the environmental damage caused by the construction of Olympic installations; – the construction of new roads that were “reserved solely for the Olympic family” (p. 105), and from which normal London traffic was excluded; – some businesses were not allowed to place advertisements along the specific Olympic routes and zones, which resulted in “significant losses in trade” (p. 106); – some households and businesses received “compulsory purchase orders to clear land for construction of Olympic facilities” (ibid.). As a result, some residents had to be relocated into public or social housing. Nevertheless, in the end, the Olympic Games brought great economic benefits to the city and its inhabitants, some of which are listed below (Thornton 2013): – It is estimated that the Olympic Games will, in total, generate between £28 and £41 billion in gross value added.

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– Over 800,000 people traveled from overseas to visit the Olympic Games, which brought great benefits to the tourism sector. It is estimated that these visitors spent nearly £1.1 billion during their stay in the United Kingdom. The Olympic Games’ net impact on the tourism industry in the United Kingdom during 2012 is estimated to be £890 million. In addition, there were a number of British people from outside London traveling to the city for the Olympic Games. The additional contribution they provided was £184 million from domestic overnight visitors and £179 million from domestic day visitors. – Between 62,000 and 76,000 previously unemployed people found either temporary or permanent employment thanks to the Olympic Games. For example, the construction of the Olympic Park and Athletes’ Village created numerous jobs, and many people also found work in catering, retail and security. Some of them received training to prepare them for working at the Olympic Games, providing them with skills that they can continue to apply in the future. – Hosting the Olympic Games led to an increase in the number of Londoners engaging in physical activity. According to the British Taking Part survey (2012), 15% of adults stated that the Olympic Games either motivated them to do more sport, or that their interest in sport has increased due to the Olympic Games. In addition, new participation opportunities and sport infrastructure were created as a result of the Olympic Games. – The Olympic Park was created on a site in East London that was “largely derelict, polluted and inaccessible” (p. 30). Thanks to the Olympic Games, it is now in the process of being transformed into “one of London’s most dynamic urban districts” (ibid.), for instance, through the creation of permanent sporting venues, homes, schools, and health facilities, as well as an improvement of the public transport system. The Olympic Games, but also sport events on a smaller scale, cannot be financed only through entrance fees and transmission fees paid by broadcasters. Therefore, event organizers are dependent on sponsors.2 More and more 2 The promotion of sport by outside parties has a long tradition. The Roman Gaius C. Maecenas (70 BC–8 BC), who supported some of the most important poets of his time, is considered to be the first patron of cultural activities. His name has become a byword for the promotion of people or organizations without asking for anything specific in return; a practice which, at first, could also be found in sport. The favor used to be returned indirectly, in the form of prestige. This allowed for an intertwining of idealistic motives and advertising interests, which could then result in economic success. There is a smooth transition from

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frequently, marketing companies are asked to take over the sponsoring of events, either wholly or partially. Furthermore, in some disciplines, sport agencies are involved, who, on behalf of the organizer, market broadcasting rights, title rights, and other sponsoring measures. definition Sport sponsoring (or sport sponsorship) is a special exchange relationship between sponsors (economic enterprises) and sponsored parties or sponsees (athletes, sport organizations). While the sponsors pursue marketing and communication strategies (for image building, increasing the awareness level, addressing target groups, etc.), the sponsored parties want to achieve their athletic objectives with the help of financial, material, and service-related donations. With the increasing commercialization of social life and sport, sport sponsoring has developed in various forms. In 2019, global business spending on sport sponsoring is estimated to reach £35billion (Wilson 2019). Constantly, new possibilities for financing and advertising are created. Regardless of which sport we are dealing with, three types of sponsorship are of particular importance: sponsoring of a) individuals, b) sport teams and c) sport events or the media presentations of these events. There are numerous links and combinations between these sponsorships. For instance, the sponsorship of individual athletes (shirt advertising, TV spots, autograph sessions, etc.) can also be applied for promoting team sports or sport events. One possibility for a sponsor to obtain a dominant position is through title sponsorship, when the name of his company or his product is incorporated in the name of the stadium or the event title and advertised accordingly. For instance, in 2016, the Britannia Stadium in Stoke-on-Trent in England has changed its name into bet365 Stadium, after its sponsor bet365, a British online gambling company. In Manchester City, the Etihad Stadium (formerly known as Manchester Stadium) is named after its sponsor Etihad Airways, the second-largest airline in the United Arab Emirates. The London Marathon has been sponsored by the financial services company Virgin Money since 2010 and is therefore known as Virgin Money London Marathon (Coakley & Pike 2014, p. 376). In addition to title sponsorship, there is another possibility to gain a special position as a sponsor, which is through the acquisition of a so-called idealistic promotion to sponsoring. Nowadays, it is rare to find anonymous patrons whose ties to sport are idealistic and whose motives are altruistic. More and more athletes and sport organizations look for sponsors who openly ask for services in return.

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sponsorship package (e.g., advertising on start numbers, perimeter advertising, notices by stadium announcers, and the use of predicates such as official outfitter, official supplier, or official supporter). In addition, the sponsors are entitled to parking spaces, seats in the VIP lounge, and exclusive services during the event. At big events, a pool of sponsors (including main and secondary sponsors) has proved to be successful (table 12.1, figure 12.1). What is important is that the sponsors are compatible with each other (with regard to size, image, etc.) and that they have an affinity to sport in general, or to the respective type of sport. This has an impact on the credibility of the sponsors’ commitment and the effectiveness of the sponsoring activities. According to Drees (1992, pp. 39–41), products that can immediately be used for sport activities, such as sport equipment and sportswear, have a particularly high affinity to sport. Sport-related products, such as fitness drinks or energy drinks, are considered to have an average affinity to sport. The third group consists of products and services of those sponsors who are only indirectly connected to sport (such as tourism companies and insurances). Furthermore, there are sponsors advertising products that are not at all related to sport or that might not even correspond to the values represented by sport (fast food, tobacco products, etc.). In return for their sponsoring activities, the companies expect: – an increase or stabilization of their brand awareness; – an image transfer of sport or of an athlete to the respective company or to a product; – to address target groups that are hard to reach using classic communication measures (e.g., adolescents); – to stimulate the recipients to buy their products; – to maintain contacts with invited guests; – staff motivation. Example: Coca-Cola as a sponsor of the Olympic Games The soft drink manufacturer Coca-Cola has been sponsoring events for over a hundred years, starting with world’s fairs and national exhibitions in 1905. Among the sport events sponsored by Coca-Cola are the Olympic Games (since 1928), the FIFA World Cup (since 1978), as well as games and competitions by NASCAR (auto racing), NBA, and NCAA (basketball) (Martin 2018). The following example focuses on Coca-Cola’s sponsorship of the Olympic Games, giving a short history of Coca-Cola’s marketing measures at the Olympic Games:

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table 12.1  List of sponsors for the 2019 Wimbledon Championships

Sponsor

Company description

Tasks / Visibility

Slazenger

Lanson

British sports manufacturer fruit drink brand American multinational technology company champagne producer

Ralph Lauren

fashion designer

Pimm’s

brand of gin-based fruit cup or liqueur ice cream brand

provider of the tennis balls, which feature the company’s logo bottles can be seen around the courts provides real-time match statistics to broadcasters champagne is sold in the bars and marquees on the grounds dresses all Wimbledon on-court officials has its own bar and pop-up stalls across the site kiosks and scooping parlors within the grounds provides vehicles for transporting the players and their entourages official beer of UK tennis official Wimbledon coffee; provides more than 200 coffee machines at 60 service points ‘water of choice’ for tennis players during matches provides on-site banking services products are displayed throughout the competition card members have their own lounge and receive discounts on site scoreboards feature the logo; eighttime Wimbledon winner Roger Federer is one of its ambassadors

Robinsons IBM

Haagen-Dazs

Jaguar Land Rover car manufacturer Stella Artois Lavazza

beer manufacturer Italian coffee brand

Evian

brand of mineral water

HSBC Oppo

international bank Chinese smartphone brand American Express credit card provider Rolex

luxury watch brand

1928: At the Olympic Games in Amsterdam, which were the first Olympic Games sponsored by Coca-Cola, the drink was sold at kiosks around the Olympic Stadium. 1964: At the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Coca-Cola did not only sell its drink, but also produced sightseeing information, street maps, as well as

SPORT AND THE ECONOMY

figure 12.1 Advertising of sponsors at the baseball stadium Citi Field in New York

a Japanese-English phrase book. This idea was so popular that it was replicated at subsequent Olympic Games. 1984: For the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Coca-Cola created various programs to encourage underprivileged young people to participate in sport, including a national youth soccer competition and an educational program. 1988: In Calgary, the company put together a choir consisting of 43 young people from 23 countries—the Coca-Cola World Chorus. At the opening and closing ceremonies, the group performed ‘Can You Feel It?’, which was the Olympic Games’ signature song. 1992: At the Olympic Games in Barcelona, Coca-Cola was involved in the Olympic Torch Relay for the first time. 1996: The Coca-Cola Olympic City theme park was created in Atlanta, featuring nearly 20 attractions and special events. 2012: At the London Olympic Games, the Coca-Cola Beatbox was created, a pavilion in the Olympic Park, which was described as an “experimental fusion of architecture, sport, music and technology that creates a stunning multi-sensory experience” (Frearson 2012). In addition, Coca-Cola contributed to making London 2012 the greenest and most sustainable Olympic Games ever. 2018: At the Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, CocaCola activated a giant vending machine at Gangneung Olympic Park,

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figure 12.2 A 15-meter-high Coca-Cola vending machine at Gangneung Olympic Park, at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games

where product-sampling events and giveaways of Coca-Cola products took place (Zelaya 2018; figure 12.2). All these measures proved to be very successful, so that Coca-Cola could renew its Olympic partnership until 2032.3 However, critics have often questioned the suitability of Coca-Cola as a sport sponsor, since the drink might lead to obesity and health problems, while the Olympic Games promote sport and a healthy lifestyle. Coca-Cola tackles this problem by instead emphasizing the fact that it encourages sport participation among young people (its main target group), as well as its shared values with the Olympic movement: “As an organization, the Coca-Cola Company shares the Olympic Values, which embody the discovery of one’s abilities, the spirit of competition, the pursuit of excellence, a sense of fair play and the building of a better and more peaceful world”.4 3 “The IOC, the Coca-Cola Company and China Mengniu Dairy Company…,” retrieved from https://www.olympic.org/news/the-ioc-the-coca-cola-company-and-china-mengniu-dairycompany-ltd-announce-joint-worldwide-olympic-partnership-to-2032. 4 “Coca-Cola Sponsorships,” retrieved from Coca-Cola, https://www.coca-colacompany.com/ stories/coca-cola-sponsorships-london-2012-olympic-games.

