Whether it is basketball (in the ongoing NBA playoffs), football (in the coming FIFA World Cup), boxing (in Manny Pacquiao, Nonito Donaire, and others more) or any other sport, what is it that makes people band together to a certain team or athlete? Sociologists explain. “Identification with a sports team can provide people with an important identity prop… a sense of belonging in what would otherwise be an isolated existence,” said Eric Dunning, a sports sociologist at the University of Leicester. “It provides you with an opportunity to side with your country without being violent to another. So in that way, it does replace war,” said David Ranc, a French sociologist who specializes in group identity in football. “It is a non-violent way of resolving conflict… and taking sides where there is not that much at stake.” “The stories told in sports are not pure fantasies. Individuals who were previously powerless really are elevated. They really do win fame and fortune by their own strength, and are thereby allowed to play a role in society that is otherwise closed off to them,” said sports sociologist Gunter Gebauer of the Free University of Berlin.
Posted on: Sat, 31 May 2014 10:00:01 +0000
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