Sports (Sociology)

Introduction

Although sport has been a subject for study at the undergraduate degree level its own right since at least the 1980s, some people still express surprise that the subject is considered appropriate for academic analysis. It is seen by some as too trivial, marginal, or epiphenomenal to warrant serious attention. Others view sport as a hermetically sealed world of its own, apart from the rest of society. Indeed, for both participants and spectators this perceived separateness may be part of its appeal. Yet by any standards, sport is a set of cultural practices with significant sociological resonances. A historical sociological understanding of sport and its place in processes of social change and cultural reproduction makes it clear that “sport” has no fixed meaning—it has had different meanings in different societies, and it refers to different activities at different historical moments. Most people today would not view cruelty to animals as a sport, but until the early 19th century, cruelty to animals was a central aspect of sport. Hunting and shooting are now seen as rather marginal sporting activities, yet in the 18th century they would have been at the heart of the meaning of the term; indeed, the very notion of the “sporting man” referred to the hunting man. The meaning of the term sport, therefore, involves a form of social construction, which can be analyzed from a sociological perspective. Today, sport and fitness loom large in the mass media. Sports television programs, dedicated sport channels, sports pages and sport supplements in newspapers, specialist sport magazines, and sport-related websites have become increasingly prominent. Although only a small minority of the population are active participants, a great many more have some degree of interest in following sport. The images derived from sport play a significant role in constituting our notions of the body and how it should, ideally, look. In both representational forms and in lived practices, sport is one of the cultural spheres that most distinctively mark out gender identities and differences. The activities of top sport stars are highly publicized, and debate rages about the extent to which they are role models who have a responsibility to set a good example. Many politicians are fond of sporting metaphors. Alongside these realities, sport has consistently provided a forum for the expression of national identity.

General Overviews and Online Resources

The growth in the sociological study of sport, and the volume of research into specialist aspects of sport and society, has produced a burgeoning literature of books, edited collections, and specialist journals, as described in Malcolm 2012. This article is mainly a guide to texts—textbooks and collections of articles and monographs—rather than journal articles. Those looking for specific journal article references could use the reading lists in the textbooks, the journals mentioned in the relevant section or the following online resources. Both the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984 and the London Olympic and Paralympics Games in 2012 saw attempts to develop online resources for scholars of sport and the Olympics in particular. The LA84 Foundation funds youth sport in Southern California, trains coaches, and examines the role of sport in society. The foundation is the legacy of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. In addition, the LA84 Foundation maintains a traditional paper-based library as well as a growing digital library. Together, these collections cover all aspects of sport, with a particular emphasis on Olympic information. Library visits are by appointment only. The traditional library holds 40,000 printed volumes, 6,000 microform volumes, 7,000 videos, 400 periodical titles, and 90,000 photo images. The Sports Library & Digital Collection provides several hundred thousand PDFs of articles, books, and other documents available at no cost to website visitors. The digital collection includes journals such as Football Studies, Journal of Olympic History, Journal of Sport History, Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, Olympika, and Sport in History and all the Official Olympic Reports (from1896 onward). The British Library “Sport and Society” website was established in 2010 and took the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games as a platform upon which to introduce the wide range of sports-related social science material held at the library. This online resource can now be found at the UK Web Archive. While this article provides a guide to a small fraction of the literature that has been produced on sociology and sport in the English language (and most notably in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand), it is worth noting that other societies have equally long traditions of sociological study into sport that are available in other languages (in French, for example: see Pociello 1981).

LA84 Foundation.
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The LA84 Foundation funds youth sports in Southern California, trains coaches, and examines the role of sport in society. The foundation is a legacy of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
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Malcolm, D. 2012. Sport and sociology. London: Routledge.
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This book assesses the growth of the sociology of sport, traces its developmental phases, and takes stock of the current state of knowledge. Focusing on central issues and concepts within sociological discourse such as race, gender, celebrity, the body, and social theory, the book assesses the successes and failures of the sociology of sport in influencing the parent discipline, related subdisciplines, and the wider public. Of use most especially to senior undergraduate and graduate students.
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Pociello, C. 1981. Sports et société: Approche socio-culturelle des pratiques. Paris: Vigot.
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An edited collection of chapters written by scholars influenced by the work of Pierre Bourdieu, among other French social theorists.
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Sports Library & Digital Collection.
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The LA84 Foundation maintains a traditional paper-based library as well as a growing digital library. Together, these collections cover all aspects of sport, with a particular emphasis on Olympic information. Library visits are by appointment only. Library hours: Monday–Friday 10:00 am to 5:00 pm (excluding holidays).
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UK Web Archive.
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The UK Web Archive contains thousands of UK websites that have been collected since 2004. Here you can see how sites have changed over time, locate information no longer available on the live Web and observe the history of a range of UK activities represented online. “Sport & Society–The Summer Olympics and Paralympics through the Lens of social science” is a site archived for preservation by the British Library via the UK Web Archive. It contains examples of social scientific writing on sport and the Olympic and Paralympic Games especially.
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Textbooks