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Sport advertising often takes advantage of the positive image of sport by emphasizing sport-related attributes such as young, chic, dynamic, active, successful, healthy, or natural in the companies, evoking corresponding associations among the recipients. The media provide the sponsors with a larger circle of recipients and help to transfer the positive attributes of sport to the sponsors. To mention another example, thanks to attributions such as dynamic, successful and healthy, the fast-food chain McDonald’s, which is usually associated with fat, unhealthy burgers, can benefit as a sponsor of major sport events. Another famous sport sponsor is the beverage producer Red Bull. The company was able to achieve prominence as a sponsor of, for instance, paragliders, base jumpers, and ski jumpers, and could thereby advertise its energy drink with corresponding slogans such as ‘Red Bull gives you wings’. Red Bull spends a third of its marketing budget on sport sponsoring. Hermanns & Marwitz describe sport sponsoring as an “innovative process of designing marketing communication” (2008, p. 42, translated). In the course of this process, the communicative possibilities of sport sponsoring are integrated in the classic marketing tools (advertisement, public relations, sales) (Bruhn 2003, p. 17; table 12.2), while a corresponding corporate identity (sport as a part of the company’s identity) is developed and implemented. The corporate identity should be designed in a coherent and consistent fashion, in order to create credibility and trust. This includes the external or optical appearance (corporate design), which comprises recurring and, if possible, uniform optical or acoustic elements that sink into the minds of the recipients (coloring, signets, the employees’ clothes, souvenirs, etc.). For instance, the three stripes of Adidas are among the world’s best-known signets that serve as a trademark of recognition. The corporate design is supplemented by the behavior or the actions of a company, in which the implementation of its business principles are expressed (corporate behavior), and by corporate ­communication, which refers to the communication with employees, market players, and the media. table 12.2 Sports sponsoring as an instrument of communication policy

classical sponsoring instruments

classical instruments of sports sponsoring

advertising public relations (PR) sales promotion

sport advertising sport-related PR sport-related sales promotion

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From the point of view of the sponsored parties, sponsorship is mainly an opportunity to receive additional financial resources, as well as services and material resources. These material resources can include, for instance, computers or sport equipment. With regard to services, the sponsor usually provides a special kind of expertise to the sponsored party, which is needed for certain activities, such as for the setup and operation of devices. Even the smallest sport clubs in the lower divisions seek this or other kinds of support from sponsors. In popular sports, such as soccer, the sponsors might even help the clubs through times of economic crises. As a consequence, there are hardly any club teams anymore whose competitions do not feature shirt advertising, perimeter advertising, etc. These advertising activities can contribute to increase the prominence of a team (or of an athlete or an event), and also their market value. In addition, tickets for certain events might be sold via the sponsor, which can promote the marketing of the sponsee’s performances. Sponsors might also, either directly or indirectly, help attract new members for the sponsored club. Furthermore, sponsors can provide support in local political decisions (for instance, building or expansion of sport facilities), applications for hosting national or international sport events, or when the sponsees find themselves in situations of crisis. Key point: Professionalization of sport The development of sport sponsoring and other forms of sport marketing is accompanied by the professionalization of sport, which describes the process of its occupationalization and scientification. “The term ‘occupation’ […] will be applied to the mode of specialization, specification, and combination of the functions of an individual so far as it constitutes for him the basis of a continuous opportunity for income or earnings” (Weber 1978, p. 140). In line with this description, sport becomes a profession for more and more people. The replacement of the amateur sportsman by the professional sportsman gains ever more ground. However, not only athletes are affected by this professionalization, but also coaches, match agents, sport managers, sponsors, media representatives, the staff of associations, etc. In contrast to this upward professionalization, also de-professionalization can occur, for instance, when teams owning pro licenses of the highest divisions descend to amateur classes, or when individual athletes are reinstated as amateurs. The interconnections between sport and economy have an impact on all fields of sport, even on the sport clubs, which, for a long time, were clearly separated

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from the world of career, market, and earning money. For instance, numerous sport clubs have developed services not only for their members, but also for non-members, which are comparable to the services offered by commercial sport providers. In sport clubs, the process of professionalization occurs when voluntary positions5 turn into paid employment, for instance, when previous volunteers start receiving allowances or other material benefits, or when specific expertise is needed in certain areas, like the administrative area, which is hard to acquire for volunteers. Example: Volunteer satisfaction in European sport clubs Nagel et al. (2020) conducted a study on the satisfaction of volunteers in sport clubs in Europe. A sample of 8,131 volunteers from 642 sport clubs in ten different European countries completed an online survey developed by the research group. Some of the main findings are: – There is a positive correlation between satisfaction and the extent of recognition the volunteers experience in the club. – Material incentives positively contribute to volunteer satisfaction as well, but generally, they play a less important role than other conditions. Volunteers in sport clubs are primarily motivated by “a shared enthusiasm for sports, social relationships and career factors” (ibid., p. 1086). – Volunteers who receive constructive feedback and support from the club management are more satisfied. – Volunteers with a relatively high workload (over 300 hours per year) are less satisfied than volunteers who have a lower workload. – The position of a volunteer (for instance, whether he is a coach or another board member) is not relevant for his satisfaction. – There is also no relationship between volunteer satisfaction and gender. – Regarding age, those from the youngest (under 25 years) and oldest (more than 65 years) age groups are more satisfied with their voluntary positions that those from other age groups. – The size of the club does not contribute to volunteer satisfaction; probably because larger clubs are often divided into smaller sections, 5 In England, 14% of adults (aged 16+) volunteered at least twice in the sport sector in 2017. Their tasks included coaching, administrative work, or providing transport. Volunteering levels have slightly decreased by 1% in comparison to the previous year. A large number of volunteers occupy managerial and professional positions (46%) and thus come from higher socioeconomic backgrounds. In addition, volunteering in sport is still more popular among men, with 59% of volunteers being male (Active Lives Adult Survey 2018).

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so that the working conditions for volunteers become similar to those in small clubs. – The study found that paid staff had “neither a positive nor a negative effect” (p. 1087) on volunteer satisfaction. This contradicts the assumption that the employment of paid staff could have a negative effect on volunteer satisfaction. However, Nagel et al. only examined whether a club had paid staff; the exact number of paid staff compared to that of volunteers was not taken into account. Full-time employees in sport clubs are expected to ensure that services are provided in a professional way, so that the club can respond to the wishes of its individual members, and also the wishes of the non-members and consumers of sport-related performances whom the club wants to address, in a way that is individual, need-oriented, and geared to the target group.6 Professionalization does not only concern sport clubs, but sport organizations in general are increasingly following the laws of the market. A keyword that frequently comes up in this context is sport marketing. definition Sport marketing is the application of economic methods to various sport-related organizations. Sport marketing asks for long-term, conceptual action, in which market orientation has to be combined with the sport-related economic, social and pedagogical objectives, as well as with volunteer-driven structures. The success of sport marketing depends on the ability to explore the specific conditions of sport as an institution, of the social environment, and of the market. In this process, a large part of the general marketing strategies, as well as methods of general business administration, are applied. The task of sport economics is to work out the special features of sport which have to be considered in sport marketing (Freyer 1991, p. 31). Only after having acquired sufficient knowledge on sport, it becomes possible to adequately capture the sport-related requirements and situations, as well as to develop and implement marketing strategies.

6 For more information on the position and societal value of sport clubs in different European countries, see the book ‘Sport Clubs in Europe’ (Breuer et al. 2015).

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The major task of a marketing strategy is to determine the optimal marketing mix. Out of the existing marketing instruments, a combination that is suitable to reach the intended goals must be chosen. The marketing mix is characterized by the fact that the individual measures are not considered in isolation. What is important is the entirety of the different instruments, for which a harmonious constellation should be determined. In this context, we speak of “integrated communication” (Percy 2008), which serves to coordinate different communication tools according to certain criteria. If the different marketing elements are coordinated well, we speak of positive synergies. 1

Sport Marketing and Mass Media

Sport marketing and large areas of commercialized sport in general are not conceivable without modern means of mass communication. According to Rowe, It is little wonder that the relationship between sport and the media (especially in television) is commonly described as the happiest of marriages, with both institutions becoming mutually dependent in an increasingly extensive and expensive exchange of exposure and rights fees for sport in return for compelling content and audience capture for the media. (1999, p. 32) Mass communication multiplies the possibilities of participation in sport and allows for a worldwide spread of the interest in sport. There are no other events in the world that attract nearly as many people as the FIFA World Cups and the Olympic Games. For instance, as mentioned in the previous chapter, 3.2 billion people worldwide watched at least a minute of the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016 on television. In addition, 1.3 billion people watched Olympic content on digital media (that is, on websites and apps). Hence, coverage of the Olympic Games was watched by half of the world’s population.7 Communication technologies by which such popular successes can be achieved have a direct and central impact on the social system and, especially in sport, they initiate processes of profound change. Simultaneously with the 7 According to a report by the International Olympic Committee, retrieved from https:// stillmed.olympic.org/media/Document%20Library/OlympicOrg/Games/Summer-Games/ Games-Rio-2016-Olympic-Games/Media-Guide-for-Rio-2016/Global-Broadcast-and-Audience-Report-Rio-2016.pdf.

