Sport is a geographic phenomenon. The physical and organizational infrastructure of sport occupies a prominent place in our society. This important book takes an explicitly spatial approach to sport, bringing together research in geography, sport studies and related disciplines to articulate a critical approach to 'sports geography'. Critical Geographies of Sport illustrates this approach by engaging directly with a variety of theoretical traditions as well as the latest research methods. Each chapter showcases the merits of a geographic approach to the study of sport - ranging from football to running, horseracing and professional wrestling. Including cases from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas, the book highlights the ways that space and power are produced through sport and its concomitant infrastructures, agencies and networks. Holding these power relations at the center of its analysis, it considers sport as a unique lens onto our understanding of space. Truly global in its perspective, it is fascinating reading for any student or scholar with an interest in sport and politics, sport and society, or human geography.

What does it mean when a hit that knocks an American football player unconscious is cheered by spectators? What are the consequences of such violence for the participants of this sport and for the entertainment culture in which it exists? This book brings together scholars and sport commentators to examine the relationship between American football, violence and the larger relations of power within contemporary society. From high school and college to the NFL, Football, Culture, and Power analyses the social, political and cultural imprint of America's national pastime. The NFL's participation in and production of hegemonic masculinity, alongside its practices of racism, sexism, heterosexism and ableism, provokes us to think deeply about the historical and contemporary systems of violence we are invested in and entertained by. This social scientific analysis of American football considers both the positive and negative power of the game, generating discussion and calling for accountability. It is fascinating reading for all students and scholars of sports studies with an interest in American football and the wider social impact of sport.

Sports are the opiate of the people, particularly in the United States, Europe, and parts of South America. Globally, billions of fans feverishly focus on the summer and winter Olympics. In theory, international fraternalism is boosted by these "friendly competitions," but often national rivalries eclipse the theoretical amity. How the Olympics have dealt with racism over the years offers a window to better understanding these dynamics. Since their revival in 1896, the modern Olympics were periodically agitated by political and moral conundrums. Racial tensions, the topic of this volume, reached their apex under the polarizing presidency of Avery Brundage. Race in sports cannot be disentangled from societal problems, nor can race or sports be fully understood separately. Racial conflict must be contextualized. Racism and the Olympics explores the racial landscape against which a number of major disputes evolved. The book covers various topics and events in history that portray discrimination within Olympic games, such as the Nazi games of 1936, the black American protest on the victory stand in Mexico City's Olympics, as well as international political forces that removed South Africa and Rhodesia from the Olympics. Robert G. Weisbord considers the role of international politics and the criteria that should be used to determine nations that are selected to take part in and serve as venues for the Olympic Games.

Real Women Run is an innovative feminist ethnography that consists of a series of linked essays and presentations about women who run at the intersections of queer, feminist, and running identities. Faulkner uses feminist grounded theory, poetic inquiry, and qualitative content analysis to examine women's embodied stories of running: how they run, how running fits into the context of their lives and relationships, how they enact or challenge cultural scripts of women's activities and normative running bodies, and what running means for their lives and identities. During a two-and-a-half-year ethnography with women who run, Faulkner engaged in an intersectional qualitative content analysis of websites and blogs targeted to women runners, a grounded theory poetic analysis of 41 interviews with women who run, and participant observation at road races. Real Women Run speaks to the call for a more physical feminism. This ethnography sees women's physical and mental strength developed through running as a way to embrace the contradictions between a deconstructed focus on the mind/body split and the focus on individuals' actual material bodies and their everyday interactions with their bodies and through their bodies with the world around them.

