This book provides a definitive and comprehensive contribution to the expanding body of research related to sport/physical culture and the COVID-19 global pandemic. By examining the generative complexities that simultaneously link and shape sport/physical culture and COVID, the book develops a collection of multi-faceted readings. The anthology is framed by an ontological understanding prefigured on relationality, liminality, and perpetual becoming. The contributions theoretically, methodologically and representationally explore COVID-sport assemblages as a dynamic and diverse "ad hoc grouping"of interpenetrating affecting elements, encompassing material and expressive forms, human and non-human, animate and inanimate matter. The book will be of interest to advanced undergraduate and students and scholars of kinesiology, sociology of sport, critical studies of the body, physical education, sport and social issues, public health, physical cultural studies, sociology, foreign policy studies, and international studies.

The world of sport is saturated with the signs and images of transnational corporations. But what effect does the relationship between sport and transnational corporate capitalism have on national cultural identities?From baseball in Japan to the growth of womens soccer in the US, from the corporate use of sport after September 11th to the FA Cup and the NBA, sporting events and their corporate partners can have a profound impact on collective imaginations at both transnational and local levels. Sport and Corporate Nationalisms explores the localized logics and practices underlying the marketing initiatives of major conglomerates and their increasing influence on the shaping and experiencing of national cultures. Corporations depend on sport as a vital marketing vehicle for inserting their interests into the lives of local consumers. This book puts forth convincing arguments that relate the role of sport-marketing complexes to national cultural markets in a global age.Sport and Corporate Nationalisms provides a much-needed analysis of the growing evolution of marketing strategies in the world of sport.

Sport studies is becoming an increasingly popular discipline, but the most effective research methods used to investigate the multi-faceted nature of the empirical sporting world have yet to be identified. This book makes a timely and relevant contribution to a broader methodological project as the first systematic examination and explication of qualitative research methods within sports studies. Bringing together leading experts in the field, Qualitative Methods in Sports Studies assesses a variety of approaches, ranging from social historical, media text, and personal narrative to ethnographic and interview-based qualitative research methodologies. Drawing on the diversity of sport studies literature, contributors outline the major issues and strategies associated with each method and highlight best practice exemplars to follow. What are the future opportunities and avenues for further investigation within sports studies research? What are the true assets of qualitative data collection and analysis? Answering these and countless other questions that are critical for the future of the discipline, this practical research guide is an essential reference tool for students and scholar

Recent developments in the angular momentum of light present fresh challenges to long established concepts and pave the way for new and wide-ranging applications. The scope for structured light such as optical vortices, in particular, now extends from microfluidics to quantum information. This is the first comprehensive edited collection dealing with light carrying spin and orbital angular momentum, covering both fundamental and applied aspects. Written by internationally leading specialists, the chapters have been compiled to reflect the latest scientific progress and to address the multitude of theoretical, experimental and technical issues associated with this vibrant and exciting field. The volume is an authoritative reference for academic researchers and graduate students engaged in theoretical or experimental study of optical angular momentum and its applications. It will also benefit professionals in physics, optics and optical engineering, chemistry and biology.

In the new edition the editors have preserved the basic concept and structure, with the involvement of some new authors - all recognized experts in laser spectroscopy. Each chapter addresses a different technique, providing a review and analysis of the current status, and reporting some of the latest achievements. With the key formulas and methods detailed in many sections, this text represents a practicable handbook of its subject. It will be a valuable tool both for specialists to keep abreast of developments and for newcomers to the field needing an accessible introduction to specific methods of laser spectroscopy - and also as a resource for primary references.

Reaching beyond the popular celebration of commercial gains often associated with the proliferation of stadiums, events, and teams in the city, Sporting Dystopias explores the role of sport in the process of community building. Scholars from various fields, including anthropology, cultural studies, history, marketing, media studies, and sociology, examine the cultural, economic, and political interplay of sport and the city. The book systematically challenges the overwhelming claims of sport's benefit to the city as it scrutinizes the various tensions inherent in the relationship. Grounded in economic means, racial and ethnic affiliation, and the contestation for space, sport is seen as precipitating a broad range of human challenges.

