Music is an accumulation of mediators: instruments, languages, sheets, performers, scenes, media and so on. There is no musical object 'in itself'; music must always be made again. In this innovative book, Hennion turns the elusiveness of music into a resource for a pragmatic analysis: by which collective process do we make music appear among us? Rather than offering a sociology of music, The Passion for Music listens to the lesson provided by the case of music - this art of infinite mediations. Learning from music allows us to transform the paradigm to be offered by sociology, by confronting it (from Durkheim and Weber to Bourdieu) with a different way of considering objects. For this task, Hennion draws on aesthetics (Adorno) and art history (Haskell, Baxandall), as well as science and technology studies and popular music studies (Latour, Frith, DeNora). As part of that project, The Passion for Music presents a wide-ranging series of case studies, restoring attention to the rich and varied intermediaries through which music is brought to life: from the debate around the reinterpretation of baroque music, to the classroom, the rock scene, the classical music concert, Bach's 'social career' in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the practices of music 'amateurs' today. This is the first English translation of one of the most important works of French scholarship on music and society.

This edited book aims to capture the functioning of human rights and civil activism at the level of the relationships between the individual and the social, and in relation to abuses, contestations, and transformations. Chapters cover the ways human rights are denied, articulated, and not realised. Mega-events, either sporting or otherwise (e.g. Gay Pride), tend to be the focus of this inquiry, although there are important contributions on grassroots non-governmental organisations. Overall, a range of research methodologies are deployed; the chapters vary between using primary research, using commissioned research, and presenting theoretically grounded arguments. The tendency is towards approaches that capture the empirical, everyday experiences, e.g. ethnography, autoethnography, interviews, focus groups, and observation. This book was originally published as a special issue of Leisure Studies.

Nature sports such as skiing, climbing, and surfing have had a significant influence on Western popular culture since the mid-twentieth century and participation in such sports continues to grow. Written in a clear and accessible style, this important book provides a comprehensive philosophical analysis of nature sports. Philosophy and Nature Sports offers an engaging inquiry into how nature sports differ from mainstream sports, how these differences are related to their value as human activities, and the role of the environments in which such sports take place. Addressing the claim that the most distinctive feature of nature sports is the relationship between participants and the natural world, the book also examines a wide range of topics, such as ethics, risk, gender construction, the social role of nature sport subcultures and the aesthetic experiences of nature sports athletes. Tying these together is the question of what it is that attracts us to nature sports and why they hold meaning for us. This is a valuable resource for students and academics in fields such as alternative sports, alternative sport subcultures, sport philosophy, sport and social issues, ethics, and phenomenology. It is also a fascinating read for outdoor educators and practitioners.

Digital worlds and cultures-social media, web 2.0, youtube, wearable technologies, health and fitness apps-dominate, if not order, our everyday lives. We are no longer 'just' consumers or readers of digital culture but active producers through facebook, twitter, Instagram, youtube and other emerging technologies. This book is predicated on the assumption that out understanding of our everyday lives should be informed by what is taking place in and through emerging technologies given these (virtual) environments provide a crucial context where traditional, categorical assumptions about the body, identity and leisure may be contested. Far from being 'virtual', the body is constituted within and through emerging technologies in material ways. Recent 'moral panics' over the role of digital cultures in teen suicide, digital drinking games, an endless array of homoerotic images of young bodies being linked with steroid use, disordered eating and body dissatisfaction, facebook games/fundraising campaigns (e.g. for breast cancer), movements devoted to exposing 'everyday sexism' / metoo, twitter abuse (of feminists, of athletes, of racist nature to name but a few), speak to the need for critical engagement with digital cultures. While some of the earlier techno-utopian visions offered the promise of digitality to give rise to participatory, user generator collaborations, within this book we provide critical engagement with digital technologies and what this means for our understandings of leisure cultures. The chapters originally published in a special issue in Leisure Studies.

This book brings together cutting-edge research from leading international scholars to explore the geographies of making and craft. It traces the geographies of making practices from the body, to the workshop and studio, to the wider socio-cultural, economic, political, institutional and historical contexts. In doing so it considers how these geographies of making are in and of themselves part of the making of geographies. As such, contributions examine how making bodies and their intersections with matter come to shape subjects, create communities, evolve knowledge and make worlds. This book offers a forum to consider future directions for the field of geographies of making, craft and creativity. It will be of great interest to creative and cultural geographers, as well as those studying the arts, culture and sociology.