Although the sociology of sport developed throughout the world, it is usually acknowledged that the main site of its initial growth was North America (especially the United States and Canada). A marked feature of publications in these countries was the early emergence of textbooks and collections of articles that provided a stronger basis for institutional development than elsewhere. For example, John Loy and Gerald Kenyon edited the first collection of articles, Sport, Culture and Society: A Reader on the Sociology of Sport, in 1969 (New York: Macmillan), in 1971 Eric Dunning edited The Sociology of Sport: A Collection of Readings (London: Frank Cass), and Harry Edwards published the first textbook in 1973 (Sociology of Sport, Homewood, IL: Dorsey Press). While several other textbooks and collections of articles have been published since the 1970s in the United States and elsewhere, the title that has been revised most often, and therefore that might be considered the most read, is Jay Coakley’s Sport in Society: Issues and Controversies (Coakley 2015). In addition to the volume focused on the United States—now in its eleventh edition—adapted volumes have been published for the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and a volume for South Africa is forthcoming. Sports in Society provides an accessible introduction to research and theory in the sociology of sport. An online learning center accompanies this book and offers a range of support materials for lecturers as well as resources and tests for students. Earlier editions of the US volume have been translated into Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Textbooks are usually written with first-year undergraduate students in mind. They cover a range of topics, some texts providing more detail than others. For example, in addition to Coakley and Pike 2014, Horne, et al. 2013 focuses on the sociocultural and historical development of sport in the United Kingdom, although it does deal with globalization and draws on examples from the rest of the world when discussing research topics. Jarvie and Thornton 2012 ranges more globally and has chapters dealing with topics such as identity and social justice. Giulianotti 2005 offers a textbook that is more suitable for senior undergraduates and even graduate students. It approaches sport via different theoretical approaches in social theory, which may not be appropriate for an introductory readership.

Coakley, J. 2015. Sport in society: Issues and controversies. 11th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
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Now in its eleventh edition this undergraduate textbook is primarily written for readers in the United States, but the model is used in other versions of Coakley’s book. The book has particularly useful chapters on social theories, socialization, gender, race and ethnicity, social class, and the media. Coakley encourages readers to think critically about issues and controversies in sports—by posing questions as chapter headings—while considering their own personal experiences, families, schools, communities, and societies.
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Coakley, J., and E. Pike. 2014. Sports in society. 2d ed. London: McGraw-Hill.
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This textbook, co-written with Elizabeth Pike, contains material with specific relevance to students in the United Kingdom, and it has been updated since it first appeared in 2009 to take into account the London 2012 Olympic Games. Like the US-focused volume, it adopts a topics-based approach organized around questions about the interaction of sports, culture and society.
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Crossman, J., and J. Scherer, eds. 2015. Social dimensions of Canadian sport and physical activity. Toronto: Pearson.
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This edited textbook provides an up-to-date, comprehensive overview of the relationship between sport and key sociological issues, with a specific focus on the Canadian sports industry. It includes chapters on theories of sport, history, social stratification, ethnicity and race, sex, gender and sexuality, youth and children, sport and physical activity in educational institutions, deviance, violence, media, politics, globalization, and the business of sport.
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Giulianotti, R. 2005. Sport: A critical sociology. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
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This book examines a range of widely taught sociological theories and issues that relate to sport. These include functionalism, Weberian sociology, Marxism, postmodern sociology, and globalization. The author’s use of an international range of case studies and research about a wide variety of sports helps to make his account especially accessible to upper-level undergraduate and graduate students.
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Horne, J., A. Tomlinson, G. Whannel, and K. Woodward. 2013. Understanding sport: A socio-cultural analysis. 2d ed. London: Routledge.
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This textbook takes a predominantly sociological perspective, but it draws upon complementary approaches and frameworks since the authors’ backgrounds embrace critical social science and interdisciplinary humanities. The book offers an introduction to the relationship between sport and contemporary society and covers key topics in the study of sport and society, including sport and the media, sport and the body, sport and politics, commercialization, and globalization. Review and seminar questions are included in every chapter, plus concise guides to further reading.
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Jarvie, G., and J. Thornton. 2012. Sport, culture and society. 2d ed. London: Routledge.
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This book is divided into four parts covering “The Broader Context” of sport, “Sport, Globalisation and Other Communities,” “Sport, Identities and Alternative Lifestyles,” and “Sport, Social Division and Change.” Each chapter includes summaries, highlighted definitions of key terms, practical projects, revision questions, boxed case studies, biographies, and guides to further reading, with additional teaching and learning resources available on a companion website.
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Maguire, J., G. Jarvie, L. Mansfield, and J. Bradley. 2002. Sport worlds: A sociological perspective. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
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This textbook focuses on the relationships between sport and other social worlds. The chapters in Part 1, “Sport Inside the World,” examine a range of global systems, processes, and issues that characterize sport worlds, including networks, boundaries, conventions, and challenges. Part 2, “Inside the Worlds of Sport,” focuses on the significance of sport in the emotional and social lives of people, and the focus is on questions of gender, place, space, and identities.
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Handbooks and Dictionaries

