| Despite the development of sport sociology as a legitimate and increasingly influential field of study over the last three decades, conceptual uncertainty over the term 'sport' has remained abundant and extensive throughout the field's history. A comparison of the multitude of theoretical attempts by sport sociologists to conceptualize 'sport' revealed an extraordinary amount of diversity and variation. Thus, this thesis investigated whether an appropriate definition of sport existed within the sport sociology literature or whether one could be formulated.;The findings were threefold. First, while a considerable amount of existing research has been devoted to understanding the basic nature and meaning of sport, a more comprehensive understanding of the term within the field of sport sociology remains necessary. Second, the current lack of consensus on an acceptable definition of sport among sport sociologists is unproductive, unnecessary, and surmountable. And third, it was concluded that there is, in fact, a suitable definition of sport that serves all of the required concerns, namely, the definition originally proposed by Meier (1981). |
