Sportsiology

C. Wright Mills encourages sociologists to make a connection between biography and history to be able to see themselves within larger societal structures. He specifically asks that social scientists connect private concerns with public issues in order to glance outside of the intricacies of individuals’ lives into the social institutions within which we exist. While the personal issues and concerns of athletes and sports teams are often aired in public, and public groups and authorities can get involved, we, as sports fans don’t make as many connections to public issues as we should. That is really much of the purpose of this blog, to bring us out of our own lives, teams and loyalties and to allow us to see the bigger pictures. Is Kobe’s homophobic slur only a public issue because it was accidentally overheard or does it represent the larger issues around sports and masculinity and the ways in which we equate homosexuality with the lack of such? Is the robot that will throw out the pitch at the Phillies game just a publicity stunt or an example of American society’s move into the biotech society that we have been promised, where we are able to use technology to overcome biological limitations? When your sociological imagination becomes second nature, we won’t have to ask these questions anymore.