This volume provides an analysis of the history, origins, and development of football in Africa. It brings together an edited assemblage of essays that describe and analyse football in nine African countries, including Cameroon, DRC, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, and Uganda, from a social science perspective. The selection of these countries highlights the three major foreign languages and powers that have governed the continent; The English, the French, and Arabic, and provides a prism through which to analyze and compare how football developed in the various countries throughout Africa. This comparative methodology allow readers to identify similarities and differences in the progression of the game on the continent, and by focusing on football, an important relic of European colonialism in Africa, underscores the continued dependence on, and domination of Europeans on the Africans. In situating the genesis of the game, contributors examine and analyze the history, development, management, and mismanagement by bureaucrats at the political level as well as at various football federations throughout the continent.

Sports films are popular forms of entertainment around the world, but beyond simply amusing audiences, they also reveal much about class, race, gender, sexuality, and national identity. In All-Stars and Movie Stars, Ron Briley, Michael K. Schoenecke, and Deborah A. Carmichael explore the interplay between sports films and critical aspects of our culture, examining them as both historical artifacts and building blocks of ideologies, values, and stereotypes. The book covers not only Hollywood hits such as Field of Dreams and Miracle but also documentaries such as The Journey of the African American Athlete and international cinema, such as the German film The Miracle of Bern. The book also explores television coverage of sports, commenting on the relationship of media to golf and offering a new perspective on the culture and politics behind the depictions of the world's most popular pastimes. The first part of the book addresses how sports films represent the cultural events, patterns, and movements of the times in which they were set, as well as the effect of the media and athletic industry on the athletes themselves. Latham Hunter examines how the baseball classic The Natural reflects traditional ideas about gender, heroism, and nation, and Harper Cossar addresses how the production methods used in televised golf affect viewers. The second section deals with issues such as the growth of women's involvement in athletics, sexual preference in the sports world, and the ever-present question of race by looking at sports classics such as Rocky, Hoosiers, and A League of Their Own. Finally, the authors address the historical and present-day role sports play in the international and political arena by examining such films as Visions of Eight and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. This important and unique collection illuminates the prominent role that sports play in society and how that role is reflected in film. Analysis of the depiction of sports in film and television provides a deeper understanding of the appeal that sports hold for people worldwide and of the forces behind the historic and cultural traditions linked to sports.

Both visitor attractions and events play pivotal roles in the appeal of tourism destination regions to visitors by virtue of being the main motivator of tourist trips and determining consumers' choices. However, more recently visitor attractions have become more multifaceted, have proliferated and fragmented in terms of form, location, scale and style, and their role is undergoing major changes in a post-modern world as a result of consumer demands and competitive innovations. Visitor Attractions and Events for the first time theoretically and empirically explores the relations between events and attractions to offer new thinking of the role of space and place in shaping development, management practices and strategies in the sector as well as future implications. The book reveals how location is pivotal in the development, planning, and management of visitor attractions and events. Whereas the location of natural attractions is relatively fixed in space and their locations cannot be predetermined or relocated, human-made or contrived attractions are more influenced by the planning process in the context of the locational decision-making process. Competition and cooperation between visitor attractions and the aspects which shape these relations, including complementarities, compatibility, knowledge spill overs and diffusion of innovations, product similarities and spatial proximity remain largely ignored in the visitor attraction sector and thus are major elements in the focus of this book. Comparative examples ranging from small to major attractions in a wide variety of locations are included. This significant volume will appeal widely to all those interested in the visitor sector, such as tourism, events, leisure studies, destination management and sociology.

The first book to be published in more than a decade to examine sport in New Zealand in all its aspects New Zealand is a globally significant case study of sport development and the relationship between sport and society, punching far above its weight in sport Essential text for any course on sport in New Zealand Features multi-disciplinary perspectives, including sociology, history, geography and management Covers the full spectrum of NZ-based recreation, from traditional sports such as rugby and cricket, to indigenous Maori sport, to lifestyle and adventure sports

Louis takes you on a cycling journey through Europe, mostly France: Six countries, 20/day, 38 stages, and averaging 100 km/day. His bike with luggage weighs 40 kg. His pannier bags contain everything necessary to travel, sleep, wear, navigate, photograph, cook and eat. He travels on unfamiliar roads through countryside, villages, towns and cities. Each day presents new adventures with challenging thoughts. He exposes his senses to wide-ranging input. Sometimes, he experiences something about everything, or everything about something. Louis wonders about reality and myth. How science and culture shapes the future. He wonders about large and small, the universe, photons and space-time. Should you think while cycling? Does energy produce continuity? Louis realizes that his bike is his best friend. Is gravity also a friend? Do you plan a cycle tour? The checklists may help you plan whatever physical or mental journey you desire. There is information about nutrition, bicycle functionality and self-reliance. Join the cycle of life. Smell the flowers, hear the birds and see the stars. Let speed-distance-time, echo in your mind Let s ride together everywhere

