Editing Sociology of sport (section)

===Neo-Marxism===
[[Karl Marx]] saw sports as rooted in its economic context, subject to [[commodification]] and [[Social alienation|alienation]]. [[Neo-Marxism]] sees sport as an ideological tool of the [[bourgeoisie]], used to deceive the masses, in order to maintain control. As laborers, athletes give up their [[labour power]], and suffer the same fate as the alienated worker.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brohm |first1=Jean-Marie |title=Sport: A Prison Of Measured Time: Essays |year=1978 |page=105 |publisher=Pluto Press |location=London |isbn=074530303X}}</ref> Aside from supporting [[industrial capitalism]], sport propagates heavy physical exertion and overworking as something positive.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Adorno |first1=Theodor W. |title=The Culture Industry |date=2001 |publisher=Routledge |location=London}}</ref>

Specialized division of labor force athletes to constantly perform the same movements, instead of playing creatively, experimentally and freely.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Vinnai |first1=Gerhard |title=Football Mania: The Players and the Fans : the Mass Psychology of Football |date=1973 |page=38 |publisher=Ocean Books Limited |location=Hapshire |isbn=9780855145019}}</ref> The athlete if often under the illusion of being free, unaware of losing control over his labor power.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Guttmann |first1=Allen |title=A Whole New Ball Game: An Interpretation of American Sports |date=1988 |publisher=UNC Press Books |location=Chapel Hill, North Carolina |isbn=9780807842201 |page=183}}</ref> Spectators themselves support the alienation of athletes' labor through their support and participation.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aronowitz |first1=Stanley |title=False Promises: The Shaping of American Working Class Consciousness |date=1992 |publisher=Duke University Press |location=Durham, North Carolina |isbn=9780822311980 |pages=410–411}}</ref>

Marxist theories have been used to research the commodification of sport, for example, how players themselves become goods or promote them,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Heinilä |first1=Kalevi |title=Sport in Social Context |date=1998 |publisher=University of Jyväskylä |location=Jyväskylä |isbn=9789513900144 |pages=162–163}}</ref> the hyper-commercialization of sports during the 20th century,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Giulianotti |first1=Richard |title=Supporters, Followers, Fans, and Flaneurs: A Taxonomy of Spectator Identities in Football |journal=Journal of Sport & Social Issues |date=February 2002 |volume=26 |issue=1 |doi=10.1177/0193723502261003 |s2cid=55615322 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/30051434 |access-date=1 February 2021}}</ref> how clubs become like traditional firms, and how sport organizations become brands.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hardy |first1=Stephen |title=Entrepreneurs, Organizations, and the Sport Marketplace: Subjects in Search of Historians |journal=Journal of Sport History |date=1986 |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=22–23 |jstor=43609130 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43609130 |access-date=1 February 2021}}</ref>

This approach has been criticized for their tendency toward raw [[economism]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hargreaves |first1=Jennifer |title=Sporting Females: Critical Issues in the History and Sociology of Women's Sports |url=https://archive.org/details/sportingfemalesc0000harg |date=1994 |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon |isbn=9780415070287 |page=[https://archive.org/details/sportingfemalesc0000harg/page/17 17]}}</ref> and supposing that all current social structures function to maintain the existing capitalist order.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gruneau |first1=Richard S. |title=Class, Sports, and Social Development |url=https://archive.org/details/classsportssocia00rich |date=1983 |publisher=University of Massachusetts Press |location=Amherst, Massachusetts |isbn=9780870233876 |page=[https://archive.org/details/classsportssocia00rich/page/140 140]}}</ref> Supporting sport teams does not necessarily contradict the development of [[class consciousness]] and participating in the [[Class conflict|class struggle]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Miliband |first1=Ralph |title=Marxism and Politics |date=1977 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |pages=52–53}}</ref> Sport events have a number of examples of political protest. Neo Marxist analysis of sports often underestimate the aesthetic side of sport as well.