ABSTRACT
Sport is both produced by and reproduces the social processes of the wider society. In acquisitive capitalist societies, cheating is common, so it is to be expected that cheating will occur in sport. This chapter uses sociology to explore the circular relationship between sport and society, showing how sports are socially constructed and how they in turn reproduce aspects of the wider society. Content analysis involves a detailed analysis of textual sources, such as newspapers, to examine the construction of imagery about sporting personalities and events. Just as social class, gender, and age are significant to social relations in the wider society and affect sports’ participation, so race and ethnicity also have an impact. Although success in the Olympics was taken to extremes by the former East Germany, with its medically supervised, state-sponsored doping of athletes, the Games are used as a benchmark of a nation’s vitality.