Confronts the pressing problems surrounding race and diversity in the front offices of the American sports industry From the years of the Negro Leagues in baseball up to today, when college basketball programs entice and then fail to educate young Black men, sports in America have long served as a barometer of the country's racial climate. Just as Black employees are often barred from the upper echelons of corporate America, they are underrepresented in the front offices of the sports industry as well. In this compact volume, Kenneth L. Shropshire confronts prominent racial myths head-on, offering both a history of-and solutions for-the most pressing problems currently plaguing sports. Despite the fact that Black athletes represent a huge majority of the American sports industry, the majority of ownership stake in professional basketball, baseball, and football teams is still held by white owners. And yet, when confronted with programs intended to diversify their front offices, many teams resort to the familiar refrain of merit-based excuses: there simply aren't enough qualified Black candidates or they don't know how to network. These hollow excuses not only stigmatize and exclude Black employees, but directly contradict the important value Black candidates can bring to these roles. In the insular world of sports, where former players often move up to become coaches, managers, executives, and owners, Black candidates are eminently qualified. After decades of active involvement with their sport, they often bring to the table experiences more relevant to the Black players on their teams. As a central aspect of American life, the sports industry has a responsibility to be a leader in the fight for racial equality-a responsibility that has not yet been met. In Black and White takes the industry to task, revealing claims of colorblindness and reverse racism as self-serving deflection and scrutinizing professional and collegiate sports, sports agents, and owners alike. No mere critique, however, the volume looks optimistically forward, outlining strategies that will drive the sports industry toward greater racial equality, and help it lead the way for racial justice efforts throughout America.

How do figurational sociologists approach the subjects of sport and leisure? How does their approach differ from other approaches in the field? This major collection, edited by leading writers on sport and leisure, offers a superb introduction to the figurational sociology of sport and leisure. The distinctive features of the approach are clearly explained and contributors show how figurational sociology is applied in the analysis of concrete problems. However, the collection also gives space to critics of the figurational approach. Included here are contributions which claim that the approach is inaccurate, blinkered and irrelevant.

He intimidated people on and off the football field. He was brutal yet brilliant, narcissistic yet magnanimous, relentless yet unyielding. Most of all, he was the greatest football player of all time. He was Jim Brown.

Jim Brown was an astonishing physical specimen with tremendous skills and intelligence. An athlete who played a number of sports at Syracuse University, he ultimately discovered that it was the violence of football that appealed to him most. The idea of physically dominating other men, surviving ferocious battles on the field against opponents who would just as soon call him a nigger as try to gouge out his eyes fueled an astonishing, record-making NFL career that led to the Hall of Fame. He battled his defenses, sometimes his teammates, and often the Cleveland Browns' legendary head coach Paul Brown.

But Jim Brown had ambitions greater than football. He used his athletic brilliance to launch a movie career, becoming Hollywood's first black action hero, culminating in a scandalous love scene with America's sweetheart Raquel Welch. He leveraged his popularity into helping the NFL's black players and becoming a civil rights activist. Never shy about expressing his opinions, Brown would become the subject of FBI investigations and surveillance throughout parts of his life.

Then there were the women. The patient wife who was essentially a single mother and who endured public humiliation. The girlfriends he ran through and the scandalous accusations of violence made by some of them.

A complex and fascinating story, "Jim Brown" is a towering biography of a living legend.

Plasticity in Motion: Sport, Gender, and Biopolitics argues that sport has a transformative power that, when engaged with habitually, can create bodies with the athletic ability to succeed at the incredible performances that captivate modern sports audiences. Robert M. Foschia draws heavily from the influential and extensive work of Catherine Malabou on plasticity - the ability to shape and form - and similarly argues that transformation is not always positive or infinite, with the potential for accidents, injuries, and excommunications. However, sport as a discursive space often precludes any mention of these negative transformations, asserting itself as pure potential and becoming, often to the exclusion of the feminine. What occurs if the feminine enters into this space? Foschia intentionally integrates the feminine back into hypermasculine discussions of sport, opening a new realm of possible transformations to the ways we play, watch, and think about sports. Scholars of communication, media studies, gender studies, rhetoric, and sports will find this book particularly useful.

