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The dichotomy between the sociology of sport and applied sport psychology appears to centre about the relevant importance the adherents of each discipline place on structure and agency within their discourses. In the investigation of participation in sporting situations many sociological paradigms emphasise the structural components surrounding the individuals decision to initially participate and continue participation. The emotional responses of individuals, potentially ludic components of the sporting experience and the expression of self-identity are subsumed within the macrocosm of the environment whether it be the culture within which participation is engaged or the organisational structures surrounding that experience. ... This approach is extended throughout the competitive continuum with participatory, process levels of sport being seen as merely emphasising the pyramid structure of sports involvement and the acceptance of competition, withdrawal and burnout as inevitable components of the sporting experience. ... This discussion of participation in "sport" implies competitiveness as its defining feature. ...
Even within the stated definition there are wide variations in standards and attitudes with amateur sportspersons displaying varying levels of commitment and playing abilities ranging from "dabblers" to the true amateur, identified by his or her serious commitment to excellence in the sport (Eitzen, 1998). ... Like most NGBs the ASA has adopted a pyramidal structure that mirrors the Sports Council continuum from participation through to excellence. ... These sports club participants, rather than "dabblers", elite athletes or those experiencing sport as part of a compulsory or extra-curricular Physical Education programme are the focus for discussion. ...
Figurational theory
Essence/Values
For figurational sociologists values are structurally located, constructs generated by specific groups, expressive of their interests and which change in connection with the changing structure of society as a whole (Dunning and Sheard, 1998). Figurationalists view sport as inherently neutral and, while they reject essentialist notions of sport (CRSS, 1998b), they do accept that sport can provide a source of meaning, a focal point for social identification and offer excitement (CRSS, 1998c; Mennell, 1992; Home and Jary, 1987). ...
Figurationalists do not deny the ludic element in sport although they recognise that the play-element in a sport is far more likely to be lost when the players become dependent on spectators or on other groups for financial rewards (Maguire, 1992a). Figurational sociologists have a non-essentialist concept of sport and stress relative autonomy, seeking to explain changing balances of power between groups and placing these within a wider framework (Dunning, 1992). As such they would fundamentally disagree with the argument that the constitutive rules partition sport off from the whole round of social activities and practices (Morgan, 1985). They emphasise that sport is not insulated from the processes that surround it and would not disagree that sport has the potential to encourage chauvinism, sexism, racism, xenophobia, physical and psychological abuse to athletes, and violence (Hargreaves, 1998).
Interdependency
For figurational theorists all relationships, whether they concern two people, an organisation or a nation state involve interdependencies in a constant condition of flux (Dunning, 1998c; CRSS, 1998f). ... Figurational sociologists argue that their focus on interdependencies avoids this dilemma and emphasise that autonomy, being a function of relationships, is always relative and never absolute (Dunning, 1992). ... Figurational analysis avoids this tendency to separate "structure" and "action" and the "individual" and "society" (CRSS, 1998d).
Home and Jary (1987) critique figurational theory on the grounds that "It is an oversocialised and one-dimensional conception of the person and society that emerges" (Home, and Jary, 1987 p. ... Figurational theory does not claim to have solved the structure-agency dualism but has been offered as a means for helping sociological theorisation and research to be more fruitful in relation to such issues than has often been possible in the past.
Competitiveness
The long-term trend towards the increasing competitiveness of sport is a good example of a blind or unplanned long-term social process (Waddington and Murphy, 1992). Inherent in the modern structure of social interdependencies is the demand for inter-regional and representative sport, a process that leads to a hierarchical grading of athletes and teams (Waddington and Murphy, 1992). ... In all these ways, then, the social figuration characteristic of an urban-industrial nation-state increasingly undermines the amateur ethos, with its stress on sport for fun, and leads to its replacement by more serious and more competitive forms of sporting participation (Waddington and Murphy, 1992; Mennell, 1992).
Approximate Word count = 3438
Approximate Pages = 13.8
(250 words per page double spaced)
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