Is the garden a consumption site where identities are constructed? Do gardeners make aesthetic choices according to how they are positioned by class and gender? This book presents the first scholarly analysis of the relationship between media interest in gardening and cultural identities. With an examination of aesthetic dispositions as a symbolic mode of communication closely aligned to peoples' identities and drawing on ethnographic data gathered from encounters with gardeners, this book maps a typology of gardening taste, revealing that gardening - how plants are chosen, planted and cared for - is a classed and gendered practice manifested in specific types of visual aesthetics. This timely and original book develops a new area within cultural studies while contributing to debates about lifestyle and lifestyle media, consumption, class and methodology. A must read for anybody concerned with or intrigued by the cultural construction of identification practices.

There have been a number of social, political and economic shifts that have played a major role in constraining, enriching, mediating and altering everyday family interactions and family practices. These include globalization, economic instability, neoliberal government paradigms, a culture of consumerism, technological advancements, shifting demographics and changing parenting ideologies. This book considers what advancements have been made in family leisure research over the past two decades within the context of a rapidly shifting society and examines potential new directions for scholarship. The book begins with an emphasis on the need for scholarship that explores diverse constructions of family and provides a call to action for family-centered scholars to engage with broader social issues. A collection of authors argue the importance of expanding the understanding of family to include older adults, highlight the missing perspectives of recreation and leisure agencies in family scholarship, and examine the ways in which information communication technology may alter family leisure. Authors also consider the dominance of particular theoretical perspectives, and the limitations and consequences of such perspectives, to understand the complexity, diversity and richness of the lived family experience. The chapters in this book were originally published in a special issue of Leisure Sciences and an invited commentary in the Annals of Leisure Research.

Twitter, Facebook, online forums, blogs and websites - scholars are increasingly turning to digital sources to study sport and physical activity. These platforms have generated new digital content ripe for analysis and are making it possible to investigate communities that were previously inaccessible. However, they have also created theoretical, methodological, practical and ethical challenges. This book critically examines the opportunities open to qualitative researchers working in digital spaces and offers novel insights into how the rise of new technology is helping to shape sport studies. Showcasing original research on emerging themes, trends and issues such as digital sociology, media citizenship, online gaming, Big Data, fitness apps and online fan cultures, this collection leads the way in this fast-developing field of study. It not only considers the possibilities and limitations of using digital tools to conduct qualitative research into sport, but also provides innovative examples of how researchers can adapt successfully to ever-evolving technologies. Digital Qualitative Research in Sport and Physical Activity is essential reading for all students and scholars interested in the latest digital developments in sport studies and research methods.

The fitness industry is experiencing a new boom characterized by the proliferation of interactive and customizable technology, from exercise-themed video games to smartphone apps to wearable fitness trackers. This new technology presents the possibility of boundless self-tracking, generating highly personalized data for self-assessment and for sharing among friends. While this may be beneficial - for example, in encouraging physical activity - the new fitness boom also raises important questions about the very nature of our relationship with technology. This is the first book to examine these questions through a critical scholarly lens. Addressing key themes such as consumer experience, gamification, and surveillance, Fitness, Technology and Society argues that fitness technologies - by 'datafying' the body and daily experience - are turning fitness into a constant pursuit. The book explores the origins of contemporary fitness technologies, considers their implications for consumers, producers, and for society in general, and reflects on what they suggest about the future of fitness experience. Casting new light on theories of technology and the body, this is fascinating reading for all those interested in physical cultural studies, technology, and the sociology of sport.

Wild animals form an integral component of the human leisure experience. They are a significant part of the leisure industry and are economically valuable entities. However, as sentient beings, animals also have rights and welfare needs, and, like humans, may also have their own leisure desires and requirements. This collection provides an in-depth analysis of the rights and welfare of humans and wild animals as the two relate to one another within the sphere of leisure studies. It examines a wide array of animals, such as wolves, elephants, dolphins and apes, in a diverse range of leisure settings in international locations, from captive wild animals in zoos, hunting, swimming with dolphins and animals used as educators and for tourist entertainment. This book provides a forum for future considerations of wild animals and leisure and a voice for animal welfarist agendas that seek to improve the conditions under which wild animals interact with and are engaged with by humans.

