The London Olympics of 2012 acted as a focal point for an examination of UK sport policy. Individual chapters from leading specialists in their fields focus upon the central components of the UK's 'model' of sport - for example elite, school and community sport and talent ID policies - and discuss what kind of 'legacy' 2012 is likely to leave on the sports landscape in years to come. The concept 'legacy' is a common theme running through all contributions which themselves stem from a wide variety of academic disciplines and sub-disciplines, including sport psychology, political science, sports studies, cultural studies and sociology. A wide range of topics and organisations are covered throughout the volume, including coaching, talent ID, school sports partnerships, PE and youth sport, participation in sport, the IOC and the Olympic Charter, the Olympic Movement and Islamic Culture and, finally, issues of regeneration through sports mega-events. This book was published as a special issue of the International Journal of Sport Policy.

Filling a gap in the literature on the history of sport in Europe, the book brings together complementary studies on diverse aspects of the interrelation between sport and urban space. Going from geography to political science, from sports history to urban and transport history, it suggests a three-fold approach. A first thematic group of researches ranges around "Sport Development and Urban Spaces", exploring the impact of the city on the rise of sport. A second focal point is related to "Sport Policies and Local Identities" with a special attention given to the making of sport venues and competitions in the making of urban identity. A third thematic group includes studies on "Sport Facilities, Engineers and Workers". The articulation of the three parts builds a unique contribution to the process of identity making at a European level. This book was published a sa special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

Danish sport has been associated with Europe and the World; not least through I.P. Muller and Niels Bukh and the Danish Gymnastics revolution with its emphasis on male aesthetics and hygiene in the first half of the twentieth century. At the same time, Denmark has stood apart from Europe in the early moments of its history of sport with the rural revolution of the farming communities as a statement of political independence and assertion. However, during the German occupation of Denmark, Danish sport was part of a European collaboration which characterized a number of the occupied countries not least in the Nordic area. After the Second World War, Denmark embraced international body cultures with other European nations in particular Eastern martial arts. Denmark too, as part of trends in the European region and the world, became caught up in sport as a powerful contemporary political statement. This book was previously published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

In this book questions about definitions and demarcations of sport science are discussed. Not the least the many normative ideas of sport as good or as bad are problematized in relation to the academic field. These ideas permeate sport science in ways that are not seen in other academic fields like history, sociology or law. In addition, if and if so, in what ways sport science influence social science in general. Does sport science bring new questions in relation to issues like "what makes a society possible" or "what is a human being"? This book was published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

This collection provides interdisciplinary study of sport in the Middle East in the context of history, politics, policies, gender, religion, ideology and international relations. The chapters examine the role of the Pan-Arab Games in strengthening the bonds of Arab identity in Qatar, the contribution of sport to the building of nationhood and cultural image in Lebanon and Turkey, female involvement in the Olympic movement in Middle Eastern countries, how sport has facilitated the promotion of gender equality and how sport has served the social and cultural transformation of the Islamic world. Study of the role and functions of sport in the Middle East in its historical, political and cultural context is long overdue. Based on recent research conducted by prominent young scholars in this field, this collection will inspire and stimulate the future development of research in the Islamic world. This book was originally published as a special issue of The International Journal of the History of Sport.

This book focuses on the processes of documenting the Beijing Olympics - ranging from the visual (television and film) to radio and the written word - and the meanings generated by such representations. What were the 'key' stories and how were they chosen? What was dramatised? Who were the heroes? Which 'clashes' were highlighted and how? What sorts of stories did the notion of 'human interest' generate? Did politics take a backseat or was the topic highlighted repeatedly? Thus, the focus was not on the success or failure of this event, but on the ways in which the Olympics Games, as international and historic events, are memorialised by observers. The key question that this book addresses is: How far would the Olympic coverage fall into the patterns of representation that have come to dominate Olympic reporting and what would China, as a discursive subject, bring to these patterns? This book was previously published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

