Why is sport so important in Australia?

Sport is an important social institution in Australia and the values that are deemed most important in Australian society are reflected in sport in Australia. Any meaning and value that is placed on sport in Australia is socially constructed, and reflect the core societal values, which are generally linked to what it means to be Australian. Power is a feature of all social relations, and the dominant group will use the values that are important in society, as a way of maintaining their hegemony. The dominant group will change as society changes.

Sport is an important social institution in Australia that permeates through all sectors of Australian society. In any sport interactions, when there is engagement with other individuals, there will be a degree of regulation or authority, a controlling structure or body that determines the rules of the game, so to speak. In this way, sport can be considered to be like any other social institution.

And like other social or cultural practices, it should be placed into the context of the society in which it occurs (Mewett, 2003: 446). If sport can be said to mirror society, then it will provide a means of understanding the core values in society, and in turn, the core values placed on sport.

The sociologist Max Weber said that societies are constructed by the human beings living in that society (Weber 1938 cited in Sage: 4-5), meaning any value that is placed on sport in Australia is socially constructed. Weber’s theory rests on the assumption that there are no ideas independent of human existence (Sage, 1990: 4).

The importance that is placed on sport in Australia is socially constructed and articulated by the dominant group in society to represent their version of ‘social reality’, thereby expressing it as part of the national identity (Sage, 1990: 21).

Thus, allowing the dominant group in society to legitimise their hegemony. While the dominant group in society will change as society changes (McGregor, 2003: 144), those at the top of the power structure will generally have more power, wealth, possessions, opportunities and more control over their lives than those at the bottom” (McGregor, 2003: 144).

The importance placed on sport during the First World War was class divided, and was a mirror of the class divisions in society at the time. In 1914, there were two distinct views toward what importance should be placed on sport. The dominant group was the middle class, reflecting the hegemony of the middle class in society at the time (McKernan, 1979: 3)

The middle class wanted Australians to stop playing sport until the war was over, with the view that sport was a recreational pursuit and merely a good grounding for the more important things in life, an excellent moral and physical training ground for the “greater game”, which of course meant the war (McKernan, 1979: 2). To this end, they argued that sport was distracting Australians from the war. In their view, sport served a higher, rational purpose than mere entertainment (McKernan. 1979: 2).

The alternate view came from the working class, who held the view that sport was a profession that was primarily a form of entertainment and should not be taken too seriously. They rejected the suggestion that a few hours spent watching a game of football meant that it “induced apathy or indifference to higher struggles or duties” (McKernan,1979: 18). The implication by the middle class being that men who spent time watching sport should instead be fighting the war.

While the level of importance that each class placed on sport was determined by social and economical factors (Horne et al, 1999: 61) (and was also a reflection of the amateur/professional divide of sport at the time).

By 1917, the class conflict was breaking down social cohesiveness necessary for a civil society so, not unsurprisingly, the Prime Minister, W.M. Hughes, intervened and attempted to resolve the issue. In his May 1917 Budget, he said sporting matches should be halted during the war “in order to concentrate the minds of the people on the more serious aspect of war.” (McKernan, 1979: 15).

After waiting for the football finals to be completed, the Government placed restrictions on sport for the duration of the war, particularly the professional codes where large crowds of men would gather, in the hope of encouraging more men to enlist (McKernan, 1979: 14-15).

They didn’t enlist in great numbers, but the restrictions did promote a more cohesive social environment that kept society in check and so legitimated the government intervention. An important point is that the restrictions were delayed until after the football finals, which contradicted the governments’ reason for intervening in the first place.

During the years of the First World War, different class structures in Australia placed varying levels of importance on sport. And through legitimate government intervention, the dominant group in society maintained their hegemony through the restrictions that were placed on certain sports, those which entertained the masses.

In Australian society today, the dominant group has changed, reflecting the changes in society. Class is still an issue, but when it comes to the importance that is placed on sport, the government are the dominant group and are able to influence the importance of sport in Australian society, or at least use the significance of sport to maintain their hegemony.

In October 2005, the Minister for Small Business in Victoria issued a press release that stated the Victorian Government had decided to “delay” the end of day-light savings to coincide with the end of the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne (Haermeyer, 2005). The decision “makes things easier for businesses as it minimises any disruption or change during this exciting international event”. The government created certain conditions to benefit the state economically, the Games bringing in more tourists to the State.

By stating the delay of the end of daylight savings will accommodate international viewers and allow Australia to receive maximum international attention, this created a perceived importance around the Games and legitimised the Victorian Government’s desire to generate money into the Victorian economy, which is one of the features of a dominant group, to “preserve the basis of privilege and dominance” (Horne et al, 1999: 123).

