Is it possible for football matches or players to help forge a collective European identity? Pyta and Haverman seek to answer this question through a detailed analysis of how football is remembered across the continent. European Football and Collective Memory is the first book to deal with collective memory of football on a continental scale.

This book examines the political debates over the access to live telecasts of sport in the digital broadcasting era. It outlines the broad theoretical debates, political positions and policy calculations over the provision of live, free-to-air telecasts of sport as a right of cultural citizenship. In so doing, the book provides a number of comparative case studies that explore these debates and issues in various global spaces.

Sport has a huge social and cultural significance in contemporary Britain. This insightful study provides the first exploration of the causes and consequences of the increased interaction between sport and the state since 1945. Kevin Jefferys sets policy towards sport within the evolving socio-political context of post-war Britain and balances an appreciation of continuity and change from the 'austerity Games' of 1948 through to the multi-billion pound extravaganza of the London 2012 Olympics. Ideal for students, historians, social scientists and sport enthusiasts alike, Sport and Politics in Modern Britain provides the fullest assessment yet of this important topic, bringing sport sharply into focus as a contested domain in public and political debate.

This book invokes the radical potentialities of 'untidiness' to envision alternative arrangements of social life and hospitality. Instead of trying to manage sustainability or tidy up tourist situations, the authors embrace the messiness of human relations and argue for more creative, embodied and ethical ontologies of tourism and mobility.

This edited volume addresses key debates around African football, identity construction, fan cultures, and both African and global media narratives. Using the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa as a lens, it explores how football in Africa is intimately bound up with deeper social, cultural and political currents.

The 2010 South African World Cup launched African football onto the global stage. This volume brings together top scholars on African football to explore a range of issues such as gender, identity, nationalism, history, cyber-fandom, the media and fan radicalization.

By participating in the everyday life of fitness professionals, gym-goers and bodybuilders, The Global Gym explores fitness centres as sites of learning. The authors consider how physical, psychological and cultural knowledge about health and the body is incorporated into people's identity in a local and global gym and fitness context.

Men, Masculinities, Travel and Tourism draws together established and emerging academics that have a key interest in men, masculinity, travel and tourism. Through the chapters collected in this volume the reader will be exposed to cutting edge research and writing that offer global and local perspectives within these fields.

This book examines the experiences of those dedicated drinkers at the forefront of the new night-time leisure industries that revolutionized the way we think about our city centres. Smith uses the night-time leisure economy as a lens through which to view the relationship between global consumer capital and the erosion of 'traditional' adulthood.

While tracing the historical emergence of the cafe as a social institution and noting its multiple faces and functions in the modernity of the occident, three themes run like threads of varying texture through the chapters: the social connectivity and inclusion of cafes, cafe as surrogate office, and cafe as site of exchange for news and views.

Sport on television is big business, but it is about more than just commerce. Using a range of national case studies from Europe and beyond, this book analyses the political, economic, social and regulatory issues raised in relation to the buying and selling of television sports rights.

This book explores the ways in which young women negotiate gendered and classed identities in nightlife venues. With a particular focus on the under-researched phenomenon of the 'girls' night out', this text explores tensions around what it means to be 'girly' in bars, pubs and clubs, examining throughout the ways in which being a 'girly girl' is simultaneously desired and derided in a postfeminist context. Drawing on research conducted in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK, this original and comprehensive book explores the value and meaning of the 'girls' night out' for young women, and its instrumental role in the negotiation of friendships and femininities. Nicholls covers a range of themes, including alcohol consumption, dress, and risk management, providing engaging and timely insights into women's leisure as a site for the negotiation of gendered identities. Negotiating Femininities in the Neoliberal Night-Time Economy will be of interest to students and scholars across the social sciences with an interest in gender, class and the Night-Time Economy.