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emergence of modern mass media—especially television—sport generated new communicative dimensions whose consequences are not yet apparent. What is certain is that sport has become a complex arrangement of symbolic interaction, whereas the relation between actors and spectators is shifting in favor of the latter. The role of the sport spectators is becoming increasingly important. Without spectators, there would be no sponsors, no advertising revenues, and no earnings. Even the most sensational world record—if that would even exist without an audience—would be no more than a statistical fact. Indeed, it is audience ratings and reach data, that is, the interest of the audience, that determines the fate of a sport. If a sport appeals to an audience, it will be commercialized to a larger extent. Bigger crowds bring more revenue, and the interests of advertising and other financiers come into play. However, more money does not only secure the athletes’ achievement motivation, but it also entails a higher pressure to perform.8 This increased performance motivation leads to a mobilization of all measures that serve to increase performance. The clubs and associations are not alone anymore in their management responsibility, but they have to accept a subordinate role to the sponsors and media representatives who, on their part, have mainly economic interests. Key point: Mediatization of sport (Mass) media are the drivers of the increasingly symbiotic relationship between sport and economy. This leads to the mediatization of sport, which describes its subordination to the principles of the media. This mediatization is particularly significant in the case of US-American sport leagues and therefore, it shall first be illustrated based on this example. As a preliminary, the professionalization of sport leagues began very early in the USA, and it was promoted particularly by the business partnership with television. This partnership began when American football or baseball clubs started paying for television coverage. However, this relationship was reversed shortly later. The television channels began to buy the broadcasts of events, because this way, they could attract large audiences. Due to a number of popular successes, American football, baseball, basketball, and ice hockey advanced to being important programming providers for the television channels. Thanks 8 The question on whether more money actually leads to a better performance has been the subject of only a few studies. For instance, Frick et al. (2002) examined the effects of different remuneration systems on teams of the US-American National Football League. They came to the conclusion that there is a positive correlation between salary expenses and sporting success, hence, the amounts of the players’ salaries positively influences team performance.

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to the ratings achieved with these programs, (media) sport became more and more interesting for the economy, which discovered it to be an excellent medium for advertising. Televised pro sports have become an advertising medium for macho related sports products like beers, cigars and men’s toiletries. Sports watching has developed to such a high degree that many fans are now passive participants and super consumers of sport and sport related products. (Snyder & Spreitzer 1989, p. 252) With the increase of sport-related TV advertising, also the financial power of the television channels expanded. Sport profited from this fact, as the sums paid for broadcasting rights became higher and higher. However, this cash flow was accompanied by shifts of control, as it has already been indicated in the key point ‘mediatization’: Television buys sports. Television supports sports. It moves in with its money and supports sports in a style to which they have become accustomed and then, like a bought lady, sports become so used to luxurious living they extricate themselves. So, slowly at first, but inevitably, television tells sports what to do. It is sports and it runs them the way it does most other things, more flamboyantly than honestly. (Shecter 1970, p. 79) The professional leagues and the major colleges increasingly complied with the wishes of television, in order to be included in the broadcasting times of national live transmissions. In the early 1970s, the American college football coach Paul William ‘Bear’ Bryant said: We think TV exposure is so important to our program and so important to this university that we will schedule ourselves to fit the medium. I’ll play at midnight if that’s what TV wants. (cited in Johnson 1973, p. 457) In the USA, it meant a lot to appear nationwide on one of the leading networks. American football teams even allowed television channels to alter their schedules. And yes, it is true that major colleges have shuffled their football schedules like primetime rate cards when lured with an opportunity to get the old alma mater into the nation’s living rooms. Finally, it is quite probable that on numerous occasions – perhaps even hundreds – ­commercial

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time-outs have affected games by altering the morale, momentum or metaphysics of a team. (Johnson 1973, p. 462) For instance, in a game of American football, where 60 minutes of effective playing time are divided into four quarters, the insertions of commercials mentioned in the previous quote add up to 24 minutes. These commercials are primarily inserted during playing time, so that preferably the entire television audience can be reached. The influence of television on sport even goes so far that occasionally, additional time-outs are arranged for commercials, in case there are not enough regular time-outs.9 One other official has been added, this one not in uniform and not listed in the program. He is the television network man, often wearing an iridescent orange vest, who instructs the real officials when arbitrary timeouts are to be called for advertisements. It is his job to see that the game is halted often enough to enable the network to unreel its commercials. […] He signals the referee that he is hurting, and it is up to the official to find an excuse for a break. (Michener 1976, p. 297) In the USA, sport that has been adapted to televisions’ wishes to such an extent is being shown, for instance, on the specific channel Entertainment and Sports Programming (ESPN), which was established in 1979. This channel is showing only sport programs around the clock, nonstop. European counterparts to Entertainment and Sports Programming are the channels Eurosport 1 (established under the name Eurosport in 1989 and renamed in 2015) and Eurosport 2 (established in 2005). These two channels reach 246 million cumulative subscribers10 across 75 countries. In England, for a long time, public service broadcasters (PSB) enjoyed a monopoly when it came to the transmission of sport events. For the BBC, which was founded in the 1920s, live coverage of sport events was an important part of its programming right from the beginning. Some of the earliest events broadcast live by the BBC were the Grand National (a horse race), Wimbledon tennis, as well as Rugby Union matches. In the following years, sport coverage 9

10

This is not surprising, considering that, for instance, as early as 1981, the NBC paid US$6 million to the National Football League only for the right to broadcast the Super Bowl. The insertion of a 30-second commercial during that game cost US$275,000 (Eitzen 1984, p. 269). In 2008, a spot already cost, on average, US$2.7 million. At the 2020 Super Bowl, the host network Fox charged a record sum of US$5.6 million for a 30-second spot (Massabrook 2020). “About Eurosport”, retrieved from https://corporate.eurosport.com/page/about-eurosport.

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was limited to a smaller number of events, as sport organizations feared that there would be fewer stadium visitors as a result of the TV broadcasts. With the advent of another public service broadcaster, ITV, in the 1950s, the UK’s TV coverage of sport expanded again. A larger number of sports were included in the coverage, and both the BBC and ITV launched sport magazine programs. However, with the launch of the satellite pay TV broadcaster BSkyB in the early 1990s, the BBC and ITV lost their exclusive position. In 1992, BSkyB secured the exclusive rights to broadcast English Premier League soccer matches. As a result, the number of subscribers increased significantly, and this, in turn, enabled BSkyB to acquire the rights to other important sport events. In 2016, BSkyB (which was renamed into Sky in 2014) had around 11 million monthly subscribers, and it is estimated that 69% of these subscribers pay for its premium sport channels (Smith 2017, pp. 204–205). Television broadcasts of sport events were still relatively cheap programs in the 1980s—back then, the costs for other entertainment programs were up to ten times higher than sport programs (Seifart 1982, p. 42). However, this has changed significantly: Due to the increased technical effort, as well as massive price increases for broadcasting rights for important sport events, television sport has become an expensive entertainment program. The reason why the prices for attractive broadcasting rights have increased is that the channels are competing for these rights. The question of, for instance, whether viewers can watch soccer or rugby on a certain channel depends on which channel has acquired which rights on which sport events or types of sport. For instance, not a single soccer match of the English Premier League has been broadcast live by a UK public service broadcaster. The PSB did not bid enough money, and so the rights went to Sky instead. PSB broadcasting of the Premier League matches is now restricted to cover the highlights, and even here, the value of the rights has increased significantly in the last few years. From the seasons 2004–5 until 2006–7, the BBC paid £104 million for highlight coverage, and this price has risen to £204 million in 2015 (Smith 2017, p. 207). The commerce with transmission rights for big international sport events has become an international business. For instance, in the last decades, the funds that the television channels pay to the International Olympic Committee for the broadcasting rights for the Olympic Games have risen exorbitantly (table 12.3). To a great extent, the Olympic Games are already directed by the paying television channels and the sponsoring industries. The same applies to other big international sport events. For instance, following pressure from the television channels, numerous games of the FIFA World Cup 1994 in the USA had to be scheduled at lunchtime, even though the players were suffering from the midday heat. The main reason for this decision was that this way, the

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table 12.3  Costs for television rights for the Summer Olympic Games 1972–2016

Summer Olympics Munich 1972 Montreal 1976 Moscow 1980 Los Angeles 1984 Seoul 1988 Barcelona 1992 Atlanta 1996 Sydney 2000 Athens 2004 Beijing 2008 London 2012 Rio 2016

TV rights worldwide in US$ 17.8 million 34.8 million 101 million 287 million 407 million 636 million 898 million 1.3 billion 1.5 billion over 1.7 billion over 2.5 billion over 2.8 billion

games could be broadcast at prime time at the major European market. This underlines the major trend of “financiarization” (Richelieu 2019, p. 9) within the sport industry, meaning that sport organizations are always trying to maximize their revenues and profits, as indicated by the constantly rising costs for television rights and commercials. Nowadays, sport events are not only organized under the influence of television channels and industries, but sometimes, they are invented specifically for television. In this case, we speak of pseudo-events, that is, sport events that would not take place without television, or that were staged for the only purpose of receiving television coverage. This means that the number of spectators on site is not very important for the economic success of an event. Only the television rights and the related advertising budget are economically relevant. In this context, the Mexican television company Televisa shall be mentioned, which, among other things, owns soccer clubs and sport stadiums and hires famous athletes. In a sense, Televisa creates sport by itself; the company organizes sport events in order to be able to broadcast or sell them. Indeed, the phenomenon that the media act as organizations of sport events is not new. For instance, the Austrian newspaper Allgemeine Sport-Zeitung organized the first amateur fencing championships of Austria-Hungary in 1883, and a swimming competition at the Viennese swimming bath Dianabad in 1886. The newspaper’s editor, Victor Silberer, did not only want to promote the sports of

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fencing and swimming, but he also hoped that all those who were interested in these sports would start reading his newspaper. For the same reason, in 1903, the French sport newspaper L’Auto (whose successor is L’Équipe, a newspaper that exists until today) for the first time organized what would later become the most important bicycle race in the world, the Tour de France. The newspaper’s editor, Georges Lefèvre, subsequently sold more than 14 million copies of his periodical (Guttmann 1986, p. 86). Similarly, the bicycle races Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España were initiated by newspaper editors (in 1909 and 1935 respectively) with the goal of creating a popular subject to report on (Schauerte 2010, p. 373). Mediatization of sport, as it can currently be observed in Europe and especially in the USA, where it is extremely prevalent, is linked with the development of social media. The phenomenon of e-sport is a current example. Example: E-sport Hindin et al. define e-sport as “professional organized video game competitions” (2020, p. 405). The letter ‘e’ stands for ‘electronic’, implying that e-sport is played on computers and other digital devices. E-sport does not only include games that simulate real, traditional sports, such as soccer, basketball, or football, but all kinds of competitive video games. Because these games obviously do not require any intense physical activity, there is some debate on whether e-sport can even be described as sport. However, just as in traditional sport, there are e-sport championships that are broadcast to millions of viewers around the world and sponsored by influential companies, which is why some countries, such as China, have officially recognized e-sport as sport. In 2014, 205 million people watched or played e-sport games, and by the end of 2017, e-sport represented US$1.13 billion globally. A large share (74%) of this figure came from sponsorship and advertising. Richelieu (2019, p. 21) mentions three strategies of how companies can showcase and reinforce their brand through e-sport: 1. Co-branding through sponsorship: Companies like Audi or CocaCola are sponsoring e-sport championships and can thereby reach young video game enthusiasts who are often difficult to attract and retain. 2. Product and brand extensions: Many sport organizations (like Paris-Saint-Germain or Schalke) are creating their own e-sport teams or launching their own e-sport league (for instance, the NBA created the ‘NBA 2K League’ in 2018). This way, the organizations can both develop relationships with new consumers and deepen the emotional connection with their existing fans, hence increasing their market share and revenues.

