Sports Caucus

This caucus will discuss sports from the vantage point of socialist and marxist theory. Alternate major perspectives, in line with the priors and aims of the socialist reading circle, are also looked at.  

 

We will attempt to understand the economic, social, and philosophical moorings of various sports, especially those that may improve our understanding of collectivism and labour in the modern world.

 

The caucus also explores how competition in sports is to be reconciled with socialist theory, the bargaining powers of players - small and big. Sport telecast, rating and other factors that determine wages of players and the role played by privilege and social hierarchies in creating star players will also be looked at while interrogating ‘Who gets to play?”

 

The role played by coaching institutes in creating monopolies of training spaces for national and international level engagement in sports and how that ties in with the centralizing tendencies in capitalism will also be investigated.

 

The caucus will attempt to unravel the trajectory through which capitalism informs sports as an industry even while projecting it as respite for the average worker seeking a break from their mundane life.