Assessing the sociology of sport: On culture and political economy

Abstract

On the 50th anniversary of the ISSA and IRSS, an influential scholar in the study of sport and nation, Wolfram Manzenreiter, argues in favor of a combination of micro- and macro-sociological approaches to further our understanding of sport as a universal – or anthropogenic – expression and global institution. In his assessment, the hegemonic power of the Western bloc is noted whereby Western cultural sensibilities have been transformed into universal principles about the value and framing of sport. While the emergence of globalization theory has significantly altered the formerly biased view on the spread of sport as a manifestation of societal development, a key challenge to any sociological rendering of sport remains seated in ongoing tendencies to embrace methodological nationalism and a constructionist view on mankind and culture. In considering the future, Manzenreiter notes that any attempt to de-center the study of sport faces untangling the tensions between nationalism and globalization while at the same time coming to grips with universal understandings in the face of particularized historical and cultural sensibilities.