RFLA 200C 03 and 04 - Sport and Society (CRNs 10539/10541)

Sport, an integral part of everyday life, influences and shapes individual identities. Critics argue that the preoccupation with sport distracts people from societal inequities and economic turmoil. Is it better to keep people focused on the World Cup, Olympic Games, and Super Bowl? While sport celebrates human values of freedom, justice, and courage, this assumption is at odds with reality. Sport is intimately related to power, control, and authority. The course will: (1) examine how sport functions in relation to and in conflict with personal values (adult-organized youth sport, school-based sport, worldwide club sport, virtues/exploitation of college athletes, professional sport as a monopoly, and intersection of sport with religion and politics); (2) analyze the interaction between culture and sport, ethical/moral decision making, effects of race, ethnicity, gender, social class, age, sexual preference, and disability on sport access and participation, and deviant rule breaking, violence, performance enhancement, hazing, and gambling; and (3) explore the interplay between sport and society worldwide (sport media revolution connecting countries through technology, international consumer marketing/retailing of sport equipment and apparel, migration from country to country of athletes, coaches, and officials, exchange of values reflecting various cultures, human rights violations, and Olympic economics versus nationalism).