This book advances an alternative critical posthumanist approach to mega-event organisation, taking into account both the new and the old crises which humanity and our planet face. Taking the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games as a case study, Tzanelli explores mega-event crisis and risk management in the era of extreme urbanisation, natural disasters, global pandemic, and technoscientific control. Using the atmospheric term 'irradiation' (a technology of glamour and transparency, as well as bodily penetration by harmful agents and strong affects), the book explores this epistemological statement diachronically (via Tokyo's relationship with Western forms of domination) and synchronically (the city as a global cultural-political player but victim of climate catastrophes). It presents how the 'Olympic enterprise's' 'flattening' of indigenous environmental place-making rhythms, and the scientisation of space and place in the Anthropocene lead to reductionisms harmful for a viable programme of planetary recovery. An experimental study of the mega-event is enacted, which considers the researcher's analytical tools and the styles of human and non-human mobility during the mega-event as reflexive gateways to forms of posthuman flourishing. Crossing and bridging disciplinary boundaries, the book will appeal to any scholar interested in mobilities theory, event and environment studies, sociology of knowledge, and cultural globalisation.

Since the 1970s, a "Polynesian Pipeline" has brought football players from American Samoa to Hawaii and the mainland United States to play at the collegiate and professional levels. In Gridiron Capital Lisa Uperesa charts the cultural and social dynamics that have made football so central to Samoan communities. For Samoan athletes, football is not just an opportunity for upward mobility; it is a way to contribute to, support, and represent their family, village, and nation. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, archival research, and media analysis, Uperesa shows how the Samoan ascendancy in football is underpinned by the legacies of US empire and a set of imperial formations that mark Indigenous Pacific peoples as racialized subjects of US economic aid and development. Samoan players succeed by becoming entrepreneurs: building and commodifying their bodies and brands to enhance their football stock and market value. Uperesa offers insights into the social and physical costs of pursuing a football career, the structures that compel Pacific Islander youth toward athletic labor, and the possibilities for safeguarding their health and wellbeing in the future. Duke University Press Scholars of Color First Book Award recipient

This collection analyses the remaking of culture and music spaces during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Its central focus is how cultural producers negotiated radically disrupted and uncertain conditions by creating, designing, and curating new objects and events, and through making alternative combinations of practices and spaces. By examining contexts and practices of remaking culture and music, it goes beyond being a chronicle of how the pandemic disrupted cultural life and livelihoods. The book also raises crucial questions about the forms and dynamics of post-pandemic spaces of culture and music. Main themes include the affective and embodied dimensions that shape the experience, organisation, and representation of cultural and musical activity; the restructuring of industries and practices of work and cultural production; the transformation of spaces of cultural expression and community; and the uncertainty and resilience of future culture and music. This collection will be instrumental for researchers, practitioners, and students studying the spatial, material, and affective dimensions of cultural production in the fields of cultural sociology, cultural and creative industries research, festival and event studies, and music studies. Its interdisciplinary nature makes it beneficial reading for anyone interested in what has happened to culture and music during the global pandemic and beyond.

This book centralizes powerful leisure stories that may otherwise be understood as myths-sometimes recognized, often less so-that circulate in the field of leisure studies and beyond. In everyday use, a myth perpetuates a popularly held belief that is false or untrue. However, in social and cultural theories, myths are more complex as partial truths that privilege particular versions of a shared social reality. We see myth as having an "absent presence" in leisure studies, and want to know what myths are, what they do, and how they circulate and shape people's leisure lives. Myths can do more than obfuscate; they often animate people's lives, motivate collective action, and inspire change. As the chapters in this edited volume explore in further detail, leisure myths and mythmaking involve complex relations in the gaps between reality and imagination-from the shared myths of musical legends to myths of placemaking and communities, as well as from origin myths of sport practices to fantasy and festivals, to the importance of storytelling as mythmaking in tourism. In different ways, each of these chapters alerts the readers to the "absent presence" of myths and mythmaking in leisure research. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Leisure Sciences.

Uses both a theorical and evidence-based approach. Provides a series of vibrant contributions to the debate regarding the role and purpose of physical activity in dealing with moral, social, and ecological catastrophes.

This multidisciplinary collection examines different dimensions of the interrelationships between sport and the arts. It is a consequence of the Fields of Vision initiative that challenges their typical separation into distinct realms. Whether at school or in the highest realms of public life people struggle to reconcile the two; they lack the necessary conceptual vocabulary. Worse, there are entrenched positions characterised by mutual suspicion, distrust and denigration. In contrast, the contributors to this book challenge the creativity/competition binary and highlight the potential for collaboration in theoretical discourse, policy, education and professional practice. In doing so, the authors draw strength from the Olympian ethos of the Greeks and the vison of the founder of the modern Olympic movement, Pierre de Coubertin. The book seeks to 'problematise, interrogate and provoke'. The papers shed new light on sport and the arts as representations of cultural identity and embodying processes of social change. This book is a significant new contribution to understanding both sports and the arts, not just in their separate contexts, but also in amalgam. It represents a valuable resource for researchers and advanced students of Sports, Visual Art, Literature, History, Sociology, Social Theory and Cultural Studies. It was originally published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

This is the first book-length political sociology of the European Football Championships (Euros). The Euros are the third largest sporting mega-event in the world. Explores key themes and emerging trends in sport studies, including digitalisation, the politics of co-hosting, and environmental concerns.

