Sport is examined in relation to a number of basic aspects of social organization. Each of the seven sections includes a brief clarification of the key sociological concepts used for analysis, a consideration of various applications of those concepts to sport, and a review and discussion of what is known about specific aspects of sport in relation to social organization. Section I introduces the sociological perspective. Section II examines socialization and culture and, in a general discussion of the roles of people involved in sport, provides an indication of the nature of socialization in the social system of sport. The dominant value themes in American sport and the relationship between sport and national culture are also considered. Section III discusses social deviance and its consequences, officially espoused norms, and informal norms of behavior. Section IV focuses attention on the factors that determine the extent to which individual, interpersonal, and social structural factors relate to team success. Section V examines social stratification, discrimination, and the myth that all men/women are equal. Section VI talks about the patterns of bureaucratization, commercialization, and professionalization, and their effects on sport. Section VII looks at changes in the roles, the rules, and the relationships in sport produced by social processes and the likely social effects of deliberate and organized changes on established sport. (MM)