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world and as such they are influenced by social, political and
economic forces. Examples of political uses of and interventions
in major sporting events abound. Hitler's use of the 1936 Olympics
in Berlin as a propaganda exercise to promote his own brand of
nationalism and fascism to the world. The use of sporting metaphors
in political rhetoric and the effects of the differing political ideologies
on what happens in the sporting arena bear testament to this.
Cultural: Leonard (1993) describes culture as "the way of life
of a social group, the distinctive features - values, norms and
institutions - that characterise if. As an established institution
of modern society sport can neither isolate nor insulate itself
from society and as such can both effect and be affected by
changes in society. One of the most often made claims about
sport is that it aids in the socialisation of individuals into society
by building character, motivating, generating teamwork, teaching
discipline and generally producing good all-round citizens. (Lapchick,
1991). It has also been claimed that sport is responsible
for breaking down class, race and ethnic barriers as well as sex
role stereotypes. (Corbett, 1989).
Social-Psychological: Millions of people around the world take
part in sport every week at varying levels as both participants
and spectators. Participants motivations will vary according to
their level of performance. Spectators motivations can also be
numerous ranging from ticket touts to people just wanting to be
seen in the right places to people who are just there to support
family members or loved ones. Sport also forms a primary source
of group identification in the modern world.
In the second section I attempt to outline the general characteristics
of the Marxist and Figurational approaches to sport and
their application to sport in the modern world. According to Leonard
(1993) Marx viewed social conflict in terms of the relentless struggle
between social classes over property and production. Hence one
of the major themes of Marxism is the power relationship between
the bosses or bourgeoisie and the working classes or proletariat.
Sport has the function of justifying the established order due to
it's "typically optimistic ideology of indefinite, forward progress"
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