How has our understanding of sport been shaped by sociological ideas? How can the study of sport help sociologists to understand wider society? The sociology of sport is a sub-discipline approaching maturity. This is the first book to stand back and reflect upon the subject’s growth, to trace its developmental phases and to take stock of the current fund of knowledge. It offers a ‘state of the art’ review of the sociology of sport and investigates those areas where sport has come to influence the sociological mainstream. The book also examines how the sociology of sport has attempted to engage with a popular readership, and what the consequences of such engagement have been. Focusing on touchstone issues and concepts within sociological discourse such as race, gender, celebrity, the body and social theory, the book assesses the successes and failures of the sociology of sport in influencing the parent discipline, related sub-disciplines and the wider public. It also asks to what extent the sociology of sport can be said to be autonomous, distinctive and distinguished, and challenges students of sport to extend their work out of the narrow confines of the subdiscipline and across disciplinary divides. As the first book to provide a history of the sociology of sport and to clearly locate the contemporary discipline in the wider currents of sociological discourse, this is important reading for all students and scholars interested in the relationship between sport and society, whether they are working in sport studies or in the sociological mainstream.

"Few activities bring together physicality, emotions, politics, money, and morality as dramatically as sport. In Brazil's stadiums or parks in China, on Cuba's baseball diamonds or rugby fields in Fiji, human beings test their physical limits, invest emotional energy, bet money, perform witchcraft, and ingest substances, making sport a microcosm of what life is about. The Anthropology of Sport explores not only what anthropological thinking tells us about sports, but also what sports tell us about the ways in which the sporting body is shaped by and shapes the social, cultural, political, and historical contexts in which we live. Core themes discussed in this book include the body, modernity, nationalism, the state, citizenship, transnationalism, globalization, and gender and sexuality"--Provided by publisher.

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.

This volume charts changing perceptions of sport within medical discourse, attempts by sports medicine providers to forge professional identities in response to these processes, the day-to-day experiences of deliverers of sports medicine and the reactions of recipients of that healthcare.

progress and happiness - however these terms may be understood in detail - as a significant and constitutive element of scientific inquiry. In this sense the question of the way in which sport really benefits people and contributes to their happiness, and under which individual and social conditions, is a scientific question. It assumes special significance when the fact is taken into account that in the field of sport science a general scepticism is shown towards those dogmas and pedagogical theses which take such an interpretation for granted in the absence of a firm empirical foundation and a critically evolved theory. Sport and Sport Science Sport and exercise, physical culture and education in sport (physical training), gymnastics and touring combined with some form of sport are-as the present report distinctly shows-all over the world among the most striking social phenom ena of today. At first sight they seem to be uncomplicated, clear and comprehensible for everybody; they stand for a type of solidarity which is independent of differences in ideological-political outlook, and sometimes exhibit an almost archaic intensity and attraction; they are supported by the active participation or at least the interest of very many people in many parts of the world and are endued with specific func tions, varying in importance, of a medical (therapeutical, prophylactic, rehabilitative), pedagogical, psychological and social character.

Anyone who reads the newspaper, watches television, or listens to casual conversation on the street is aware of the ubiquitous nature of sport. It is everywhere. It flavors our national culture and permeates every corner of our daily lives. Sport in America, as in many countries, is big business, popular culture, and potent politics. It has become its own medium of communication and has important ramifications for international and multicultural relationships. There is no topic that should be of greater interest to social science in general and anthropology in particular than the study of human sport. This volume presents theory, history, practice, and institution of human sport.

Sport annually mobilizes millions of people across Europe: as practitioners in a wide variety of competitive, educational, or recreational contexts, and as spectators, who are physically present or following events through the mass media. This book presents original research into modern sport funded by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences. Its aim is to examine the distinctive contribution made by this complex phenomenon to the construction of European identities. Attention is focused on sport's social significance, as a set of mass-mediated practices and spectacles giving rise to a network of images, symbols, and discourses. The book seeks to explore, and ultimately to explain, the processes of representation and mediation involved in the sporting construction, and subsequent renegotiation, of local, national, and, increasingly, global identities. It offers a survey of key developments in sporting Europe - from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, and from the Atlantic to the Urals - presenting findings by acknowledged international experts and emerging scholars at the level of individuals, communities, regions, nation-states, and Europe as a whole, in both its geographical and political incarnations. Its focus on representation offers a broadly conceived, and consciously inclusive, approach to issues of 'Europeanness' in modern and contemporary sport.