ABSTRACT
The previous chapter examined the mission statements of sociology of sport organizing bodies to identify some of the divisions that exist within the subdiscipline. This discussion touched upon a definition of the sociology of sport; e.g., ‘the examination of the role, function and meaning of sport in the lives of people and the societies they form’. Yet many writers of textbooks now treat the sociology of sport as so widely understood that a definition is superfluous. Coakley (2007: 4), for example, defines sociology – ‘the study of social life, including all forms of social interaction and relationships’ – and thereafter simply identifies some of the questions which sociologists of sport have attempted to answer using sociological concepts.
