Social Class and Sport PDF

Social Class and Sport  Meritocracy is a hierarchical ranking and reward system in which an individual’s demonstrated performance determines where the individual will end up in the hierarchy. A meritocracy confers greater merit and more rewards to those at the to...

Social Class and Sport  Meritocracy is a hierarchical ranking and reward system in which an individual’s demonstrated performance determines where the individual will end up in the hierarchy. A meritocracy confers greater merit and more rewards to those at the top than to those lower in the pyramid. Those who make the most of their ability – through personal dedication to long- term preparation, sacrifice, and concerted, and concentrated effort during the competition- are the victors. The winners justifiably receive- they merit- the greatest rewards in the meritocratic system. Sports advocates maintain that sport is so important because it introduces children to the demands and rewards of the larger stratified, meritocratic structure of society. Important equalities to in a meritocratic system Equality of Opportunity - exists when all individuals have the same prospect or opportunity to take part in a particular activity or endeavour. Equality of condition – exists when all individual taking part in a particular activity or endeavour do so under the same circumstance, no single individual has an advantage over others. Class is a primary barrier to the equality of condition that would be essential to a truly meritocratic social structure.  Pierre Bourdieu’s theory on Social Class Habitus refers to ta seemingly innate, practical sense of how an individual is disposed (inclined, predisposed, prompted) to act. He considers it the subjective side. Field is a metaphor drawn from sport and serves as the structural element. A field is a hierarchically arranged setting where individuals use different types of capital to compete with each other for their ranking within the field. The network or configuration of positions defines the field and distributes different types of power (or capital), the potential rewards, and the demands players/actors face in the field. Capital is a “set of actually usable resources” that individuals or groups possess (Bourdieu, 1984, p.114). Four types of capital 1. Economic (money and property) 2. Social (social and institutionalized networks, group memberships etc.) 3. Cultural (various types of knowledges, cultural goods such as books, various formalized accreditations) 4. Symbolic (thy types of symbols individuals use to represent themselves or their cause as well as marks of distinction)  Discussion Question 1. What types of cultural, social, economic, and symbolic capital do you have to draw upon that influence your participation in sport? 2. How much money have you spent taking part in sporting activities in the past year?  Hockey and Economic Capital Hockey is the second most expensive sport for young Canadians Canadian Heritage (2013) reports that participations declines with income in 2010 7 % of individuals in families with household incomes below $20,000 per year participated In sports 20,000- 29,999, 15 % of individuals 30,000- 49,999, 20% of individuals 50,000-79,999, 25% of individuals Higher than 80,000, 33% of individuals Many middle- and upper-class Canadians believe that sport teaches valuable life lessons that instill the spirit and value system needed to succeed in contemporary society. These costs are in fact investments. 1. Why is this? 2. What lessons or values are getting? 3. What type of rewards do they expect to see from this investment? How much does it cost in Canada to play competitive hockey? 1. Registration in the league 2. Equipment 3. Tournament Costs 4. Transportation As a result, that a 2012 Hockey Canada survey showed that hockey parents had an average income 15% above the national median and work as professionals, owners, executives, or managers. What are the reasons for sky rocketing costs While some costs for playing sports are inevitable, one of the main reason for their escalation is changes in child rearing philosophy, educational practices and the how “leisure time” should be use. Friedman (2013) argues that the increasing professionalization of children’s competitive activities whether it is chess, spelling bees, dance or sport, as parents try to build what she terms children’s “competitive capital”. One question we should ask is how did we get the professionalization of minor hockey?  Historical Sensitivity: Minor Hockey for Boys The 1930s marked the beginning of minor hockey in Canda with provincial organizations creating juvenile midget, bantam, and peewee divisions for boys as young as nine (Adams and Laurendeau 2018). The institutionalization of hockey for young boys took place amid ongoing debates about the values and merits of amateur and professional sports.  Professionalism and Amateur Sport Amateurism – a set of ideas about sport that reinforced the notion that athletes should not receive remuneration for competing in sport. By the 1880s, amateurism was the prevailing ideology of Canadian sport. Athletes were expected to play the game for the joy, pleasure, and honour of competition, for the game’s sake – not to win and certainly not for money. By the turn of century 1900s the class-based was replaced by one that spike more directly to the tension between amateur and professional ideologies as well as racial prejudices.  The NHL Monopoly The NHL was established in 1917 and was just one of many leagues at the time. It wasn’t until after the first world war and a more stable economic conditions in Canda that professional hockey improved. In the 1920s the demand for NHL teams in urban centres across Canada and the US exploded NHL entrepreneurs were savvy in negotiating the market conditions and succeeded in recruiting outside capital building attractive new arena selling franchises to powerful US interests speeding up the game.  Why is this important: Amateur leaders feared that youth who dreamed of careers in the NHL would sell their skills for wages without understanding the implication of being a professional athlete. Well into the 1930s the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) was intent on protecting young players from the “evils of Professional sport. Attitudes began to shift about professional sports By the late 1930s, these power relations had been institutionalized and minor hockey in Canada but it also functioned as a formal feeder system for the NHL