Mission Statement

The Department for Sociology of Sport at the University of Vienna is the only department of its kind in Austria. Its main goal is the investigation of social behaviour, social processes and structures in sports, and the relationship between sport and society. Sport sociology is an empiric discipline based on theory formation, which is integrated in specific fields of sociology:

• Sport is a physical activity: body control, body techniques, physical expressions etc. play a major role. Thus, sport sociology is a part of the sociology of the human body.

• Games and sports have different functions and occur in distinctive forms in society. Thus, analysis of sports and society is a part of cultural sociology.

• Sports are usually carried out within some kind of organisation: in sport clubs, schools, companies etc. Sport is influenced by these organisations, and in return influences these organisations themselves. Thus, sport sociology is also a part of the sociology of organisations.

• Sports in different age brackets are a topic in the sociologies of youth, adulthood and old age

• sport as a factor in socialisation relates to socialisation research

• sport in families refers to the sociology of the family

• sport as an occupation to the sociology of occupations

• sport by means of health to medical sociology

• recreational sport to the sociology of leisure etc.