1. LECTURE

For six slides per page format (for printing) click : HERE

For one slide per page format (for viewing on computer) click: HERE

2. 2. PODCASTS
   

The podcast accompanying this topic’s lecture can be accessed HERE.

The podcast, like the lecture, is divided into themes (each being 10 to 15 minutes long) that can be navigated using the chapter markers.

In order to subscribe to the podcast cut and paste the following link into iTunes (or equivalent):

http://umdknes.com/knes287resources/PodcastiTunes/podcast.xml

3. 3. THEMATIC REVIEW QUESTIONS
   

The podcasts are between 90 and 120 minutes in length (remembering, these podcasts are the equivalent of two 50 minutes lectures). 

Given the length of these podcasts, you are strongly advised not to listen to them in their entirety in one sitting (that would simply be too much information to consume).

Rather, you are strongly encouraged to listen to them one theme at a time, following which you should test your knowledge and understanding by answering the Thematic Review Questions which can be accessed HERE.

4. VIDEO CLIPS

These video clips should be viewed when prompted within the lecture/podcast:

Video Clip 1: “Cristiano Ronaldo: Tested to the Limit”.  Promotional programming for Castrol Edge, analysing Ronaldo’s “mortal engine”.

Video Clip 2: Manufacturing the Elite Body.  Excerpt from The Olympic Body, The Guardian (2012, July 6).

Video Clip 3:  The Machine and Dehumanization.  Excerpt from Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times” movie (1936).

Video Clip 4: The Finite and Aging Elite Body.  Excerpt from The Olympic Body, The Guardian (2012, July 6).

Video Clip 5:  Brett Favre Responds to Bountygate (ESPN.com).

Video Clip 6: Football Players at Greater Risk of Alzheimer's (ABC News, 2012, September 5).

5. REQUIRED READINGS

It is expected that you will complete these readings prior to the messageboard discussions, and that–where appropriate–your engage them within your messageboard postings.  In addition, within the Module 1 exam, you should expect to be asked questions on those readings asterisked (*).

*Reading I: Beamish, R., & Ritchie, I. (2006).  “Sport,” health, and harm to the athlete;. In Fastest, highest, strongest : a critique of high-performance sport (pp. 122-125, p. 135).  Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

Reading II: Hargrove, Thomas (2006, January 31). Heavy NFL players twice as likely to die before the age of 50. ESPN.com

Reading III: Le Batard (2013, January 13). Jason Taylor’s pain shows NFL’s world of hurt. Miami Herald.

6. KEY CONCEPTS

The following key concepts represent the core knowledge related to this topic, and you should ensure that you develop a thorough knowledge and understanding of them before moving on to the next topic:

The Capitalist Economy and the American Capitalist Hegemony

From Industrial Capitalism to Cultural (Late) Capitalism

Late Capitalism as a Cultural Economy

From Rigid to Flexible Regimes of Accumulation

The Corporatization and Commercialization of American Society and Sport

Sport and the Accumulation of Capital

Corporate/Elite Sport

Corporeal Economy - The Active Body as Object and Instrument of the Sport Economy

Sporting Taylorism and Performance-Based Sport Science

Cyborg Athletes - The Interplay of Sport, the Body, and Technology

The McDonaldization of Elite Sport and Elite Sporting Bodies

Weber’s Iron Cage and Capitalist Rational Productivity

The Elite Sporting Body as Rational and Efficient Machine

Corporeal Specialized Standardization Between and Within Sports

Corporeal Efficiency, Calculability, Predictability, and Control

The Perils of Sporting McDonaldization

The Dehumanized and Disenchanted Athlete

Corporeal Abuses and Elite Sport

The Contexts of Elite Sport Performance

The Rationalization and Normalization of Corporeal Abuse/Sporting Deviance

Health, Longevity, and Elite Sport Performance

7. DISCUSSION QUESTION/TASK #3

This question/task will be discussed in messageboard discussion sections on Wednesday, August 6:

According to Bertolt Brecht, “Great sport begins at a point where it has ceased to be healthy.”  Discuss this observation within regard to the manufacture of high-performance athletic bodies, as the engines of capital accumulation in the progress and efficiency-driven elite sport economy.

Please note: IN ORDER TO RECEIVED FULL CREDIT FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT, YOU MUST ATTACH AN MS WORD COPY OF YOUR DISCUSSION RESPONSE TO THE ASSIGNMENTS PAGE ON CANVAS BY THE END OF THE DISCUSSION at 11:50am.

8. ESSAY QUESTION #3 (this is an option for the mandatory Module 1 essay)

As discussed in lecture, sport science is embedded with hegemonic assumptions around improving health and athletic performance. Discuss the paradoxical relationship whereby sport science is tasked with improving health of athletes (ie: rehabilitation and injury prevention), but at the same time further contributing to the dehumanization, disenchantment, and perhaps more critically an even more unhealthy body, in the demand for bigger, faster, and ever more efficient athletes?

This essay should be a minimum of 1,500 words to answer it comprehensively.

You may find the following academic sources useful in completing this assignment.  You do not have to use these sources, they are simply provided for you as an introduction to the literature, and you should use them where appropriate and/or relevant. Also, be warned, these readings do not count towards the TWO additional academic sources you are expected to use within your essays (however, they may direct you toward additional academic sources you could use).

Brewer, B. D. (2002). Commercialization in professional cycling 1950-2001:  Institutional transformations and the rationalization of "doping". Sociology of Sport Journal, 19(3), 276-301.

O’Toole, L. L. (2008). "McDonald’s at the Gym? A Tale of Two Curves®." Qualitative Sociology 32(1): 75-91.

Ritzer, G., & Stillman, T. (2001). The postmodern ballpark as a leisure setting: Enchantment and simulated de-McDonaldization. Leisure Sciences, 23(2), 99-113.

Waddington, I. (2000).  Sport, health and ideology.  In Sport, Health and Drugs: A Critical Sociological Perspective.  London: E & FN Spon.

If you choose to complete this essay, and in addition to the sources provided on this page, you need to identify and use (either through paraphrasing or direct quotation) interpretations, insights, or information from a MINIMUM OF TWO appropriate academic sources (in addition to those provided for you on this website).

The deadline for submitting (via the ELMS/Canvas website) your Module 1 Essay is 11.59pm ET on Monday, August 11.

Important: The ELMS/Canvas website will not accept essays after the due time and date.

Be sure to review the details on the module essay page.   On that page you will find the EVALUATION CRITERIA for module essays (which you are strongly encouraged to read), you will also find links to the appropriate academic sources you should use when researching and writing your module essays, and the style and format guidelines you need to follow when completing module essays.  All this information needs to be read, understood, and closely followed for you to succeed in this course.