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Streaming via social networks: In 2011, the video live streaming service Twitch was launched, which primarily focuses on streaming e-sport. The service was acquired by Amazon in 2014. Today, various of the biggest streaming and social networking sites (such as Amazon, Twitter, and YouTube) are streaming e-sports.

E-sport has become a major trend in the sport industry, which is expected to gain even more importance in the future. 1. 2.

Revision Questions

Give some examples for stakeholders that profit from sport economically. What are some of the main economic successes that London has achieved from hosting the Summer Olympic Games in 2012? 3. Define ‘sport sponsoring’ and explain the benefits that both the sponsors and the sponsored parties can expect from this arrangement. 4. Define and give an example for ‘title sponsorship’. 5. Give an example for a Coca-Cola sponsoring activity for the Olympic Games. 6. What is the professionalization of sport? 7. What is sport marketing? 8. Describe the term ‘mediatization’ and give a sport-related example for this phenomenon. 9. Why have the costs for broadcasting rights for sport events increased so dramatically over the last few years? 10. Why did some newspaper editors organize sport events in the late 19th and early 20th centuries? Give an example of this phenomenon.

chapter 13

Sport and Politics 1

The Power of Sport: A Theoretical Approach Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire, it has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope, where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than governments in breaking down racial barriers. It laughs in the face of all types of discrimination. (Nelson Mandela)1

There are three main factors contributing towards the power of sport: the unity of action and representation, the authenticity of sport, and identification with athletes. As we pointed out throughout this book, there is a social specificity of sport that sets it apart from other areas of life: the unity of action and representation that makes sport universal. The clear symbols of sport are easily recognizable and can reinforce the identity of the athletes. In the modern world, sport is a special area for constructing identity, which, in comparison to former societies, leads to more and more people having—besides their family identity, religious identity, etc.—also a sporting identity. The distinct feature of sporting identities comes into being because sport is a culturally specific and clearly visible activity. For instance, most US-Americans are familiar with the rules of baseball, and those who excel in this sport can receive the appropriate identity reinforcement in the USA. The same applies both nationally and internationally to global sports like soccer, tennis, track and field, etc., which are well established worldwide. Besides the local and national sport cultures, there also exists a world culture of sport. As sport takes place unequivocally within the context of society’s and/or global significant symbols, it can have an impact on the actors’ self-perception, self-esteem, and self-worth. In contemporary societies, professional sport as well as recreational sport can give people, regardless of their religion, gender, age, or social or educational level, access to identity reinforcement and/or social recognition.

1 “Nelson Mandela, Laureus World Sports Awards 2000, Monaco,” retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdopyAFP0DI. © Waxmann Verlag GmbH, 2021 | DOI: 10.1163/9789004464711_015

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The increasing significance of sporting identities (both as participants and spectators) is an outcome of the social specificity of sport. The unity of action (self-determination) and representation (social recognition) attracts people all over the world and contributes to the power of sport, as it was described by Nelson Mandela. The more popular sport is, the higher is the potential power it is representing. definition Power is the ability of accomplishing something. Sport can provide a concrete vision and a feeling of belonging. The symbolic representation of societal values and norms in sport appears as a possibility for that which should be—but is not—a generality. The ideality with which sport can realize the principles of fair play, measurability, comparability, general comprehensibility of achievements, clear allocation of ranking positions according to the produced achievements (although there might be discussions on this issue), etc., offers an alternative to the complexity of social relationships in modern life, which is often obscure. For the “lonely crowd” (Riesman 1950) social satisfaction seems to have become more difficult to attain than ever, because the only meaning of societal roles is now strongly depersonalized. Today’s specialized division of labor and digitalization put restrictions on man’s possibilities to fulfill his spiritual and emotional needs. The individual does not experience a solid sense of meaning and purpose of his identity and reality. In play or sport competitions, the essence that otherwise remains hidden from view is happening for all the world to see. The authenticity of sport contributes to its power and thus also creates its political dimension. definition Politics are methods or tactics to exert power. Due to this definition of politics, and the fact that there is the social specificity of sport (which makes sport so powerful), sport is saliently suitable to be utilized for political purposes. This was facilitated by the emergence of media reporting, which made it possible for sport to acquire a new dimension—a mass audience. As a result, sport started being commercialized and became part of the political culture of representation. Television plays an important role in this context. Without television, the professionalization and commercialization of sport, or the popularization of professional sport, certainly would not have been possible to the current extent. Mitscherlich described top athletes as the “giants of modern times” (1967, p. 62, translated). They turn

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sport into a popular entertainment program on television, since millions of people identify with them. Identification in and with sport contributes to its power. This is a decisive factor for the instrumentalization of sport by politics. Politicians make use of the enormous popularity of the ‘sport heroes’, for instance, by attending sport events or by having their pictures taken together with famous athletes. Key point: Politicization of sport The instrumentalization of sport by politics has a long tradition. The practice of politicians or other people making use of the power of sport or sport heroes was employed already in ancient times. Then as now, people tried to attach themselves to sport and to monopolize it. In the course of human history, there has hardly been a civilization whose culture was more permeated by sport than the ancient Greek one (Decker 1995, p. 14). In ancient Greece, sport heroes embodied the orientations of the community in their feeling, thinking, and acting, thus stabilizing and perpetuating the collective identity. Cults (many of which were long-lasting) were established around sport heroes for their great deeds. Numerous people trusted in the powers of statues of these sport heroes, so they approached and touched them in the hope that the extraordinary force of the famous athletes would be transmitted to them (p. 130). Sport did not survive the demise of classical antiquity, but since the 19th century, it has once again played an important part in history. Both in classical antiquity and in modern times, sport was and continues to be a part of political culture. Different actors or countries have been trying to make use of the popularity of sport and athletes in order to create and reinforce identities, e.g., identities of what they would like to be or what they want others to think about them. Example: Nero at the Olympic Games The following example illustrates how Emperor Nero tried to manipulate sport and strengthen his reputation by competing in the ancient Olympic Games. According to Harris (2018), Nero was rather an artist than an athlete. He considered himself to be a great poet and performer, and he enjoyed singing and playing the kithara, an ancient Greek musical string instrument. Still, he also had a great admiration for sport heroes, and dreamed of becoming one himself. However, since he did not possess the required athletic abilities, his “opportunity to compete in the Olympics would

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come as a result of his political power, not his talent” (ibid.). In the years 60 and 65 AD, he organized Greek-style festivals in Rome based on the model of the Olympic Games, which were called ‘Neronia’. For these contests, he introduced more artistic competitions, such as in acting, singing, or playing instruments, only so that he could win them. In addition, every victor had to dedicate his crown to him, the emperor. In 67 AD, Nero travelled to Greece and took part in the Olympic Games. Usually, emperors were forbidden to compete in the Olympic Games, but this was just one of the many rules that Nero changed. This caused serious criticism, since the Olympic Games were spiritual, ‘sacred’ events, and changing anything about them was considered offensive. Still, Nero’s changes were tolerated by the Olympic officials, even though it was rumored that he bribed them with a large sum of money. Nero himself also competed as an athlete in chariot racing. His chariot was drawn by ten horses, while for his opponents, only four horses were allowed. The emperor was overweight and not physically trained for the race, which resulted in an accident in which he was severely injured. He lost control of his horses and fell out of his chariot, and, due to his injuries, could not finish the race—but he was still declared the winner. Nevertheless, Nero’s Olympic glory was not long-lasting. The Roman officials did not approve of Nero’s interference in the sacred rituals of the Olympic Games, and they plotted to kill him after his return. Nero was warned about this by his advisers, so he entered Rome in disguise, but after the Romans recognized him, he committed suicide in the year 68 AD, in order to avoid a painful execution. After Nero’s death, his name was removed from the list of Olympic champions (Curry & Jiobu 1984, p. 191; Drees 1968, p. 55; Harris 2018, History 101 2020). 2

Sport, Social Integration, and National Self-representation

For many politicians and governments, sport serves as a means to accomplish national and international objectives of prestige. Sport is used to achieve legitimacy for political regimes. It can mold a nation into a common way of thinking and adhering to societal values, whereby shared beliefs shape a ‘we’ feeling. The creation of a bond among people forms a sense of community and leads to commitment and identity formation. The chances that sport offers to politics, by providing symbols or collective forms of expression and allowing for shared experiences of success, are taken by almost every country, particularly by countries finding themselves in situations

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of crisis. When nations make use of the social integrative function of sport on a political level, Johnson speaks of “integrative sports policy” (1982, p. 23). Social integration happens via an awakening of national sentiments and the establishment of a national unity. Since in international competitions, many members of a nation identify with ‘their’ team and attribute the achievements of ‘their’ top athletes to the nation, sport is suitable to be used as a means for creating national feelings. If sport is instrumentalized for the purpose of a state’s image building, Johnson speaks of “symbolic sports policy” (ibid., p. 26). “When a nation is allowed to compete in international sporting events, it becomes symbolic of political recognition” (Delaney & Madigan 2015, p. 333). The strengthening of a state’s reputation abroad, as well as the demonstration of the superiority of its own political system are paramount in this context. Example: Summer Olympic Games of 1936 in Berlin Germany was still a democracy when, in 1931, the International Olympic Committee voted to hold the Summer Olympic Games of 1936 in Berlin. According to Delaney & Madigan, it was originally thought that “this would be a way to demonstrate Germany’s full integration back into the good graces of the world after the horrors of the First World War” (ibid., p. 332). However, in the following years, the Nazis came to power and stripped the Jews of all their rights and privileges. German Jews were not allowed to participate in sport clubs anymore, and therefore, it was also not possible for them to become members of the German Olympic team. Hitler wanted the Olympic Games to glorify Nazism and to build “a grandiose stage for the Games in the Nazi capital, along with the prospect of demonstrating ‘Master Race’ superiority on the athletic field” (Large & Large 2017, p. 420). These circumstances led to more and more threats from American activists to boycott the Olympic Games. As a result, a member of the American IOC even had to travel to Germany in 1935, to persuade Hitler to include at least one Jewish athlete in the German Olympic team, warning him that there might be an American boycott if he did not concede. Hitler first threatened to entirely call off the Olympic Games and replace them with ‘purely German’ games, but then he finally agreed to include one half-Jewish fencer in the team. However, this was only because he knew that ‘purely German’ games would not bring the desired propaganda. In the end, no nation boycotted the 1936 Olympic Games. Hitler’s plan to showcase the superiority of a white ‘Master Race’ did not work out. African Americans were particularly successful in the track

