Structuralism is a philosophy that views society as composed of structures such as class and race that shape our lives, making it challenging for all individuals to have access to equal opportunities. Thus, it is focuses on exposing these structures and investigating power -- who has it and who doesn’t -- and what we can do to change this, often by way of advocacy, actions, and campaigns, and striving for social change (J. Poole, personal communication, September 13, 2017).
Coach Carter is a sports drama based on a real life experience of a former Richmond High alumni and basketball coach, Ken Carter, who became known in 1999 for benching his undefeated basketball team, due to poor academic standing (Watch Coach Carter, n.d.). It is through this film I will illustrate my understanding of structuralism, with a special focus on the “lockout” that occurs, as it demonstrates power imbalances addressed by advocacy and social action (Watch Coach Carter, n.d.).
In the film, Coach Carter initiates a lockout after learning some members of his team failed to uphold the academic requirements mutually agreed to between the Coach and the players in a signed contract (Watch Coach Carter, n.d.). In place of practice, the players were confronted by a sign on the gym door asking that they meet the Coach in the library (Watch Coach Carter, n.d.). Going forward, practices were cancelled and the team was forced to forfeit games they demonstrated an improvement in their grades (Watch Coach
If states are the laboratories of democracy, then sports are the arena in which it is tested. This book serves as a review of racial integration and the changing dynamics in sports from 1890 - 1980. Charles Martin aims for the reader to understand why it was common place for white southerners to compete against “non-black” ethnic minorities (E.G. Native Americans, Chinese), but an issue when even a single African American was on an opposing team. Benching Jim Crow explains to the reader that the persistence of segregation lay with overarching cultural mentalities left over from the Civil War, but shifts in position came from external (financial), and internal (students and players). Though offering little insight into the legal and political impacts of Jim Crow itself, Martin paints a detailed, but redundant, narrative of the rise and fall of Jim Crow in athletics.
According to the film, Hickory, Indiana is a place where “basketball players are treated like gods”. The town takes basketball very seriously, it is literally a way of life for them. The Hickory Huskers may not be the best team in the area, but the community is very supportive of the team. Every week the whole town comes together for the games to cheer on the Hickory Huskers and the townspeople have meeting to try coming up with solutions to help better their performance. However, the towns approach is aggressive and their strategies to win are different from Coach Dales. For example, a group of men from the town barge into one of the team’s practices and criticize Coach Dale that they should be practicing with the ball instead of doing strength exercises. Coach Dale believed that for the team to improve he needed to
Structural Functionalism is defined as, “a society which is a whole unit made up of interrelated parts that work together” and “ its society as a living organism/ machine that has multiple organs and parts and people to fulfill their individual functions; working together to make it happen ” (Henslin 2015, Smith 2017).
Structural functionalism is based on the thought that society operates with the expectation of everyone serves a purpose. In order to operate effectively, each individual has a function that provides a role that others are dependent on. The responsibility of society is shared by the involvement of all institutions. Poverty in society is view by functionalists as purposeful. It provides society with jobs as social service providers. The social service providers are dependent on various institutions to provide the necessary sufficiency to sustain their role in society. This revolving dependence is crucial to structural functionalism.
There has been a lot of controversy on whether colleges should be paying the paying their athletes. Brian Frederick, a board member of Sports Fan Coalition and an adjunct professor for Georgetown University’s Sport Industry Management Program, believes colleges have a broken system when it comes to athletes. Frederick’s contemptuous tone discredits sports fan, who believe college athletes already get paid enough with their education, by stating “If a student athlete is hurt or unsuccessful, the coaches and administrators suddenly discard the noble ideals of “education” and a player is left with nothing.” With the use of metaphors and similes, Frederick convinces sport fans to take action and make the calls in order to continue college athletics
Structure and agency are two theoretical terms used to explain the capacity at which we as people are able to be individuals, and to what extent those influences limit our individuality. Structure refers to the ways in which a society is organized. Agency refers to the behaviors and actions of the individuals within the social structure. Agency is limited by the structure due to cultural barriers and inequalities within the structure. In this essay, I will present an overview of why critical theorists are concerned with those inequalities, and I will further identify the problems within the system contributing to the unequal access to the public sphere, relating specifically to class and gender inequalities.
