Sport and Identity Formation

Sport and Identity Formation Sport and Identity: Essay Proposal How Does Rugby Union Shape And Reflect Identity In Northern Ireland? Despite the increased interest and understanding of identity, the concept itself remains something of an enigma (Fearon, 1991, cited in Hooti Mahmoudi, 2013). The meaning of identity as we now use it, is not well captured by dictionary definitions. Our present idea of identity is a recent social construct, and a rather complicated one. Even though everyone knows how to use the word properly in everyday discourse, it proves quite difficult to give a short and adequate summary statement that captures the range of its present meanings (Gleason, 1983, pp. 910-930). A short definition by Hogg and Abrams (1988) state that identity is peoples concepts of who they are, of what sort of people they are, and how they relate to others (p.2), and when a set of people who hold a common social identification are categorised together they form a social group. These groups of collective identities can be constructed around many forms and circumstances, for example, nationality, race, gender, sexuali ty, religion and many more. Woodward (1997) adds to this by suggesting that Identity marks the ways in which we are the same as others à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ and the way in which we are different. Often identity is most clearly defined by difference (Woodward, 1997, pp. 1-2).   When analysing the definition, its clear that Hogg and Abrams as well as Woodward are only talking about people. Other authors (Elliott, 2007; Mead and Morris, 1934) suggest that objects and symbols can also be used to express and forge a sense of self. This further demonstrates the complexity of defining identity. Identity in the context of sport can unify and/or divide. It can show common ground or expose differences. Sport can be used as a tool to show how people see themselves and how others see them. It is a potential platform for the construction and display of identity (Maguire, Jarvie, Mansfield, Bradley, 2002). One example for the display of an identity through sport is national identity. If the concept of nations being an imagined community (Anderson, 2006) is accepted, then Bairner states that Sporting competition arguably provides the primary expression of imagined communities with the nation appearing more real in the domain of sport (Bairner, 2005, p. 105). It is around the subject of national identity that I will form my topic of research for the essay. I want to explore the ways in which Rugby Union helps to shape and reflect national identity in Northern Ireland, a county divided for many decades by two main ideologies. The first is the, mainly protestant, unionist ideology. P eople who follow this ideology believe that Northern Ireland, part of Great Britain, should continue some form of political union with Great Britain and thus, view themselves as British. The second, mainly catholic, nationalist ideology is opposed to such a union and favours a unified Ireland, and thus, view themselves as Irish'(Cronin,1999, p. 143-146). Then there are people who consider themselves as Northern Irish. They are either politically neutral or take on a mixture of beliefs from both sides of the community so I will have to consider this during the essay. I want to explore this looking solely at Rugby Union as it is unique and significant that the Irish national team compete as a united nation against Scotland, Wales and England and, as such, have a large nationalist following in Northern Ireland. In contrast, the Ulster Rugby Union side that also incorporates counties from both sides of the border has a large unionist following in Northern Ireland. The academic rationale for my choice of topic is that it is only in the last decade that a more heterogeneous approach to identity construction in this subject area generally has been acknowledged and followed (Hassan, 2002). There isnt a lot of research on how Rugby Union shapes and reflects identity in Northern Ireland but there are sections of research by other academics and authors which will be useful. The concepts of identity will allow me to explore this sectarian divide and understand how both sides of the community can use Rugby Union to display which side of the ideological line they stand on and/or if it can also be used as a tool to unite the conflicting sides of the community. The topic, with its deep historical and political complexity, will also allow me to further explain identity as a socio-logical concept that is ever changing, fluid and complicated. To do this I will use the Identity and Difference theory by Woodward (1997). The reason for this is that my topic will mainly focus on two main nationalities and ideologies. People with the same nationality and ideology share a sense of geographic space, beliefs, and history with other members of that community, whilst excluding those who do not belong. Difference is central to the shaping of many collective identities and is often used as an active form of social exclusion, particularly when political problems between groups occurs (Woodward, 1997). One could argue that for some people in Northern Ireland being Protestant, unionist or British can be defined as much by not being Catholic, nationalist, or Irish. Other forms of identity could also be explored in the final piece to further explain the topic. Looking at another form of identity could allow a better understanding or explanation of a range of things related to the topic, for example, social class to expand on the historical context. In terms of social interaction, the middle classes were more integrated than the working classes and the rise of the Irish middle class, in part a response to political developments in Northern Ireland, inevitably led to Catholics being socialised into rugby (Hassan, 2002). Other forms of identity include race, religion, sexuality, profession, age, gender and many more. With every form of identity that is explored, better understanding and a more in-depth knowledge can be attained. I will also have to read up on some relavant secondary research, particularly the books and studies of Cronin (1999), Woodward (1997) and Bairner (2005) in preparation for the final piece. References Anderson, B. O. R. (2006). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. New York: Verso Books. Bairner, A. (2005). Sport and the Irish: Histories, identities, issues. Dublin: University College Dublin Press. Cronin, M. G. (1999). Sport and nationalism in Ireland: Gaelic games, soccer and Irish identity since 1884. Dublin: Four Courts Press. Elliott, A. (2007). Concepts of the self. Cambridge: Polity Press. Gleason, P. (1983). Identifying identity: A semantic history. The Journal of American History, 69(4), 910. doi:10.2307/1901196 Harris, J., Parker, A. (Eds.). (2009). Sport and social identities. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. Hassan, D. (2002). A people apart: Soccer, identity and Irish Nationalists in Northern Ireland. Soccer Society, 3(3), 65-83. doi:10.1080/714004886 Hogg, M. A., Abrams, D. (1988). Social identifications: A social psychology of intergroup relations and group processes. New York: Routledge. Hooti, N., Mahmoudi, Y. (2013). Identity Discordianism under the trepidation and duplicity of human essence: A trenchant investigation on Luigi Pirandellos war. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 3(7), . doi:10.4304/tpls.3.7.1209-1213 Maguire, J. A., Jarvie, G., Mansfield, L., Bradley, J. (2002). Sport worlds: A sociological perspective. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics Publishers. Mead, G. H. H., Morris, C. W. (1934). Mind, self, and society; from the standpoint of a social behaviorist (17th ed.). Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago press. Woodward, K. (1997). Identity and difference. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage in association with the Open University.