This book provides a broad introductory survey of this remarkable field, aiming to establish and clearly differentiate its physical principles, and also to provide a snapshot portrait of many of the most prominent current applications. Primary emphasis is placed on developing an understanding of the fundamental photonic origin behind the mechanism that operates in each type of effect. To this end, the first few chapters introduce and develop core theory, focusing on the physical significance and source of the most salient parameters, and revealing the detailed interplay between the key material and optical properties. Where appropriate, both classical and photonic (quantum mechanical) representations are discussed. The number of equations is purposely kept to a minimum, and only a broad background in optical physics is assumed. With copious examples and illustrations, each of the subsequent chapters then sets out to explain and exhibit the main features and uses of the various distinct types of mechanism that can be involved in optical nanomanipulation, including some of the very latest developments. To complete the scene, we also briefly discuss applications to larger, biological particles. Overall, this book aims to deliver to the non-specialist an amenable introduction to the technically more advanced literature on individual manipulation methods. Full references to the original research papers are given throughout, and an up-to-date bibliography is provided for each chapter, which directs the reader to other selected, more specialised sources.

Manchester United is a football club like no other. The most popular sports club in history, it has an annual turnover of over pound]130 million and a stock market value that has topped pound]1 billion. Its triumph as an international commercial venture matches its success on the pitch in the UK's Premier League and in stadiums throughout Europe. At this time in late capitalism when the boundaries between cultural and commercial concerns have become increasingly invisible, Manchester United, the football club, provides us with a fascinating study in the evolution of sporting, social, cultural and economic change. In this, the first book to offer a rigorous, theoretically grounded treatment of the Manchester United phenomenon, leading academics from diverse backgrounds have written chapters, each interrogating a particular aspect of our central theme, Manchester United FC. The result is a unique contribution to our understanding of Manchester United in particular, and, perhaps more significantly, of contemporary sporting and popular culture in general.

This book explores the history and politics of motor racing, one of the most popular and lucrative elements in the international sport industry. Written by a group of international scholars and motor racing specialists it discusses the sport’s origins, the relationship of motor racing to nation building and modernity (noting its links to fascism and dictatorship), the links between motor racing and the automobile industry, motor racing and the politics both of gender and of race, motor racing, the media and postmodernity, and motor racing, the spatial and globalization. This book speaks to scholars in history, politics, sport studies, the sociology of sport, sport management and cultural studies, along with the many lay readers who are interested in the relationship between motor sport and society.

This book provides a fresh, photon-based description of modern molecular spectroscopy and photophysics, with applications drawn from chemistry, biology, physics and materials science.

Commodified and Criminalized examines the centrality of sport to discussions of racial ideologies and racist practices in the 21st century. It disputes familiar refrains of racial progress, arguing that athletes sit in a contradictory position masked by the logics of new racism and dominant white racial frames. Contributors discuss athletes ranging from Tiger Woods and Serena Williams to Freddy Adu and Shani Davis. Through dynamic case studies, Commodified and Criminalized unpacks the conversation between black athletes and colorblind discourse, while challenging the assumptions of contemporary sports culture. The contributors in this provocative collection push the conversation beyond the playing field and beyond the racial landscape of sports culture to explore the connections between sports representations and a broader history of racialized violence.

Commodified and Criminalized examines the centrality of sport to discussions of racial ideologies and racist practices in the 21st century. It disputes familiar refrains of racial progress, arguing that athletes sit in a contradictory position masked by the logics of new racism and dominant white racial frames. Contributors discuss athletes ranging from Tiger Woods and Serena Williams to Freddy Adu and Shani Davis. Through dynamic case studies, Commodified and Criminalized unpacks the conversation between black athletes and colorblind discourse, while challenging the assumptions of contemporary sports culture. The contributors in this provocative collection push the conversation beyond the playing field and beyond the racial landscape of sports culture to explore the connections between sports representations and a broader history of racialized violence.

