The purpose of this study is to identify the popularity network structure of school sports club participants and explore the capital factors and their aspects that produce inequality relationship structures. To achieve this goal, the research question...
The purpose of this study is to identify the popularity network structure of school sports club participants and explore the capital factors and their aspects that produce inequality relationship structures. To achieve this goal, the research question was first set up, 'What is the popularity network of school sports club participants?' and second, 'What are the capital factors and aspects that produce inequality relationship structures of school sports clubs?'
50 students as study participants was selected from ‘J’ middle school sports clubs. Data was collected by using online non-face-to-face social network survey tools, and popularity network characteristics and centrality analysis were conducted using Gephi 0.9.2. during August 2020. Data were collected from March 2019 to October 2020 through related document surveys, participatory observations, and research journals. Based on the results of the popularity network analysis, 4 netball players, 4 soccer players, and a teacher were selected as the subject reporters, and in-depth interviews were conducted from September to October 2020. The collected data were analyzed inductively qualitative research methods. This resulted in the following conclusions:
The popularity network of school sports club participants was analyzed to visually identify the unequal relationship structure.
First, The structural characteristics of popularity networks emerged as a single network and a network that followed the law of power, with a few students receiving nominations from a lots of students. An unequal network of relationships was formed as students in the middle of the network gained relatively large amounts of popularity, information and resources.
Second, the centrality of the popularity network was examined for degree centrality, closeness centrality, and betweenness centrality. The student with the highest centrality of degree is the student who enjoys the most popularity and is located in the middle of the network. Most students with high centrality had the same status as captain and vice-captain. On the other hand, betweenness-Centrality is a student who is likely to be a bridge when delivering information, with the highest students in both groups was vice-captains. Students with high centrality in popularity networks have gained social status, such as captain and vice-captain, due to various factors they have.
To understand the capital factors and their aspects that produce inequality relationship structures, Bourdieu's theory of cultural sociology was explored.
First, the school sports club had a hierarchical relationship structure. Popularity network analysis visually identified hierarchical relationship structures, and participants recognized differences in 'popularity' and 'influence' between them. In other words, school sports club participants took a relatively hierarchical position depending on the total amount of capital they had.
Second, participants had pre-acquired capital before entering the ‘field’ of school sports club. The students' pre-acquired social capital was 'from the same elementary school and team' and 'an old acquaintance'. Many of the participants were from the same elementary school’s sports team or from the same private sports class. They were able to easily adapt to the school sports club by having the social capital of an already formed network. The pre-acquisition cultural capital was 'practiced athletic skills' and 'experience and knowledge of sports'. Participants entered the school sports club with the initiative by having a lot of knowledge and high athletic ability while learning and experiencing the sport for a long time from elementary school.
Third, participants acquired additional capital by continuing to exercise in school sports clubs by utilizing pre-acquired capital. Participants obtained 'new interpersonal relations' and 'popularity' with their social capital. It was easy to acquire a new relationship by utilizing its already owned capital, and was recognized by others and acquired symbolic capital such as 'popularity'. They also acquire ‘Trophy and Medal’ and ‘Cordination and Footwork’ as cultural capital. Based on their physical ability, which is the ‘physical capital’ he gained over a long period of time, they gained a lot of experience in participating in the competition. Finally, 'unique greeting method' and 'no deviation tendency' were acquired as a subculture capital. Their own ‘greeting methods’ and ‘no deviant tendencies’ gained by sharing the school sports club's unique subcultural characteristics were functioning as symbolic capital in the field.
The acquisition of such diverse capital, the total amount and proportion of such capital, was granted the legitimacy of the hierarchy based on the misunderstanding of the members. Therefore, participants with a large number of social capital, cultural capital, and subcultural capital gained 'recognition' from their friends and acquired symbolic capital such as 'popularity'.
The results obtained through the analysis of popularity networks and qualitative research applied with Burdieu’s cultural sociology could be integrated as follows:
First, participants acquired social capital of 'new interpersonal relations' and 'popularity' through school sports club activities, cultural capital of 'Trophy and Medal' and 'Cordination and Footwork' and subculture capital of 'Unique Greeting Method' and 'No deviation tendency'. Participants who have only certain capital could not acquire symbolic capital because they were not recognized by members, and could gain much popularity only when the total amount of all the capital mentioned above was large.
Second, one of the participants had a large amount of cultural capital, but failed to get recognition due to lack of social capital, but finally gained popularity by filling the total amount of social capital and subcultural capital for a long time. The other had sufficient social capital, but suffered from a lack of cultural capital. However, by participating in club activities and filling the total amount of cultural capital and subcultural capital, he was recognized by his members and elected as a vice-captain.
Ultimately, school sports club participants gain popularity by acquiring symbolic capital by filling the total amount of capital they consider valuable. That is, the total amount of capital held by a participant makes the ownership of symbolic capital different, and the difference in popularity as symbolic capital produces an unequal relationship structure.