This landmark publication brings together some of the most perceptive commentators of the present moment to explore core ideas and cutting edge developments in the field of Leisure Studies. It offers important new insights into the dynamics of the transformation of leisure in contemporary societies, tracing the emergent issues at stake in the discipline and examining Leisure Studies' fundamental connections with cognate disciplines such as Sociology, Cultural Studies, History, Sport Studies and Tourism. This book contains original work from key scholars across the globe, including those working outside the Leisure Studies mainstream. It showcases the state of the art of contemporary Leisure Studies, covering key topics and key thinkers from the psychology of leisure to leisure policy, from Bourdieu to Baudrillard, and suggests that leisure in the 21st century should be understood as centring on a new 'Big Seven' (holidays, drink, drugs, sex, gambling, TV and shopping). No other book has gone as far in redefining the identity of the discipline of Leisure Studies, or in suggesting how the substantive ideas of Leisure Studies need to be rethought. The Routledge Handbook of Leisure Studies should therefore be the intellectual guide of first choice for all scholars, academics, researchers and students working in this subject area.

Contemporary discourse on sustainability points to the need for substantial, if not radical, shifts in relations between productivity, environment, consumption and identities, in ways which bring or restore balance to the intersecting domains. The catchphrase of 'sustainability' has made its way into mainstream discourse on the heels of the ongoing global financial crisis and responses to global warming. The literature of leisure, sport and particularly tourism are replete with fine examples of 'sustainability', contributing to full ecology planning approaches. This book aims to stimulate debate and discussion within the leisure studies community about the roles of 'alternative cultures' in producing viable models of sustainable relations between work, leisure and environment. Key elements of these discussions, such as participatory democracy and deep ecology, have long been characteristic of cultural configurations loosely called 'counter' or 'alternative' to a voracious, hierarchical and unconscious modernity. However the leisure studies community has largely neglected their significance up until now. How are leisure, sustainable livelihoods and 'alternative' cultures connected, and what influence do they have? This book was originally published as a special issue of Annals of Leisure Research.

This book explores, analyses, and explains divergent ideologies and practices of gymnastics in selected European nations. It reconstructs the ex- and import processes from Europe to America and determines the processes, interrelationships and transformations of these "transatlantic movements" in their new home country. The book offers a more complete understanding of the role of gymnastics and expressive movements in cultural and ideological transmission over time and identifies the impact of these concepts on American physical education, sports systems and sports cultures. The main focus of the book lies in the two decades before and after World War I. This concentration on a specific historical epoch allows us to identify parallel, but also different developments of the various forms of gymnastics and of the transfer and implementation processes. The volume covers the transfer and impact of German Turnen, Czech Sokol and the Delsarte system in North America. In addition, it traces the influences of French gymnastics in South America and describes the tours of the world-renowned Danish gymnastic reformer Nils Bukh in both Americas. A focus will be the "import" of gymnastics, but also on the adaption processes of these different concepts and their integration into the American culture. This book was previously published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

Despite the fact that the sea covers 70 per cent of the Earth's surface, and is integral to the workings of the world, it has been largely neglected or perceived as marginal in modern consciousness. This edited collection disrupts notions of the sea as 'other', as foreign and featureless, through specific, situated accounts which highlight the centrality of the sea for the individuals concerned. Bringing together academics who combine scholarly expertise with lived experiences on, in and with the sea, it examines humans' relationships with the sea. Through the use of auto-ethnographic accounting, the contributors reflect on how the sea has shaped their sense of identity, belonging and connection. They examine what it is to be engaged with the sea, and narrate their lived, sentient, corporeal experiences. The sea is a cultural seascape just as it is physical reality. The sea shapes us and we, in turn, attempt to 'shape it' as we construct various versions of it that reflect our on-going and mutable relationship with it. The use of embodied accounts, as a way of conveying lived-experiences, and the integration of relevant theoretical frames for understanding the broader cultural implications provide new opportunities to understand seascapes.