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and field competitions, and African American athlete Jesse Owens won four gold medals. Hitler refused to shake hands with the Olympic winners, after it became clear that this would involve shaking hands with black athletes (Curry & Jiobu 1984, p. 193). The successes of African Americans in the 1936 Olympic Games did not challenge the prevailing theories of white supremacy. Instead, the black achievements at Berlin tended to refine earlier stereotypes regarding racial differentiation for both the Nazis and the Americans, whereby Negroes were said to possess biological advantages in certain sports like boxing, but owing to alleged character and intellectual shortcomings, could never surpass whites in contests requiring discipline, fortitude, stamina, strategy, and teamwork such as long-distance running and basketball. (Large & Large 2017, p. 425) It would still take a number of years until African American athletes would gain the public recognition they deserved for their exceptional achievements. In 1972, the Olympic Games took place in Germany again, in Munich, and these Games were seen “as a means of rehabilitation or regeneration” (Tomlinson & Young 2006, p. 12) after the Second World War. A nation may acquire political capital both through successes at international sporting competitions and by hosting major sport events. For the latter purpose, the nation may strive to execute these events as perfectly as possible, build modern sport facilities that later serve as demonstration objects, and so on. Countries hosting major sport events become the focus of international attention, which is why they try to present themselves in the best possible light. As an example, Australia’s efforts to present itself as a culturally reconciled country at the Summer Olympic Games of 2000 in Sydney shall be described: Example: Indigenous people at the Summer Olympic Games of 2000 in Sydney At the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000, Australia wanted to present itself as a progressive and liberal host country in which discrimination was no longer an issue. For this purpose, the opening ceremony was represented as a “glorious moment of reconciliation” (Elder et al. 2006, p. 192) between the indigenous and the non-indigenous population of Australia (figure 13.1). It featured more than 2,000 indigenous performers, the directors were indigenous people as well, and indigenous sprinter

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Cathy Freeman, who later won a gold medal at the women’s 400-meter sprint, lit the Olympic cauldron during the ceremony. In the arts and cultural festivals that took place during the Olympic Games, the Aboriginal theme remained prominent as well (Tomlinson & Young 2006, p. 11). However, the racial divisions in Australia were, in fact, not overcome. There were numerous controversial issues that ignited debates about the current relationship between the white and the indigenous Australian people in the months before the Olympic Games. One of these issues concerned the ‘stolen generations’, a term that refers to the thousands of indigenous children who, between 1910 and 1970, were removed from their parents by the government on the basis of racial identity. Prime Minister John Howard refused to apologize to the victims of this practice, and minister John Herron denied the existence of a ‘stolen generation’. As a result, there were protests and calls for an indigenous boycott of the Olympic Games. Elder et al. (2006) demonstrate how the media ignored the protesters’ views and rather emphasized the opinion of Cathy Freeman, who was against the boycott and supported the Olympic Games, stating that politics and sport should be separated, and that Australia had made progress in its understanding of the indigenous community. The fact that Freeman’s grandmother had also been removed from her mother as a child, and that Freeman herself had repeatedly asked the government for an apology for this practice (Gardiner 2003, p. 239) was largely ignored. Through the framing by the media, the Olympic Games “provided a perfect means by which to represent stories of racial division as problems being overcome” (Elder et al. 2006, p. 188). Cathy Freeman’s victory served well for this purpose. However, the involvement of indigenous people—and also of other Australians—in the Olympic Games “was only acceptable if they agreed to play by the rules and remained silent about politically sensitive issues” (ibid., p. 186). Gardiner states that through framing, Freeman was made “the exemplar of Australian modernity and diversity” (2003, p. 253). Tatz (1987, p. 90) argues that indigenous athletes are celebrated as ‘Australian heroes’ as long as they remain successful. As soon as their success fades, they are recharacterized as ‘Aboriginal’. For the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico City, to present another example, walls were built on the access roads to the stadiums, in order to conceal the misery on the other side. Generally, the places in which important international competitions are held acquire a corresponding reputation, for instance, as ‘beautiful country’, ‘Olympic city’, etc. Coakley & Pike (2014, p. 446) state

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figure 13.1 Aborigines at the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympic Games of 2000 in Sydney

that hosting mega sports events such as the Olympics is a special opportunity to generate international recognition, display national power and resources to a global audience, and invite investments into their economies. This is why bid committees from prospective host cities and nations have regularly used gifts, bribes and financial incentives to encourage IOC members to vote for them in the bid selection process. Illegal and illicit strategies reached their peak during the bidding for the 2002 Winter Olympics when officials from Salt Lake City offered to IOC members and their families money, jobs, scholarships, lavish gifts, vacations and the sexual services of ‘escorts’ as they successfully secured the votes needed to host the games. 3

Sport as a Means of Strengthening a Nation

In the framework of political socialization through sport, physical education, or improvement in physical performance, serves to strengthen a country and might be utilized for the purpose of war preparation. Victories and defeats in sport may acquire a real political significance in the competition between political systems. Delaney & Madigan (2015, p. 318) illustrate that from the very beginning, promoting the soldiers’ physical fitness was an important goal of sport politics.

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Many of the sports of the ancient Olympic Games accentuated the skills of soldiers, and the belief that sport helped prepare soldiers for battle lasted for thousands of years. The battle of Waterloo, said Napoleon’s conqueror, Lord Wellington, was won on the playing fields of Eton, by which he meant that moral rectitude and physical vigor learned from sport was related to the military performance of a nation. Later, in the course of the 19th century, there were various movements in England and the USA that fostered physical fitness, such as the Muscular Christianity movement. Muscular Christianity “refers to the religious philosophy of teaching morals and values through sport” (ibid., p. 123). This movement facilitated the development of physical education lessons in American schools, especially for boys. It was believed that team sports would teach boys to cooperate with others, and that this would help them become strong, assertive, and competitive men. In Weimar Republic Germany, associations for the practice of ‘military sports’ (field exercises, marching, etc.) were formed. These associations were meant as a substitute for compulsory military service, which was abolished by the Treaty of Versailles of 1919 (Wagner 2008, pp. 58–61). Moreover, extreme right or left-wing political groups developed, where ‘military sports’ were not practiced for patriotic reasons, but in pursuit of individual fighting objectives. There was a boom of ‘military sports’ in National Socialist Germany. For instance, in the ‘Hitler Youth’ organization, these sports were emphasized with the goal of physically preparing male adolescents for their military service (ibid., p. 64f). Even though until 1939, becoming part of the ‘Hitler Youth’ was, by right, voluntary, the social framework increasingly made it impossible for adolescents not to join. This way, virtually all boys aged 10–18 became members and were subjected to an extracurricular, pre-military training. At German universities, a compulsory sport practice was introduced for students in the summer semester of 1925, which was then further developed and altered to suit the purposes of National Socialism (Mueller-Stahl 2020, pp. 55–56). With the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938, also at the University of Vienna, a three-semester compulsory sport practice was introduced, which followed racist and militaristic guidelines. The rulers made use of ‘military sports’ in order to attain their declared goal of a militarization of society. After the Second World War, the Soviet Union and the other Communist bloc nations used sport as a means of forming a comprehensively developed socialist personality. According to Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union, The physical education of the younger generation is an essential element in the overall system of the communist upbringing of young people,

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aimed at creating harmoniously-developed people, creative citizens of communist society. Today, physical education also has direct practical aims: 1) preparing young people for work; and 2) preparing them for military defence of Soviet power. (Chudinov 1959, pp. 43–44; cited in Riordan 1976, p. 159) Potential athletes were scouted, recruited, trained, and supported in order to produce athletic and hence political victories. This way, the bloc nations wanted to demonstrate the superiority of Communism. In the Soviet Union, physical educators regularly scouted children for gymnastic potential, starting at the age of kindergarten. The promising children were enrolled in sport clubs, where they started regular training for several hours per day. The main goal of this strict sport policy was to find future athletes who have the potential to win world-class competitions, such as the Olympic Games. The former Soviet Union first participated in the Olympic Games in 1952 and won 72 medals in the same year (Curry & Jiobu 1984, p. 200). Altogether, it participated 18 times—nine times at the Summer Olympic Games and nine times at the Winter Olympic Games—and each time, it ranked either first or second in the total number of gold medals won. The USA is the nation with the highest total number of medals won at the Olympic Games. The nation is particularly successful in basketball, and Curry & Jiobu give the following reason for this: “Formal competition runs up from grammar school through high school, college, and professional levels. And each level provides coaching, facilities, social support, and both monetary and symbolic incentives, all largely free to the player” (1984, p. 201). There is a commercialization of basketball and other sports (such as football, baseball, etc.) in the USA, whereas in the former Soviet Union, there was a politicization of sport. This politicization of sport is nowadays still in force in some of the most successful sporting nations, such as Russia or China. In the USA, political socialization operated at the backdrop of democratic standards, with the goal of maintaining peace and security. In 1953, out of the 3.7 million American men conscripted to the Korean War, 1.7 million were deemed unfit for military service. In the same year, Kraus & Hirschland (1953, p. 17) underlined the problem of the insufficient physical fitness of American youth, and showed their inferiority compared to European and Japanese adolescents. Two years later, in 1955, an article in the magazine Sports Illustrated revealed that American children were alarmingly unfit in comparison to previous generations and to European children. The article described a study for which 4,000 American children took the ‘Kraus-Weber Tests for Muscular Fitness’,

