A. R. Radcliffe-Brown
(1881–1955)Radcliffe-Brown was one of the most influential of the founding figures of social anthropology, through his teaching in universities in England, North America, South Africa, and Australia. ...
ABC TV
A US national television network broadcaster that has been one of the major investors—along with CBS and NBC—in sports programming in the USA. These three network broadcasters dominated much of the ...
Abebe Bikila
1932–1973 Ethiopian runner who won two Olympic gold medals in the marathon.Abebe Bikila was born in Mout, Ethiopia. Before competing as a runner he was a member of the ...
absolutism
A state-form typical of societies in the process of transition from feudalism to capitalism and in which power is concentrated in the person of a monarch, who has at his or her disposal a centralized ...
abstracted empiricism
A term coined by C. Wright Mills in The Sociological Imagination (1959) to refer to the work of those sociologists who equate empiricism with science and make a fetish of quantitative research ...
acephalous
A term used to describe the political system of societies without centralized state authority—such as, for example, traditional African lineage political systems (see J. Middleton and D. Tait, Tribes ...
achieved status
A high social status acquired by individual effort or open competition (for example, through winning at sport), rather than from the status the person is born with. Compare ascribed status.
actionalism
A term generally associated with the name of French sociologist Alain Touraine, and not to be confused with the ‘action frame of reference’ (see action theory) proposed by Talcott Parsons. Beginning ...
Adidas
(established 1920)This leading global producer of sports footwear, equipment, and leisure wear is widely recognized by its trefoil logo, launched in 1972, the more geometric performance logo ...
administrative theory
An early form of organization theory, pioneered mainly by Henri Fayol (1841–1925), which was concerned principally with achieving the ‘most rational’ organization for co-ordinating the various tasks ...
adventure sports
A term widely used but rarely defined, relating to broad and imprecise categories of outdoor activity and what are also referred to as lifestyle sports or activities characterized by elements of ...
advocacy research
One kind of descriptive policy research, carried out by people who are deeply concerned about certain social problems, such as poverty or rape. Their studies seek to measure social problems with a ...
aeroplane racing
One of the two earliest forms of competitive sport with aeroplanes (along with record-breaking distance flights), established in France in the first decade of the 20th century. In England, the Aerial ...
AFC
(Asian Football Confederation)Formed in 1954 with twelve founder members, the federation representing the national football (soccer) associations of Asia; the first president was Sir Man Kam-loh from ...
affect control
The process, identified by Norbert Elias, whereby social constraints are brought to bear upon feelings, emotions, and associated behaviours. In the first volume of his The Civilizing Process (1939), ...
affective individualism
An alleged (though controversial) change in family life, said to have accompanied the demographic, industrial, and capitalist revolutions which occurred in 18th-century England, and since experienced ...
age stratification
A system of inequalities linked to age, often associated with age-sets. In Western societies, for example, both the old and the young are perceived and treated as relatively incompetent and excluded ...
age-sets
Broad age-bands that define the social status, permitted roles, and activities of those belonging to them. Transitions from one age-grade to the next are often major collectively organized social ...
aggregate
Large collections of people may act as groups, with some degree of common purpose, but they may also act as non-organized collectivities, or aggregates. For example, an audience or crowd may be said ...
aggressiveness
The disposition of offensiveness, in which a forceful approach to sporting encounter is adopted in contest and competitive play, but with no intent to harm or likelihood of harming another player or ...