The first book to bring together histories of athlete protest from across the Black Atlantic Topical, with sport and athletes now featuring in political protest and social movements across the world International, with case studies from the US, Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa

The Routledge Handbook of Sports Journalism is a comprehensive and in-depth survey of the fast-moving and multifaceted world of sports journalism. Encompassing historical and contemporary analysis, and case studies exploring best practice as well as cutting edge themes and issues, the book also represents an impassioned defence of the skill and art of the trained journalist in an era of unmediated digital commentary. With contributions from leading sports-media scholars and practising journalists, the book examines journalism across print, broadcast and digital media, exploring the everyday reality of working as a contemporary reporter, editor or sub-editor. It considers the organisations that shape output, from PR departments to press agencies, as well as the socio-political themes that influence both content and process, such as identity, race and gender. The book also includes interviews with, and biographies of, well-known journalists, as well as case studies looking at the way that some of the biggest names in world sport, from Lance Armstrong to Caster Semenya, have been reported. This is essential reading for all students, researchers and professionals working in sports journalism, sports broadcasting, sports marketing and management, or the sociology or history of sport.

This important new book from one of the world's leading sociologists of sport weaves together social theory, history and political economy to provide a highly original analysis of the complex relationship between sport and modernity. Incorporating a powerful set of theoretical insights from traditions and thinkers ranging from classical Marxism and the Frankfurt School to Foucault and Bourdieu, Gruneau analyses the emergence of 'sport' as a distinctive field of practice in Western societies. Examining subjects including the legacy of Greek and Roman antiquity, representations of sport in 19th century England, Nazism, and modern 'mega-events' such as the Olympics and World Cup, he seeks to show how sport developed into an arena which articulated competing understandings of the kinds of people, bodies and practices best suited to the modern Western world. This book thereby explores with brio and sophistication how the ever-changing economic, social and political relations of modernity have been produced and reproduced, and sometimes also opposed and escaped, through sport, from the Enlightenment to the rise of neoliberalism, as well as examining how the study of exercise, athletics, the body and the spectacle of sport can deepen our understanding of the nature of modernity. It will be essential reading for students and scholars of the sociology and history of sport, sociology of culture, cultural history, and cultural studies.

The first book to focus exclusively on gender-based violence experienced by children in sport. All forms of gender-based violence will be addressed within one book, using research from sport sociology, sport psychology, developmental psychology, and coaching. Research and theories at various levels of influence (e.g., individual, interpersonal, organizational, sociocultural) will be incorporated to understand gender-based violence. Real-life cases of athletes' experiences of gender-based violence will be infused throughout the book. Additionally, cases that illustrate the multi-layered influences on the occurrence, prevention and intervention of gender-based violence in sport will be incorporated. The use of real-life cases will help to bring the theoretical content to life and will enhance the accessibility and comprehensibility of the content for readers. The book will set out future agendas for research and practice to eliminate gender-based violence in children's sport.

This book examines the phenomenon of 'digital guru media' (DGM), the self-styled online influencers, life coaches, experts and entrepreneurs who post on the themes of wellness, health and fitness. It opens up new perspectives on digital leisure and internet celebrity culture, and asks important questions about the social, cultural and psychological implications of our contemporary relationship with digital media. Drawing on cutting-edge social theory, the book explores a wide range of contexts in which DGM intersects with digital leisure, from the health-related learning of young people to the 'clean eating' movement, to the online lives of fitness professionals. It asks if digital and social media are problematic per se and explores the problems a turn to the Internet could be revealing about the lack of real-world or analogue support, as well as potential solutions, for our wellness, health and fitness needs and wants. Bringing together innovative, multi-disciplinary perspectives, this book is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in leisure studies, media studies, cultural studies, sociology, or health and society.