A handbook falls somewhere between an encyclopedia and a textbook in terms of material included. This section also includes works identified as “readers” and “companions.” Coakley and Dunning 2000 remains a valuable source, containing as it does forty-four chapters in four parts dealing with major perspectives in the sociology of sport, cross-disciplinary differences and connections, key topics (ranging from political economy to violence, the emotions, and management), and brief overviews of sport research around the globe. The latter part is valuable but is in need of supplementing and updating. The most recent edition of A Companion to Sport (Andrews and Carrington 2013) does provide insightful chapters on contemporary debates and topics. The two readers included here—Tomlinson 2007 and Scraton and Flintoff 2002—and the collection in Giulianotti 2011 also contain valuable work, but they consist mainly of chapters previously published in (possibly hard to find) academic journals. The editors have selected the contributions to exemplify key themes in the study of sport in society, and Scraton and Flintoff 2002 focuses, in particular, on analyses of gender and sport. The two dictionaries listed here also contain elements characteristic of both encyclopedias and textbooks that make them valuable reference sources. Malcolm 2008 contains fairly detailed entries on all key topics and issues in the study of sport in social context. The short essays draw on debates from history, psychology, economics, management and business, politics and policy, physical education, and health and research methods, as well as sociology. Together with the editor, thirty-three contributors furnish entries on topics ranging from aerobics and agency and structure to sports space and tourism. Each entry has a list of key readings and contains cross-references to other items in the book. It is a useful book for all years of undergraduate study. Tomlinson 2010 contains a mixture of short and long entries covering a much broader range of topics than Malcolm 2008. It features entries about topics in the sport and exercise sciences as well as in the sociocultural disciplines and on sporting competitions, such as the Ryder Cup. It is a valuable book to have alongside other sources.

Andrews, D., and B. Carrington, eds. 2013. A companion to sport. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
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The book is arranged in six parts: sporting structures and historical formations, bodies and identities, contested space and politics, cultures and subcultures, sports mega-events and spectacles, and sporting celebrities. It contains thirty-four specially commissioned chapters plus an introductory overview by the editors.
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Coakley, J., and E. Dunning, eds. 2000. Handbook of sports studies. London: SAGE.
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Part 1 of this text explores sociological theory with a chapter on all the main theories and their application to sport. Part 2 looks at other disciplinary approaches to sport and their connection with sociological approaches. Part 3 examines key topics in the study of sport in social context. Part 4 considers research into sport in society in different nations and regions of the world.
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Dunning, E., and D. Malcolm, eds. 2003. Sport: Critical concepts in sociology. London: Routledge.
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Includes four volumes covering approaches to the study of sport, the development and structure of modern sport, sport and power relations, and major issues in contemporary sport. The collection covers the majority of social theories and research within the area. Historical and comparative approaches detail how modern sport has developed. Articles illustrate the international diversity of the study of the social aspects of sport. Contextual introductions begin each volume.
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Eitzen, D. S., ed. 2015. Sport in contemporary society: An anthology. 10th ed. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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This anthology examines how sport is linked to other institutions of society. It looks at the role of sport in socializing youngsters in both positive and negative ways, the ways in which sport perpetuates race and gender-role stereotypes in society, and how owners, coaches, and other sport authorities exercise power to maintain control over athletes. The book provides a selection of accessible writing by journalists and leading scholars.
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Giulianotti, R., ed. 2011. Sociology of sport. London: SAGE.
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A comprehensive collection in four volumes that draws upon anthropology, cultural studies, education, history, human geography, media studies, political science, and social policy to capture the theoretical, substantive, and transnational diversity of the sociology of sport. The collection examines the range of theoretical standpoints that have been used to explain sport, social conflicts and divisions, cultural identities and social sites, and the diverse influence of globalization processes upon sport.
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Malcolm, D., ed. 2008. The SAGE dictionary of sports studies. London: SAGE.
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Each entry provides a basic definition, a guide to research themes, and a clear account of the relevance of the concept in understanding sport. Each serves as a springboard for more in-depth research and critical analysis. Covering sociology, history, psychology, politics, business, physical education, health and research methods, this book provides a one-stop reference guide for students who study the social aspects of sport.
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Scraton, S., and A. Flintoff, eds. 2002. Gender and sport: A reader. London: Routledge.
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This reader contains articles that discuss and illuminate issues of gender and sport while reflecting on the contribution of international feminist scholarship to the study of sport. It addresses the key issues, theoretical debates, and empirical research that have informed the study of gender and sport. It is divided into thematic sections, each of which is supported by an editorial introduction, suggestions for further reading, and seminar questions related to each reading.
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Thomas, N., and A. Smith. 2009. Disability, sport and society: An introduction. London: Routledge.
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This text introduces the reader to key concepts in disability and disability sport and examines the complex relationships between modern sport, disability, and other aspects of the wider society. Drawing upon original data from interviews, surveys, and policy documents, the authors examine how disability sport has developed and is currently organized, and they explore key themes, issues, and concepts. The book includes chapter summaries, seminar questions, and lists of key websites and further reading (see also Social Divisions and Identities).
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Tomlinson, A., ed. 2007. The sport studies reader. London: Routledge.
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The Sport Studies Reader is divided into nine themed sections, similar to the first edition of Horne, et al. 2013 (cited under Textbooks), with each section containing an introduction and discussion of the theme, suggestions to aid critical and interpretive thinking, and recommendations for further reading. Containing key and classic readings, with an editorial introduction and conclusion within each themed section, the Reader also includes discussion questions for the classroom.
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Tomlinson, A., ed. 2010. Oxford dictionary of sports studies. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
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Contains more than 1,100 entries. Wide-ranging coverage includes the social, political, economic, and cultural theory of sport, as well as entries relating to exercise, preparation, and performance psychology and key scientific terms, including nutrition and anatomy. It also features biographies of key sportspeople and information on international organizations and institutions. Recommended weblinks for many entries are provided, which are accessed and kept up-to-date via a companion website.
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Journals

