Abstract
Introduction to the Sociology of Sport was written to offer direction and meaning to physical education (PE) students, combining the theory and practical characteristics of sociology and sport. This book has been published to address the sociology of sport’s notable distance from PE teacher training in Brazil.
The published book was written by PE teachers who give lectures and conduct research in sociology of sport in undergraduate and graduate PE courses in Brazil. The book introduces the academic pillars of the sociology of sport, correlating them with factual examples of sport in Latin America. This content, therefore, apart from being an indisputable contribution to Brazilian education, may also be considered of great value to the knowledge of scholars about the sociology of global sport, as it presents particularities which may aid in the understanding of how sociocultural studies are shaped in Brazil and, to a certain extent, in Latin America.
This work has not yet been translated and is, to date, written in Portuguese only. The reason for this is that the target audience of the book’s content refers to Brazilians, since the sociology of sport sub-discipline, according to the authors, is not yet contained in most undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the area of PE in Brazil, or in social sciences or sociology courses in the country and the rest of Latin America. Therefore, the book offers a didactic proposal to present and implement the sociology of sport in Brazil and, to elaborate this proposal, it is divided into six chapters, in addition to specific parts, such as final considerations, references and an annotated bibliography, where the authors make comments on theoretical works that served as a basis to reflect the themes proposed in the book. At the end of the book, there is still a space directed to the authors’ information.
The introduction of the material explains the central idea of the book, which is to make discussions about and concepts of the sociology of sport accessible to all interested parties – this is especially promising to supply some deficiencies found in the Brazilian academic education, mostly of PE teachers. By offering an overview of the content contained in the book from the outset, the book provides the international public with an understanding of the scenario of the main pillars that sustain the discussions of the sociology of sport in Brazil, since this material has the purpose of underpinning this sub-discipline.
Focusing on the content of the book, the authors sought to present the intersection between the fields of PE and social sciences, showing how the two areas are related. Therefore, the objective of the first chapter, entitled “The social sciences, sociological making and intellectual work”, was to contextualize the field of the sociology of sport and all the particularities that its profession needs. There are five subchapters in this section that punctuate the profile of the PE researcher with a sociological perspective, providing a step-by-step approach to the essential procedures of conducting research in the sociology of sport. In addition, it contextualizes the formation of this field of study in Brazil and Latin America that is addressed in detail in the second chapter “Contextualizing the sociology of sport”.
In chapter two, also subdivided into five parts, the authors discuss the constituent elements of the concept of “sport” and comment on the process of developing the sociology of sport in Brazil, focusing on the area of PE. At the end they present a model of sociological analysis, to visualize the manifestations of sport in society, previously developed by Marchi Júnior (2016) and recaptured in this work.
The model was constructed based on theoretical and empirical supports accumulated by the long trajectory of Marchi Júnior in the area. According to his original text (Marchi Júnior, 2016), after conducting an overview of the concepts and interpretations of sport developed by other researchers during the 20th and 21st centuries, the author explains what he understands by sport. To Marchi Júnior, sport is a social, economic, cultural and physical procedural phenomenon, dynamically and historically constructed, existing in most intercontinental peoples and cultures, and which in contemporary times has become globally popularized and re-dimensioned by the contextual logics of the processes of mercantilization, professionalization and spectacularization. Thus, the author tries to synthesize a new way to understand and explain the reality of the sports phenomenon, indicating the need to approach the mimetic relationship that society expresses in the sports scenario, and vice versa. He then sought to structure an analytical model of sport that would help him to conduct a broader reading of sport, with varied senses, meanings, contexts and dimensions.
His analytical model is composed of five correlational dimensions – emotion, aesthetics, ethics, the spectacle, and education – linked to sport. The five dimensions, according to Marchi Júnior, are located in the macrosocial context and, therefore, appear with the purpose of discussing, understanding and situating the sport in contemporaneity, considering that these five dimensions are correlational, being, according to the author, inefficient for the analysis of sports phenomena based on a single dimension. The Marchi Júnior model is based on the relational aspect between sport and society. In his composition the author applies the sociological category of social mimicry proposed by Elias and Dunning (1992), seeking to understand the functional interdependencies that are established between individuals and social structures, organized within specific configurations. Thus, the proposed analytical dimensions attempt to draw a parallel between the sports universe and the broad social dynamics existing in contemporaneity, connecting the context, dimensions and polysemy that involves sports. Under this perspective, we consider this model to be a way to enhance the sociological imagination when considering sport and its relationship with society. Therefore, this model offers theoretical apparatuses that will help in the problematization of the sports phenomenon in different social configurations.
In the book, the authors explore each of the dimensions through examples from the sports sphere, related to everyday situations in society. The first developed dimension is that of emotion, associating it to the production of tension, excitement, cathartic effect and control of emotions visualized in contemporary sport and to the forms of violence found in society that also reinforce these levels of excitement, requiring regulatory devices. According to the authors, an example of interpreting the sport through this dimension would be the unpredictable situations seen among the football fans present in the stadiums.
