Lady Wildcats

"Social interaction is an everyday event where at least two people communicate and respond to each other through language and symbolic gestures" (p118). I thought one of the perfect examples to go along with that definition is our Lady Wildcats basketball team. The Lady Wildcats team is a basketball organization that was formed two years ago at the Northwestern University in Qatar, and was immediately recognized as being one of the strongest girls’ basketball teams in Qatar Foundation. Before joining the team, I would always come to all the girl’s basketball games and cheer on the team.



It never occurred to me how different it would feel to be part of the team as opposed to a supporter of our university teams. There is so much communication that occurs between team members and many terms, basketball plays that are used during games and practices, which an outside bystander would not usually understand. There are even certain hand gestures that you have to be aware of while playing, either from team members or the coaches or even the referee’s crazy, constant hand signals.



“Division of labor is when work is broken down into various tasks, where each task is performed by people trained to do that task” (p118). Division of labor brings different types of people together and creates a sense of solidarity among groups of people. Division of labor could be applied to basketball as well, as each member on the team has a specific task to accomplish, whether she/he is the post, wing or point guard.



Each person on the Lady Wildcats has a task and we all communicate with each other, either through hand gestures or calling out basketball plays, when we are on the court to make sure our task is fulfilled. This definitely does create solidarity between the team members and we all work together to achieve our goal.
There are social statuses given to various people on the basketball team. Those statuses are achieved statuses and are given to people based on their personal effort and ability.



In sociology, collective effervescence is described as being a percieved energy felt by a group of people. In my opinion collective effervescence is best understood when referring it to a sporting event, such as basketball, as both the people cheering in the stands and the people who are part of the team have that perceived energy that everyone experiences as they watch/play the basketball games.