This book is the outcome of an Australian Research Council (ARC)-funded project titled Assessing the Australian Football League's Racial and Religious Vilification Laws to Promote Community Harmony, Multiculturalism and Reconciliation, which investigated the impact of the Australian Football League's anti-vilification policy since its introduction in 1995. With key stakeholders the Australian Football League, the AFL Players' Association and the Office of Multicultural Affairs (previously the Victorian Multicultural Commission), the book gauges the attitudes and perspectives of players and coaches in the AFL regarding Rule 35, the code's anti-vilification rule. The overarching themes of multiculturalism, reconciliation and social harmony in the AFL workplace have been the guiding ideals that we examined and analysed. The outcomes from the research vectors look at and engage with key issues about race, diversity and difference as it pertains to the elite AFL code, but also looks at the ongoing international conversation as it pertains to these themes in sport. This book was previously published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

Entertainment tourism has recently become more popular. Entertainment attractions encourage tourists to travel around the world to have fun and are an important part of many gaming destinations. This book explores the tourist experience in entertainment destinations. It introduces and outlines the concept of entertainment and tourism in the global environment, focusing on entertainment tourism development in Las Vegas, USA and Macau, China. Macau has become one of the most famous gaming destinations in the world, now surpassing Las Vegas in terms of gaming revenue. This book explores the market for entertainment tourism market and major trends, such as Virtual Reality, as well as the experience of tourists using entertainment products. This book is a valuable resource not only for social science researchers, but also for those in related fields, such as entertainment service providers and tourism officers, among many others.

This innovative text's critical examination foregrounds the prime reason why so many people participate in or watch sport - pleasure. Although there has been a "turn" to emotions and affect within academia over the last two decades, it has been somewhat remiss that pleasure, as an integral aspect of human life, has not received greater attention from sociologists of sport, exercise and physical education. This book addresses this issue via an unabashed examination of sport and the moving body via a "pleasure lens." It provides new insights about the production of various identities, power relations and social issues, and the dialectical links between the socio-cultural and the body. Taking a wide-sweeping view of pleasure - dignified and debauched, distinguished and mundane - it examines topics as diverse as aging, health, fandom, running, extreme sports, biopolitics, consumerism, feminism, sex and sexuality. In drawing from diverse theoretical approaches and original empirical research, the text reveals the social and political significance of pleasure and provides a more rounded, dynamic and sensual account of sport.

Golf is a major global industry. The sport is played by more than 60 million people worldwide and there are more than 32,000 courses in 140 countries across the globe. This book looks at the power relationships in and around golf, examining whether the industry has demonstrated sufficient leadership on environmental matters to be trusted to make weighty decisions with implications for public and environmental health. The first comprehensive study of the varying responses to golf-related environmental issues, it is based on extensive empirical work, including research into historical materials and interviews with stakeholders in golf such as course superintendents, protesters and health professionals. The authors examine golf as a sport and as a global industry, drawing on and contributing to literatures pertaining to environmental sociology, global social movements, institutional change, corporate environmentalism and the sociology of sport. -- .

In the twenty-first century, soccer commands the allegiance, interest, and engagement of more people in more places than any other phenomenon in the world. David Goldblatt-author of the acclaimed, best-selling The Ball Is Round-charts the sport's global cultural ascent, economic transformation, and deep politicization. Based on a decade of research and reporting, The Age of Football sheds light on the greatest issues of our time-including globalization, immigration, nationalism-and the role that soccer plays. From soccer's connections to social discord in the Middle East as a site for protest and a tool for dictatorships to the reasons behind its surprising surge in popularity in China, India, and the United States, Goldblatt reveals that this massively popular sport is vital to understanding our social, political, and economic lives. Tracking the rise of interest in women's teams throughout the world and the controversy imbedded in the domestic football associations emerging across nations in Africa, he explores the use (and misuse) of soccer in the global advancement of equality and human rights. With breathtaking scope and unparalleled knowledge of the game, The Age of Football proves that whether you call it football or soccer, you can't make sense of the modern world without understanding its most popular sport

Jesse Owens wins four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics. Billie Jean King takes on Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes. Title IX is passed. Some moments in sports-whether they take place on a track, on a tennis court, or in a courtroom-transcend the event itself. Some have helped America live out its creed that all men are created equal. Others have pushed the nation toward gender equality. Others have changed individual sports to such a degree that they have transformed society. Powerful Moments in Sports: The Most Significant Sporting Events in American History encompasses more than a single player, team, or game. This book looks at how a particular event revolutionized a sport, how a contest of speed inspired a nation, or even how a humble victory affected the world. Martin Gitlin considers such impactful moments as Jackie Robinson's integration of Major League Baseball, Gertrude Ederle becoming the first female to swim the English Channel-and shattering the times of five men who had accomplished the feat before her-and the underdog US hockey team defeating the Soviets at the 1980 Olympics. The twenty events featured in this book had profound social, political, and cultural importance and inspired athletes and spectators alike. Spanning multiple decades, Powerful Moments in Sports reveals the tremendous impact athletes have had on America-and the world-over the years. Covering football, baseball, hockey, basketball, track and field, boxing, and more, this book will fascinate and enlighten sports fans, historians, and those interested in the impact of athletic endeavors on culture and society.

