PARTICIPATION IN SPORT

Inequality in Participation in Sport from the Perspective of Two Different Sociological Theories

Inequality in Participation in Sport from the Perspective of Two Different Sociological Theories

Introduction

Sport participation can be categorized based on the level of participation for athletes. The categories of sport are professional, intercollegiate, interscholastic, and youth—as well as an amateur and grassroots sport categories. The highest level of competition is professional. Professional athletes receive payment for their athletic services and accomplishments. This is the only level of sports that receives money outright for performance.

The second highest level of participation is intercollegiate athletics. This category comprises student athletes enrolled in colleges who participate in their respective varsity athletics programs. These participants do not receive money directly for their performance—but in many cases they do receive money in the form of athletic scholarships and stipends.

The following category is the level of interscholastic sport. Similar to intercollegiate sport, interscholastic sport comprises student athletes. However, these student athletes are participating in sport at the high school level. There are many more high school athletes than college athletes. High school student athletes do not receive money for performance or scholarships. They also do not receive any stipend for participation. However, some schools may have booster clubs that use the money to pay for meals, trips, or athletic apparel.

The final category of sport participation is youth sport. Youth sport is present in numerous communities across the United States and has the greatest amount of participants. These athletes normally pay to play their respective sport. The youth sport category may also include recreational adult leagues for a given sport. Every other category of sport has some tryout system that makes participation in their level more exclusive.

Amateur and grassroots sport used as grouping terms for other categories of sport. Amateur sport encompasses the intercollegiate, interscholastic, and youth categories of sport. Amateur sport plainly refers to the fact that participants in these categories do not receive money for their performance in a given sport.

Grassroots sport refers to the local levels of sport participation, and the funding comes largely from the participants. Interscholastic and youth sport make up this category of sport. Interscholastic sports often funded by booster clubs made up of parents of the athletes. They raise and contribute money to the program. Youth sport participants pay an entry fee and provide their own uniforms for participation. These levels within the categories of sport can also be based on skill level, prestige, or exclusivity, as well as other definitive terms (Miloch & Lambrecht, 2006).

Interactionist theory -people's experience of sport

To explain the factors that influence and trigger violent events in the sporting context, it is necessary to examine how violence been studied in other contexts more generally. The study of violence been made from multiple theoretical perspectives. In this section, a peculiar emphasis is made on three major currents that have tried to explain violence.

Theories based on individual aspects strongly explain violent behaviour in response to factors found in the ...