Sport and the Social Sciences

Abstract

Sport is one of the most ubiquitous activities of modern contemporary society. The pervasiveness of sport can be seen by the enormous amount of primary and second ary involvement in it by people of all ages and social strata. Sport penetrates into and plays a significant role in all of the social institutions. The functions of play, games, and sport is a major theme running through much of the work of social scientists. Although there is no definitive list, there are seven major categories of functions of play, games, and sport: in stinct, developmental-cognitive, mastery, social integration, socialization, social control, and personal-expressive. There is a substantial body of literature in the social sciences dis cussing the importance of each of these functions.