Nature and culture are embodied in the landscapes of modern sport. This is the first book to explore the distinctive character of those landscapes. Not only does sport play a central role as a modern cultural phenomenon, the landscapes in which sport takes place have a distinctive and pervasive form which impact considerably on quality of life, in both positive and negative ways.
"This handbook contains useful reviews of major theoretical frameworks and research topics in sports studies-especially sport sociology-written by a star-studded array of internationally recognized experts. The scope and depth of this volume demonstrates the intellectual maturity of this area. Each chapter provides an informative historical context and an organized conceptual framework for making sense of the relevant scholarly literature. The book will be particularly useful to graduate students, advanced undergraduates, and college and university faculty who are seeking to gain rapid, informed access to the literature." --Janet C. Harris, Professor and Chair, Dept. of Kinesiology and Physical Education, California State University, Los Angeles This vital new Handbook marks the development of sports studies as a major new discipline within the social sciences. Edited by the leading sociologist of sport, Eric Dunning, and author of the best selling textbook on sport in the USA, Jay Coakley, it both reflects and richly endorses this new found status. Key aspects of the Handbook include: an inventory of the principal achievements in the field; a guide to the chief conflicts and difficulties in the theory and research process; a rallying point for researchers who are established or new to the field, which sets the agenda for future developments; a resource book for teachers who wish to establish new curricula and develop courses and programmes in the area of sports studies. With an international and inter-disciplinary cast of contributors the Handbook of Sports Studies is comprehensive in scope, relevant in content and far-reaching in its discussion of future prospect.
Landscapes for Sport explores the intersection of place, body cultures, and politics. With a focus on outdoor spaces designed and used for exercise and sports since the early modern period, this volume uncovers the relevance and meanings of the overlooked landscapes that often constitute significant areas of open space in and outside our cities.
The story of British football's journey from public school diversion to mass media entertainment is a remarkable one. The Association Game traces British football from the establishment of the earliest clubs in the nineteenth century to its place as one of the prominent and commercialised leisure industries at the beginning of the twenty first century. It covers supporters and fandom, status and culture, big business, the press and electronic media and development in playing styles, tactics and rules. This is the only up to date book on the history of British football, covering the twentieth century shift from amateur to professional and whole of the British Isles, not just England.
Many Americans know more about the stadiums that loom over their cityscapes or college campuses than they do about any other aspect of the nation’s geography. Stadiums serve as iconic monuments of urban and university identities. Indeed, the power of sport in modern American culture has produced ‘sportscapes’—landscapes literally shaped by their devotion to athletic competition. Curiously, given the importance of the secular cathedrals in American culture, historians have paid little attention to these edifices. The Rise of Stadiums in the Modern United States: Cathedrals of Sport seeks to remedy that oversight. This book will analyze stadiums from a variety of perspectives, paying special attention to the links between the ‘built environment’ in which Americans watch and play games and the larger social environments that the nation’s sporting practices inhabit. The Rise of Stadiums in the Modern United States: Cathedrals of Sport explores the role of stadiums in shaping urban identities, determining the economics of intercollegiate athletics, influencing local and national politics. This book was previously published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.
In this fully revised and updated edition of his classic, discipline-defining text, John Bale comprehensively explores the relationships between sport, place, location and landscape.
Bringing a cultural and social dimension to the study of sport, this introductory guide will help students understand the context of sport and the place it has in the lives of individuals as well as in modern British society as a whole. Theoretically rigorous yet accessible, Understanding Sport includes: up-to-date coverage of key socio-cultural issues suggested further reading, to expand students' understanding of the topics introduced end-of-chapter essay topics and questions, to help students consolidate their knowledge extensive referenece lists and a thematic index, to direct sutdents and lecturers toward further research materials.
The study of built environments such as gymnasiums, football stadiums, swimmimg pools and skating rinks provides unique information about the historical enclosure of the gendered and sexualised body, the body's capabilities, needs and desires. It illuminates the tensions between the globalising tendencies of sport and the importance of local culture and a sense of place. This collection uses spatial concepts and examples to examine the nature and development of sporting practices. At a time when the importance of spacial theories and spacial metaphors to sport is being increasingly recognised, this pioneering work on the changing landscape of sporting life will appeal to students of the history, sociology and management of sport.
