Sociology 90W Senior Seminar

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Although sport does have a strong presence with social cohesion, the counter argument could be made that sport isn’t cohesive, because groups tend to exclude others from the activity. Goodger (1986) argues that members who form their own clubs or teams tend to be homogenous by nature. From my observations of Marine Park, I have witnessed this homogeneity to a great extent. The softball players are all white males, and the spectators are white as well. The fact that these individuals are the only ones who play softball on a regular basis shows how exclusive softball is to other members of the park. Fine argues that teams develop a sense of their own culture by forming their own norms and values, therefore every group creates a culture of their own. Although there isn’t a private softball club, it’s evident that these group of individuals have informally established their own group, which is exclusive to others, who are perhaps not white. This argument leads to the fact that cohesion is only limited to certain separate groups of the park community as opposed to the community as a whole. Another evidence is the bocce ball club. The bocce ball club was established in 1997, and it’s the only established club in Marine Park. There’s a limited amount of space reserved for the bocce ball club, but from my experience the bocce ball members are white. Although the club doesn’t have a rule excluding non-whites, it’s reinforced when the participants are homogenous. The bocce ball members established their own norms and values by creating their own rules of behavior, evident by the bocce ball courtesy rules.