The world s most popular sport, soccer is a global and cultural phenomenon. The television audience for the 2010 World Cup included nearly half of the world s population, with viewers in nearly every country. As a reflection of soccer s significance, the sport impacts countless aspects of the world s culture, from politics and religion to business and the arts. In The World through Soccer: The Cultural Impact of a Global Sport, Tamir Bar-On utilizes soccer to provide insights into worldwide politics, religion, ethics, marketing, business, leadership, philosophy, and the arts. Bar-On examines the ways in which soccer influences and reflects these aspects of society, and vice versa. Each chapter features representative players, providing specific examples of how soccer comments on and informs our lives. These players selected from a wide array of eras, countries, and backgrounds include Diego Maradona, Pele, Hugo Sanchez, Cha Bum-Kun, Roger Milla, Jose Luis Chilavert, Zinedine Zidane, Paolo Maldini, Cristiano Ronaldo, Xavi, Neymar, Clint Dempsey, Mia Hamm, and many others. Employing a unique lens to view a variety of topics, The World through Soccer reveals the sport s profound cultural impact. Combining philosophical, popular, and academic insights about our world, this book is aimed at both soccer fans and academics, offering readers a new perspective into a sport that affects millions."

Statues of fans as nostalgic monuments to the North American devotion to baseball, Canadian lacrosse and ethnic ideologies, the rise of modern sports and class sensibilities in Sao Paulo, the inaugural world championship for women's hockey, and national memories of Olympic Games hosted on US soil. What do these seemingly disparate themes have in common? They each comprise a facet of sporting experiences in the western hemisphere that took place between the 1890s and the 1990s. This collection offers new insights on the role of sport in defining local, regional, national, and international cultures in the western hemisphere. The essays offer historical perspectives on the power of sport to create common ground in modern societies while simultaneously exploring how it serves to mark cultural boundaries and reinforce cultural identities. From national pastimes to ethnic traditions, from class sensibilities to racial ideologies, Sport in the Americas presents novel contributions that examine both the singular and manifold patterns of culture that sport animates. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue in The International Journal of the History of Sport.

Often seen as the host nation's largest ever logistical undertaking, accommodating the Olympics and its attendant security infrastructure brings seismic changes to both the physical and social geography of its destination. Since 1976, the defence of the spectacle has become the central feature of its planning, one that has assumed even greater prominence following the bombing of the 1996 Atlanta Games and, most importantly, 9/11. Indeed, the quintupled cost of securing the first post-9/11 summer Games in Athens demonstrates the considerable scale and complexity currently implicated in these operations. Such costs are not only fiscal. The Games stimulate a tidal wave of redevelopment ushering in new gentrified urban settings and an associated investment that may or may not soak through to the incumbent community. Given the unusual step of developing London's Olympic Park in the heart of an existing urban milieu and the stated commitments to 'community development' and 'legacy', these constitute particularly acute issues for the 2012 Games. In addition to sealing the Olympic Park from perceived threats, 2012 security operations have also harnessed the administrative criminological staples of community safety and crime reduction to generate an ordered space in the surrounding areas. Of central importance here are the issues of citizenship, engagement and access in urban spaces redeveloped upon the themes of security and commerce. Through analyzing the social and community impact of the 2012 Games and its security operation on East London, this book concludes by considering the key debates as to whether utopian visions of legacy can be sustained given the demands of providing a global securitized event of the magnitude of the modern Olympics.

Sport and the Home Front contributes in significant and original ways to our understanding of the social and cultural history of the Second World War. It explores the complex and contested treatment of sport in government policy, media representations and the everyday lives of wartime citizens. Acknowledged as a core component of British culture, sport was also frequently criticised, marginalised and downplayed, existing in a constant state of tension between notions of normality and exceptionality, routine and disruption, the everyday and the extraordinary. The author argues that sport played an important, yet hitherto neglected, role in maintaining the morale of the British people and providing a reassuring sense of familiarity at a time of mass anxiety and threat. Through the conflict, sport became increasingly regarded as characteristic of Britishness; a symbol of the 'ordinary' everyday lives in defence of which the war was being fought. Utilised to support the welfare of war workers, the entertainment of service personnel at home and abroad and the character formation of schoolchildren and young citizens, sport permeated wartime culture, contributing to new ways in which the British imagined the past, present and future. Using a wide range of personal and public records - from diary writing and club minute books to government archives - this book breaks new ground in both the history of the British home front and the history of sport.

