Pursuit of Knowledge in Sociology of Sport: Issues and Prospects.

Early linkages between physical education, sociology, and sport sociology are set in the American 1960s context of increased focus on the discipline of physical education, expansion of higher education, and fragmentation of knowledge. In the last 20 years sport sociology has become a subfield of both physical education and sociology. Positivist and descriptive/sensitizing perspectives of the nature of knowledge—two paradigms used by sport sociologists—are compared and contrasted. In sociology there continues to be considerable debate between proponents of these two orientations, while in physical education the positivist tradition has been espoused almost exclusively. Much American social research is positivist in nature, and this, coupled with the strong physical education positivist tradition, has tended to guide sport sociologists in this direction. But interdisciplinary sport studies perspectives that have evolved out of the descriptive/sensitizing paradigm and draw on a wide range of the social sciences and humanities are currently becoming more popular in sociology and sport sociology. Sport sociology can make important broadening and humanizing contributions to physical education curricula, most of which are very technically and/or professionally oriented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]