Rejuvenating Sport Socialization Research

Abstract

Using existing critiques as a constructive foundation, the purpose of this paper is to extend analyses of the malaise in sport socialization by suggesting two alternative approaches that may revive interest in this important research topic. One, more representative of a functionalist integration, attempts to shift to more macro considerations by conceptualizing sport socialization as a mechanism of social and cultural reproduction; the nature and role of social structure is examined with respect to learning, interaction, and communication. Viewing such a synthesis as inadequate to rejuvenate the topic, however, we endorse a cultural studies approach which attempts to contextualize socialization within the broader framework of power, hegemony and ideology. Inherent in both alternatives, however, is a challenge to rethink underlying assumptions and fundamental elements upon which previous sport socialization research has been based. Although fundamentally different in approach, both require a new or different way of understanding how sport socialization is accomplished.