Despite the range of theoretical and methological positions adopted and the wide range of issues and topics related to advertising covered by cultural studies, relationships between sport and advertising have been largely overlooked.
Given its gobal popularity and its prevalence across the spectrum of cultural and commercial life it is not surprising that scholars interrogating the cultural politics of sport have begun to recognise advertising as an important site for the analysis of power relations, cultural politics and cultural repesentation.
Sport, Culture and Advertising presents a first step towards understanding the relationship between advertising and identity with a focus on sport. The book will be useful for scholars across a range of disciplines and will be of interest to students looking for a more critical examination of the commercial realm of sport.

Despite the range of theoretical and methological positions adopted and the wide range of issues and topics related to advertising covered by cultural studies, relationships between sport and advertising have been largely overlooked.
Given its gobal popularity and its prevalence across the spectrum of cultural and commercial life it is not surprising that scholars interrogating the cultural politics of sport have begun to recognise advertising as an important site for the analysis of power relations, cultural politics and cultural repesentation.
Sport, Culture and Advertising presents a first step towards understanding the relationship between advertising and identity with a focus on sport. The book will be useful for scholars across a range of disciplines and will be of interest to students looking for a more critical examination of the commercial realm of sport.

This book discusses both the theoretical and practical aspects of optics, photonics and lasers, presenting new methods, technologies, advanced prototypes, systems, tools and techniques as well as a general survey indicating future trends and directions. The main fields addressed include nonlinear optical phenomena, photonics for energy, high-field phenomena, photonic and optoelectronic sensors and devices, optical communications, biomedical optics and photonics. It also covers a large spectrum of materials, ranging from semiconductor-based optical materials to optical glasses, organic materials, photorefractive materials and nanophotonic materials, as well as applications such as metrology, optometry, adaptive optics, all optical instrumentation, optical communications, quantum information, lighting technologies, energy harvesting and optically based biomedical diagnosis and therapeutics.

In a culture obsessed with celebrity, sportmen and women are some of the highest profile figures. We are fascinated by sport stars' lifestyles, love lives, and earning power. Sport Star investigates the nature of contemporary sporting celebrity, examining stars' often turbulent relationships with the media, and with the sporting establishment. Through a series of case studies of sporting stars, including Diego Maradona, Michael Jordan, Venus Williams and David Beckham, contributors examine the cultural, political, economic and technological forces which combine to produce sporting celebrity, and consider the ways in which these most public of individuals inform and influence private experience.

In a culture obsessed with celebrity, sportmen and women are some of the highest profile figures. We are fascinated by sport stars' lifestyles, love lives, and earning power. Sport Star investigates the nature of contemporary sporting celebrity, examining stars' often turbulent relationships with the media, and with the sporting establishment.
Through a series of case studies of sporting stars, including Diego Maradona, Michael Jordan, Venus Williams and David Beckham, contributors examine the cultural, political, economic and technological forces which combine to produce sporting celebrity, and consider the ways in which these most public of individuals inform and influence private experience.

Blending critical theory, conjunctural cultural studies, and assemblage theory, Making Sport Great Again introduces and develops the concept of uber-sport: the sporting expression of late capitalism's conjoined corporatizing, commercializing, spectacularizing, and celebritizing forces. On different scales and in varying spaces, the uber-sport assemblage is revealed both to surreptitiously reinscribe the neoliberal preoccupation with consumption and to nurture the individualized consumer subject. Andrews further probes how uber-sport normalizes the ideological orientations and associate affective investments of the Trump assemblage's authoritarian populism. Even as it articulates the regressive politicization of sport, Making Sport Great Again serves also as a call to action: how might progressives rearticulate uber-sport in emancipatory and actualizing political formations?