The Nature of Social Theory

Motivating employees to give feedback on goals, objectives and operations of the organization. Developing a worker-advising program that provides ideas for motivating the workforce. Developing tutorial and training programs through dialogue, information sharing and feedback. We discuss the nature of social theory throughout this paper. Here, we simply note its foundational assumption that ‘there is potential for mischief when the interests of owners and 1 For example, many of the criticisms of appraisal interviews focus on the perceptual biases that people bring to them. These include the halo error, the crony effect, the doppelganger effect and the Veblen effect. They are discussed by (Grint, 1993) and (Roberson et al 2007), among many others. We do not suggest that these problems can be explained primarily by the influence of agency theory. 3 those of managers diverge. In those circumstances†¦ managers may be able to extract higher rents than would otherwise be accorded them by owners of the firm' (Dalton,, 2007). As this paper focuses on two types of employees temporary and Permanent. An employment situation, where an employee is expected to remain in a position for a certain period of time. Temporary employees may have the opportunity to achieve permanent employment status after the time period has lapsed; Temporary workers may also be referred to as seasonal employees or temps. Employment term may be based on the completion of a project, the availability of funding, or other circumstances (Bloch, 1995). Many of the studies have different perceptions when defining of temporary employees. For example, temporary employees have been called as â€Å"flexible staffing employees† (Houseman, 2001), â€Å"contingent workers† (Blank, 1998), and â€Å"non-standard workers† (Kalleberg et al., 1997). A study by Feldman (1995) defines temporary employees as persons who are hired for a finite period on a needed basis. Polivka and Nardone (1989: 11) provided more understanding on defining temporary employees: they classified temporary employees as â€Å"individuals who do not have an explicit or implicit contract for long-term employment or have one in which the minimum hours of work can different in non-systematic way†. A permanent employee differs from a term or temporary employee, both of which have a pre-determined period of employment (Gallagher, 2002). Permanent employees, regular employees or the directly employed, work for an employer and are paid directly by that employer. Permanent (regular) employees do not have a predetermined end date to employment. In addition to their wages, they often receive benefits like subsidized health care, paid vacations, holidays, sick time, or contributions to a retirement plan. Permanent employees are often eligible to switch job positions within their companies. (Peck, 2000) Even when employment is â€Å"at will†, permanent employees of large companies are generally protected from abrupt job termination by severance policies, like advance notice in case of layoffs, or formal discipline procedures. They may be eligible to join a union, and may enjoy both social and financial benefits of their employment (Cranford, 2003) Social Exchange Theories According to De Cuyper et al. (2008), there is no available theoretical framework to check the effects of short term employment. ON the other side, general psychological theories offer a good starting point for the analyses, although these have mostly been developed against the scenery of the permanent employment relationship. These can be divided in two main groups: work stress models, and social comparison or social exchange theories. The social comparison theory (Festinger, 1954) is the idea that there is a drive within individuals to look to outside images in order to evaluate their own opinions and abilities. These images may be a reference to physical reality or in comparison to other people. People look to the images portrayed by others to be obtainable and realistic, and subsequently, make comparisons among themselves, others and the idealized images. In his initial theory, Festinger hypothesized several things. He indicated that humans are compelled to appraise themselves by probing their opinions and abilities in assessment of others. He further said that the inclination to evaluate oneself with some other specific other person decreases as the differentiation between his opinion or ability and the other's own become more deviating. He also hypothesized that there was an upward drive towards achieving greater abilities, but that there are non-social restraints which make it nearly impossible to change them, and that this was largely absent in opinions (Festinger, 1954). The individuals who are similar were better in generating accurate evaluations of abilities and opinions.Work stress models helps us to explain the consequences of short term employment by defining specific characteristics that make short term workers more vulnerable to suffer work related stress (see De