Journals are the lifeblood of any academic subdiscipline, offering as they do the opportunity to publish new research or new perspectives on certain topics. They can also include review articles and book reviews that can save much effort in researching specific topics. The nine journals cited are those that are devoted primarily to the sociology of sport (The International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Sociology of Sport Journal, and Journal of Sport & Social Issues); those that often publish sociology of sport articles (Sport in Society, Sport, Education and Society, Leisure Studies, and Soccer & Society); or those that occasionally publish articles relevant to the sociology of sport (International Journal of the History of Sport and Sport in History).

International Journal of the History of Sport. 1984–.
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Although they take a historical perspective on sport, the contributions to this journal often provide substantive context for many sociological issues.
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International Review for the Sociology of Sport. 1966–.
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Published in association with the International Sociology of Sport Association (ISSA). This is the oldest internationally recognized journal for the sociology of sport (celebrating fifty years in 2015). It covers a wide range of articles and publishes both theoretical and empirical research papers.
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Journal of Sport & Social Issues. 1977–.
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Every issue contains three sections: Focus, a symposium section containing research articles and commentary on a single theme; Trends, articles devoted to breaking issues and existing lines of research in sport; and View, essays aimed at provoking thought, stimulating debate, and developing theoretical positions on topics related to the social importance of sport.
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Leisure Studies. 1982–.
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Published since 1982, Leisure Studies is the journal of the Leisure Studies Association (LSA). It publishes articles about sport (and leisure) from sociological as well as other social scientific perspectives.
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Soccer & Society. 2000–.
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Soccer & Society is an international journal devoted to football (or soccer), which according to many is the world’s most popular game. It covers all aspects of soccer globally from anthropological, cultural, economic, historical, political, and sociological perspectives.
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Sociology of Sport Journal. 1984–.
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Members of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport (NASSS) receive SSJ as part of their membership. Originally focused on North American sport, the journal has become more far reaching in scope and covers a variety of issues within the sociology of sport from around the world.
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Sport, Education, and Society. 1996–.
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An international journal exploring pedagogy but often has articles related to sociological theory or the application of social theory to research into sport and education.
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Sport in History. 1982–.
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Sport in History (known as The Sports Historian between 1982 and 2002) is concerned with all aspects of sport, leisure, and recreation in the past. The journal is the academic arm of the British Society of Sports History and is committed to publishing original, archive-based research on the history of sport from a variety of disciplines. The journal publishes articles on a variety of themes as well as historiographical debates, review articles, and book reviews.
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Sport in Society. 1998–.
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Published as Culture, Sport, Society from 1998 to 2003, this is a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary forum for academics to discuss the growing relationship of sport to these significant areas of modern life.
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Classic Works

The classic works of the sociology of sport exemplify the importance of history to sociology in understanding the development of the relationships among sport, culture, and society. Several typologies have been developed that offer valuable classifications of the features of modern sports. For example, Guttmann 1978 presents a typology for each of four societal types: primitive society, Greece and Rome, medieval society, and modem society. The main achievement of the classification is that it highlights the specificity of the nature of sport in different and distinctive social contexts. Guttmann’s broad perspective is paralleled in seminal work on the origins of British sport, such as Dunning and Sheard 2004, a study of the development of rugby football, as the authors develop a typology of “the structural properties of folk-games and modern sports.” This classification focuses on the general characteristics of sports in the transformative period of industrialization. Many of the core characteristics of modern sports were shaped in the British public schools of the 19th century. This is widely acknowledged, and useful accounts and discussions abound, including Holt 1989 and Hargreaves 1986. Hargreaves’s social and historical analysis of popular sports in Britain stresses that the story of the formation of modern sport in the 19th century is primarily one of suppression, with agencies of repression—the police and troops—brought in as “domestic missionaries of the bourgeoisie.” The definitive source for an understanding of the nature and impact of the approach of the public schools to games, sport, and physical activity remains Mangan 1981. In his study of athleticism in the public schools of the 19th and early 20th centuries, Mangan produced a substantial empirical study of the genesis and impact of what he termed the “ideology of athleticism.” He investigated six types of school and was able to make generalizations about the significance of athleticism in the public schools. Two books on the development of sport in Canada—Gruneau 1999 and Kidd 1996—further demonstrate the importance of history to sociology in understanding the development of the relationships among sport, culture, and society. Kidd 1996 focuses on four major Canadian organizations of the interwar period and each of these organizations became focal points of debate and political activity, and they often struggled with each other—each had a radically different agenda. Finally, as a corrective to the male focus of much sport history and sociology, Hargreaves 1994 is a work on women’s involvement in sport that, through the author’s use of both historical method and sociological theory, is rightly considered a classic.