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and almost 58% of the participants “failed one or more of six tests of muscular strength and flexibility” (Bowers & Hunt 2011, p. 1497). Among European participants, the failure rate was only a little less than 9%. As a result, President Eisenhower’s administration established the President’s Council on Youth Fitness (PCYF). In contrast to exercise programs in Nazi Germany or the former Soviet Union, the American physical fitness movement was characterized by the fact that the activities were playful, and children could decide on their own what kind of exercise they wanted to engage in. Accordingly, “the nation’s physical activities should reflect American freedom and liberty, highlighting the rich array of choices enjoyed by average citizens that were unavailable in Communist nations” (ibid., p. 1500). The council refused to define fitness as solely physical—the term also encompassed emotional and mental fitness. When Kennedy became president, the council “transitioned away from play-oriented programs towards ones based on measurable physical fitness standards” (ibid., p. 1501). The organization also developed guidelines for physical education curricula for public schools. In an article in Sports Illustrated, Kennedy wrote about the importance and benefits of fitness to the American nation: “Today, in our own time, in the jungles of Asia and on the borders of Europe, a new group of vigorous young Americans helps maintain the peace of the world and our security as a nation” (Kennedy 1962, p. 12; cited in Bowers & Hunt 2011, p. 1501). The militaristic nature of the new physical fitness program was perceived to be in contrast to the American way of life, which was characterized by freedom and individuality. In conjunction with the measures of strengthening the USA through improving the physical fitness of its citizens, the jogging movement emerged as part of the fitness movement. Jogging has developed into a worldwide trend sport. 4

Sport Boycotts

Countries may deny a nation recognition by refusing to compete against it at sporting events. For instance, many nations refused to compete with South Africa when the apartheid system was still in force. In 1964, the country was banned from participating in the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, and in 1970, the IOC banned South Africa permanently, forbidding it to take part in the Olympic Games until it put an end to its political system of separation. After the apartheid system was gradually abolished in the early 1990s, South Africa was allowed to participate again at the Summer Olympic Games of 1992 in Barcelona (Olympic Channel 2018; Hangebrauck 2020).

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Example: Olympic boycotts during the Cold War After the Second World War, “boycotts became a weapon in the ideological struggle between East and West and in the efforts by Third World nations to gain political recognition on the world stage” (Wilson 1994, p. 382). In the following, two examples of such boycotts, both of which took place in the context of the Cold War, shall be introduced. In December 1979, shortly before the Summer Olympic Games of 1980 were scheduled to take place in Moscow, Soviet military forces marched into Afghanistan. In response to this, US President Carter called for a worldwide boycott of the Olympic Games. He could not get the whole world to join this boycott, but in the end, only 81 nations participated in the Olympic Games, while over 60 boycotted them, which made it the biggest Olympic boycott ever. In reaction to this humiliation, the Soviets initiated a boycott of the Summer Olympic Games of 1984 in Los Angeles. This time, only 17 nations joined the Soviets, most of which were from the Eastern bloc. However, the boycotts mostly did not bring the desired effects: The Soviet military forces remained in Afghanistan for a longer period of time, and at the 1984 Olympic Games, US athletes were particularly successful in the absence of opponents from Eastern European countries. In addition, Los Angeles earned a profit of over $222 million through the Olympic Games. According to Tomlinson, “the 1984 Olympic Games ensured that the Olympic future was secure in the embrace of commercialism and its effects, and the commodification of the Olympic ideal” (2006, p. 175). At the following Summer Olympic Games of 1988 in Seoul, only six nations refused to participate, and the Summer Olympic Games of 1992 in Barcelona were the first Olympic Games since 1972 that were not boycotted by any country (Delaney & Madigan 2015, p. 339; Barney 2007, pp. 234–235). Protests do not only occur at a national level, as it is the case in boycotts, but also individual athletes may attempt to stage political protests at the Olympic Games or other international sport events. For instance, during a medal ceremony at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, African American track and field athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos exhibited a black power salute, by raising a black-gloved hand while the American national anthem was played. Subsequently, they were banned for life from the Olympic Games and ordered to leave Mexico. Their protest “was designed to send a global message about their feelings that the American society was racist” (Delaney & Madigan 2015, p. 334).

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While these two track and field athletes were excluded for raising their arms during a victory ceremony, German wrestling champion Werner Seelenbinder was banned for a year and remanded in custody for four weeks, after, in protest against the National Socialist regime, he refused to perform the Hitler salute (that is, he did not raise his arm) during a victory ceremony in 1933 (Richter 1972, p. 2). A recent example are the acts of protest by African American basketball players. They occurred in August 2020, after Jacob Blake, a black man, was shot by the police in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association (NBA) were the first who refused to play their scheduled game, and as a result, several other teams from different leagues, such as the Major League Baseball (MLB), the Major League Soccer (MLS), as well as the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) all went on strike (Gregory 2020). It is no coincidence that basketball players were the ones who started the strike, as political activism in the sense of the US-American civil rights movement has tradition especially in this sport (Remmel 2018, pp. 45–57). 5

Sport, Globalization, and Olympism

The Olympic Games present a highlight among the various sport events. Just like it was in ancient Greece, it still means a lot today to win and participate in the Olympic Games. Baron Pierre de Coubertin, a wealthy French aristocrat, is considered as the founder of the modern Olympic Games. When he organized the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896, he created the Olympic mission statement, according to which sport should be based on fair play, improvement in performance, internationalism, and general ethical principles. This ideal, which he termed Olympism, stands for a better sport in a better world and should be realized through Olympic education (Grupe 2001, p. 70). The mission statement was not only aimed at the sporting elite, but the message to be spread was ‘sport for all’: Olympism is the destroyer of dividing walls. It calls for air and light for all. It advocates a broad-based athletic education accessible to all […]. The future of our civilization does not rest on political or economic foundations. It wholly depends on the direction given to education. (Coubertin, cited in Kouvelos 2015, p. 27) The ancient Olympic Truce was an important legal act in human history. From the very beginning, the Olympic Games were linked to the demand for world

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peace and the ideal of a harmonious coexistence of all nations and races. The Olympic Games should unite people and only take place in peaceful times. During the ancient Olympic Games, the Greek world was basically in a constant state of war, so three months before and three months after the Olympic Games, there was an Olympic Truce, to ensure that people could safely travel to and from the Olympic Games. The Olympic Truce is “considered to be the longest lasting peace accord in history because it was observed for over 12 centuries” (Burleson 2012, p. 798). It is also referred to as ‘Ekecheiria’, which literally means “a holding of hands, a cessation of hostilities, armistice, truce” (ibid., p. 800). During this period, all wars and legal disputes were suspended, and there was a “general laying down of arms” (ibid.). Since the 1990s, there have been attempts to revive the Olympic Truce for the duration of the modern Olympic Games. For instance, during the Winter Olympic Games of 1994 in Lillehammer, Norway, there were ceasefires in the wars in Sudan and Bosnia, and an armed conflict in Georgia was suspended. In addition, at the Summer Olympic Games of 2000 in Sydney, African leaders stopped all hostilities for two weeks, and North and South Korea marched into the Olympic stadium together under the same flag (ibid., p. 801). The modern Olympic Games take place at different venues and as a migratory social institution became part of the modernization process of our world, in which political-economic and socio-cultural factors of sport are drivers of globalization processes. Likewise, globalization has an impact on sport in many respects. According to Tomlinson & Young, the political exploitation of the global sports spectacle and the cultural and economic ramifications of its staging have been critical indices of the intensifying globalization of both media and sport. (2006, p. 1) definition Globalization is a socioeconomic process which is characterized by the increasing interconnection of the world community. Globalization concerns life and sport in all countries, but it did not create a united world. On the contrary, it has caused some of the biggest social divisions and conflicts in society and in sport. World baseball, for instance, is dominated by the North American professional league (MLB); in scouting and recruiting players, many MLB clubs organize baseball academies in Latin America, which are run like Western-owned sugar plantations. Thus, these American-controlled

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academies gather the best local resources (young baseball players), conduct basic ‘refining’ of local products (such as through initial coaching and assessment), send the very best products to North America for final refining and consumption by American markets (MLB fans) […]. This neo-colonial system of production and consumption is also highly wasteful: just as American consumers discard much hard-produced sugar, so many Latino baseball players are wasted by disappearing into lower-level American leagues (Giulianotti 2016, p. 212). Today’s sport is no longer the way Coubertin conceptualized it. Against the backdrop of the far-reaching commercialization and professionalization in many areas of life, it was not possible to sustain and justify the amateur rules of Olympic sport. Further changes are shown in the following outline of the globalization of sport in a historical context. Giulianotti & Robertson (2013, pp. 41–45) introduce a historical schema of globalization consisting of six phases: 1. Germinal phase (1400–1750): This phase provided the sociocultural and geopolitical foundations for the subsequent globalization. It centers on Europe, and the first instances of globalization were, for example, voyages of discovery or the emergence of national communities. In sport, ‘folk’ games with rudimentary rules were popular on the British Isles, and some of them, such as ‘folk football’, were later transformed into modern sports. 2. Incipient phase (1750s–1870s): This phase is centered on Europe as well, and is marked by, for instance, “the transcontinental impact of the French Revolution” (p. 42), early colonial expansion, and new communication technologies. With regard to sport, industrialization and an increase in the workers’ free time facilitated the spread of national sports like soccer, rugby, and athletics. Due to British colonialism, imperial sports could spread internationally. For instance, cricket became popular in India and Australia, and then also spread to North America. There were also the first instances of national and cultural differentiation of sport. 3. Take-off phase (1870s–1920s): In this period, major international events were staged for the first time. The first modern Olympic Games took place in 1896, and many sports, such as soccer, cricket, rugby, and some Olympic disciplines (track and field, equestrianism, etc.) were spread internationally. In addition, sport increasingly became an “important sociocultural space in which those marginalized by class, ‘race’, ethnicity, or gender struggle to overcome this social exclusion, to participate and to compete with more powerful social groups” (p. 43).