Cuyper et al., 2008). There are three related variables. First, contractual employees are peripheral to the organization, meaning that they are not the main important concern of the employers regarding different aspects such as benefits, wages, promotion or further training. This thought is advanced in theories such as the Flexible Firm model (Atkinson, 1984, cited in Valverde et al., 2000) and the Dual Labour Market model. The resulting bad working conditions for the contractual employees can cause a consequence, a decrease in the worker's welfare and performance appraisal at the workplace (Rousseau & Libuser, 1997). Therefore contractual workers have fewer possibilities for deciding how to perform their work, to use specific skills or to make any other kind of decisions within the workplace (De Witte & Nà ¤swall, 2003). In addition, since contractual employees are new members of the organization, they have to understand processes and aspects of the organization growing another potential source of stress (see De Cuyper et al., 2008). The lack of support from partners, supervisors or even the coworkers (De Witte & Nà ¤swall, 2003) can also be a part of stress and strain to wellbeing. The third component is the lack of control that contractual employees experience regarding the demands of the employer (or employers)2.2 Gap AnalysisBuilt up conceptual model where two impacting components performance appraisal was the independent variable and perceived whereas the dependent variable was organization commitment. They have proposed that relationship of these influencing factors on is researched as empirically/quantitatively. They have utilized case study based approach to create this model. They have proposed that by utilizing the questionnaire on a Lickert Scale, data should be gathered and on the basis of the response from the respondents, results should be analyzed statistically so that the true outcome can be achieved. Research GapShockingly very little examination has been on performance appraisal politics and organizational commitment A little work is done to characterize connection among organizational commitment and performance appraisal politics but work is done on performance appraisal that incorporate fairness element (Linde, 2015). In fast changing environment and economy, performance appraisal is very essential component. Our studies can be conducted on other industries in Pakistan to explore the effects of PAP on OC that attract to understand the employment relationship (Arshad, Masood,Amin 2013). Surprisingly, very a few researches have been done study on how this performance appraisal effects on long term and short term employees. Early studies on performance appraisal were only directed towards the whole employees without focusing on segmentation of both the long and short term employees. 2.3. HypothesesH : Performance appraisal politics has insignificant impact on permanent employee's organizational commitment.H2 : Performance appraisal politics has insignificant impact on contractual employee's organizational commitment.

Knowledge Is A Complex, Time Consuming Process - 1371 Words

There are many definitions for knowledge. One common definition is â€Å"human faculty resulting from interpreted information; understanding that germinates from combination of data, information, experience, and individual interpretation (â€Å"Knowledge†).† Knowledge is gained when a person discovers new information; however, knowledge is more intricate and meaningful than plain information. Knowledge includes a variety of aspects such as: awareness, familiarity, understanding gained through experience or study, and results from making comparisons, identifying consequences, and making connections (â€Å"What is Knowledge?†). The production of knowledge is a complex, time consuming process. For knowledge to be produced, a person must first think of an idea, and then decide to further pursue it. Knowledge is produced by a person as a response to and as a reflection of one s own or others experiences, ideas, and information. Knowledge is relative to a social frame of reference, meaning that it is both social and personal, and both objective and subjective at the same time. Knowledge is a part of the process of daily life, yet it includes moments of detachment and reflection. It is both a belief and a potential for action. Knowledge aims for socialization and externalization. It grows and expands further by overcoming and incorporating the responses from external resources, and by undergoing the necessary modifications and improvements in itself. A person’s knowledge both influences and isShow MoreRelatedThe Importance Of Critical Thinking On College Education1030 Words   |  5 Pagespractices that test factual knowledge using papers and tests and providing feedback on the students work by commenting on a paper have been preferred modes of assessing students’ knowledge. However, post assignment feedback provided is of not much to students. 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