This book examines and establishes the sociological relevance of the concept of populism and illuminates the ideological use of sport, leisure, and popular culture in socio-political populist strategies and dynamics. The first part of the book - Themes, Concepts, Theories - sets the scene by reviewing and evaluating populist themes, concepts, and theories and exploring their cultural-historical roots in and application to cultural forms such as mega-sports events, reality television programmes, and the popular music festival. The second part - National Contexts and Settings - examines populist elements of events and regimes in selected cases in South America and Europe: Argentina, Brazil, Greece, Italy, and England. In the third part - Trump Times - the place of sport in the populist ideology and practices of US president Donald Trump is critically examined in analyses of Trump's authoritarian populism, his Twitter discourse, Lady Gaga at the Super Bowl, and populist strategy on the international stage. The book concludes with a discussion of the strong case for a fuller sociological engagement with the populist dimensions of sport, leisure, and popular cultural forms. Written in a clear and accessible style, this volume will be of interest to sociologists and social scientists beyond those specialising in popular culture and cultural politics of sport and leisure, as the topic of populism and its connection to popular cultural forms and practices has come increasingly into prominence in the contemporary world.

The most up-to-date book on the relationship between sport and crime. Provides new perspectives for students of sport studies, criminology or sociology. Topical, with stories of crime, corruption, doping and abuse in sport frequently in the news. Theoretically sophisticated, offering important new critical tools for understanding the sport-crime nexus.

This book provides an interdisciplinary collection of theoretical and methodological contributions critically exploring the connections between leisure and wellbeing. It expands the field of leisure studies to highlight the contribution of international scholars to a developing agenda in leisure and wellbeing research. Authors from many different countries engage with the complexity of subjective wellbeing through the lenses of diverse leisure cultures. Collectively, the chapters represent rigorous high-quality social science research, informed by innovative methods that can build knowledge about the intricate ways leisure cultures and subjective wellbeing are related to each other. The book serves to deepen the knowledge and understanding of the complexity of wellbeing experiences, and the diversity of contexts in which wellbeing is enhanced or reduced through taking part in leisure pursuits. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Leisure Studies.

This book explores the phenomenon of pole dancing as an increasingly popular fitness and leisure activity for women. It moves beyond previous debates surrounding the empowering or degrading nature of pole dancing classes, and instead explores the complexities of these concepts and highlights that women participating in this practice cannot be seen as one dimensional. Femininity, Feminism and Recreational Pole Dancing explores the construction, negotiation and presentation of a gendered and classed identity and self through participation in pole dancing, the meaning of pole dancing as a fitness practice for women, and the concepts of community and friendship as developed through classes. Using empirical research, the book uncovers the stories and experiences of the women who participate in these classes, and examines what the mainstreaming of this type of sexualised dance means for the women who practice it. Pole dancing is shown to be a practice in which female identities are negotiated, performed and enacted and this book positions pole dancing as an activity which both reinforces but also presents some challenge to ideas of feminism and femininity for the women that participate. Women's participation in pole dancing is described in a discourse of choice and control, yet this book argues that the decision to participate is somewhat constructed by the advertising of these classes as enabling women to create a particular desirable self, which is perpetuated throughout our culture as the 'ideal'. Exploring the ways in which women attempt to manage impressions and present themselves as 'respectable', the book examines how women wish to dis-identify with both women who work as strippers and women who are feminist, seeing both identities as contradictory to the feminine image that they pursue. The book explores the capacity of these classes to offer women some feelings of agency but challenges the idea that participating in pole dancing can offer collective empowerment. The book ultimately argues that women's participation can be viewed both in terms of their active engagement and enjoyment of these classes and in terms of the structures and pressures which continue to shape their lives. This timely publication explores the complexity of the pole dancing phenomenon and highlights a range of questions surrounding this activity as a leisure form. It will be a valuable contribution to those interested in women's and gender studies, cultural studies, feminism, sociology and leisure studies.

While women's cricket, and women's sport in general, has gained enormously in popularity in terms of both spectators and TV audiences, comparatively little is known about it and its participants, and there are few, if any, quantitative assessments of the game. The Economics of Gender and Sport: A Quantitative Analysis of Women's Cricket fills that gap. The work analyses the different forms of cricket - Test cricket, One-day, T20 - and is based on the latest sets of available data. It seeks to answer questions such as how well female cricketers play, how well they are paid, who the superstars are, and how competitive women's cricket is. It also examines more general issues which affect men's cricket too, with the over-arching theme of this book being inequality. First, the chapters discuss inequality in the distribution of luck. The book discusses the importance of luck in cricket and suggests a way of distinguishing between luck and ability in determining match outcomes. Second there is access inequality, which means that players from certain groups have an advantage in terms of being chosen to play in representative teams. Third, there is inequality in tournament outcomes, and this carries implications for the degree of competitive balance in contests between teams. Fourth is the issue of inequality in the quality of umpiring in men's and women's cricket. Fifth, there is inequality between men and women in their respective remunerations as cricketeers. Lastly, there is inequality in performance between players: the book explains how batting and bowling averages can be adjusted to better reflect player performance. The volume will find an audience among advanced students and researchers in sports economics, sports-related and gender studies. More generally, it will appeal to lovers of cricket who wish to read about the game in terms which are more than simply anecdotal.

