Sociological Aspects of Modern Sports

Sociological Aspects of Modern Sports

Author: Helmut Digel

Publisher: Meyer & Meyer Verlag

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 1841263575

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Includes articles on social change and sports development including the problem of doping and the responsibility of science, talent identification and promotion, the Olympic uideal and reality, the athletes' village, the development of world athletics, and what makes athletics valuable.


Sport and Modernity

Sport and Modernity

Author: Richard Gruneau

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2017-10-16

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 1509501606

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This important new book from one of the world's leading sociologists of sport weaves together social theory, history and political economy to provide a highly original analysis of the complex relationship between sport and modernity. Incorporating a powerful set of theoretical insights from traditions and thinkers ranging from classical Marxism and the Frankfurt School to Foucault and Bourdieu, Gruneau analyzes the emergence of "sport" as a distinctive field of practice in western societies. Examining subjects including the legacy of Greek and Roman antiquity, representations of sport in nineteenth-century England, Nazism, and modern "mega-events" such as the Olympics and the World Cup, he seeks to show how sport developed into an arena which articulated competing understandings of the kinds of people, bodies and practices best suited to the modern western world. This book thereby explores with brio and sophistication how the ever-changing economic, social, and political relations of modernity have been produced and reproduced, and sometimes also opposed and escaped, through sport, from the Enlightenment to the rise of neoliberalism, as well as examining how the study of exercise, athletics, the body, and the spectacle of sport can deepen our understanding of the nature of modernity. It will be essential reading for students and scholars of the sociology and history of sport, sociology of culture, cultural history, and cultural studies.


Sport

Sport

Author: Eric Dunning

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 1972-12-15

Total Pages: 524

ISBN-13: 1442638486

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Sport is something rather taken for granted and little studied as part of man's and society's behaviour. This collection of essays, many of which appear in print for the first time, provides an international comparative and developmental orientation to the sociology of sport, thereby clarifying the nature of modern sports and their central structural and functional characteristics. The sports treated include football, soccer, rugby, wrestling, baseball, and bull-fighting, and some historical background is given on the development of sport. In the introduction to each section, the editor explains the questions that the selections are intended to illustrate, and treats briefly such matters as theories of sport and play, the social factors in their development, sport and socialization, class and race in sport, sport as an occupation and an industry, and conflict and social control in sport. This reader will be of interest to those professionally concerned, either as teacher or student, with sociology and physical education, but it should also appeal to athletes, sports-lovers, and sports commentators who like to keep their thinking in good shape too.


Modern Sports around the World

Modern Sports around the World

Author: David Asa Schwartz

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2021-06-14

Total Pages: 515

ISBN-13:

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Modern Sports around the World focuses on the history, geography, sociology, economics, and technological advancements of 50 sports played from India to Ireland. Sports have become an international spectacle that influences nations' foreign policy, world economies, and regional morale. Hundreds of billions of dollars are at stake as governments and multinational corporations rush to make sure they have a place at the table. And yet, sports come from humble beginnings. We are fascinated by who can run the fastest, lift the most weight, jump the highest, swim the farthest, and act with the most precision. The history of sports is the history of the world. Modern Sports around the World examines 50 of the world's most popular sports. Each chapter features one sport and details that sport's origins, global migration, economic forces, media influences, political environment, pop-culture inspirations, scandalous moments, and key individuals. Sports history is a tapestry of sociological variables; Modern Sports around the World weaves them together to create a unique history book that explains not only where humanity has been, but where it might be going.


The Sport Star

The Sport Star

Author: Barry Smart

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2005-09-15

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 9780761943518

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Why are sport stars central to celebrity culture? What are the implications of their fame? Proceeding from a broadly based discussion of heroism, fame and celebrity, Smart addresses a number of prominent modern sports and sport stars, including Michael Jordan (basketball), David Beckham (football), Tiger Woods (golf), Anna Kournikova and the Williams sisters (tennis). He analyses the development of modern sport in the UK and USA, demonstrating the key economic and cultural factors that have contributed to the popularity of sport stars, while examining issues such as race and gender, the impact of professionalization, growing media coverage, the role of agents and the increasing presence of commercial corporations providing sponsorship and endorsement contracts. This book situates the sport star as the embodiment of the various tensions of age, class, race, gender and culture. It argues that sporting figures possess an increasingly rare quality of authenticity that gives them the capacity to lift and inspire people. The book is a major contribution to the sociology and culture of sport and celebrity.


Introduction to the Sociology of Sport

Introduction to the Sociology of Sport

Author: Otmar Weiss

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2021-07-26

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 9004464719

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Introduction to the Sociology of Sport offers a comprehensive overview of topics, theories, definitions and results of sport sociological research and discussions. A unique approach to the social specificity of sport is outlined.


Sport Histories

Sport Histories

Author: Eric Dunning

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2004-06-01

Total Pages: 441

ISBN-13: 1134447477

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Sports Histories draws on figurational sociology to provide a fresh approach to analysing the development of modern sport. The book brings together ten case studies from a wide range of sports, including mainstream sports such as soccer, rugby, baseball, boxing and cricket, to other sports that until now have been largely neglected by sports historians, such as shooting, motor racing, tennis, gymnastics and martial arts. This groundbreaking work highlights key debates in the analysis of modern sport, such as: the relative influence of intra-national class conflict and international conflict the relative prominence of commercially led processes in different contexts the centrality of concerns over violence differences between elite and mass-led sports developments. Above all, Sport Histories proves the distinctiveness of the figurational sociological approach and its usefulness in the study of the development of modern sport.


Sport and Democracy in the Ancient and Modern Worlds

Sport and Democracy in the Ancient and Modern Worlds

Author: Paul Christesen

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2012-10-15

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 1139576798

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This book explores the relationship between sport and democratization. Drawing on sociological and historical methodologies, it provides a framework for understanding how sport affects the level of egalitarianism in the society in which it is played. The author distinguishes between horizontal sport, which embodies and fosters egalitarian relations, and vertical sport, which embodies and fosters hierarchical relations. Christesen also differentiates between societies in which sport is played and watched on a mass scale and those in which it is an ancillary activity. Using ancient Greece and nineteenth-century Britain as case studies, Christesen analyzes how these variables interact and finds that horizontal mass sport has the capacity to both promote and inhibit democratization at a societal level. He concludes that horizontal mass sport tends to reinforce and extend democratization.


Power and Ideology in American Sport

Power and Ideology in American Sport

Author: George Harvey Sage

Publisher: Human Kinetics Publishers

Published: 1998-01

Total Pages: 335

ISBN-13: 9780880116602

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Power and Ideology in American Sport addresses a wide range of topics, including: how sport is embedded in the social, political, and economic structures of American society; how the sporting experience is shaped by powerful individuals as well as ordinary people; and as such how sport both unifies and segregates individuals, social classes, racial and ethnic groups, and competing political loyalties.