Sport, Identity and Community


Book Description

This volume was first published by Inter-Disciplinary Press in 2016. Sport is multi-billion dollar business. Sport is a kick around in the park. Sport is high (and low) politics. Sport is said to shape admirable personal qualities. Sport is said to embed the worst of white male heterosexual able-bodied privilege. Sport is said to break down social barriers. Sport is said to entrench a narrow nationalism. The list of what sport is said to be can be extended almost ad infinitum. This e-book attempts to make sense of some of the multiplicity of the ‘things’ that sport can be, mean and do. The papers in this volume explore the diversity of sport, providing insights from a wealth of perspectives into this ubiquitous cultural practice. The e-book will appeal to students, practitioners and readers who want to gain a fuller understanding of the games we watch and play.




Youth Culture and Sport


Book Description

Youth Culture and Sport critically interrogates and challenges contemporary articulations of race, class, gender, and sexual relations circulating throughout popular iterations of youth sporting culture in late-capitalism. Written against the backdrop of important changes in social, cultural, political, and economic dynamics taking place in corporate culture’s war on kids, this exciting new volume marks the first anthology to critically examine the intersection of youth culture and sport in an age of global uncertainty. Bringing together leading scholars from cultural studies, gender studies, sociology, sport studies, and related fields, chapters range in scope from 'action' sport subcultures and community redevelopment programs to the cultural politics of white masculinity and Nike advertising. It is a must read for anyone interested in gaining a better understanding of the role sport plays in the construction of experiences, identities, practices, and social differences of contemporary youth culture.




Rooting for the Home Team


Book Description

Rooting for the Home Team examines how various American communities create and maintain a sense of collective identity through sports. Looking at large cities such as Chicago, Baltimore, and Los Angeles as well as small rural towns, suburbs, and college towns, the contributors consider the idea that rooting for local athletes and home teams often symbolizes a community's preferred understanding of itself, and that doing so is an expression of connectedness, public pride and pleasure, and personal identity. Some of the wide-ranging essays point out that financial interests also play a significant role in encouraging fan bases, and modern media have made every seasonal sport into yearlong obsessions. Celebrities show up for big games, politicians throw out first pitches, and taxpayers pay plenty for new stadiums and arenas. The essays in Rooting for the Home Team cover a range of professional and amateur athletics, including teams in basketball, football, baseball, and even the phenomenon of no-glove softball. Contributors are Amy Bass, Susan Cahn, Mark Dyreson, Michael Ezra, Elliott J. Gorn, Christopher Lamberti, Allison Lauterbach, Catherine M. Lewis, Shelley Lucas, Daniel A. Nathan, Michael Oriard, Carlo Rotella, Jaime Schultz, Mike Tanier, David K. Wiggins, and David W. Zang.




Sport, Globalisation and Identity


Book Description

This book explores the interrelationships between nations, regions and states in the landscape of contemporary international sport, focusing on identity. Using case studies, the book explores themes such as the geopolitics of sports events, contested identities, and ownership of sport.




Everyday Sociology Reader


Book Description

Innovative readings and blog posts show how sociology can help us understand everyday life.




The I in Team


Book Description

There is one sound that will always be loudest in sports. It isn’t the squeak of sneakers or the crunch of helmets; it isn’t the grunts or even the stadium music. It’s the deafening roar of sports fans. For those few among us on the outside, sports fandom—with its war paint and pennants, its pricey cable TV packages and esoteric stats reeled off like code—looks highly irrational, entertainment gone overboard. But as Erin C. Tarver demonstrates in this book, sports fandom has become extraordinarily important to our psyche, a matter of the very essence of who we are. Why in the world, Tarver asks, would anyone care about how well a total stranger can throw a ball, or hit one with a bat, or toss one through a hoop? Because such activities and the massive public events that surround them form some of the most meaningful ritual identity practices we have today. They are a primary way we—as individuals and a collective—decide both who we are who we are not. And as such, they are also one of the key ways that various social structures—such as race and gender hierarchies—are sustained, lending a dark side to the joys of being a sports fan. Drawing on everything from philosophy to sociology to sports history, she offers a profound exploration of the significance of sports in contemporary life, showing us just how high the stakes of the game are.




Sport, Identity and Ethnicity


Book Description

A collection of nine essays weighing the impact sports has on a society's expression and identity. The contributing social anthropologists apply critical cultural theories to topics in ethnicity, representation in Turkish wrestling, regional identity in Northern Pakistan as evidenced by the game of polo, female bullfighting, cricket as a form of social empowerment, soccer as a play of social protest and change in colonial Zimbabwe, and Spanish nationalism on the soccer fields. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR




Athletic Identity


Book Description

The athlete is a mystery to many and the journey athletes encounter involve a number of complex events that over time can lead to unlimited success in and outside of the sporting environment. However being an athlete also brings on complex issues and requires a unique set of personal development services specifically developed and intended for the athlete. Unlike anytime in our sports history, athletes require a specific set of personal development services to assist in their overall personal development. Males as well as female athletes, from a variety of social economic backgrounds are engaging in destructive and at times criminal behavior. Also all athletes will experience a transition from the youth level, collegiate level and if fortunate on the professional level. This book delivers a historical overview, researched based theory and more importantly methods of application specifically targeting the athlete. Athletic Identity: Invincible and Invisible, the Personal Development of the Athlete, is about the journey all athletes face due to their participation in sport. The book examines the role athletic identity plays in an athlete’s personal, social and professional development. The book also introduces unique stages all athletes enter and exit while involved in sports participation. The book is contains years research to provide the necessary curriculum and practical approach needed when providing holistic personal development services for athletes. Keywords: Athletic Identity, Personal, Development Student Athlete Development, Athlete Behavior, Transition




National Identity and Global Sports Events


Book Description

National Identity and Global Sports Events looks at the significance of international sporting events and why they generate enormous audiences worldwide. Focusing on the Olympic Games and the men's football (soccer) World Cup, the contributors examine the political, cultural, economic, and ideological influences that frame these events. Selected case studies include the 1936 Nazi Olympics in Berlin, the 1934 World Cup Finals in Italy, the unique case of the 1972 Munich Games, the transformative 1984 Games in Los Angeles, and the 2002 Asian World Cup Finals, among others. The case studies show how the Olympics and the World Cup Finals provide a basis for the articulation of entrenched and dominant political ideologies, encourage persisting senses of national identity, and act as barometers for the changing ideological climate of the modern and increasingly globalized contemporary world. Through rigorous scholarly analyses, the book's contributors help to illuminate the increasing significance of large-scale sporting events on the international stage.




Sports Participation and Cultural Identity in the Experience of Young People


Book Description

This book focuses on inclusion and exclusion in sporting activities among young people of varying cultural identities in a multicultural society. Itis important for all those in culturally diverse society especially academics, teachers and sports administrators, who are interested in the issue of exclusion and inclusion of cultural minorities in sport.