This book explores the significance which contemporary club cultures can come to have for women living through a time of radical sexual-political change. The book focuses upon the experiential accounts of different "raving" and clubbing women by illustrating how new, and more appropriate, fictions of femininity are generated within these accounts. Focus upon these aspects reveals the limitations of reading today's club cultures as indicators of a sexual-political regression.

This is a book about boys' bodies, masculinities, and the ways in which boys navigate their lives from early childhood through to the beginning of adolescence. Drummond focuses on sport, health and physical activity, and adds context to the history of male bodies, the social construction of masculinity and the role of sport as a potential rite of passage for young males. Using rich descriptive interview data with 33 boys from the ages of 5 to 13, collected over an 8- year period, Boys' Bodies identifies important issues including the significance of muscularity and strength as signifiers of masculinity and the need for boys to be involved in "blood sports" as well as "beat girls" in sporting competitions. The meaning of health and the perception of boys' changing bodies over time are central to the discussion. The book will appeal to researchers, teachers, practitioners, policy makers and parents.

Highlights the contextual architecture for evidence and evaluation in sport, leisure and wellbeing. Contemporary analyses from many viewpoints that clarify and illuminate key conceptual issues underpinning evidence and evaluation practice. Identifies innovative approaches to evidence and evaluation that address some of the tensions and underlying questions in sport leisure and wellbeing. Asks the reader to question accepted methodologies in making sense of, and rationalising, evaluation practice. Will bring together established and up and coming scholars and will be accessible for both academic and professional practice audiences.

This book examines the ways in which sport for development and peace (SDP) offers an opportunity for entrepreneurship to take place through and within sport, and how innovation in the context of SDP contributes to social and economic value for underrepresented and marginalised groups and individuals. Written by a team of leading international SDP researchers, and featuring the voices of active SDP practitioners, the book examines the ways in which entrepreneurs seek to use sport and/or social innovation in and through sport to achieve their goals of social and economic development. It explores the strategies that SDP organizations and practitioners are utilizing in the current neoliberal moment to not only survive during economic hardship - particularly during the COVID 19 crisis - but also to thrive, drawing on important concepts such as innovation, risk taking, proactiveness and opportunity seeking. It also considers how nongovernmental organizations, companies, governments, and communities are working to tackle development issues in SDP using non-traditional forms of organization and management, such as social enterprise models. Combining cutting-edge research with reflections on best practice in the field, this book is important reading for any advanced student, researcher or practitioner with an interest in the sociology of sport, sport for development, sport management, development studies, social enterprise or innovation.

The act of surfing involves highly-skilled humans gliding, sliding, or otherwise riding waves of energy as they pass through water. As this book argues, however, this act of surfing does not exist in isolation. It is defined by the cultures and geographies that synergize with it - by the places, ideas, images, and other representations which at once reflect, create, and commodify this spatial practice. This book innovatively explores the spaces of surf and surf-riding, informed specifically by the perspective of human geography. Based on a range of critical turns within the social sciences, the book explores the locations, relational sensibilities, and transformative nature of surfing spaces, and examines how the spatial practice has been scripted by dominant surfing cultures. The book details how prescriptive (b)orders of access, entitlement, and marginalization have been created, and how, with the advent of new craft, media, and ideals, they are being actively challenged to redefine surfing spaces in the twenty-first century.

This book illustrates tensions, absences, and unresolved challenges experienced in research - experiences that are so often left out of the conventional, smooth, and linear discussion of research that generally appears in academic publications. Laying bare the messy details of research is increasingly important because leisure scholars' engagement in reflexive, collaborative, critical, arts-based, participative, and social justice-oriented research heightens the need to explore and examine significant moments that punctuate and undoubtedly shape both research and researchers. The chapters in this book make explicit the negotiations, contradictions, questions, doubts, and uncertainties often underlying research. As loose ends of the research process are unravelled, this book inspires researchers across disciplines to expand the ways we come to know and do research. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Leisure Sciences.

Drawing upon interviews with key people in the World Rally Championship as well as trans-local ethnographic research, this book explores questions of commerciality and sporting identity, tackling the sport's controversial handling of the shift into 'the commercial age'. It is essential reading on combining sporting heritage and commercial progress.

Academic importance: The study of football and risk remains as important as ever in the social life and a critical examination of this relationship will touch the surface of wider trends (and risks) in the 2020s and beyond. Topicality: Risk and football are two elements that feature constantly in public debates. The book discusses highly topical issues such as the FIFA World Cup's expansion to 48 teams, the English Premier League's 'Project Restart' (following Covid-19) and environmental risks in context of the 2026 World Cup in Mexico, Canada, and the USA. Future-oriented: A short and accessible text that aims to provide directions for future research in the field. It will resonate well with undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers developing projects in this area. Newness and originality: There are currently very few - if any - books that take a sociological approach to 'global risks' specifically situated in football.