Professor, Dr.Hab., Honoured worker of physical culture of the Russian Federation L.I. Lubysheva
Associate professor, Ph.D., Honoured worker of physical culture of the Russian Federation V.P. Mochenov
Russian State University of Physical Culture, Sport, Youth and Tourism (GTsOLIFK), Moscow

Keywords: sport, theory of physical culture, sports science, paradigm of postmodernism, sports rivalry, philosophy of Olympism, sociocultural importance of sport, value system, socialization.

Introduction. The analysis of the current state of sciences in the field of physical culture and sport shows that the subject of each research is conditioned by the logic of development of basic scientific disciplines. Therefore, the integrative theory requires the general principles of object unity of sciences related to physical culture and sport to be formulated.

The purpose of the study was to develop a constructive approach to understanding of the social nature of sport, adequate to modern sports activities, by analyzing theoretical and methodological issues of scientific researches in the sphere of physical culture and sport.

Analysis of current situation. Nowadays it is known assertion that athletes' victories are the result of good work of research laboratories, teams of trainers, physicians, health professionals and managers involved in the training of national teams. And it is evidenced by the fact that many countries have comprehensive governmental programs of training of national teams for the Olympic Games.

Obviously, the transformation of modern sport and its deviation from the ideals of Coubertin's Olympism cause reactions on the part of those involved in this movement. Prominent Russian philosopher A.G. Egorov distinguishes romantic and pragmatic points of view on the modern sports movement. "Romantics think that modern sport is experiencing a deep crisis (immorality, technocracy, commerce and violence), and hence we have a skeptical view of sport and the projects of its radical transformation (integration with art, refusal of rivalry and pursuit of records). Pragmatics do not see the crisis: as a part of show-business, sport flourishes, providing incomparable entertainment (billions of viewers!) and crowded stadiums, and its profitability is proven by the immense amount of sponsors and advertising; finally, there are no visible signs of declining social prestige of sport and athletes" [1]. 

Romantics hope to preserve the ideals of the Renaissance and continue to attribute the function of harmonious development of the personality to the Olympic sport. Pragmatics agree to change the idea of ​​Olympism based on the needs of the modern society. The question is what the society expects from Olympism. What should be the Olympic idea in the XXI century?

The rise of sociocultural importance ​​of sport in the modern world can be seen not only in the transformation of sport into an entertainment industry, but also in the significant expansion of the field of practical sports activities for different groups of population. Today, there are separate segments of sport: children's and youth sport; university, veteran and applied professional sports; "sport for all"; sport for people with impairments and so on.

In every segment sport has an important function of socialization, i.e. it provides the process of assimilation of a certain system of knowledge, social norms and universal values, enabling a person to become (or remain) a full-fledged member of society.

At the early age sport helps form a strong personality able to successfully overcome difficulties, bear up against misfortune and not to indulge weaknesses, while gaining experience of interpersonal communication in the course of building the relationships and interactions in a team under extreme conditions of sports activity and so on.

Veteran athletes do sports to confirm faithfulness to sports lifestyle, to display solidarity with former rivals and to prove that they are still in "good shape".  

Sport plays a special role in the process of re-socialization, which is the return to society for those people who have been dropped out of the usual life for whatever reasons. Annually the well-known "Give Life" charity fund conducts international children's sports competitions "Games of the Winners" among 7-16-year-olds who have had cancer. The program of competitions includes the following sports: athletics, table tennis, shooting, chess, swimming and football. In 2014, the "Games of the Winners" were attended by over 450 children from 14 countries.

Some art competition or a concert could also help the re-socialization of these children, however, the sports competition, being a model of life situations, most convincingly inspires children the thought that they are able to overcome their illnesses and live a full life. They "physically" come back to social reality. By the same logic, the participation in a sports competition is recommended for the people who have had organs transplanted.

Today, sport proves itself as the most effective way of re-socialization of an individual. Therefore, the competitions for the people with impairments are becoming widespread in many countries. At the international level there are Paralympics, Deaflympics (for hearing impaired), Special Olympics (for persons with intellectual disabilities) and so on. The number of athletes and countries participating in such competitions is growing every year.

Sport is especially relevant as a factor of socialization for the most important requirement of modern culture is to be competitive. Sports activity acts as a universal model, in which young people learn through competition (confrontation to "other one") to use all their abilities to overcome their opponent.

The main motive to doing sports for young people is the need to test their strength in a sports competition and develop the necessary life skills. Most parents understand the importance of sport in terms of socialization and health improvement and bring their children to sports clubs.

Unlike intellectual and creative forms of socialization sport requires from a person to be "entirely" involved in the activities without any chance to "relax" or "escape to another reality"; it requires maximum physical exertion, will-power and determination.

In this sense, it is possible to say that sports activities have the most powerful formative influence on young people compared with other forms of socialization. Considering the fact that socialization is an acute problem for the younger generation in the modern culture of postmodernism, sport comes to the forefront for young people all round the world.

The "sportization" of physical education is a part of the current trend in educational institutions. This process is reflected in the fact that different kinds of sports are becoming the main content of physical education in educational institutions worldwide, not only in Russia.

Note the phenomenon of university sport in the United States. The emphasis there is made on the powerful potential of sport which in addition to the improvement of physical qualities includes the formation of team spirit, the respect for the opponent, the ability to communicate effectively, the ability to work hard to achieve one's goals and "overcome oneself", and the education of "iron" will and strong character.

Over the years our country has been successfully implementing a project of sports-centered physical education in educational institutions. High efficiency of classes with the focus on sports was confirmed repeatedly in different regions of the country. The project is relevant due to the fact that the reorientation of physical education to sports training gives priority to socialization within the educational process on the background of significant improvement in the quality of physical fitness of students. Similar problems are being solved within the framework of the well-known project "Sambo-70" and the movement "Deti Rossii obrazovany i zdorovy" (Russian Children's Education and Health) or "DROZD" in the abbreviated form.

Conclusion. The study showed that at present time the development of new approaches to understanding of the social nature of sport is becoming particularly important. This is due to the fact that the rapid development of sport and increase of its social importance in the modern culture are not accompanied by adequate theoretical models of sport.

An analysis of studies in the field of physical culture and sport and theoretical and methodological issues related to the interpretation of modern sport have revealed the objective difficulties caused by using unreliable methodological techniques and obsolete theoretical concepts. Many theorists of sport pointed out the problem but didn't offer a constructive solution or methodologically productive grounds for research.

We believe it is useful to analyze sport in a broader culturologiсal context. From this position, great demand for sports in the world is a general trend of modern culture, characterized by a shift from modernism to postmodernism.

The content of sport in the paradigm of modernism was subordinated to educational ideology, in which the predominant ideas were harmonious development, improvement of personal qualities, character training and formation of generosity among participants of sports competitions. Pierre de Coubertin was an outstanding exponent of this ideology. He had a clear understanding of the social significance of sport.

The change in the mental paradigm is followed by the change of focus on the social significance in the culture of postmodernism. Training and development of athlete's personality recede into the background and sports rivalry comes to the forefront. Sport is no longer associated with physical activity, with the culture of movements.

In postmodernism, sport is a universal model of diverse life situations. It brings ​​youth, rationality, pragmatism, success etc. to the system of socially important values ​​of modern culture.  And these values ​​are on top because the general trend of the European culture is characterized by desacralization and rehabilitation of human corporality.

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Corresponding author: mochenov2007@yandex.ru