Analyses of racialisation processes within and beyond sport would be incomplete without a consideration of ethnicity and ethnic identities. Why? Because ethnicity, as a concept and as a focus for research, captures better the diverse experiences of social groups and the scope of belonging. Ethnic identities contribute to the way race and racism is constructed and experienced in sport, and to the ways in which racial ideologies are created, recreated and contested. Readers will find here a stimulating array of papers that capture varied aspects of the sport, race and ethnicity nexus around the world. The journey stretches as far afield as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ghana and the USA and, in so doing, it draws on a range of disciplinary approaches that converge or diverge by degrees. Such diversity is to be welcomed in an academic field characterized increasingly by the potential richness of people's experiences of sport, race and ethnicity within various cultural contexts. Included here are papers from a range of disciplines and approaches including sociology, politics, sports feminisms, critical race theory, a strengths perspective, Kaupapa Maori Theory, history and sports development. This book was published as a special issue of Sport and Society.

"Modern sports" were introduced to Asia in the late nineteenth century as an innovation from the West, concurrently with the development of modern society in Asia. This book traces the historical developments of sporting cultures in Asia in specific local contexts - including Singapore, China, Myanmar, Taiwan, the Philippines, and India - and their intersections with larger social developments of colonialism, postcolonialism, nationalism, and the building of modern Asia and its place in a globalized world. The case studies herein present the social history of modern team sports with standardized rules such as basketball and cricket, and less familiar sports such as fives and chinlone, as they vacillate between global and local perspectives. This book also shows that modern sports have had an important influence on the makeup of everyday life in Asia, and the essays here also consider sports' impact on gender, body culture, and celebrity culture, among other concerns. This book painstakingly bridges the gaps between Asian Studies and Sports Studies in a way that reflects the historicity and multiplicity of sports in Asian societies. By adopting multi-disciplinary approaches, this book innovatively offers significant intersection between sociology, cultural studies and Asian studies of sport in Asia. This book was published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

The games that human societies devised over the centuries can be considered one of the most comprehensive and fertile symbolic systems ever created by human ingenuity. In all societies, members feel compelled to interact and communicate with each other as much as possible. As linguistic creatures, humans use language to establish social and interpersonal contacts. Games are a device to enable such connections.

Robert Perinbanayagam examines how players value games. He assesses games as systems that embody metaphysics and pragmatic action. He then examines various religious ideas and how participants reference respective approaches to game playing.

Perinbanayagam argues that games are forms of activity in which the human agent as an actor engages with others in various interactional situations. Such engagement creates dramas in which agents assume identities, give play to emotions and enrich their selves. He also examines the issue of game writing, particularly how selected writers have used game structures as narrative devices in their work.

Sport has become an important avenue in how we interpret, remember, and maintain our heritage. Whether it is being applied in tourism marketing and development, employed as a vehicle for social cohesion, or utilized as a way of articulating personal and collective identities, sport heritage is a vital topic in understanding what we value about the sporting past now, and what we wish to pass on to future generations. This edited collection brings together many new and exciting international approaches to sport heritage. Each of the chapters in this collection provides a thought-provoking sport heritage case study that would be of interest to students and researchers in history, geography, anthropology, and marketing, as well as industry practitioners working at sporting events, at sports-based heritage attractions such as museums and halls of fame, and at sports stadia and facilities. In addition, this collection would be of interest to those readers with a more general interest in sport heritage and the sporting past. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Heritage Tourism.

As a new breed of lifestyle sport enthusiasts 'derby grrrls' are pushing the boundaries of gender as they negotiate the nexus of pleasure, pain and power relations. Offering a socio-cultural analysis of the rise and reinvention of roller derby as both a new, globalized women's sport and an everyday creative leisure space, this book explores the manner in which roller derby has emerged as a gendered space for self-transformation, belonging and embodied contest, in which women are invited to experience their emotions differently, embrace pain and overcome limits. Sport, Gender and Power: The Rise of Roller Derby presents detailed interview, ethnographic and autoethnographic material, together with a range of media texts to shed new light on the complex relationships of power experienced by women in derby as a sport culture, whilst also examining the darker relationships that characterise the sport, including those of inclusion and exclusion, difference and identity, and competition and participation. A contemporary feminist study of empowerment, sexual difference, gender and affect, this book will appeal to scholars of gender and sexuality, embodiment, feminist thought and the sociology of sport and leisure.