Bourdieu, P. 1978. Sport and social class. Social Science Information 6:819–840.
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This classic essay, indicating Bourdieu’s approach to the relationship between sport and social class, is a translation by Richard Nice of a talk given by Bourdieu at the International Congress of the History of Sports and Physical Education Association in March 1978, originally entitled “Pratiques sportives et pratique sociales” (see also Social Divisions and Identities).
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Dunning, E., and K. Sheard. 2004. Barbarians, gentlemen and players: A sociological study of the development of rugby football. 2d ed. London: Routledge.
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Originally published in 1979. This study of the development of rugby from folk game to its modern Union and League forms has become a seminal text in sport history and sociology of sport, exemplifying the figurational sociology perspective. In the new edition, the authors provide sociological analysis of the major developments in international rugby that have taken place since 1979, with particular attention to the professionalism that was predicted in the first edition.
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Gruneau, R. 1999. Class, sports, and social development. 2d ed. London: SAGE.
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Examines the role of play, games, and sport in the social world and argues that they have an effect on, and are an integral part of, social development, championing a critical approach to the study of sport and society. First published in 1983 by the University of Massachusetts Press, this work signaled the sociology of sport’s coming of age.
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Guttmann, A. 1978. From ritual to record: The nature of modern sports. New York: Columbia Univ. Press.
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First published in 1978, From Ritual to Record was one of the first books to recognize the importance of sports serving as a lens on the fundamental structure of societies. Guttmann emphasizes the many ways that modern sports, dramatically different from the sports of previous eras, have profoundly shaped contemporary life.
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Hargreaves, John. 1986. Sport, power and culture: A social and historical analysis of popular sports in Britain. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
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Hargreaves traces the changing relations between sport and social power. He pays particular attention to the ways in which sporting activities of different kinds relate to divisions of class, sex, and race. He analyzes the significance of sport as a means of exercising power on the body, situating this analysis in the context of a general discussion of the role of sport in education and consumer culture.
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Hargreaves, Jennifer. 1994. Sporting females: Critical issues in the history and sociology of women’s sports. London: Routledge.
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Sporting Females won the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport (NASSS) book award in 1994. Hargreaves uses both a historical and a sociological perspective in analyzing women’s sport. The book highlights the importance of women and their sporting experiences. This work remains the most comprehensive book on women and sport.
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Holt, R. 1989. Sport and the British: A modern history. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
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This book explains how British sport has changed since 1800 and what it has meant to ordinary people. It shows how the way we play reflects not just our lives as citizens of a predominantly urban and industrial world, but also what is especially distinctive about British sport. Modern media coverage of sport, gambling, violence and attitudes toward it, nationalism, and the role of sport in sustaining male identity are also explored.
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Kidd, B. 1996. The struggle for Canadian sport. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press.
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Winner of the North American Society for Sports History (NASSH) 1997 book award. Kidd illuminates the complex process that produced the familiar contours of Canadian sport today—the hegemony of continental cartels such as the National Hockey League (NHL), the enormous ideological power of the media, the shadowed participation of women in sports, and the strong nationalism of the amateur Olympic sports bodies.
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Mangan, J. A. 1981. Athleticism in the Victorian and Edwardian public school: The emergence and consolidation of an educational ideology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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Games obsessed the Victorian and Edwardian public schools. This obsession has become widely known as “athleticism.” Now commonly regarded as an indulgence, it was in fact much more: a combination of hedonism and idealism. This is a major study of the games ethos that dominated the lives of many Victorian and Edwardian public school boys.
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Theories

The purpose of the sociology of sport is to convey the importance of studying sport in social context, and, thus, it is equally important to understand the historical and cultural settings of social theories of sport. The main focus of the selected texts is European and North American theories. The texts cited lay out the conceptual apparatuses used to understand, explain, and interpret sport in society. While sport studies is a transdisciplinary or multidisciplinary field of academic study, the main emphasis here is on sociological and cultural theories and how they can be used to study sport in society. The sociology of sport in general offers insights into how to understand sport as a social practice, institution, and cultural formation. Many, if not most, introductory sociology texts largely ignore sport, and even general “sport in society” books provide limited discussion of how different theoretical perspectives on society give rise to different interpretations of sport in society. Many books that attempt to discuss theories of sport and leisure (e.g., Giulianotti 2004 and Jarvie and Maguire 1994) were written with senior-level sociology students in mind. Textbooks pitched at first- and second-year undergraduates that include useful introductory discussions about theories are Molnar and Kelly 2013, Coakley 2015, and Coakley and Pike 2014 (both cited under Textbooks). Most of the textbooks deal with the leading theoretical approaches in studying sport in society—functionalism, Marxism, interpretive sociology, figurational sociology, feminism, and postmodernism. The edited collection of Carrington and McDonald 2009 provides a reasonably up-to-date series of essays by those influenced by Marxism. Coakley and Donnelly 1999 offers a series of articles looking at how athletes get into sport, how athletes do sports, and what happens when they retire from sport either through injury or ageing; hence, it approaches sport from an interactionist perspective. The book also contains projects and discussion topics. Elias and Dunning 1986 brings together in one volume several articles that the authors had written separately or together since the 1970s. Each chapter provides an insight into the distinctive approach to sport (and leisure) that the figurational sociology perspective offers.

