I just finished writing a midterm for a sociology class (Social Cultural Perspective in Sport). Sociology is extremely interesting and opens the mind to look at the world from various angles. I did sociology as a first year option and was equally excited by many of the theories and ideas (except for the pedagogy part which was very dry) as I am in this kinesiology focused version of the subject. I'll just dive right in now... calgary is a very functionalist society (I guess this is very similar to saying conservative as it was once known - we like the status quo). The culture here promotes competition and meritocracy. Most of the time we like the way things are and believe that that's how they should be so that society can run "efficiently". Perhaps consequencial differences like ability, intelligence, education, and economic status are maintained here in the name of the economy. Rewarding those who have higher education (such as engineers) with high salaries in oil companies is an example. As a kid I was taught that this was a good thing because those who worked harder should get more rewards and this would encourage healthy competition, motivation and drive, and keep the economy stable or growing. If work was not rewarded according to its value and ability required, those who "slacked off" would be encouraged to do so, and those who worked hard would have a lack of motivation after noticing they would get the same reward regardless of effort. Then the economy would fail, affecting other aspects of society and ultimately everyone's quality fo life. Yes, this is a very functionalist idea. And yes it seems like a bad thing when considered from the perspective of disadvantaged people, but society has been built around these ideals and has provided those who comply with it a decent to above average quality of life. Like any label, there are pros and cons. This is just a little bit of background to segway (haha segway...) into my conflict theory argument/rant. I have a bone to pick with the university. It's about my field of study and how it is burdened (in my opinion) by functionalist ideals when it comes to elite athletes. My interest in kinesiology partially stems from a motivation to "help" people, or rather, contribute to society in a positive way that I also find ejoyable. As I'm sure everyone has already heard, there is an obesity epidemic in north america... the risk of many chronic diseases and ailments is increased or caused by obesity and many many deaths can be attributed to lifestyles that promote these diseases, including obesity. It is my job as a person trained in practitioning healthy lifestyle choices (such as exercise and nutrition) to go out in the world and take action with the hopeful consequence of preventing/reducing chronic disease, changing the distribution of healthcare funds and ultimately improving people's quality of life (big goals!). BUT .... How can I do this if the university has this annoying tendency to focus on elite athlete performance? Yes, elite athletes are important for studying biomechanics, or performance psychology, and yes they are important for funding, government/country recognition (consider olympics), but they are lab rats. That's not supposed to be an insult... I mean, they are not gernalizable to the majority, to the public. The are a limited population who are more than likely already biased in some way (which is why they had the motivation, the athletic ability, maybe the money and time to become elite). They provide very little insight about the general public - most people don't have the time, money, or motivation not only to become elite at a sport, but in most cases even to engage in enough activity to meet canada's recommended amount for good health. From a conflic theory perspective, I would argue that the functionlist attitude of meritocracy has ignored the underdogs and dedicated too much time and money to the "elite". Maybe this is attitude contributes to health issues in society. Maybe people do not exercise enough because they don't see it as applicable to their life. Elite athlete's lives revolve around training, and goal setting, and finding ways to improve. This knowledge and could be utilized by the general public to employ life improvement strategies that are fed to elite athlete on silver spoons. Why not invest the time and resources into the greater population and equally benefit society?? Why are strategies to improve elite performance crammed into our brains yet there are few ooportunities to apply this knowledge. Majority of the students will be working with the general public anyways... why not focus on strategies to help the everyday person?
A small aside about my practicum and how it relates to my discussion above. Unfortunately I can't give out too many details but I can say that although the majority of the technology and programs available or underdevelopment are geared toward... guess who!! the elite athletes, I was inspired to think of ways that it can be modifyed and used by "real" people. I can't believe how much I learned already about technology and how it can be applied to the world of sport... or in my case instructors...
If you haven't already figured it out (or know already), conflict theory suggests that inequalities in society should be adressed and changed for the betterment of society. They are the antagonists to functionalists (who don't want change, and believe things are as they should be even if it promotes inequalities). While I might be a functionalist when it comes to the workplace (jobs and careers) I am a conflictionist when it comes to health and opportunities.
Random thought (as though this wasn't long enough): today I watched a presentation on some nutrition research currently being done with obesity in rats. I find it hard to come up with good questions for researchers and all I could think of while I looked at the picture of the really fat rat was "wouldn't it be funny to see him dancing... should i ask if that rat likes to dance?" I wonder what kind of weird look I would've received if I asked that as though it was a very serious question.... *insert laughing to myself here...*
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