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Struggle-for-hegemony phase (1920s–late 1960s): During this time, global conflicts were intensified, while simultaneously, there were “attempts to institutionalize world diplomacy and governance” (ibid.). In sport, the number of participating nations in the Olympic Games was rising (from 46 nations in 1928 to 112 nations in 1968), and international tensions began to be embedded within sport (such as at the aforementioned Summer Olympic Games of 1936 in Berlin). 5. Uncertainty phase (late 1960s–2000): Events such as the collapse of Soviet-led state communism or the rise of fundamentalist Islam led to an increasingly complex world system of societies. In sport, “mega-events with worldwide assemblage of participants and television audiences” (p. 44) became common, and they produced ‘global moments’, for instance when a world record was broken at the Olympic Games. Sporting events were also frequently overshadowed by political conflicts (such as the terrorist attacks during the Olympic Games of 1972 or the United States/ Soviet boycotts in the 1980s). 6. Millennial phase (from 2001): This phase is characterized by “climates of fear” (ibid.) regarding, for instance, the environment and terrorism. In sport, this fear of terrorism led to a security budget as high as US$6.5 billion at the Summer Olympic Games of 2008 in Beijing. Furthermore, the new social media, such as Facebook or Twitter, allow individuals to share their opinions on sport or their sport-related real-time experiences with millions of people around the world. Globalization has caused numerous changes in sport, but it did not alter the important Olympic values of respect for the dignity and integrity of man, of peace, of mutual respect, as well as of tolerance in a multicultural world, which are still valid today. Olympic-oriented sport is against discrimination on the basis of race, religion, and gender. The ideological tenet of modern Olympism at the beginning of the Olympic Charter says: Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good example and the respect for universal fundamental ethical principles. (IOC 2019, p. 11) Values do not emerge by themselves. They have to be developed and experienced. In sport, and in particular at the Olympic Games, the first and foremost value can only be fair play. Any true victory relies on fair play, which, like all values, has to be taught and learned. Results of the study from Vidoni & Ward

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(2009) support the assumption that interventions improve fair play behavior, and that “students’ fair play behaviors remain underdeveloped unless teachers include social skills instruction into the curriculum” (ibid., p. 285). The educational values of Olympism should be taught continuously. Inspiring the moral and physical development of children and youth through participation in sport is the goal of the Olympic Movement. This goal is also consistent with the Active Living aims of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and goes far beyond the context of sport. It influences the process of learning values across cultural differences. An Olympic-values education initiative, which brings school and community clubs together in an integrated approach, provides a unified and consistent message to young people about appropriate values and behaviour. (Binder 2007, p. 22) This citation leads to further questions of interpretation. As we have stated above, one of the most decisive values in sport is fair play. But what this means varies across different cultural environments. This becomes apparent when looking at translations of fair play. In German, for example, the word ‘fair’ remains untranslatable, which might suggest that fair play was not part of German culture until recently. The French expression ‘esprit de sport’ does not really tally with the English fair play. But there is one language that can serve exceptionally towards international communication and intercultural education and that is the body language of sport. The significant symbols of sport are understandable and can provide common ground in an exemplary manner. Intercultural education within the Olympic Movement means learning and sharing Olympic values in the framework of practicing sport. The pedagogically oriented Olympism determines ethical values and norms, which are expressed very clearly and visibly in sport. In contrast to many other areas of life, the body language of sport and its rules are comprehensible worldwide. Sport is a universal form of communication, in and about which everyone can communicate with everyone. It can be particularly beneficial for the identity formation and personality development of children and young people to experience the fascination of sport, which is essentially socially shaped, and to internalize what fair play means. In sport contests, they can learn how to deal with victory and defeat, or experience the meaning of aggression, motivation and emotion. This way they can understand that to win one’s self—what defines me and brings me further—is the first and best of all victories.

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Through sport, the participants can learn important lessons, which can then be applied to other areas of life. Sport can be a perfect training ground for life, because it represents an ideal of society. In primary socialization, sport involvement can teach tolerance, fair play, peace, etc. and bring hope and virtues that can last for a lifetime. Even if the world of Olympic sport today is often not as we would like it to be, the consequence can only be that we must strive to turn it into what we desire it to be. According to Sage, Eitzen & Beal (2019, pp. 352–353), the Olympic Games have been corrupted by political, economic, and bureaucratic problems and no longer correspond to their ideals. The authors make the following proposals on how to improve the Olympic Games: 1. The Olympic Games should be hosted at two permanent sites. The countries most often proposed for this purpose are Greece for the Summer Olympic Games (because the ancient Olympic Games were held there) and Switzerland for the Winter Olympic Games (because it is a neutral country). Another possibility would be to turn the permanent sites into free zones, that is, “land ceded to the International Olympic Committee and therefore land that no nation claims” (ibid., p. 352). 2. Alternatively, each Olympic Games could be hosted at multiple sites, with different sport contests being hosted in different nations (boxing could be hosted in one nation, track and field in another, etc.). This would enable also poorer countries to become hosts and to profit economically. 3. Athletes should only represent themselves, and not their country. As a result, no flags should be displayed, and instead of the national anthems, only the Olympic hymn should be played. 4. At the opening ceremonies, athletes should enter the arena together with other athletes from their disciplines (and not with their national team), in order to “promote fellowship among the athletes” (ibid.). 5. Both amateur and professional athletes should compete. If athletes meet the minimum standards to be allowed to compete in the Olympic Games, all their necessary expenses should be paid for by the Olympic Committee. 6. The costs for the Olympic Games could be covered through revenues from admissions and television, and the building of the permanent sites could be subsidized by the United Nations. 7. In order to prevent an overcommercialization through television, the events should be televised by a company that is strictly controlled by the Olympic Committee. 8. The International Olympic Committee should be reorganized so that political considerations are reduced. For instance, this could be realized

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by incorporating similar selection procedures to those used by the United Nations to select its secretary-general. In order to overcome the deficiencies of the Olympic Games and to realize the measures proposed above, the Olympic Values Education Program of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) needs expansion and appropriate articulation in Olympic education projects and materials. The article ‘Olympic values education: evolution of a pedagogy’ (Binder 2012) features the implementation of the Olympic-related curriculum project ‘Be a Champion in Life’ and points in this direction. One of the questions Binder analyzed in her description of this curriculum project was how initiatives of international Olympic education and fair play could represent global cultural perspectives, considering that “Coubertin’s Olympic project was grounded in Euro-Western philosophy, values and sport traditions, and specifically in the idealistic, optimistic ideas of nineteenth century humanism” (ibid., p. 291). Some scholars criticize that spreading the values of Olympism globally could have a negative impact on indigenous sport. Others, however, suggest that Olympism offers a general framework from within which different nations and regions can represent their own cultural traditions. In classroom trials in South Africa or China, for example, teachers were able to connect some of the Olympic values, such as fair play, with ethical concepts from their own cultures: For example, the South African group, working in the Xhosa culture of the Western Cape connected the project to their curriculum strand called ‘Life Orientation’ and reported that Olympism captures the essence of the sub-Saharan concept of UBUNTU. ‘The essence of UBUNTU is contained in aspects of respect, recognition, concern, compassion, forgiveness, empathy, understanding, cordiality, sincerity and generosity. It reflects a deep-rooted African maxim that a person can be a person only through other persons’ (from the comments of the South African classroom trial coordinator). Olympic educators in China connected the Chinese concept of 和 (hé) 合 (hé) with the Olympic values. The first hé character represents harmoniousness, peacefulness, gentleness, kindness; the second character represents wholeness, integration, harmonization, reconciliation. (Binder 2012, p. 293) A harmonization process across different cultures regarding the appropriate values of the Olympic Games is the prerequisite for raising the awareness (at least within the IOC) that is necessary to put the measures proposed by Sage, Eitzen & Beal into practice.

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In his development of the Olympic mission statement, Coubertin was guided by English sport, which he provided with an educational (Olympic) tenet in order to be able to realize his ideas of peace. The intercultural education programs within the Olympic movement have been contributing positively towards the realization of this tenet. The birth of the Olympic movement was on June 16, 1894, at la Sorbonne in France, when the first Olympic Congress was inaugurated, marking the beginning of a new era for world sport. The driving force of the Olympic movement is the International Olympic Academy (IOA) in Olympia in Greece, which was founded in 1961. The IOA is the apogee of the lengthy process for the creation of an international academic institution, its aim being to educate young women and men from all over the world, who will in turn impart a knowledge they acquire as worthy ambassadors of their respective countries. (Georgiadis 2015, p. 17) This process needs to be continued and intensified, and that is why the Olympic Movement is so important. With its Olympic Values Education Program, the Olympic Movement decides what sort of sport it wants to propagate. The annual international sessions for young participants by the IOA in Olympia are

figure 13.2 Opening ceremony of the 54th international session for young participants organized by the IOA with Acropolis in the background

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an adequate discussion forum. The Opening Ceremonies of this forum take place on the hill Pnyx, in central Athens, where as early as 507 BC the Athenians gathered to host their popular assemblies, which makes the hill one of the earliest and most important sites in the creation of democracy (figure 13.2). Key point: The educational function of sport In sport, the injustice of the world is not disguised; rather, it becomes visible. At the same time, sport can function as an instrument for communication and education. Sport by itself can be an excellent educator. Learning by doing is a fundamental methodology for teaching values through sport. In common sport contests, a special relationship develops between the opponents—intellectually, emotionally, and socially. The social richness of cultural diversity can be blended perfectly within sport activities, which contributes to the power of sport. As sport unites action and representation, it creates significant symbols (understanding) and thus is a formidable educational tool, which can shape body and mind. The educational potential of sport can also serve towards its power. The body language of sport, which is a result of socialization/education and therefore culturally determined, yields impressive pictures of humans. A picture says more than a thousand words. 1.

Revision Questions

Define ‘power’ and ‘politics’ and summarize how these concepts relate to sport. 2. In which way did Australia try to reinforce its identity by hosting the Summer Olympic Games in 2000? 3. How can sport be used as a means for creating national feelings? 4. Give an example of an Olympic boycott, which happened in the past. 5. What is the difference between the sport system in the former Soviet Union and the US-American sport system? 6. What is the main idea of Coubertin’s Olympic mission statement? 7. Define ‘globalization’. 8. Summarize Giulianotti & Robertson’s six-phase historical schema of globalization. 9. What are the proposals by Sage, Eitzen & Beal (2019) to improve the Olympic Games? 10. How can sport involvement be an educational tool?