Anderson, E. 2010. Sport, theory and social problems: A critical introduction. London: Routledge.
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Anderson argues that, over time, sport has become more open to categories of people traditionally marginalized in society: women, those from lower social classes, gay men, people of color, and those differently abled. However, focusing solely on increased social inclusion in sport masks significant problems with both the culture and the structure of sport. This critical textbook examines social exclusion in sport and analyzes the socio-negative attributes associated with competitive, institutionalized sport, for all who play.
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Carrington, B., and I. McDonald, eds. 2009. Marxism, cultural studies and sport. London: Routledge.
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This book brings together experts on sport to reflect on its continued appeal to people across the globe as well as on the forms of inequality that sport both produces and highlights. The collection focuses on three questions: Is Marxism still relevant for understanding sport in the 21st century? Has Marxism been preserved or transcended by cultural studies? What is the relationship between theory and intervention in the politics of sport?
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Coakley, J., and P. Donnelly. 1999. Inside sports. London: Routledge.
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How do people become involved in sports? What can their experiences teach us? Inside Sports is divided into four main sections reflecting the social processes and developments over time that make up the experience of sport for most people, however diverse their circumstances may otherwise be: “Early Experiences: Being Introduced to Sports”; “Experience and Identity: Becoming an Athlete”; Deep in the Experience: Doing Sports”; and “Transition Experiences: Facing Life beyond the Playing Field.”
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Elias, N., and E. Dunning. 1986. Quest for excitement: Sport and leisure in the civilizing process. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
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This book reviews aspects of sport in society through the ages, and the authors develop a theory of leisure that encompasses sociological, psychological, and biological perspectives. The book asks: why do people choose to spend their leisure time in sports that verge on violence? What impulses are involved? Does the violence in and around sport, and the group behavior sport gives rise to, reflect social and psychological trends? What role does sport play in the creation of masculine identities?
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Giulianotti, R., ed. 2004. Sport and modern social theorists. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
DOI: 10.1057/9780230523180Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
How does the work of Marx help us understand sport? What contribution might Goffman’s thinking make to our analysis of sport? How might post-structuralist and postmodern positions be developed to explain this important sphere of social activity? This edited text has individual chapters on traditional theorists, such as Weber and Durkheim, but also on more modern theorists, such as Baudrillard and Bourdieu, and their application to sport.
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Hargreaves, John. 1982. Sport, culture and ideology. In Sport, culture and ideology. Edited by Jennifer Hargreaves, 30–61. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
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This article appears in a collection of essays published in the 1980s that probe beneath prevalent assumptions about sport to illuminate how sport is intimately related to power and domination. Topics in the book include the media treatment of sport, drug-taking in sport, and the controversial and problematic relationship between sport and politics in Russia and South Africa. The chapter by John Hargreaves provides an excellent critical overview of social theory and sport.
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Jarvie, G., and J. Maguire. 1994. Sport and leisure in social thought. London: Routledge.
DOI: 10.4324/9780203417614Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An introduction to many sociological theories and their application to sport, this book provides a comprehensive discussion of sociological theory and sport, more suitable for senior undergraduate and postgraduate students.
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Maguire, J., and K. Young, eds. 2002. Theory, sport & society. New York: JAI.
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Intended as a resource for senior undergraduate and postgraduate students and researchers alike, this volume includes a collection of sixteen papers that span past, present, and future theoretical approaches to the sociological study of sport. It includes both a selection of the “founding” theorists whose work remains so pertinent to seeing sport sociologically as well as a selection representing more contemporary and interdisciplinary perspectives.
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Molnar, G., and J. Kelly. 2013. Sport, exercise and social theory. London: Routledge.
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Sport, Exercise and Social Theory is a concise introduction to the key theories that underpin the study of sport, exercise, and society, including feminism, postmodernism, and (neo-) Marxism. Uses examples and descriptions of sport-related events and exercise practices to explain why social theories are important as well as how to use them. The book shows how theory can be used to debunk many of our traditional assumptions about sport and exercise.
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Smith, E., ed. 2010. Sociology of sport and social theory. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
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This book recognizes sociology of sport as an important subject area for general sociologists to consider as a rich area for research, while also exposing sport sociologists to the social theories that have built up the general discipline. The book applies established social theories—grand theories, mid-range theories, and micro-level theories— to sport and physical activity contexts.
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Social Divisions and Identities