Through placing a high level of importance onto sport, the dominant group are able to manipulate the values held in society to maintain their hegemony

Australians learn to conform to the social norms (Horne et al, 1999: 133) to fit into Australian society. They will adhere to the values they are told are distinctly Australian because they are so closely associated with what it means to be Australian; qualities like mateship, courage, teamwork, loyalty, leadership and physical prowess (Australian War Memorial, 2006) are part of Australia’s history. Therefore, the core values of Australian society are expected to be displayed during events of national significance like the Olympic Games by Australian athletes, and anything that does not fit this mould will be rejected as ‘un-Australian’.

In the 2004 Athens Olympics, rower Sally Robbins ‘stopped’ rowing during the final, ‘denying’ the Australian team a chance at a medal. She said her collapse was due to the extreme heat but she was vilified by much of the media and the public (Radcliffe, 2004). BBC Sport called her action “very un-Australian” and that she had disappointed her “sport-mad country” (Radcliffe, 2004). The Australian newspaper compared her to the Australian ‘hero’ Grant Hackett saying “his was the definitive demonstration of heroism - he did everything it took to reach his goal” (Radcliffe, 2004).

The Melbourne Sun headline read “It's eight, mate, pull your weight” (Radcliffe, 2004) and the Sydney Morning Telegraph used the headline "Just Oarful" to demonstrate their views and ran a poll asking readers to vote on whether she had cost the team a medal (Radcliffe, 2004). The response from Australia’s Olympic chief John Coates was that "there have been breaches of our team guidelines which say team members shouldn't talk disparagingly about other team members” (Radcliffe, 2004).

Importantly, the Australian Prime Minister John Howard said “I wasn't there and I can understand the passion and the emotion and the effort that goes into these things and the sense of disappointment people feel - but I'm not taking sides” (Radcliffe, 2004). It is normal for a politician to distance themselves from a controversy that does not involve the government, but his comment can be compared to the situation in 1917, where the Government of the day will intervene as little as possible, particularly when the controversy involves the matter of sport.

This example highlights sport reflecting the wider community, where Australians will judge other Australians by their actions on the sporting field. To this end, many in the Australian community placed more importance on Australian winning another medal than on the welfare of a fellow Australian, with a poll in the Sydney Morning Herald revealing that only 27% of respondents though that she was treated unfairly (Sydney Morning Herald, 2004).

Sport is an important social institution in Australia and the values that are deemed most important in Australian society are reflected in sport in Australia. The value and importance that is placed on sport in Australia is socially constructed, and reflect the core societal values, which are generally linked to what it means to be Australian. They are linked with Australian history, and any move away from these values will be rejected by society. While the dominant group in Australian society has changed as society changes, power remains a feature of all social relations; and the dominant group in society will use these values of Australians is a means of maintaining their hegemony.


Bibliography

Haermeyer, André (2005) Media Releases, Victorian Government, The Minister for Small Business, Daylight Savings Shines on Commonwealth Games, 27/10/05

http://www.dpc.vic.gov.au/domino/Web_Notes/newmedia.nsf/955cbeae7df9460dca256c8c00152d2b/1e1c9b49ed5429e8ca2570a800047eb6!OpenDocument

Horne, John; Tomlinson, Alan & Whannel, Garry (1999) Understanding Sport – An Introduction to the Sociological and Cultural Analysis of Sport, London: E & FN Spon.

McGregor, Craig (2003) Class in Ray Jureidini & Marilyn Poole (eds), Sociology: Australian Connections, Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin, pp 141-157.

McKernan, Michael (1979) Sport, War and Society: Australia 1914-18.In Cashman Richard & McKernan Michael (Eds). Sport in History: The Making of Modern Sporting History. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press

Mewett, Peter (2003) Sport in Ray Jureidini & Marilyn Poole (eds), Sociology: Australian Connections, Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin, pp 443-467.

Radcliffe, Paula (2004) BBC Sport online, Olympics 2004, Rower Suffers Aussie Backlash, 25/8/04

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics_2004/rowing/3597914.stm

Sage, George (1990) Power and Ideology in American Sport -A Critical Perspective, United States: Human Kinetics Books:

Sydney Morning Herald (2004) Athens 2004 Polls, Rowing controversy : Has Sally Robbins been treated unfairly? http://www.smh.com.au/polls/athens/form.html

Australian War Memorial (2006) Special Exhibitions Gallery, Sport and War. http://www.awm.gov.au/