COURSE STRUCTURE
Module 1 Topic C: Discussion Questions
Following the lecture, and having read the assigned readings and watch relevant video clips, you are expected to prepare answers for TWO (those questions in green) of the following discussion questions. Your prepared answers will form the basis of your verbal contributions within discussion sections
These answers should:
1. Be a minimum of 150 words for each answer (not including the question or reference list).
2. Be typed and double-spaced.
3. Have the complete question immediately prior to the answer.
4. Cite appropriately any sources used in your answer (use appropriate Style and Format Guidelines).
5. Include a complete reference list (use appropriate Style and Format Guidelines).
6. Hand in a hard copy of answers during discussion section
The aim of these answers is to get you to engage and extend the information covered within each theme, in order to generate a better understanding of core concepts, knowledge, and issues.
These questions are intended as preparation for both the discussion section and exam related to this topic.
PLEASE NOTE: Within the multiple choice section of the module exam, you should expect to be asked questions on the information related to any of these questions.
However, the ONE thematic essay question for the module exam will be selected from those questions in green.
Following the review session for this module the selected question will be designated in red.
Theme 1: The Corporatization and Commercialization of Neoliberal Sport
1. What is the relationship between capitalism, corporatization, and commercialization, which (if any) of the three do you consider to be hegemonic within the contemporary U.S. context?
2. Describe the differences between industrial capitalism and late capitalism; between rigid accumulation and flexible accumulations; and, between material production and cultural production.
3. In what ways is contemporary sport dialectically related the dominant (late) capitalist order which defines the twenty-first century American economy?
Theme 2: A Corporeal Economy?
1. Sport could be described as a corporeal economy. What is meant by this statement, and what roles does the body play within the sport industry?
2. Outline the relationship between Taylorism, sport science, and notions of the sporting body as a machine or “mortal engine” (Hoberman, 1992).
3. What does it mean to be a cyborg athlete? Think about some examples of this phenomenon drawn from elite and non-elite sport.
Theme 3: The McDonaldization of Elite Sporting Bodies
1. How is Weber’s understanding of the “iron cage” of capitalism related to Ritzer’s concept of a McDonaldized society?
2. Other than football which was covered in the lecture, consider examples of the standardized specalization of sporting bodies both between and within sports.
3. Which elements of McDonaldization are most relevant to understanding the production of the high-performance athletic bodies which form the performative core of the sport industry?
Theme 4: The Corporeal Perils of Sport McDonaldization
1. How does McDonaldized sport lead to the dehumanization and disenchantment of those participating. Is this a pressing social issue? If so, in what ways? If not, why not?
2. To what extent do you consider the perils of sporting McDonaldization to be normalized aspects of involvement in elite sport? As the products of the McDonaldized sport system, are these athletes also victims of it?
3. Perelman (2012) describes elite sport as being both”barbaric” and “inhuman”. Critically assess this description through reference to various forms of violence associated with McDonaldized sport, and their effects on its participants.
4. How can, or indeed should, sport be restructured in order to avoid the various corporeal perils derived from the McDonaldization of athletic bodies?