Meanwhile, the dimension of aesthetics, according to the authors of the book, is closer to aspects of health, body stereotypes and allied to marketing and pharmacological issues, in addition to the unquestionable appreciation of performance enhanced by the media. Within this dimension discussions can be opened about the discourses on the reproduction of body stereotypes enhanced by the connection with sports practice, which, in turn, is influenced by marketing and individualization factors.
The third dimension elaborated is ethics, a concept related to the idea of principles, values and conducts within sports, which can often fail when the search for results exceeds all these moral assumptions, something that is also visualized in society in general, since the rules, concepts, principles and values are socially constructed. Therefore, ethics, as a dimension of the reading of sport, can be problematized as conducts considered illegitimate in the sports environment, such as doping, in addition to several other situations circumscribed in the sports and social environment that are connected to this dimension, in order to achieve the goals.
The fourth dimension is that of the spectacle. It has essential characteristics such as economic and market movement, the offer of specific products and services, media visibility, as well as a globalized dissemination and population mobilization generated by the sports phenomenon. Hence, the economic side is intrinsic to the dimension of the spectacle, since it is currently an indispensable factor to be considered. However, for the authors, it is not configured as an exclusive dimension like the others, since it could provide the understanding of a reductionist perspective of all the other dimensions of sport in society, also linked to the economy. Therefore, this dimension allows sport to be thought of as beyond professionalism and performance. The spectacle dimension will reflect, for example, on the development phases of a modality such as amateurism, institutionalization, professionalization and mercantilization.
Lastly, the final dimension is education. It closes the five dimensions that compose the analytical model of sport described in the work. According to the authors, it oversees making the correlation between the other concepts through readings, analyses and interpretations of social reality in direct relation to sport’s context, providing students with analytical paths of sport in its most varied manifestations in society. The authors also stress that this dimension is of paramount importance to highlight the importance of PE teachers in the qualification of reading and analysis of possible interlocutions of the sport context within contemporary society. In this regard, the analytical model of sport proposed by Marchi Júnior presents itself as an interesting possibility, since it seeks to address the different trends, relationships and consequences of the sport phenomenon in contemporary society.
According to the course of the work, the fourth chapter “Theoretical approaches for the study of sport”, and the fifth and sixth chapters, called “Sociological categories for sport analysis”, part I and II, respectively, are topics that describe the main theories and theorists used in studies in the sociology of sport in Brazil and the world. The theories and categories discussed in the subchapters were: the game theory, referring to the idea of Johan Huizinga and Roger Caillois; Marxist theory, dealing with aspects of works by Karl Marx, as well as his successors such as Jean-Marie Brohm, Bero Rigauer and Gerhard Vinnai, who became attentive to sports phenomena; the theory of civilizing and configuration process, proposed by Norbert Elias and unfolding in sport analysis with Eric Dunning; and post-modernity and globalization theory, besides the categories and sociological concepts that were presented and intended: ideological domination, resistance, diversity, social inclusion, secularization, rationalization, globalization, catharsis, violence, socialization, social distinction, identity, corporeity and ecologization.
As previously envisioned, the work contains some theoretical bases considered essential for the development of the sociology of sport sub-discipline in Brazil. Thus, the objective of exposing the theorists and theories presented by the authors was to illustrate as much as possible which are the theoretical supports that for them can support all the sub-disciplines of sports sociology in Brazil today, thereby offering a panorama of the area for the international scenario.
The authors brought examples of situations in the sports scenario that can be analyzed through the sociological viewpoint in the sixth chapter, “Fields of analysis of the sociology of sport”. Scenarios such as values and sports actions, cultural industry and media, virtualization and technology, economy and environment and policies and mega events are described, all in an attempt to provide the reader with possibilities of practical and/or reflective application of the theories mentioned.
In their final considerations, the authors emphasize the objective of promoting and broadening the scope of the sociology of sport in Brazil and Latin America, under the perspective that through the material provided, the training of PE students and sociological research of sport in the region as a whole, may have a direction to be followed.
Therefore, this work was born as a pioneering tool for the theoretical and practical foundation of a field that is still developing more solid traces in Latin America, especially in Brazil. Despite having theoretical similarity with North American and European research (Dart, 2014; Malcolm, 2012; Tian and Wise, 2019), the book demonstrates the Latin American efforts to strengthen the Brazilian scientific academic scenario, emerging as a fundamental reading for those who wish to conduct research of this nature. Regarding the international scenario, the translation of the respective material into English and Spanish would enable a detailed knowledge about the sociology of sport in Brazil and Latin America, in addition to being a next step to expand the international dialogue on the sociological research of sport developed in the southernmost portions of the Americas.
After reading the respective chapters, we queried the absence of data that would illustrate more precisely the scenario described. The data that might have been approached are in relation to the institutions that offer the discipline of sociology of sport in Brazil and if the theoretical references treated in the work converge with those stated in the statements. This information would provide further details on how sociological studies of sport materialize in these contexts, supporting the understanding of how these studies are developed in this region.
However, the book is best considered as a foundation for further research in the sociology of sport in Latin America. After all, the book transmits, remarkably, a dense content in clear and objective language, contributing to a broader understanding for both beginner scholars and those who wish to know this field in a broad sense.
