British Sport (1940 - Today)
- An improved standard of living has enabled greater participation in sport for most social groups
- Amateur administrators only reluctantly allowed commercial forces to enter the world of sport
- Professional sportspeople had a long battle to be given fair rewards
- Television coverage increased in importance for sport and the sponsors
- The definition of amateurism for competition was replaced by the concept of eligibility
- Central government involvement in sport has always been fragmentary
- There has been a long standing under funding of sport by central government
- An advisory Sports Council was established in 1965 and the independent executive Sports Council in 1972
- Physical education was established in the 1944 Act for its educational value
- The movement approach conflicted with traditional games teaching
- Physical education moved away from educational values towards physical recreation and more recently towards health-related fitness
- Various academic qualifications in physical education stimulated scrutiny of the subject (for example, BEd, CSE, GCSE, A-Level)
- Physical education is now established in the national curriculum as a foundation subject
Pre Industrial Sport
Medieval England
From round about 1066 to 1485 in the Middle Ages. Most of Britain’s population lived in rural areas. Around this time third was a growing towns life. These people had city jobs such as lawyers and doctors. Society was split into 3 social groups lower, middle and upper class. Sport during this time was also split down class lines. The lower class would play rough folk games such as football. The middle class had archery and crossbow tournaments and the upper class had their tournaments. Sport did not have class barriers in spectating.
Tudor and Stuart periods
After the end of the middle ages and the beginning of the periods of the Tudor Stuarts reign Britain was still was still a rural society with London the only city. Most of the population’s income was from farming. Society was becoming more commercial as feudal lords had different more commercial sources of income. Sport was still class split. Upper class participated in sports such as hunting on their private land, hawking and jousting. The lower class serviced sport for the upper class and still had their own forms of violent sports such as mob football and battling animals in which to channel their energy. Both sets of classes used sport to help their combat skills.
Hanoverian period
During this phase Britain became more urban people began earning money different and people moved from the countryside to cramped urban living, this resulted in decrease in farming goods and an increase in consumer goods. Sports for the lower class decreased due to less time to play.
The Industrial Revolution (18th 19th Century)
The working class endured the roughest deal. For them the term meritocracy never existed. They had no time or money to be involved in sports or leisure activities, and therefore tended only to enjoy sport at festivals and one offs. The games they played were a complete contrast to the upper classes, they has no organisation or codification and were violent and aggressive.
From the mid 18th century the English economy underwent a vast transformation. It had been based on agriculture. The workers had a lot of work to do and were busy planting and harvesting. But had longer periods of free time in this period of time. This gave them time to enjoy leisure activities. The industrial revolution was the time of development of factories producing a wide range of consumer goods. Factories had workers doing longer hours (7am to 7pm and night shift). They attracted a lot of their workers from the countryside which they thought increase their living standard through their higher wages they had to work longer hours which decreased their leisure time, they also lived in worse housing conditions. Leisure activities were a problem for factory owners because they involved excessive drinking (caused hangovers), violent sports (caused injuries) and gambling, which undermined work ethic. So leisure obviously affected factories negatively. This led to the factory owners supporting middle class efforts to clean up society and introduce new forms of morality. The made campaigns against the leisure activities taking place and impose work ethic on the working class this was to improve their behaviour.
The agriculture industry also went on revolution with the scope of quantity production increasing. This meant that the population of England became better fed, healthier and had more energy for work. The upper class forces contributed to changes in traditional sports because their working demands made them have less time and energy to play aggressive violent sports. Religious reformers supported these demands and sport was eventually banned on the Sabbath. The RSPCA put pressure on authorities to ban sport-involving cruelty to animals. The Industrial Revolution led t a growth in the size of towns and cities and a reduction in space for recreation. Folk football, which was played in the countryside, was not appropriate for urban culture and slowly disappeared.
The sports for leisure and middle class were still popular continued throughout pre industrial forms. The 1830s to 1840s saw improvements for the working class this cause the development of railways led to them being able to travel to the countryside. This benefited sports such as cricket and horse racing (they were able to watch). Also we saw improvements in wages, which increase spending power and improvements in living standards, which allowed money to spend on sports events.
In the 1860s saw the development of national agreed rules known as the codification of sport. In this time the factory owners changed their attitude. They promoted the benefits of sports they saw sport as a way of promoting values, which they thought, would make workers more productive (morals like teamwork). Groups such as muscular Christians took team sports to working class communities to teach the bible through sport to promote the idea of a healthy mind in a healthy body.
Sport was believed to still be a minority activity. However spectatorship and professionalism was growing in sports like cricket and football. Around 1851 urban population grew, working population grew and half day holidays was granted on Saturdays which led to sport being played and watched on Saturday afternoons and this is where the 3 o’clock kick off in football matches originated.
Post Industrial (19th Century)
The end of the period of industrialisation is generally seen as being around 1851 (post industrialisation period). Sport became structure and rule regulated.
