When originally published in 1991 this was the first book to tackle the UK policy process of sport and to provide a political science analysis of some of the key issues facing sports administrators today. The volume identifies the parties involved: central government, local government, the Sports Council, the Central Council of Physical Recreation, and the individual sports governing bodies. It examines their effect on sport’s policy and administration through an analysis of three important current sport issues – football hooliganism, drug abuse among athletes and sport opportunities and facilities for school children.
When this book was first published the study of sport had been largely neglected by sociologists. The contributions to this volume bring the sports field, the leisure centre and everyday leisure activities to a more central position within the sociological enterprise. Whether amateur or professional, sport contributes to wider relations of power, privilege and domination and this debate represents an important phase in the sociology of sport and leisure.
In recent years the interest in the patterns and policies of South African sport has grown. This book examines the increasingly complex issue of race, class and sport in the context of South African social relations. The author disputes evaluations made purely on the question of race, maintaining that it is important to examine the complex interaction between racial and class dynamics as a background for understanding the South African way of life. The book demonstrates that sport must be understood in the context of the ensemble of social relations characterizing the South African social formation.
Sport celebrates basic human values of freedom, justice and courage. This collection of essays probes beneath those assumptions in order to illuminate how sport is intimately related to power and domination. Topics include the media treatment of sport, drug-taking in sport and the controversial and problematic relationship between sport and politics in Russia and South Africa.
This volume traces the rise and transformation of organized sport and its impact on social patterns and gender roles. Stressing the essential continuity of the sporting experience, the author shows the changing tempo of sport through the ages and explores the broader effects of the time element on the nature and style of sporting activities. The book covers current issues such as soccer hooliganism , government intervention in sport, and the influence of television on sport.
This progressive and broad-ranging handbook offers a comprehensive overview of the complex intersections between politics, gender, sport and physical activity, shining new light on the significance of gender, sport and physical activity in wider society. Featuring contributions from leading and emerging researchers from around the world, the book makes the case that gender studies and critical thinking around gender are of particular importance in an era of increasingly intolerant populist politics. It examines important long-term as well as emerging themes, such as recent generational shifts in attitudes to gender identity in sport and the socio-cultural expectations on men and women that have traditionally influenced and often disrupted their engagement with sport and physical activity, and explores a wide range of current issues in contemporary sport, from debates around the contested gender binary and sex verification, to the role of the media and social media, and the significance of gender in sport leadership, policy and decision-making. This book is an authoritative survey of the current state of play in research connecting gender, sport, physical activity and politics, and is an important contribution to both sport studies and gender studies. It is fascinating reading for any student, researcher, policy-maker or professional with an interest in sport, physical activity, social studies, public health or political science.
Now available in paperback, this vital 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 Jay Coakley, author of the best selling textbook on sport in the USA, 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 team of contributors the Handbook of Sports Studies is comprehensive in scope, relevant in content and far-reaching in its discussion of future prospect.
Sport in the Middle East has become a major issue in global affairs. The contributors to this timely volume discuss the intersection of political and cultural processes related to sport in the region. Eleven chapters trace the historical institutionalization of sport and the role it has played in negotiating "Western" culture. Sport is found to be a contested terrain where struggles are being fought over the inclusion of women, over competing definitions of national identity, over preserving social memory, and over press freedom. Also discussed are the implications of mega-sporting events for host countries, and how both elite sport policies and sports industries in the region are being shaped. Sport, Politics and Society in the Middle East draws on academic disciplines from the humanities and social sciences to offer in-depth, theoretically grounded, and richly empirical case studies. It employs diverse research methodologies, from ethnography and in-depth interviews to archival research, to make a lasting contribution to this critical subject.
This set examines sport and leisure from a social science viewpoint. The volumes included, originally published between 1984 and 1991 take a cross-disciplinary approach to explore the social, political and cultural roles of sport in today's society. They cover issues as diverse as inequality, nationalism, gender, and commercialisation and engage with a range of academic disciplines including cultural studies, history, politics and sociology.