Historians and sociologists have investigated the way that social class has played a major role in influencing the construction of, organization of, consumption of, and participation in modern sport. Class was central to the formation of modern sports culture. Class position (of origination) and class of destination are linked through ideas about social mobility. Sport is a powerful symbol of mobility and change in social status. Class has an important influence on sport participation and the character of specific sport cultures. Two books by sociologist Tony Bennett and colleagues (Bennett, et al. 1999 and Bennett, et al. 2009) offer comparative insight into the role that social class plays in influencing participation and interest in sport and other forms of physical cultural leisure activity in contemporary Australia and Britain. Other sociologists consider the notion of “race” and black athleticism (Carrington 2010) and the social construction of racial and ethnic difference that leads to the “naturalization” of “racial,” genetic, and even cultural differences. They ask whether sports reproduce the stereotypes that reproduce racism or can be used to challenge them. Blacks, Asians, and Latino-Hispanics have been found to be treated differently from whites in the media coverage of sport, from less to more negative representations and stereotypes. Black athletes respond by adopting the “cool pose”—expressive lifestyle behavior—as a counter to racism and a sign of creativity. This can be self-defeating as too much black success in sport is read negatively as an inability to succeed in other areas of life. Hartmann 2003 also notes how black athletes since at least 1968 have been in the forefront of political struggles to challenge through sport their position within society. Although not all research on gender divisions is conducted with self-declared feminist researchers, the questions raised by feminist and nonfeminist approaches to sport alike include: Why do fewer women take part in sport than men? Why are so few women in senior sports leadership positions? A pioneer of feminist theorizing of sport is Jennifer Hargreaves. In Hargreaves 1994 (cited under Classic Works), she investigates the history and sociology of women’s involvement in sport. In later work she also examines the importance of patriarchal discourses and gender performances (Hargreaves 2001). Sport offers both a place for the reproduction of patriarchal values and a means of resisting them. A similar dialectic can be found at work in the position of disabled people and sport, which Howe 2008 discusses with reference to the Paralympic Games.

Bennett, T., M. Emmison, and J. Frow. 1999. Accounting for tastes: Australian everyday cultures. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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This is the most systematic and substantial study of Australian cultural tastes, preferences, and activities published to date. Taking inspiration from Pierre Bourdieu’s work, the authors examine the relationships between the patterns of participation in the different fields of cultural practice in Australia, and they analyze trends of consumption and choice that Australians make in their everyday lives. The book contains detailed examinations of people’s cultural choices through a large-scale survey and interviews.
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Bennett, T., M. Savage, E. Silva, A. Warde, M. Gayo-Cal, and D. Wright. 2009. Culture, class, distinction. London: Routledge.
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Drawing on a national study of the organization of cultural practices in contemporary Britain, the authors review Bourdieu’s classic study of the relationships between culture and class in the light of subsequent debates. In doing so they reappraise the relationships among class, gender and ethnicity, music, film, television, literary and arts consumption, the organization of sporting and culinary practices, and practices of bodily and self-maintenance.
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Carrington, B. 2010. Race, sport and politics: The sporting black diaspora. London: SAGE.
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This book addresses sport’s role in “the making of race,” its place within black diasporic struggles for freedom and equality, and its contested location in relation to the politics of recognition within contemporary multicultural societies. Carrington shows how the idea of “the natural black athlete” was invented in order to make sense of, and curtail, their political impact and cultural achievements; however, recently “the black athlete” as sign has become a highly commodified object within contemporary sports-media culture.
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Carrington, B. 2013. The critical sociology of race and sport: The first fifty years. Annual Review of Sociology 39:379–398.
DOI: 10.1146/annurev-soc-071811-145528Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This review essay surveys sociological work on race and sport and sketches two paradigms of research on race and sport: the critical and the functionalist-evolutionary. The article reviews major contributions to the study of race and sport from three areas, namely, mainstream American sociology, the sociology of race, and the sociology of sport, focusing primarily on research published since 2000. The article concludes by looking at future directions of work in the field.
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Donnelly, P., and J. Harvey. 2007. Social class and gender: Intersections in sport and physical activity. In Sport and gender in Canada. 2d ed. Edited by K. Young and P. White, 95–119. Don Mills, ON: Oxford Univ. Press.
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Beginning from the premise that Canadian society is not “classless,” the authors provide examples to show that major social class and gender inequalities have existed throughout the history of sport in Canada. The argument is made that gender is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon that can best be understood by tracing power differences not only between different groups of men and women, but also between different versions of “masculinity” and “femininity” associated with particular social groups and classes.
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Foley, D. E. 1990. The great American football ritual: Reproducing race, class and gender inequality. Sociology of Sport Journal 7.2: 111–135.
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An ethnographic study of one football season in a small southern Texas town is presented to explore the extent that community sport is a potential site for counterhegemonic cultural practices. Football is conceptualized as a major community ritual that socializes future generations of youth. Various moments of class and gender resistance to the football ritual are noted. When seen from a historical community perspective, sport may be less a site for progressive, counterhegemonic practices than some critical sport theorists hope.
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Hargreaves, Jennifer. 2001. Heroines of sport: The politics of difference and identity. London: Routledge.
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This book focuses on five specific groups of women from different places in the world: black women from South Africa, Muslim women from the Middle East, Aboriginal women from Australia and Canada, and lesbian and disabled women from different countries worldwide. The particular groups of women featured in the book reflect the need to look at specific categories of difference relating to class, culture, disability, ethnicity, race, religion, and sexual orientation.
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Hartmann, D. 2003. Race, culture and the revolt of the black athlete: The 1968 Olympic protests and their aftermath. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
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Since 1968 one iconic image of “race” in American sport has remained indelibly etched in collective memory: Tommie Smith and John Carlos accepting medals at the Mexico City Olympics with their black-gloved fists raised and heads bowed. But what inspired their protest? What happened after they stepped down from the podium? And how did their gesture impact racial inequalities? Drawing on extensive archival research and newly gathered oral histories, Hartmann sets out to answer these questions.
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Hawkins, B. 2010. The new plantation: Black athletes, college sports, and predominantly white NCAA institutions. New York: Palgrave.
DOI: 10.1057/9780230105539Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The New Plantation examines the relationship between black athletes and predominantly white NCAA Division I Institutions (PWIs), revealing the magnitude of the forces that affect the experiences of black athletes at PWIs. Hawkins provides a conceptual framework for understanding how the structural arrangements of PWIs present challenges to the academic success of black athletes; while some have overcome these challenges and gone on to successful careers, many have succumbed to these prevailing structural arrangements and have not benefited academically or athletically.
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Howe, P. D. 2008. The cultural politics of the Paralympic movement: Through an anthropological lens. London: Routledge.
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This book reviews the current status of the Paralympics and challenges the mainstream assumption that the games are a vehicle for empowerment of the disabled community. Using ethnographic methods, Howe undertakes an innovative and critical examination of the social, political, and economic processes shaping the Paralympic movement. One of the most comprehensive and radical texts about high performance sport for the disabled yet to be published.
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Messner, M. 2007. Out of play: Critical essays on gender and sport. Albany: State Univ. of New York Press.
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The book illuminates a wide range of contemporary issues in popular culture, children’s sports, and women’s and men’s college and professional sports. Drawing on his own memories as a former athlete, informal observations of his children’s sports activities, and more formal research such as life-history interviews with athletes and content analyses of sports media, Messner presents a multifaceted picture of the social construction of gender.
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Sailes, G., ed. 2010. Modern sport and the African American eperience. San Diego, CA: Cognella.
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This book is a collection of essays that highlights the experiences of African Americans in sport. The book examines predictions about African American sports performance and participation in the 21st century, discusses the role of sport in African American culture, gives a candid look at the experiences of African American athletes attending America’s predominantly white colleges and universities and discusses the experiences of African American women in these environments.
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Football (Soccer)

