Studying Identities, Integration and Diasporas Through Sport: An Alternative Approach

This article aims to provide a critical review of the literature on sports studies in three major subject areas that are of great interest in today’s world. These are identities, social integration, and diasporas and transnationalism. A selective analysis of these literatures provides the necessary analytical background concerning the theoretical and methodological approaches to social role of sports. Building on this background, the paper puts forth a theoretical and methodological proposal on how to frame future studies on sociology of sports which is informed by the existing literature on sports as well as French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical work. It argues that some of the analytical and theoretical tools that are central to Bourdieu’s analysis, namely ‘the field’ and ‘capital’, would constitute very powerful tools as well as open up a potentially very enriching theoretical perspective