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Index action action and representation 20, 148–155, 172, 177–178, 237, 263, 283 action theory 3–4, 13, 22 aggression 191–203, 192 agrarian society 9 anthropology 12, 122 associations for sociology of sport 1 audience research 205, 226–238 see also sport spectators authenticity of sport 263–264 authoritarian society 9 BARB 26, 227, 226–228 Berger, Peter L. 4, 126, 53n2, 54–56 body being a body 68, 134, 172 body awareness 77 body image 60, 81 body language of sport 7, 22, 165, 179, 279, 283 Bourdieu, Pierre 4, 13, 20, 76–82, 89, 91, 97 boycott 141, 267, 269, 273–275, 278 capital cultural 21, 20–22, 77, 93 economic 21, 20–22, 76 social 21, 77 see also Bourdieu, Pierre; habitus catharsis 192–194, 234, 240 choking under pressure 119–121 civilizing process 20, 41, 123, 160, 187, 202 code of good manners 80 commercialization of sport 7, 243–246, 264, 272, 277 communication 6, 18, 176, 173–182 see also mass communication configuration see figuration Comte, Auguste 9n confirmation of identity 6, 154–155, 178–179 content analysis 205, 209–217 see also qualitative content analysis corporate behavior 251

corporate communication 251 corporate design 251 corporate identity 251 Coubertin, Pierre de 66, 275–277, 281–283 Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly 4, 170 see also flow experience culture 10 cultural capital, see capital cultural product (sport as a) 4–5, 10, 128 cultural studies 13, 22 sport and culture 32–43 Darwin, Charles 32n, 33 democratic society 9 differentiation of sport 44 distinction 21, 81–82, 93–95 diversification of sport behavior 44 division of labor 3, 9, 59, 68, 151, 264 doping 6, 17, 38, 48, 160–166, 178n, 183n drive theory 192–193 Durkheim, Emile 4, 131–133 e-sport 11, 261–262 economic capital 21, 22, 76 educational tool (sport as an) 283 efficient learning 169 ekecheiria 276 Elias, Norbert 4, 13, 20, 30, 39–42, 106, 123, 128n, 160, 164, 187, 200, 202, 238 empirical 2, 12, 13, 16, 18, 25–26, 28 empirical (social) research methods 2, 26 ethnography 23, 26 European Sport Index 158–159 excentricity 5, 124–128, 134 experiment 26 exploration 24, 25 extension of man 127–128 fair play 6, 17, 30, 43, 91, 149, 164–166, 174, 202–203, 264, 275, 278–281 fan 185–191 see also sport spectators fascination of sport 172, 279

318 feminist theory 13, 22 figuration 20, 22, 106 figurational theory 13, 20, 22 flow experience 6, 170–172 Freud, Sigmund 55n, 57, 192 frustration-aggression hypothesis 194–195 Gehlen, Arnold 4, 6, 123 gender roles in sport 59–69 gender identity 60–62, 69 men’s sport 64, 66, 93, 216 women’s sport 23, 61–68, 93, 141–143, 161, 213–217 generalized other 53n, 125, 134–135 Giddens, Anthony 2, 4, 70, 78–79, 100 globalization 9, 31–32, 275–278, 276 glocalization 32 Goffman, Erving 4, 128, 150, 155, 184 group cohesion 112, 113–117 habitus 20, 21–22, 24, 77–81, 94 Hauser, Kaspar 52 having a body 68, 134, 172 health consciousness 27 healthy drug (sport as a) 171 Homans, George C. 4, 129, 100n home advantage 118, 119 hooliganism 196–197 hospitalism 131 Huizinga, Johan 167 hunting and gathering society 9 hypothesis 25, 26 ideal of society (sport as an) 7, 280 identification 184, 185 identity 55 identity concept 195–197 identity problems 152 personal identity 55, 137–138, 181 social identity 55, 185 idol 140, 145, 185–187, 236–238 impact research 238–241 in-group 99–100, 178 industrial society 9 integrated communication 255 integration, social 266–270 internalization of values and norms 41n, 54 International Olympic Academy 282

Index International Olympic Committee 19, 46, 66, 259, 267, 280–281 Köhler effect 111 Lasswell’s model of communication 204–241 late modern society 9 lifestyle 71, 72 lifestyle groups 72 lifestyle sports 46, 76, 181 longitudinal studies 26 Luckmann, Thomas 4, 53n, 54–56, 126 Luhmann, Niklas 18, 123 marketing 44–45, 243–255 marketing mix 255 marketing strategy 254–255 mass media / means of mass communication 6–7, 106, 148, 204, 205–241 media culture of sport 7 media research 217–226 mediatization of sport 7, 243, 256–257, 261 Mauss, Marcel 56–57, 128n Mead, George H. 4, 6, 13, 53–55, 125–126, 129–130, 134–135, 173–177 Merton, Robert K. 1 microcosm of society (sport as a) 48, 122 migratory social institution 19, 276 Mills, Charles W. 2 Moreno, Jacob L. 101–102, 105 motivation extrinsic motivation 168–170 intrinsic motivation 168, 169–172 motivation of sport group members 106–107, 110–111 motivation of sport fan behavior 190, 235 motive of play 167–172 motives for sport participation 33–34, 61–62, 68, 83, 138–139 need for positive affect 130 Needham, Rodney 1 Nielsen 221, 226, 227, 230–231, 233 norms 10, 19, 32, 33, 39–41, 54, 63, 71, 99, 134, 149, 153–155, 160, 177, 197–198, 264

Index Ofcom 226, 228 Olympic Charter 278 Olympic Games 7, 19–20, 30, 36–39, 46, 66–67, 119, 142, 146, 187, 188n, 199, 211–213, 215–216, 222–225, 228, 244–250, 255, 259–260, 265–282 Olympic Charter 278 Olympic education 275, 281–283 Olympic Truce 275–276 Olympism 275–281 operationalization 27 out-group 100, 178 OzTAM 226, 227 pankration 39–40 para-social relationship 6, 234–237 Parsons, Talcott 4, 17, 37, 148n peer group 60, 100–101 performance 150 Plessner, Helmuth 4, 6, 68, 122n, 123n, 124–127, 153, 174n, 195 political socialization 270, 272 politicization of sport 7, 265, 272 politics 263, 264, 265–282 Popitz, Heinrich 4, 6, 135–138 positive attributes (of sport) 251 postmodern society 9 power 263, 264, 265–266 practice theory 13, 22 principle of achievement 150–151 professionalization of sport 7, 243, 252–256 pseudo-events 260 pseudo-social relationships 236 psychology 12 psychomotricity 169–170 qualitative research methods 22, 26 qualitative content analysis 23, 26 quantitative research methods 21, 22, 25–26 quantitative survey 21 RAJAR 226, 229 random sampling 27, 28 Randomized Response Technique 162–163 rational choice theory 13, 22 reality of media sport 209, 239 reduction of complexity 151, 153, 183 reference group 100, 106, 148 RegionalTAM 226, 227, 231 related disciplines of sociology 12

319 reliability 28 religion (sport as) 17, 187–189 representation 20, 148–155, 172, 177–178, 237, 263, 283 representative sample 27, 28 repressive society 9 Ringelmann effect 5, 106–107 ritual 40, 57–58, 86, 136, 178, 187–188, 193, 197, 200, 266 role model 236, 54, 58, 60, 139–140, 145, 147, 163, 214, 218, 240 role taking 125, 135, 175 Scheler, Max F. 4, 6, 123 selection of news (conditions) 206–209 self self-awareness 54, 124, 126, 135–136, 175, 176–177 self-confidence 60, 154 self-control 41n, 42, 138, 155 Self-Determination Theory (SDT) 6, 168–169 self-image 72, 153, 206–207 significant others 53–54, 125 significant symbols 6, 175–178 sociability 131 social social capital 21, 22, 77, 89 social class 70, 71–98 lower social classes 68–98, 196, 198, 207 middle social classes 63, 68, 71–72, 77, 83, 88, 90–93, 96, 200 social class affiliation 72, 76–80, 89, 92, 96, 239 upper social classes 71–73, 77, 83, 88–98, 144, 181, 200, 208, 217 Social Darwinist principle 32 social facilitation 5, 117, 118 social group 99, 100–121 social inhibition 118 social institution 6, 13, 17, 19, 20–22, 152 social loafing 107–108, 111 social media 60, 148, 205n, 225, 237, 261, 278 social position 19n, 32, 55, 70, 76, 91 social psychology 12, 172 social recognition 6, 61, 128–148, 150, 172, 181, 217, 263–264 social role 19n, 20, 55

320 social significance of sport 158–159 social space 76 social specificity of sport 6–7, 148, 263–264 social stratification 69, see social class social theory 12 social world of sport 2–3, 7, 12, 122n sociality 131 socialization 10–12, 41n, 53, 54, 52–98, 195, 100, 179, 270, 272, 280, 283 primary socialization 53n, 62, 280 secondary socialization 54n socialization process 10, 12, 54, 97 socialization theory 53n society 9 sociocultural birth 53 sociogram 101–104 sociology 9–14, 11 macrosociology 10 microsociology 11, 13 sociology of sport 15 range of topics 15–16 sociomatrix 101–102 sociometry 101–105 sport 3 sport appeal 168, 171 sport as a social phenomenon 30, 128, 151, 153 sport as art 9, 138, 171 sport club 33–34, 68, 89, 100, 105, 140, 158, 176, 181, 208, 217, 225, 252–254, 267 Sport Cohesiveness Questionnaire (SCQ) 113–114 sport economy 243, 244–262 sport marketing 254, see marketing sport organization 163, 200, 225, 246, 254, 259–261 sport participation 21, 27, 33–34, 43, 61–62, 72–76, 84, 154, 250 sport practice 20, 77, 234, 271 sport spectators 6, 117–121, 139–140, 183–203 sport sponsoring / sport sponsorship 7, 246, 245–252 sponsoring measures 246 sponsorship package 246–247

Index title sponsorship 246 sportainment 231 sporting culture 32, 68, 96 sporting identity 13, 154–159, 176, 263 sportization 30, 165 stacking 144–145 status 71 stereotypes 20, 140, 206, 209, 268 Steiner’s Taxonomy of Tasks 109–110 structural functionalism 13, 17–18, 22 suicide 131–133 symbolic interactionism 13, 22, 173n systems theory 13, 16–17, 22 taking over of roles 175 taste 80–81 technique of the body (sport as a) 56–57 theory 16 totalitarian society 9 transmission rights 259 trend sports 44, 45, 46 tribal society 9 types of group 99–100 types of social subjectivity 6, 135–138 types of society 9 unity of action and representation 6, 151, 153, 155, 172, 178, 263–264 universal form of communication (sport as a) 155 urbanization 41, 59 validity 28 values 10, 19, 32, 33, 39–41, 54, 63, 71, 99, 134, 149, 153–155, 160, 177, 198, 264 variable 25, 28 Veblen, Thorstein B. 30, 92, 129 violence in society 38–43, 239–241 in sport 85–86, 191–203, 239–241 voluntary positions in sport clubs 253 Weber, Max 1, 37 welfare economic cost-benefit model of mass and leisure sport 5, 50 wolf-children 52–53 world-openness 5, 123, 124