He required every one of his athlete’s to sign a contract stating that they are only allowed to participate in the games if they attend all their practices and classes, maintain a 2.5 GPA, dress up for all games, and treat him, along with all of the other players, with the utmost respect. Carter used a variety of different techniques to lead and motivate his undefeated team to the state championships. As this important game was approaching, Carter noticed most of his athletes were violating their contracts by not attended classes and not maintaining the grades they were required to. He then took
Structural functionalism is a macro level approach to study sociology (Browning, 2015). Structural functionalists believe social consensus is what holds society together; social consensus being a condition in which most members of the society agree on what would be good for everyone. Structural functionalists view society as a web of social structures, each structure being functional to fulfill it’s own needs, but dependent on all other structures for survival (Vago, 2012).
For the first time, blacks and whites were going to be on the same football team. And not only that, the school board assigned a black coach, Coach Herman Boone, forcing the previous white coach, Coach Yoast, in his “hall of fame” season, to move down to defensive coordinator. The Titans were a good football team before Coach Boone came on the scene; they had 15 winning seasons in a row, and had won a regional championship in Virginia. But Coach Boone established high goals for the team hoping to transform this group divided by racial tension, into a cohesive state championship team. The director, Boaz Yakin, uses the competitive nature found in sports to engage the characters in relationships and conflicts.
Coach Carter made a contract to be signed by the team and the parents. It is about maintaining their grades to 2.3 GPA, attending all the classes, and sitting the first row of the class. But Coach Carter found out that team is forgetting about the agreement they had. That is why he decided to lock up the gym. He wants the boys to realize the importance of going to college.
Coach Ken Carter takes a job to coach the Richmond High School basketball team, where he makes his players sign a contract stating they will maintain an average of a C, attend all their classes and sit in the front row, and wear a tie to every game. Carter cancels every game and practice until his players improve their academic results. Coach Carter is a determined leader that strives to improve the social and academic lives of his players. Richmond High School is in an inner city, it has the lowest rating in academic performance and the students have a 50% graduation rate. Coach Carter immediately demands his players to mutually refer to him as “Sir”, to teach them about mutual respect.
Structural Functionalism aims to understand society in an objective way. It views society as an entity that is “objectively real”. It emphasizes the unity of society, and how individuals perform roles and how these roles are vital in meeting the needs of the collective whole. For instance, because every society has stratification, stratification must have certain functions and these functions can contribute to the survival of the social system as a whole. Furthermore, structural
Basically, Structuralism was firstly set up in Europe by Ferdinand de Saussure, a structural linguist. It is a kind of methodology which discusses hat elements of human culture must be understood in terms of their relationship to a larger, overarching system or structure. It works to uncover the structures that underlie all the things that humans do, think, perceive, and feel. In fact, structuralism is aimed to find the inner structure logic behind millions of words. In literary, structuralism the narrative dimension of literary texts because Structuralism Criticism deals mainly with narrative.(Tyson, 219)
Coach Carter is a 2005 movie which was based upon a true story. The movie underlines the social structure and stratification of life in the American ghetto. The theme of the movie is the outcome of such societal boundaries on this group of students who play basketball; how it outlines their life, affects their social life and also their life goals. The movie depicts a Structural-functionalist of society
Structural Functionalism is “A major sociological perspective that views society as an interdependent system of parts (structures) and purposes (functions) that work together to make a society operate (Larkin, 2015)”. In order for a society to work all parts of the same society must work together. In structural functionalism society nearly depends on one another to stay afloat. If Something changes it can causes a disruption in society and begins to make things become unbalanced. Functionalism focuses on many groups that make up society, for example Government, Judiciary, and religion are some of the key groups that benefits in society strengthening their social relationships and the very world humans live in.