Originally published in 1886. Illustrated with designs and plans of small yachts and sailing boats, and numerous diagrams. The detailed contents deal with every aspect of this popular pastime. Many of the earliest sailing books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Home Farm Books are republishing many of these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

'This beautiful and timely book will appeal to anyone looking to deepen their experience, with or without the added joy of a cold swim.' Kate Rew, author of The Outdoor Swimmers' Handbook 'An essential guide to a movement reborn, blending modernity and tradition, design and wellness, community and nature.' Sarah Douglas, editor in chief, Wallpaper magazine There is a new wave of sauna culture spreading throughout the UK and beyond. Saunas are being built in unique settings providing tech-free spaces in which to gather, share stories and enjoy nature. The tradition has a rich history, filled with rituals that encourage us to soak up the mental and physical health benefits of deep heat. This book honours the old, embraces the new, and plunges headlong into the transformative power of steam. 'Smartly written and beautifully illustrated ... a celebration of a cultural resurgence and a reminder of the power of connecting with nature and something larger than ourselves.' Mikkel Aaland, author of Sweat

Cruise tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors worldwide. This book is the first of its kind to provide in-depth insights into the emergence of mega-cruise tourism in destinations on the Arabian Peninsula and its impacts on local communities, their spaces, cultures, identities and tourist experiences. It offers a micro-sociological analysis, calling for holistic, participatory, mindful approaches and to rethink current exploitative tourism planning and development. It assumes a high political, social and economic importance within globalization. It draws on a long-term field study in an under-researched region in Asia that developed large-scale tourism recently to diversify the economy. The book provides insights on the destination development from a state of continuous growth to a sudden fall in tourism activities due to a sudden shock, caused by the global health pandemic and its resilience. It explores the sociocultural, economic and spatial challenges faced in international tourism development and its power relations analysed from different perspectives and within time. It analyses time-space compression, overtourism, urban tourism, nature-based tourism, enclavization, social capital, imaginaries, Cultural Ecosystem Services, slow tourism as well as just tourism. The book provides an innovative contribution to the planning and development of tourism destinations, communities and their spaces in which tourism operates in a fast pace. It will be of interest to academics, undergraduate and postgraduate students in the field of tourism and hospitality management, geography, sociology, anthropology, urban planning and environmental sciences. Moreover, the book will be useful for practitioners and policymakers around the globe, as well as all those interested in the fast emergence and the impacts of mega-cruise tourism.

Pathfinder: The Journey of the African American Wrestler, is a factual tribute that sincerely intends to honor the accomplishments and achievements of the many African American wrestlers and coaches that impacted the historical commentary of high school, collegiate and amateur wrestling. The stories are told in the wrestlers' own words or that of friends and family members that were an integral part of their lives. Pathfinder is the manifestation of several months of research and interviews which details some of the greatest accomplishments in African- American wrestling history. These are their testimonies; this is the path that only they could travel. This is the story of The Pathfinder.

Anthropocene Ecologies brings political ecology and tourism studies to bear on the Anthropocene. Through a collective examination of political ecologies of the Anthropocene by leading scholars in anthropology, geography and tourism studies, the book addresses critical themes of gender, health, conservation, agriculture, climate change, disaster, coastal marine management and sustainability. Each chapter theoretically and empirically unravels entanglements of tourism, nature and imagination to expose the political-ecological drivers of the Anthropocene as a material and symbolic force and its deepening integration with tourism. Grounded in ethnographic and qualitative research, the volume is interdisciplinary in scope, yet linked in its shared focus on the political threat as well as the social potential of the Anthropocene and its imaginaries. This collection contributes to emerging scholarship on tourism, sustainability and global environmental change in the current geological epoch. Anthropocene Ecologies will be of great interest to political ecology focused scholars of tourism, socio-environmental change and the Anthropocene. The chapters were originally published as a special issue in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism.

During field and court-based sports, players are continually required to perceive their environment within a match and select and perform the most appropriate action to achieve their immediate goal within that match instance. This ability is commonly known as agility, considered a vital quality in such sports and may incorporate a variety of locomotion and instantaneous actions. Multidirectional speed is a global term to describe the competency and capacity to perform such actions, to accelerate, decelerate, change direction and ultimately maintain speed in multiple directions and movements within the context of sports specific scenarios, encompassing many of these agility, speed, and related qualities. Multidirectional speed in sport depends on a multitude of factors including perceptual-cognitive abilities, physical qualities, and the technical ability to perform the abovementioned actions. Multidirectional Speed in Sport: Research to Application reviews the science of multidirectional speed and translates this information into real-world application in order to provide a resource for practitioners to develop multidirectional speed with athletes, bringing together knowledge from a wealth of world-leading researchers and applied practitioners in the area of 'speed and agility' to provide a complete resource to assist practitioners in designing effective multidirectional speed development programmes. This text is critical reading for undergraduate and graduate sports science students, all individuals involved in training athletes (e.g., coaches, physiotherapists, athletic trainers) along with researchers in the field of sports science and sports medicine.