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Abstract This study examines sports and physical activities among Chinese aged 18–65, using network analysis on a significant random sample. It categorizes sports into 11 groups based on public selection, with a community detection algorithm aiding classification. Variables like age, gender, and education were integrated, revealing how life stages, gender disparities, and social class influence activity participation. The mixed graph model shows both positive and negative correlations among activities, highlighting the role of sports as both a social integrator and divider, reflective of broader societal norms and inequalities. The exponential random graph model further illustrates a complex network of demographic-driven participation patterns. The purpose of this investigation is twofold: to advance methodological approaches in the study of sports-related social networks and to explore the broader implications such networks may have on individual and collective behaviors within this field.

Literary Works such as novels and stories depict a fictional world designed by creative writers. Reality, aestheticized by literary arts, appears in the text as “literary reality”. However, even Works woven with imagination and fantastic elements offer clues about the facts of the society in which they exist. “Humor” is a branch of literature that, with its irony-laden language, can undertake criticism of the social structure and system when appropriate, as an expression of the society it is in. As an opposition intellectual and humorist, Aziz Nesin criticized “modern sports”, an element of social structure, in his texts with his perspective of humor for the benefit of the public. In this study, it was aimed to analyze the author’s novel “King of Goals” from a sociological perspective. Rather than an understanding of analysis that takes into account text-related elements such as style, narrative elements, form and aesthetics; the “Sociology of Literature” method which focuses on penetrating the realities of society through fictional text has been adopted. In this context, the approach that took into account the “Literary Map”-“Objective Map” comparison suggested by Ömer Naci Soykan and the message of the novel was applied. In the novel the distorted understanding of sports is depicted and a sports system that is not beneficial to society is criticized. The corrupt relations network around the main characters, the heiress Sait Sarıoğlu and the tabloid figure Kerkenez Sevim and the intrigues in the football world are revealed in an ironic manner. The phenomena such as playful club managers, sloppy reporting and manipulatiin in the sports press, football-politics relationship, and match-fixing are a product of macro social system. Millions of people who make up the society watch and talk about sports rather than doing it for fitness, health and strengthening. Rather than focusing on the real country’s problems, the negative situations and people in a society where everyone from age to age are fascinated by sports pages and are addicted to football are portrayed. In the final analysis, it can be said that the work criticizes society through football.

The modern world and Russia in particular is characterized by intensive migration processes. Ethnic, socio-cultural, religious conflicts and migrant-phobia are spreading in the countries that receive migrants. This requires a search for new means and mechanisms for the adaptation and integration of migrants, as well as the prevention of migrant phobia among the local population. The aim of the study is to give a sociological description of migrantophobia in Russia and substantiate the potential of the social values of the sports movement in its prevention. The content of the research is based on: 1) the analysis of bibliographic sources on the topic of the article; 2) a secondary analysis of sociological research on the perception of migrants and migrant phobia. Sociological studies demonstrate a downward trend in the level of migrantophobia in the Russian society, however, there is a need for new ways of preventing it. It has been concluded that sport as a social institution and such social values of sport as activity, self-realization, communication, respect, friendship, tolerance can play a significant role in the adaptation and integration of migrants, as well as in prevention of migrant phobia among the local population. Interpretations of the social functions of sports in relation to migrants have been given. The macro-, meso- and micro factors of the involvement of migrants in sports have been indicated.

In recent years, the importance of sports in Russia has increased dramatically, which is determined primarily by the country’s hosting international sport events, in particular, the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup 2018. The influence of sports on social processes has increased, sports began to strengthen its position in public opinion as a prestigious sphere of employment and an important social category [24. P. 60]. Thus, there is an obvious need to identify the relationship of physical culture with society as a whole and with all elements of the social structure and specific social institutions. The article examines the origins and prerequisites for the formation of sociology of sport as a relatively independent scientific discipline; presents the issues of sports sociology in the historical perspective - in the context of both their social genesis and contemporary sociological theories; considers the social role and social functions of sport education and sports. The authors believe that the differentiated social distribution of sports practices is determined by the interconnections of the space of possible practices (supply) and the space of demand for certain practices. In the article, the well-known foreign scientists are presented in the new perspective - as sociologists who provided for both Russian and foreign authors the incentive and direction for theoretical studies of sports issues. The article also presents to Russian readers the original studies on sociology of sports conducted by famous scientists - Norbert Elias, Eric Dunning, Anna Ingram, Georges Hébert, etc.

Globalization has been researched and explained a lot over the past two decades and the sociology of sport has contributed a lot to it as the sport has been a highly important driver of globalization processes, for example through the mega-events such as the Olympics that have worldwide television audiences. As the sociologist Roland Robertson said, globalization ‘refers both to the comprehension of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole’. It was the same sociologist that added that globalization is a multi-faceted process featuring various cultural, social, political and economic dimensions. He emphasized that ‘local’ and ‘global’ are not in opposition to each other, but interdependent. Global sport can be discussed from political-economic points of view, as well as from socio-cultural aspects.

In an exploration of aspects of soccer and nation in Brazil, the article demonstrates how soccer serves to organize and classify reality by dividing the world into clan-teams. Approaching soccer as more than a metaphor, the article analyzes soccer teams as clans that are parts of a specific universe, where people are divided according to their support for a given team. As a system for classifying reality within people's day-to-day lives, this universe brings people together and transforms vertical relationships into horizontal ones. Lastly, the article analyzes the relation between this type of classification and the construction of the Brazilian nation. The main purpose is to propose new issues and approaches pertinent to a sociological reading of Brazilian soccer.