Folk games had the following characteristics:
- Varied, informal activities
- Simple, unwritten rules which were verbally agreed
- Regional variation of rules and specification of equipment
- No fixed boundaries for territory or numbers of participants
- Strong social divisions in activities played
- Little difference in the roles of the players
- Little distinction between the roles of spectators and players
- High tolerance of the use of physical violence and no restraints on emotions
- Emphasis on physical force as opposed to skill
- Strong pressure from the community to participate
- Contests were only meaningful on a local level
Modern sports have the following characteristics:
- Highly specific, formalised activities
- Formal and elaborate rules worked out by appointed bodies
- National and international guidelines for standardisation of rules and equipment
- Played on pitches with marked boundaries and specific numbers of players on each side.
- Less evidence of social differences between players
- Strict distinction between the roles of playing and spectating
- Low levels of violence tolerated and high restraints of emotion expected
- Emphasis on skill rather than on physical force
- Activities are freely chosen
- Contests have local, national and international significance.
The development of modern sports led a need to develop rules and have the put into force with officials and administrators. The key features of modern sports were the development of governing bodies of sport to fulfil these and other functions.
The Football association (FA) was formed in1863; Rugby football Union was formed in 1871. The jobs of these associations was to implement rules of the handling of their games
Twentieth Century Development
Globalisation of sport
Forms of sport being played in England in the late nineteenth century quickly spread around the world through mainly the influences of the British Empire. (Soldiers played sports in the countries they were stationed in). By the end of the nineteen-century the Olympic movement under the influence of the French was finding its feet and getting more and more nations involved. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century the IAAF (international amateur athletic federation), with 184 member countries, FIFA (federation international football association) 178 countries members, IOC (International Olympic committee) had 171 country members.
Professionalism
The increasing playing demand of sports such as rugby, football and cricket meant that players had to devote increasing amounts of time and energy to their sports. By the end of the 19th century these sports had professional players. As the standards raised payments to compensate for wages they would have otherwise earned. Professionalism was initially looked down upon because upper classes thought sport should be played purely for enjoyment. There was class divides, which remained until the latter part of the 20th century between upper class amateurs and working class professional. In the latter part of the 20th century professionalism was accepted part of all sports and necessary to uphold high standards of play demanded by sophisticated audiences.
Development of sports as a profitable
As sports became more professional their expenditure increased. As a result their had to increase the amount of money coming into sport to pay for these expenses. Sports and their clubs increased sought sponsorship as sources for income also they tried to make sport more attractive and increase the number of spectators coming to matches. As sports became more watched it drew attention to the media this opened up new sources and funding to sports and increased profit.
Development of sport in education
The key element in sport in education was in 1944 education as, which made it policy for for local authorities to provide adequate facilities for the teaching of physical education. It made sports and PE compulsory to children’s education and its now a key feature in the national curriculum.
Inequalities in the 20th Century
The making of modern sports has been a predominantly masculine narrative, with women marginalized or disenfranchised at most stages of the narrative. Women's involvement in cricket too, was marginalized early on, and Sandiford (1994) notes that cricket was seen as too much a 'manly sport for women to particpate.even for the tennis and hockey playing women students at the universities of Cambridge and Oxford in the late nineteenth century. It was not until 1926 that the British Women's Cricket Association was founded, that participation of 16-18 year females began, this suggested that sports was still strongly sex typed. This enforces inequalities in society as people have images and expectations to live up to, or risk being ridiculed.
This merely confirms the class and 'race' inequalities established in Britain in the early 20th century.
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Class, gender and 'race' are all inter-linked; they overlap and share some similar issues. It is clear from studies in inequality in society, that financial, 'racial' and sex typing have influenced British sport for many years. Although the introduction of the national curriculum in 1991 saw one of the first major attempts to reduce inequality; no separation between class, gender or race, with everyone participating in the same activities with the same opportunities. However, private schools are exempt from the national curriculum and thus are geared to more affluent games, reinforcing the polarisation of the classes.
While Gruneau argued that mass participation in sport during the second half of the twentieth century has meant that class inequality in sport has apparently declined and there is now a leisure mass instead of a leisure class". Ruling class ideology is still evident today and although there have been attempts to reduce its effects, people are still influenced. The prevention or reduction of inequality is a large and important issue. Attempts by the women's liberation groups and the government to establish schemes that allow access to equipment for all - 1997 “Sport for All campaign.” However, strong inequalities still exist in the form of oppression by the ruling classes, stereotyping of women and 'racial' discrimination. But it has come a long way and continues to improve.
Reference
Advanced Studies in Physical Education and Sport Author: Paul Beashel and John Taylor
Bitec National Sport and Exercise Science Author Jan Stafford Simon Rea and John Chance
Class notes
The Sports Process. A Comparative and Developmental Approach