Course Description and Objectives: An examination of the relationship between sport and society. Areas include sociological theories of sport, social history of sport, sport and socialization, sport and social stratification, gender and sport, violence in sport, sport and nationalism. The emphasis will be on Canadian examples. By the end of the course you should have a basic understanding of how sociologists examine and explain sport as a social phenomenon. The emphasis in the course is on the practice of sociology of sport rather than the specific findings of the sociology of sport.

Format: Classroom lectures with your input encouraged. Specific readings will be assigned each week to enable participants to prepare for the classes. I will attempt to have any PowerPoint slides used in class posted to the course webpage before the appropriate class. The is also a weblog linked to the course webpage which I may update from time to time, it is for your interest only and is not part of the course nor will anything from it be on the exams. As you read the assigned material think of how they are sociological. All readings should be done critically, while you are expected to understand the readings, you are free to agree or disagree with them; formulating clear and comprehensible criticisms is central to sociology (along with the other social sciences). Don't get behind, you will find it difficult to catch up.

WebCT: While it is not necessary that you use WebCT in this course, using it will make the course go along more easily. You will find that all of the topics and readings for the classes can be found in the Calendar, email is easily sent to me though the WebCT mail (and doesn't go through my SPAM filter so won't get lost that way if you forget to put Soc 3410 in the subject line), you can use the chat rooms or the discussion areas, and announcments will be posted there. To get on to WebCT go here and enter your 9-digit student number and 6-digit PIN (from Student Web, or the first six digits of that PIN if is more than six digits) to log in. There is lots of help available throughout WebCT (from the sign-in page there are guides, help, and FAQs and when you are in WebCT there is always context sensitive help in the upper right corner of the screen). And always feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Class PowerPoint outlines are available through WebCT

Current news and updates

Sunday, January 8, 2006: The course outline has been updated for Winter 2006. Note that there are used copies of of the text probably around but make sure that you get the Canadian edition (there are also American editions around and they will not do). There is only one Canadian edition so that will not be a problem.

Sports is all about numbers,
Now you're a number too



Half this game is ninety percent mental.
Yogi Berra

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