This book examines how social issues shape and influence our engagement with sport, leisure time physical activity and health-promoting exercise. Connecting the personal with the public, it helps the reader to develop a deeper understanding of how social contexts and structures create or constrain opportunities for exercise, leisure and sport. Presenting a series of in-depth descriptions of grassroots sport, urban lifestyle sport, physical activity across the life course, sport for children with special needs, and the development of creative climates in sport, the book seeks to encourage what C. Wright Mills described as the ‘sociological imagination’. Every chapter begins with an individual-level account centered on everyday challenges with accessing sport, partaking in leisure activities, and meeting guidelines for daily exercise before exploring the larger, socially-determined patterns in which those experiences are located, establishing a vital template for the social scientific study of sport, leisure and health. Touching on key contemporary themes including diversity, inclusion, non-participation and health inequalities, the book offers new case material and theoretical tools for understanding the relationships between sport, leisure, health and wider society. This is an indispensable companion for any course on the sociology of sport, exercise, leisure, or physical activity and health.

This book examines how social issues shape and influence our engagement with sport, leisure time physical activity and health-promoting exercise. Connecting the personal with the public, it helps the reader to develop a deeper understanding of how social contexts and structures create or constrain opportunities for exercise, leisure and sport. Presenting a series of in-depth descriptions of grassroots sport, urban lifestyle sport, physical activity across the life course, sport for children with special needs, and the development of creative climates in sport, the book seeks to encourage what C. Wright Mills described as the ‘sociological imagination’. Every chapter begins with an individual-level account centered on everyday challenges with accessing sport, partaking in leisure activities, and meeting guidelines for daily exercise before exploring the larger, socially-determined patterns in which those experiences are located, establishing a vital template for the social scientific study of sport, leisure and health. Touching on key contemporary themes including diversity, inclusion, non-participation and health inequalities, the book offers new case material and theoretical tools for understanding the relationships between sport, leisure, health and wider society. This is an indispensable companion for any course on the sociology of sport, exercise, leisure, or physical activity and health.

Rethinking Sports and Integration offers a critical cultural analysis of the idea that sport can promote the integration of migrants and their descendants. It examines the origins of this idea and the concept of integration, and analyzes the problems in focus, the methods applied and the results of sports-related integration programmes. The text also redefines sports-related integration with perspectives from migration studies that highlight the super-diversity within migrant groups, and explore the various ways in which transnational connections influence participation in sport within migrant communities. This book is important reading for students and researchers working in sport development, sport policy or migration studies, as well as a valuable resource for sports governing bodies, policymakers and project workers.

Estimated participation figures of almost 30 million worldwide make soccer the most prominent team sport amongst girls and women. However, making a living as a female player is only deemed possible in approximately 20 out of around 150 FIFA-listed women's soccer countries. This has led to a situation where highly skilled sports women have to migrate from their homelands to find employment with a professional team. Women, Soccer and Transnational Migration represents a substantial contribution to our knowledge on the development of women's soccer, to research into sports labor migration and sport and globalization more broadly. The book consists of three parts. Firstly, it provides an overview and an analysis of migration in women's soccer from its earliest forms until now. It then presents several case studies, delivered by scholars from around the world, illustrating how female players are increasingly being drawn to the USA, Northern Europe and Scandinavia due to their ability to support professional leagues. Finally, all the themes and patterns of these case studies are drawn together to be able to compare and contrast migration in women's soccer to sport migration and globalization more broadly. This study not only makes recommendations for future researchers, but may also serve as an important source of information for those in charge of policy. As such, it is essential reading for students, lecturers, researchers and practitioners involved in sports migration and women's sport.

Estimated participation figures of almost 30 million worldwide make soccer the most prominent team sport amongst girls and women. However, making a living as a female player is only deemed possible in approximately 20 out of around 150 FIFA-listed women's soccer countries. This has led to a situation where highly skilled sports women have to migrate from their homelands to find employment with a professional team. Women, Soccer and Transnational Migration represents a substantial contribution to our knowledge on the development of women's soccer, to research into sports labor migration and sport and globalization more broadly. The book consists of three parts. Firstly, it provides an overview and an analysis of migration in women's soccer from its earliest forms until now. It then presents several case studies, delivered by scholars from around the world, illustrating how female players are increasingly being drawn to the USA, Northern Europe and Scandinavia due to their ability to support professional leagues. Finally, all the themes and patterns of these case studies are drawn together to be able to compare and contrast migration in women's soccer to sport migration and globalization more broadly. This study not only makes recommendations for future researchers, but may also serve as an important source of information for those in charge of policy. As such, it is essential reading for students, lecturers, researchers and practitioners involved in sports migration and women's sport.

Rethinking Sports and Integration offers a critical cultural analysis of the idea that sport can promote the integration of migrants and their descendants. It examines the origins of this idea and the concept of integration, and analyzes the problems in focus, the methods applied and the results of sports-related integration programmes. The text also redefines sports-related integration with perspectives from migration studies that highlight the super-diversity within migrant groups, and explore the various ways in which transnational connections influence participation in sport within migrant communities. This book is important reading for students and researchers working in sport development, sport policy or migration studies, as well as a valuable resource for sports governing bodies, policymakers and project workers.