European National football came together in the summer of 2012 for the 14th occasion. This book sets out to examine the enduring social tensions between supporters and authorities, as well as those between local, national and European identities, which formed the backdrop to the 14th staging of the European National football tournament, Euro2012. The context of the tournament was somewhat unique from those staged in previous years, being jointly hosted for the first time by two post-Communist nations still in the process of social and economic transition. In this respect, the decision to stage Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine bore its own material and symbolic legacies shaping the tournament: the unsettling of neo-liberal imaginings and emergent East-West fears about poor infrastructure, inefficiencies and corruption jostled with moral panics about racism and fears surrounding the potentially unfulfilled consumerist expectations of west European supporters.

The book seeks to explore the ideologies and practices invoked by competing national sentiments and examine the social tensions, ambiguities and social capital generating potentials surrounding national, ethnic, European identity, with respect to national football teams, supporters and supporter movements.

This book was published as a special issue of Soccer and Society."

This collection explores the multifaceted connections between soccer and society in the Middle East. It examines the social significance of soccer and its importance to individuals and the collectivity. Shaped and influenced by such forces as religion, colonialism, nation-building and globalization, the game is a source of both conflict and peace. Soccer is a vital part of the Middle East's cultural and political fabric. The chapters in this volume include an essay on the leading role played by fans and players during the Arab Spring revolts; anthropological studies of women players in Iraqi Kurdistan, obstacles faced and overcome; reports centered on the politics of Turkish fans; a survey of the political affiliations of Lebanese clubs; studies of pre-1948 Palestinian sport; and portrayals of Arab athletes in the Israeli media during the second Intifada and how they reflect shifting political realities and attitudes. The themes of this book are addressed through individual accounts, sociological studies, philosophical speculations and selections culled from literature. This collection offers fresh insights into the hope that soccer can provide, demonstrated recently by the successes of the Iraqi national team, suggesting possibilities of unity and solidarity in a fractured land. In the complex, dynamic and politically fraught societies of the Middle East, soccer captures the imagination and embodies the values and dreams of its followers in multiple configurations. This book was originally published as a special issue of Soccer & Society.

In these essays, thirty of the leading scholars in sports communication tackle a wide range of subjects, including the ways in which people root for their teams, the consumption of sports information, and the uses of technology to cultivate fan communities. Taking an interdisciplinary approach through the fields of communication, psychology and telecommunications, this collection explores modern fans, their motives and culture, and their identification with sports and individual teams.

This first full length treatment of the role of morality in tourism examines how the tourism encounter is also fundamentally a moral encounter. Drawing upon interdisciplinary perspectives, leading and new authors in the field address topics that range from volunteer tourism to fertility tourism to reveal new insights into the ways tourism encounters are implicated in, and contribute to, broader moral reconfigurations in Western and non-Western contexts. Illustrating the role of power and power relations in tourism encounters within different political, economic, environmental and cultural contexts, the authors in this anthology analyse, theoretically and empirically, the implications of the privileging of some moralities at the expense of others. Key themes include the moral consumption of tourism experiences, embodiment in tourism encounters, environmental moralities as well as methodological aspects of morality in tourism research. Crossing disciplinary and chronological boundaries, Moral Encounters in Tourism provides a much-anticipated overview of this new interdisciplinary terrain and offers possible routes for new research on the intersection of morality and tourism studies.

Despite the close and longstanding links between sport and music, the relationships between these two significant cultural forms have been relatively neglected. This book addresses the oversight with a series of highly original essays written by authors from a range of academic disciplines including history, psychology, musicology and cultural studies. It deals with themes including sport in music; music in sport; the use of music in mass sporting events; and sport, music and protest. In so doing, the book raises a range of important themes such as personal and collective identity, cultural value, ideology, globalisation and the commercialisation of sport. As well as considering the sport/music nexus in Great Britain, the collection examines sport and music in Ireland, the United States, Germany and the former Soviet Union, as well as in the Olympic movement. Musical styles and genres discussed are diverse and include classical, rock, music hall and football-terrace chants. For anybody with an interest in sport, music or both, this collection will prove an enjoyable and stimulating read. This book was previously published as a Special Issue of Sport in Society.