Structured Light for Optical Communication highlights principles and applications in the rapidly evolving field of structured light in wide-ranging contexts, from classical forms of communication to new frontiers of quantum communication. Besides the basic principles and applications, the book covers the background of structured light in its most common forms, as well as state-of-the-art developments. Structured light has been hailed as affording outstanding prospects for the realization of high bandwidth communication, enhanced tools for more highly secure cryptography, and exciting opportunities for providing a reliable platform for quantum computing. This book is a valuable resource for graduate students and other active researchers, as well as others who may be interested in learning about this cutting-edge research field.

Remarkably sustained advances in the development of new lasers and their applications in spectroscopy have prompted this revised and expanded edition of the highly successful Introduction to Laser Spectroscopy, first published in 1995. In the new edition the editors have preserved the basic concept and structure, with the involvement of some new authors - all recognized experts in laser spectroscopy. Each chapter addresses a different technique, providing a review and analysis of the current status, and reporting some of the latest achievements. With the key formulas and methods detailed in many sections, this text represents a practicable handbook of its subject. It will be a valuable tool both for specialists to keep abreast of developments and for newcomers to the field needing an accessible introduction to specific methods of laser spectroscopy - and also as a resource for primary references.
The first two chapters lay out the technical details of the main laser systems now employed for spectroscopy, and then the principles and applications of absorption and fluorescence measurements. Following a description of Raman scattering, the development of pump-probe techniques is then traced. The next chapters deal more specifically with applications of laser-induced fluorescence, first addressing diagnostics for biochemical systems, and then applications to ordered systems. The use of tunable infrared lasers for the spectroscopy of transient species is discussed in the next chapter, followed by an introduction to optical nonlinearity focusing on its surface applications. The utilisation of nonlinear optics for tunable ultraviolet generation is then described and the penultimate chapter gives a description of femtosecond laser ionisation applied in mass spectrometry. The book concludes with a survey of the environmental applications of laser remote sensing.

Here is the first graduate-level textbook to offer an introduction to the field of laser spectroscopy. Chapters cover a broad range of topics in detail, emphasizing the theoretical and experimental aspects of the field. This much-needed text will allow students to explore current research and gain an understanding of the analytical and industrial applications of laser spectroscopy.

This book explores the role of surface effects in optical phenomena in nanoscience, from two different perspectives. When systems are reduced in volume, the ratio of surface versus volume increases. At the level of single nanostructures this translates into an enhanced role of interfacial chemistry and thermodynamics. At the level of systems of nanostructures, it translates into larger density on interfaces, which in turn leads to such intriguing collective effects as plasmonics or multiple reflection and refraction phenomena. The book highlights both perspectives presenting sample applications. Without claiming to be exhaustive, the book aims to stimulate readers in this potentially rewarding field.

Sociocultural Issues in Sport and Physical Activity explores the intersections between modern physical activity and society. The text surpasses the scope of sociological texts that focus solely on sports, covering a broad range of physical activities such as fitness, dance, weightlifting, and others. The authors emphasize the promotion of healthy individuals and a healthy body in the many movement settings where the body is active. Sociocultural Issues in Sport and Physical Activity explores contemporary topics such as reducing disparities in education and income, increasing socioeconomic diversity in communities, the medicalization of fitness, the rise of cosmetic fitness, the promotion of physical activity as a requirement for health, and the globalization of the fitness industry. The text includes the following features to enhance student engagement: Chapter objectives help students achieve their learning goals Key points and terms to highlight important information throughout the text Active Bodies sidebars that offer context for concepts presented in the chapter and provide examples and applications Discussion questions that provide opportunities to reflect on chapter topics Part I of Sociocultural Issues in Sport and Physical Activity examines political, educational, media, and economic institutions that influence the relationship between society and physical activity. Part II explores how an individual's race, gender, social class, and ability are interpreted through a social lens. Part III of the text discusses the process of developing healthy populations as well as promoting public health and body positivity. Sociocultural Issues in Sport and Physical Activity offers a cross-cultural perspective of society, health, and the body in motion. Readers will finish the text with a greater understanding of social theory applications in physical culture.