The purpose of this book is to critically enhance the appreciation of Diplomacy and Sport in global affairs for both practitioners and scholars. The book will make an important new contribution to at least two distinct fields of study: Diplomacy and Sport, as well as to those concerned with History, Politics, Sociology, and International Relations. The critical analysis the book provides explores the linkages across these fields, particularly in relation to Soft Power and Public Diplomacy. Its conclusions offer avenues for further study based on the future of the relationship between sport and diplomacy. The book has strong international basis: it covers a broad range of countries, their diplomatic relationship with sport and is written by a truly transnational cast of authors. The intense media scrutiny on the Olympic Games, FIFA World Cup, and other international sports will contribute to the global interest in this volume. -- .

Animals are conscious beings that form their own perspective regarding the lifeworlds in which they exist, and according to which they act in relation to their species and other animals. In recent decades a thorough transformation in societal research has taken place, as many groups that were previously perceived as being passive or subjugated objects have become active subjects. This fundamental reassessment, first promoted by feminist and radical studies, has subsequently been followed by spatial and material turns that have brought non-human agency to the fore. In human-animal relations, despite a power imbalance, animals are not mere objects but act as agents. They shape our material world and our encounters with them influence the way we think about the world and ourselves. This book focuses on animal agency and interactions between humans and animals. It explores the reciprocity of human-animal relations and the capacity of animals to act and shape human societies. The chapters draw on examples from the Global North to explore how human life in modernity has been and is shaped by the sentience, autonomy, and physicality of various animals, particularly in landscapes where communities and wild animals exist in close proximity. It offers a timely contribution to animal studies, environmental geography, environmental history, and social science and humanities studies of the environment more broadly.

Sports are ubiquitous in American society, and given their prominence in the culture, it is easy to understand how most youth in the United States face pressure to participate in organized sports. But what does this mean for the hundreds of thousands of Americans who live with one or more physical disabilities and, in particular, those in powered wheelchairs? Located at the intersection of sports and disability, this book tells the story of power soccer - the first competitive team sport specifically designed for electric wheelchair users. Beginning in France in the 1970s, today, over sixty teams compete within the United States Power Soccer Association (USPSA) and the sport is actively played in over thirty countries. Using ethnographic research conducted while attending practices, games, and social functions of teams from across the nation, Jeffress builds a strong case that electric wheelchair users deserve more opportunity to play sports. They deserve it because they need the same physical and psychosocial benefits from participation as their peers, who have full use of their arms and legs. It challenges the social constructions and barriers that currently stand in the way. Most importantly, this book tells the story of some amazing power soccer athletes. It is a moving, first-hand account of what power soccer means to them and the implications this has for society.

This book presents an ethnographic study of contemporary ticket touts in the UK. Despite the recent interest in the topic of black-market ticket sales, media coverage and parliamentary interventions over the last ten years have revealed a widespread lack of knowledge with regards to the phenomenon of touting and the players involved in the practice. The Rise and Rise of Illegal Ticket Touting sheds light on the world of touting and delivers an authentic picture of the individuals involved, of their methods, values, and motivations for performing ticket touting as an organised, entrepreneurial deviant activity. The touts' attitudes, perceptions, adaptations to - or outright dismissal of - the changing legal landscape are focal points of the study. Of equal importance are the touts' varied methods of buying and selling tickets, the hierarchical structures and strict ethos of their criminal organisations, and their specific modi operandi for evading detection and arrest both on the streets and online. This book illuminates why historic and renewed attempts to challenge ticket touting have been unsuccessful, focusing on inadequate legislation, a lack of enforcement, and the widespread corruption and exploitable loopholes that exist within the official, primary ticket market. An accessible and compelling read, The Rise and Rise of Illegal Ticket Touting will appeal to students and scholars of criminology, sociology, social policy, policing and all those with an interest in live music and sport and the hidden practices that lurk beneath the surface.