At the intersection of sport, entertainment and performance, wrestling occupies a unique position in British popular culture. This is the first book to offer a detailed historical and cultural analysis of British professional wrestling, exploring the shifting popularity of the sport as well as its wider social significance. Arguing that the history of professional wrestling can help us understand key themes in sport, culture and performance that span the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it addresses topics such as: attitudes towards violence, representations of masculinity, the media and celebrity culture, consumerism and globalisation. By drawing on a variety of intellectual traditions and disciplines, the book explores the role of power in the development of popular cultural forms, the ways in which history structures the present, and the manner in which audiences construct identity and meaning through sport. Wrestling in Britain: Sporting Entertainments, Celebrity and Audiences is fascinating reading for all students and researchers with an interest in media and cultural studies, histories and sociologies of sport, or performance studies.

This study uses sociological and historical methodologies to analyze the role of sport in the formation of urban identity in Chicago. The author traces the transformation of Chicago from a frontier town to a commercial behemoth, examining its role as an immigration, transportation, and entertainment hub. The author argues that, as a pioneering leader in American sport history, Chicago allowed teams and athletes to forge a unique national and global identity. This thorough and well-researched study makes a major contribution to debates on the social and psychological functions of sport culture.

Whilst corruption and organized crime have been widely researched, they have not yet been specifically linked to sport. Corruption, Mafia Power and Italian Soccer offers an original insight into this new research area. Adopting a psycho-social approach based mainly on Pierre Bourdieu's praxeology, the book demonstrates that corruption and the mafia presence in Italian soccer reflect the Italian socio-political and economic system itself. Supported by interviews with security agency officials, anticorruption organisations and antimafia organisations, and analysing empirical data obtained from a case study of 'Operation Dirty Soccer', this important study explains why mafia groups are involved in soccer, what the links are to political corruption and what might be done to control the problem. It also examines the mechanisms that make it possible for mafia groups and affiliates to enter the football industry and discusses how mafia groups exploit and corrupt Italian football. This is important reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers and academics working in the areas of sociology, criminology, policing, anthropology, the sociology of sport, sport deviance, sport management and organised crime. It is also a valuable resource for practitioners in the football industry.

Sport is commonly used by charities and philanthropic organisations as a way of acquiring donors and fundraisers. In this ground-breaking study, Kyle Bunds examines the nexus of sport, politics and the charity industry through an investigation of water development agencies that raise funds in the developed world to build water systems in the developing world. Using innovative auto-ethnographic research methods, this book examines the links between water charities, charity running events and water development projects in the UK, USA, Canada and Africa. By exploring the political economy of philanthropy from a critical perspective, it suggests new ways in which to support and improve the relationships between sport, wider society and the environment. Posing important questions about the potential environmental impact of sport on an international level, this study presents a compelling vision of the future of water charities across the globe. Sport, Politics and the Charity Industry: Running for Water is fascinating reading for all those interested in sport and politics, sports geography, sport and the environment, sports development, or sport and the charity industry.

This ethnographic study of a mixed martial arts gym in Thailand describes the everyday practices and lived experiences of martial art practitioners. Through the lived realities and everyday experiences of these fighters, this book seeks to examine why foreigners invest their time and money to train in martial arts in Thailand; the linkages between the embodiment of martial arts and masculinity; how foreign bodies consume martial arts and what they get out of it; the sensory reconfiguration required of a fighter; and the impact of transnational flows on bodily dispositions and knowledge. The author argues that being a successful fighter entails not only sensitized awareness and knowledge of one's body, but also a reconfiguration of the senses.

This book offers a collection of cutting-edge essays on the relationship between crime, harm and consumer culture. Although consumer culture has been addressed across the social sciences, it has yet to be fully explored in criminology. The editors bring together an impressive list of authors with original ideas and a fresh perspective to this field. The collection first introduces the reader to three sets of ideas which will be especially useful to students and researchers piecing together theoretical frameworks for their studies. New concepts such as pseudo-pacification, the materialist libertine and the commodification of abstinence can be used as foundation stones for new explanatory criminological analyses in the 21st century. The collection then moves on to present case studies based on rigorous empirical work in the fields of consumption and debt, 'outlaw' gangs, illegal drug markets, gambling, the mentality that drives investment fraudsters and the relationship between social media and state surveillance. These case studies showcase the strength of the research skills and knowledge these scholars offer to the field of criminology. Written in a clear and direct style, this book will appeal to students and scholars in criminology, sociology, cultural studies, social theory and those interested in learning about the effects of consumer culture in modern society.