Tells the story of the changing relationship between sport and religion from 1800 to the present day Both religion and sport stir deep emotions, shape identities, and inspire powerful loyalties. They have sometimes been in competition for people's resources of time and money, but can also be mutually supportive. We live in a world where sport seems to be everywhere. Not only is there saturation media coverage but governments extol the benefits of sport for nation and individual, and in 2019 the Church of England appointed a Bishop for Sport. The religious world has not always looked so kindly on sport. In the early nineteenth century, Evangelical Christians led campaigns to ban sports deemed cruel, brutal or disorderly. But from the 1850s Christian and other religious leaders turned from attacking 'bad' sports to promoting 'good' ones. The pace of change accelerated in the 1960s, as commercialization of sport intensified and Sunday sport became established, while the world of religion was transformed by increasing secularization, a resurgent Evangelicalism, and the growth of a multi-faith society. This is the first book to tell this story, and while its principal focus is on Christianity, there is additional coverage of Judaism and Islam, as there is of those - from Victorian sporting gentry to present-day football fans and marathon runners - for whom sport is itself a religion.

No other national stereotype in the world is so closely tied with a sport, as Brazil is with football. The five-time world champions have constructed their national identity around this sport. Perhaps for this reason it's no wonder that there are many Brazilian social scientists doing research on this theme. The first part of this volume is dedicated to the history of Brazilian football. The main question is how did football become so popular in the country? It also looks at other interesting historical developments in Brazilian football history up to this day. The second part considers current phenomena, especially the place of Brazilian football in a globalized world: What are the consequences of an extremely commercialized and mediatized sport on a developing country? How does Brazil figure as the main supplying country of football talents? How does the population feel about seeing their players in Europe instead of their own country? Finally, the book will conclude with a critique of a documentary film about a Brazilian national team game in Haiti which was part of the Brazilian army's blue helmet mission. The game was used as a political instrument, revealing the importance of this sport in attaining a political position for Brazil in the world. This book was previously published as a special issue of Soccer and Society.

Drawing on hundreds of interviews with 15-22 year old straight and gay male athletes in both the United States and the United Kingdom, this book explores how jocks have redefined heterosexuality, and no longer fear being thought gay for behaviors that constrained men of the previous generation.

This book draws on social theories to understand lifestyle migration as a social phenomenon. The chapters engage theoretically with themes and debates relevant to contemporary social science such as place and space, social stratification and power relations, production and consumption, individualism, dwelling and imagination.

This book will compare the approach and works of Norbert Elias, well known for his analysis of the civilizing process, his work on sport and violence and, more largely, his figurational approach, with other important social theories both classical and contemporary.

Examining four major institutions, Michele Strong considers the experiences of working men and women, particularly artisans, but also young apprentices and clerks, who travelled abroad as participants in an educational reform movement spearheaded by middle-class liberals.

Millions of people around the world today spend portions of their lives in online virtual worlds. Second Life is one of the largest of these virtual worlds. The residents of Second Life create communities, buy property and build homes, go to concerts, meet in bars, attend weddings and religious services, buy and sell virtual goods and services, find friendship, fall in love--the possibilities are endless, and all encountered through a computer screen. At the time of its initial publication in 2008, Coming of Age in Second Life was the first book of anthropology to examine this thriving alternate universe. Tom Boellstorff conducted more than two years of fieldwork in Second Life, living among and observing its residents in exactly the same way anthropologists traditionally have done to learn about cultures and social groups in the so-called real world. He conducted his research as the avatar "Tom Bukowski," and applied the rigorous methods of anthropology to study many facets of this new frontier of human life, including issues of gender, race, sex, money, conflict and antisocial behavior, the construction of place and time, and the interplay of self and group. Coming of Age in Second Life shows how virtual worlds can change ideas about identity and society. Bringing anthropology into territory never before studied, this book demonstrates that in some ways humans have always been virtual, and that virtual worlds in all their rich complexity build upon a human capacity for culture that is as old as humanity itself. Now with a new preface in which the author places his book in light of the most recent transformations in online culture, Coming of Age in Second Life remains the classic ethnography of virtual worlds.