Despite a growing contribution to climate change, tourist and traveller behaviour is currently not acknowledged as an important sector within the development of climate policy. Whilst tourists may be increasingly aware of potential impacts on climate change there is evidence that most are unwilling to modify their actual behaviours. Influencing individual behaviour in tourism and informing effective governance is therefore an essential part of climate change mitigation. This significant volume is the first to explore the psychological and social factors that may contribute to and inhibit sustainable change in the context of tourist and traveller behaviour. It draws on a range of disciplines to offer a critical review of the psychological understandings and behavioural aspects of climate change and tourism mobilities, in addition to governance and policies based upon psychological, behavioural and social mechanisms. It therefore provides a more informed understanding of how technology, infrastructure and cost distribution can be developed in order to reach stronger mitigation goals whilst ensuring that resistance from consumers for socio-psychological reasons are minimized. Written by leading academics from a range of disciplinary backgrounds and regions this ground breaking volume is essential reading for all those interested in the effective governance of tourism's contribution to climate change now and in the future.

Twenty years of professionalism has seen rugby union undergo dramatic transformations, from changes to everyday training cultures to the growth of the Rugby World Cup into one of the largest global sporting events. The Rugby World in the Professional Era is the first book to examine the effect that professionalism has had across a number of different aspects of the game and the wider socio-cultural significance of these changes through case studies from across the globe. Drawing on contributions from scholars from across the rugby-playing world, the book explores the role of rugby's professionalisation through a number of social-scientific lenses, including: labour migration race and indigenous populations the globalisation of the game mega-event management male sexualities media representations of rugby - from broadcasting matches to rugby in museums and on stage and screen Offering insights into under-researched areas of the sport, such as the growth of Rugby Sevens into an Olympic sport, and providing the most up-to-date recent history of the sport available, The Rugby World in the Professional Era is essential reading for anyone with an academic interest in rugby, and any student or scholar with interests in sports history, sports sociology, sport management or the economics of professional sport.

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.

This important study brings together world-leading researchers to reflect upon the state of the social scientific study of sport. Addressing three core themes in sport studies - equality, education and policy - the book looks back over the development of sport research in recent decades and offers new insights into future lines of enquiry. Presenting a unique collection of authoritative perspectives from some of the best-known scholars in the social scientific study of sport, the book engages with key contemporary issues such as gender stereotypes in physical education, ethnicity, inclusion and critical race theory, physical literacy, physical activity and health, and international sport governance. Its chapters address major topics such as the globalisation of physical activity initiatives and the involvement of the EU in developing sport policies, as well as shedding light on new areas of research such as the growing participation of Muslim women in sport. Sport, Education and Social Policy: The state of the social sciences of sport is fascinating reading for any researcher or advanced student working in sport studies, physical education or kinesiology.

There is developing interest in the use of sporting settings as a channel to connect people to health improvement services and an emerging body of research highlights football as being associated with positive motivational and social elements that support the maintenance of a physically active lifestyle. This text provides insights into a range of issues surrounding the role of football as a vehicle for health improvement for different groups. The contributors to this volume share some of the challenges and the benefits of using professional football settings as a channel for connecting people to health improvement opportunities. These chapters will be of interest to a range of stakeholders involved in research, policy and practice who stand to benefit from building partnerships with colleagues with expertise in (I) conducting evaluation and (II) reporting evaluation and research outcomes in peer-reviewed mediums, reflecting the value of partnerships between football-led health improvement and evaluators. This book was previously published as a special issue of Soccer & Society.