Urban Events, Place Branding and Promotion explores the phenomenon of place event marketing, examining the ways in which events are used to brand and disseminate information about a place. It provides a novel contribution to the literature, capturing the growing interest in place promotion, and offers in-depth insights on the role of events. With a focus on urban locations, this book defines the scope and concept of place event marketing. It demonstrates that different kinds of events, for leisure and business, can be used to successfully develop, promote and brand different types of places. Individual chapters written by a variety of leading academics explore how various public and non-governmental institutions that deal with promotion and marketing communications of places can implement event marketing activities and how such institutions organize, co-organize and sponsor different events. The effects of event marketing activities on urban place promotion and branding are thoroughly explored through a variety of international empirical case studies. This will be of great interest to upper-level students and researchers in events marketing and management, tourism and the broader field of urban geography. The concluding chapter also proposes future research directions.

We frequently engage with that which we consciously perceive not to be real, yet fantasy, despite its pervasive presence and strong role in everyday life through its connection to identities, communities, desires, and meanings, has yet to be properly defined and researched. This book examines fantasy from a performance theory perspective. Drawing on multidisciplinary literature, it presents ethnographic and art-based research on live action role-playing games to explore fantasy as a bodily and negotiated phenomenon that involves various kinds of engagement with one's surroundings. Overall, this book is a study of various forms and roles that fantasy can take on as part of contemporary Western culture. The study suggests that fantasy emerges as a different type of interpretation of normalised performance and reality, and can thus provide individuals with the tools to wield agency in everyday life. The book will appeal to scholars of sociology, cultural and media studies, literature and performance studies.

Over recent decades, bicycling has received renewed interest as a means of improving transportation through crowded cities, improving personal health, and reducing environmental impacts associated with travel. Much of the discussion surrounding cycling has focused on bicycle facility design-how to best repurpose road infrastructure to accommodate bicycling. While part of the discussion has touched on culture, such as how to make bicycling a larger part of daily life, city design and planning have been sorely missing from consideration. Whilst interdisciplinary in its scope, this book takes a primarily planning approach to examining active transportation, and especially bicycling, in urban areas. The volume examines the land use aspects of the city-not just the streetscape. Illustrated using a range of case studies from the USA, Canada, and Australia, the volume provides a comprehensive overview of key topics of concern around cycling in the city including: imagining the future of bicycle-friendly cities; integrating bicycling into urban planning and design; the effects of bike use on health and environment; policies for developing bicycle infrastructure and programs; best practices in bicycle facility design and implementation; advances in technology, and economic contributions.

Expanding on the work in the volume Multiplayer, this new book explores several other areas related to social gaming in detail. The aim is to go beyond a typical "edited book" concept, and offer a very concise volume with several focal points that are most relevant for the current debate about multiplayer games, both in academia and society. As a result, the volume offers the latest research findings on online gaming, social forms of gaming, identification, gender issues and games for change, primarily applying a social-scientific approach.

The summer Olympic Games are renowned for producing the world's biggest single-city cultural event. While the Olympics and other sport mega-events have received growing levels of academic investigation from a variety of disciplinary approaches, relatively little is known about how such occasions are experienced directly by local host communities and publics. This ethnography examines the everyday policing of the London Borough of Newham in relation to the London 2012 Olympics. It explains how police defined, monitored, prioritized, contained and investigated 'Olympic-related' crime, and how 'Olympic-related' policing connected to the policing of Newham. The authors examine how the threat of terrorism impacted on the everyday policing of the 2012 Olympics, as well as the exaggeration of other threats to the Games - such as youth gangs - for political reasons. The book also explores local resistance to Olympic policing, and the legacy of the Games with regard to policing, local housing, demographics and social exclusion. Discussing the lessons that can be learned for the future staging of sporting mega-events, this book will appeal to scholars and students with interests in sport, policing, crime and criminology, mega-events, event management, urban studies, global studies and sociology.