In recent years, the relationship between sport and alcohol has become an increasingly popular topic for study, with many current research projects and publications aligning with a public health or medical focus. This volume prioritizes social inquiry and an emphasis on the sociological study of sport and alcohol to help (re)shape the terms of ongoing debates on this topic. Both emerging and expert scholars capture the contested terrain of the sport-alcohol nexus, exploring a range of issues and controversies with a specific focus on promotional culture, policy legislation/regulation, and identity politics. Chapters discuss the intricate social connections of what has become an entrenched, naturalized and global culture of alcohol promotion and consumption within sport. This volume is intentionally global in focus (with geographical regions represented by both chapter topics as well as contributors) and each chapter adds a truly valuable 'spirit' to making sense of the complex relationship between sport and alcohol.

Using the concept of fulfilment and the framework of the serious leisure perspective, this book examines the signposts marking the fulfilment career. This career begins with an interest in a serious pursuit, leading to an efflorescence many years later in amateurism, hobbyism, volunteering, or devotee work - and ultimately deeper fulfilment.

Representing a detailed analysis of footballers' wives and their role in contemporary British culture, this books explores how the generic and stereotypical 'Wag' has been created by newspaper and magazine coverage, auto/biographies and influential television programmes.

Ken Roberts' Social Theory, Sport and Leisure offers a clear, compact primer in social theory for students needing to engage with the application of sociological perspectives to the study of sport and leisure. Written in a straightforward style and assuming no prior knowledge, the book offers a fresh and easy to read overview of sociology's contribution to sport and leisure studies. Ordered chronologically, each chapter: Focuses on the work of a major social theorist and their most influential ideas Provides helpful historical and biographical detail to set the person and their thinking in contemporary context Identifies questions in sport and leisure on which the theory can shed useful light Considers how the ideas can be, or have been, applied in the study of sport and leisure Works as a self-contained unit, enabling students and lecturers to use the book flexibly according to their needs. Written by an outstanding sociologist of leisure and sport, this intelligent yet jargon-free textbook enables students to get to grips with a wide range of important concepts and understand their diverse applications. As such, it is essential reading for any course designed to explore the place and meaning of sport and leisure in society.

Tackling social exclusion should be a central aim of any civilised social policy. In this meticulously revised and updated new edition of his groundbreaking study, Sport and Social Exclusion, Mike Collins has assembled a vast array of new evidence from a range of global sources to demonstrate how the effects of social exclusion are as evident in sport as they are in any area of society. The book uses sport as an important sphere for critical reflection on existing social policy and explores sport's role as a source of initiatives for tackling exclusion. It examines key topics such as: * What is meant by 'social exclusion' * How social exclusion affects citizenship and the chance to play sport * How exclusion from sport is linked to poverty, class, age, gender, ethnicity, disability, and involvement in youth delinquency, and living in towns or countryside * How exclusion is linked to concepts of personal and communal social capital. It uses four revised and five new major case studies as detailed illustrations, notably Be Active, Birmingham, the national PE and Youth/School Sport strategy, Positive Futures and Street Games. . Sport and Social Exclusion features a wealth of original research data, including new and previously unpublished material, as well as important new studies of social exclusion policy and practice in the UK and elsewhere. This revised edition surveys all the most important changes in the policy landscape since first publication in 2002 and explores the likely impact of the London Olympic Games on sport policy in the UK. The book concludes with some typically forthright commendations and critiques from the author regarding the success of existing policies and the best way to tackle exclusion from sport and society in the future. By relating current policy to new research the book provides an essential guidebook for students, academics and policy makers working in sport policy and development."

This book develops a new theory of instrumental whiteness and leisure. Empirical research is drawn upon to highlight whiteness across a comprehensive and internationally-grounded range of leisure practices. The book explores sports participation, sports media and sports fandom, informal leisure, outdoor leisure, music, popular culture and tourism.