Football has traditionally been an institution hostile toward sexual minorities. Boys and men in the sport have deployed high levels of homophobia for multiple reasons. However, the ground-breaking research within this book shows that intolerant attitudes toward gay men are increasingly being challenged. Based on unprecedented access to Premier League academies, Inclusive Masculinities in Contemporary Football: Men in the Beautiful Game explores these changing attitudes toward homophobia in football today. Revealing a range of masculine identities never before empirically measured at this level of football, this book discusses the implications for the complex and enclosed structures of professional sport, and extends our understanding of contemporary masculinity. It also offers fresh insights to the importance of "banter" in the development of relationships and identities. This culture of banter often plays a paradoxical role, both facilitating and disrupting friendships formed between male footballers. As the first title in the Routledge Critical Studies of Men and Masculinities Series, this book is fascinating reading for all students and scholars interested in football and the study of gender, sexuality and the sociology of sport.

Pokemon Go is not just play-the game has had an impact on public spaces, social circles and technology, suggesting new ways of experiencing our world. This collection of new essays explores what Pokemon Go can tell us about how and why we play. Covering a range of topics from mobile hardware and classroom applications to social conflict and urban planning, the contributors approach Pokemon Go from both practical and theoretical angles, anticipating the impact play will have on our digitally augmented world.

What makes life worth living? Many people would argue that it is fulfilling experiences. These experiences are characterised by feelings of joy and pleasure, positive relationships and a sense of engagement, meaning and achievement. Tourism is arguably one of the largest self-initiated commercial interventions to promote well being and happiness on the global scale but yet there is absence in the literature on the topic of fulfilling tourist experiences from psychological perspectives. Drawing on insights and theories from the research field of positive psychology (the study of well being), this is the first edited book to evaluate tourist experiences from positive psychology perspectives. The volume addresses the important topic of fulfilment through the lens of the world's largest social global phenomenon tourism. In doing so, the book refreshes and challenges some aspects of tourist behaviour research. The chapters are grouped under three broad sections which reflect a range of positive psychological outcomes that personal holiday experiences can produce, namely; happiness and humour; meaning and self-actualisation and health and restoration. The book critically explores these fulfilling experiences from interdisciplinary perspectives and includes research studies from wide range of geographical regions. By analysing the contemporary fulfilling tourist experiences the book will provide further understanding of tourist behaviour and experience. Written by leading academics this significant volume will appeal to those interested in Tourism and Positive Psychology.

Feedback is a crucial element of teaching, learning and assessment. There is, however, substantial evidence that staff and students are dissatisfied with it, and there is growing impetus for change. Student Surveys have indicated that feedback is one of the most problematic aspects of the student experience, and so particularly in need of further scrutiny. Current practices waste both student learning potential and staff resources. Up until now the ways of addressing these problems has been through relatively minor interventions based on the established model of feedback providing information, but the change that is required is more fundamental and far reaching. Reconceptualising Feedback in Higher Education, coming from a think-tank composed of specialist expertise in assessment feedback, is a direct and more fundamental response to the impetus for change. Its purpose is to challenge established beliefs and practices through critical evaluation of evidence and discussion of the renewal of current feedback practices. In promoting a new conceptualisation and a repositioning of assessment feedback within an enhanced and more coherent paradigm of student learning, this book: * analyses the current issues in feedback practice and their implications for student learning. * identifies the key characteristics of effective feedback practices * explores the changes needed to feedback practice and how they can be brought about * illustrates through examples how processes to promote and sustain effective feedback practices can be embedded in modern mass higher education. Provoking academics to think afresh about the way they conceptualise and utilise feedback, this book will help those with responsibility for strategic development of assessment at an institutional level, educational developers, course management teams, researchers, tutors and student representatives.

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.

The economic geography of music is evolving as new digital technologies, organizational forms, market dynamics and consumer behavior continue to restructure the industry. This book is an international collection of case studies examining the spatial dynamics of today's music industry. Drawing on research from a diverse range of cities such as Santiago, Toronto, Paris, New York, Amsterdam, London, and Berlin, this volume helps readers understand how the production and consumption of music is changing at multiple scales - from global firms to local entrepreneurs; and, in multiple settings - from established clusters to burgeoning scenes. The volume is divided into interrelated sections and offers an engaging and immersive look at today's central players, processes, and spaces of music production and consumption. Academic students and researchers across the social sciences, including human geography, sociology, economics, and cultural studies, will find this volume helpful in answering questions about how and where music is financed, produced, marketed, distributed, curated and consumed in the digital age.