The Cultural Significance of Athletics in U.S. Higher Education

2000 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janice M. Beyer ◽  
David R. Hannah

Critics of intercollegiate athletics in the U.S. have identified many negative consequences for universities, individual players, students, and other fans. In this paper, we take a cultural perspective to explore both the positive and negative consequences of college athletics. First, we show how athletics function as cultural forms that carry cultural meanings and argue that many of the meanings carried by athletics reflect cultural ideologies of the wider society. We then enumerate and discuss many of the positive and negative consequences that have been attributed to athletics at societal, organizational, group, and individual levels. Finally, we discuss the implications of our analysis for current reforms, arguing that the cultural significance and positive functions of university athletics represent formidable barriers to reform.

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matodzi Rebecca Raphalalani ◽  
Mashudu Churchill Mashige

This study investigated, through observation of the Tshivenḓa female dress codes, the socio-cultural significance of such dress codes as a means of non-verbal communication. The non-verbal meaning embedded in different items of dresses conveys messages from the wearers to observers. The study adopted  a qualitative  design, since it used  document analysis and literature review as a means to adduce evidence that Tshivenḓa dress codes not only communicate socio-cultural meanings to the observer, but also signify gender, age group, rank, authority, status, and identity, as well as power relations—including the supernatural and the sacred. The study also revealed that there are dress codes that are specifically worn during initiation ceremonies among the Vhavenḓa people. In conclusion, we recommend that knowledge of Tshivenḓa dress codes should form part of the overall indigenous knowledge that needs to be studied in institutions of basic and higher education, and that for the sake of preserving this valuable information, communities need to be proactive in disseminating it to the younger generation.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-44
Author(s):  
Eric T Vanover ◽  
Michael M DeBowes

The place of athletics in American higher education has been defended and criticized for well over one hundred years (Camp, 1893). Having become such a popular cultural attraction and tradition, as well as a potential method of generating revenue, the role of college athletics has broadened beyond a student-oriented activity. This article reviews the different ways intercollegiate athletics influences the reputation, operation, and quality of higher education.


2020 ◽  
pp. 61-73
Author(s):  
Yu. M. Tsygalov

The forced work of Russian universities remotely in the context of the pandemic (COVID-19) has generated a lot of discussion about the benefits of the new form of education. The first results were summed up and reports were presented, the materials of which showed that the main goal of online education — the prevention of the spread of infection, - has been achieved. Against this background, proposals and publications have appeared substantiating the effectiveness of the massive introduction of distance learning in Russia, including in higher education. However, the assessment of such training by the population and students in publications and in social networks was predominantly negative and showed that the number of emerging problems exceeds the possible benefits of the new educational technology. Based on the analysis of the materials of publications and personal experience of teaching online, the potential benefits and problems of distance learning in higher education in Russia are considered. It is proposed to consider the effects separately for the suppliers of new technology (government, universities) and consumers (students, teachers, society). It is substantiated that the massive introduction of online education allows not only to reduce the negative consequences of epidemics, but also to reduce budgetary funding for universities, optimize the age composition of teachers, and reduce the cost of maintaining educational buildings. However, there will be a leveling / averaging of the quality of education, and responsibility for the quality of training will shift from the state/universities to students. The critical shortcomings of online education are the low degree of readiness of the digital infrastructure, the lack of a mechanism for identifying and monitoring the work of students, information security problems, and the lack of trust in such training of the population. The massive use of online education creates a number of risks for the country, the most critical of which is the destruction of the higher education system and a drop in the effectiveness of personnel training. The consequences of this risk realization are not compensated by any possible budget savings.


2021 ◽  
pp. 000183922110206
Author(s):  
Ivana Naumovska ◽  
Dovev Lavie

Research on misconduct suggests that accusations against industry peers generate negative consequences for non-accused firms (a “stigma effect”). Yet, building on research on competitive dynamics, we infer that such accusations can benefit non-accused firms that compete with these peers (a “competition effect”). To reconcile these opposing perspectives, we posit that the negative stigma effect will increase with greater product market overlap between the non-accused firm and its accused peer, up to a point, beyond which the positive competition effect will counterbalance it. We further conjecture that the competition effect will be relatively more pronounced when the market classification used by investors for assessing the market overlap is more fine-grained. Accordingly, we suggest that more sophisticated investors, who rely on more fine-grained market classifications, increase their shareholdings in non-accused firms to a greater extent than less sophisticated investors as the market overlap between the non-accused firm and the accused peer increases. Using elaborate data on products and investments, we analyze investors’ shareholdings and stock market returns of non-accused firms in the U.S. software industry following accusations of financial misconduct by their industry peers, and we find support for our predictions. Our study elucidates the interplay between stigma and competition following misconduct by industry peers.


Human Arenas ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramiro Tau ◽  
Laure Kloetzer ◽  
Simon Henein

AbstractIn this paper, we attempt to show some consequences of bringing the body back into higher education, through the use of performing arts in the curricular context of scientific programs. We start by arguing that dominant traditions in higher education reproduced the mind-body dualism that shaped the social matrix of meanings on knowledge transmission. We highlight the limits of the modern disembodied and decontextualized reason and suggest that, considering the students’ and teachers’ bodies as non-relevant aspects, or even obstacles, leads to the invisibilization of fundamental aspects involved in teaching and learning processes. We thus conducted a study, from a socio-cultural perspective, in which we analyse the emerging matrix of meanings given to the body and bodily engagement by students, through a systematic qualitative analysis of 47 personal diaries. We structured the results and the discussion around five interpretative axes: (1) the production of diaries enables historicization, while the richness of bodily experience expands the boundaries of diaries into non-textual modalities; (2) curricular context modulates the emergent meanings of the body; (3) physical and symbolic spaces guide the matrix of bodily meanings; (4) the bodily dimension of the courses facilitates the emergence of an emotional dimension to get in touch with others and to register one's own emotional experiences; and (5) the body functions as a condition for biographical continuity. These axes are discussed under the light of the general process of consciousness-raising and resignification of the situated body in the educational practice.


2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 467-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna WOLSZCZAK-DERLACZ

In this study we apply Malmquist methodology, based on the estimation of distance measures through Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), to a sample of 500 universities (in 10 European countries and the U.S.) over the period 2000 to 2010 in order to assess and compare their productivity. On average, a rise in TFP is registered for the whole European sample (strongest for Dutch and Italian HEIs), while the productivity of American HEIs suffered a slight decline. Additionally, we show that productivity growth is negatively associated with size of the institution and revenues from government, and positively with regional development in the case of the European sample, while American HEI productivity growth is characterised by a negative association with GDP and a positive one with the share of government resources out of total revenue.


2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 711-730 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Franco-Santos ◽  
Michael Nalick ◽  
Pilar Rivera-Torres ◽  
Luis Gomez-Mejia

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