This original collection demonstrates the importance of sporting practices, spaces and leisure affiliations to understanding issues around identity, (post-) migration, diaspora and transnationalism for global South Asian populations. The chapters provide a critical (re-) examination of the roles that sport plays within and in relation to South Asian groups in the diaspora, and raises a series of pertinent questions regarding the multifarious relationships between sport and South Asianness. The chapters range across a wide variety of disciplines, regions, sports and identifications. They are in conversation with each other while showing the particularity of each diasporic context and relationship to sport. The book encompasses a number of global contexts from the "homeland" (India, Pakistan, Afghanistan) to the diaspora (Fiji, Norway, the US, the UK), and addresses a broad range of sporting contexts, including basketball, boxing, cricket, cycling, field hockey, soccer and golf. The chapters combine a range of qualitative methods, including ethnography, auto-ethnography, participant observation, memoir, interview and textual analysis (film, television and print media). This collection comprises the latest cutting edge research in the field, and will be essential reading for scholars and students both of sport and South Asian diasporas. This book was published as a special issue of South Asian Popular Culture.

Sport in the Pacific is a comparative consideration of the modern movement of Pacific peoples and their physical pursuits across national and cultural boundaries. It covers Australia, Japan and the United States. Its contributors ensure a deeper understanding of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific-particularly their social identities and cultural responses in the wake of the arrival of modern sport. Sport in the Pacific comprises eight original contributions which analyze Polynesian and Abogirnal athletes and athletics in colonial and post-colonial contexts. Their analyses stress the importance of adaptation and appropriation, reinvention and revivialism, as well as diaspora and globalization. The volume will have three overlapping themes: change and continuity, cultural and transcultural power, and the complexity of race, gender, and national identity. Sport in the Pacific, in short, compares the significance of modern sport in a largely ignored setting: the indigenous societies of the Pacific. This book was previously published as a special issue of International Journal of the History of Sport.

This is the first book to address the link between culture and sport management. The aim is to demonstrate that culture profoundly affects how we research, teach and practice sport management. The book engages with the concept of culture both as an abstract analytical category and specific beliefs and practices. It recognizes that a single best way of managing does not exist; that the applicability of management theories may stop at national boundaries; and that fundamental cultural values act as a strong determinant to managerial ideology and practice. Culture makes the study of sport management interesting because it challenges many taken-for-granted assumptions about management, yet it reinforces our belief in the existence of common management problems.

The book offers a comprehensive review of the conceptualisations of culture and its relation with sport management by examining a range of issues: the emergence of multiculturalism as a policy issue; the impact of commonly shared cultural values within the fitness industry on managers and organisations behaviour; building cultural bridges in community sport organisations; cultural meanings attached to the consumption of Olympic merchandise, and culturally-informed interpretation through a reflective analysis of sport management texts.

This book was published as a special issue of European Sport Management Quarterly.

During more than forty years, Bruce Kidd has combined careers as an internationally ranked athlete, coach, sports administrator, professor and dean with critical scholarly and popular writing about sport, often on the issues in which he has been directly involved. Frequently called 'the conscience of Canadian sport', he defines his perspective as that of 'critical support': while he can be savage about the inequalities and abuses of power in contemporary sport, he seeks to reform sports so that many more people can enjoy their potential benefits. This book provides a sampling of Professor Kidd's scholarly writing. The issue begins with Kidd's reflection on the ways in which 'sport' is constituted by 'society' and a lifetime of simultaneous scholarship and intervention. The rest of the issue is organized around three themes: the Canadian sport system, the Olympic Movement, and his 'recovery projects', historical writing that brought long-forgotten earlier initiatives and episodes back into public understanding. In each case, Kidd provides a brief introduction of 1000-1500 words that sets the context for the original article and provides an update on the subject matter. This book was previously published as a special issue of Sport in Society.