Middle-class rational recreationists in 19th-century Britain might have promoted football as one of several means geared toward bringing together the social classes, the goal being class conciliation, but working men made the sport their own and the development of the professional game, with its boisterous and visible public culture both on the field and off, defied the worthy objectives of the moral improvers of the time. In the 1960s and 1970s the issue of football-related social disorder among fans (short for “fanatics”), or “football hooliganism,” came to dominate the academic study of the sport. Williams, et al. 2014 and Dunning, et al. 1988 both report research on English fans. Murray 1984 extends the focus to Scotland and discusses the “Old Firm” of Glasgow Rangers and Celtic. The author of Armstrong 1998 undertakes a detailed ethnographic study of Sheffield United to examine more closely the lived reality of fans as changes were taking place more widely in the culture of football and the academic understanding of football supporters. This change is also captured well in Taylor 1992 and King 1998. At the start of the 1990s English football was only just recovering from two decades of problems with crowd behavior, the Bradford stadium fire, the Heysel Stadium incident, and the Hillsborough stadium disaster, discussed in Giulianotti 1999. By the end of the decade, football was earning hundreds of millions of pounds in rights payments from television, and its new chic appeal had impelled almost all newspapers to launch massive sport supplements dominated by coverage of football. New, more affluent, customers were attracted, admission prices rose dramatically, and grounds filled up. The cost, and the need at many clubs to purchase season tickets to ensure access, inevitably excluded poorer supporters. Major matches in the European Champions League attracted considerable attention around the world. The digital revolution has accelerated these changes and helped to place the sport generally in a more central position in cultural life globally. These aspects of football culture are discussed in different ways in Cashmore 2004 and Millward 2011. At the same time football has spread its appeal across the globe. Manzenreiter and Horne 2004, an edited collection, captures some of the dynamics of the expansion of interest in the sport in China, Japan, and South Korea. Two additional research areas that have developed since the 1990s are ethnic minority and women’s involvement in the sport. Burdsey 2007 and Dunn 2014 provide examples of these new avenues of research.

Armstrong, G. 1998. Football hooligans: Knowing the score. Oxford: Berg.
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This book is based on a ten-year in-depth study of the “Blades,” a group of football fans supporting Sheffield United, who were notorious for their hooliganism. It contributed to the debate on football hooliganism by challenging many traditional notions of hooliganism and by providing the first anthropological study of football violence. The book challenged the assumption that violence was wholly central to the match-day experience of these supporters.
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Burdsey, D. 2007. British Asians and football: Culture, identity, exclusion. London: Routledge.
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In spite of a great passion for the game and significant involvement at the amateur level, British Asians have been underrepresented in professional football. Burdsey asks how and why this situation has developed and uses extensive interviews with British Asian football players to offer an insider’s assessment of the difficulties and conflicting demands faced on a daily basis. The book also critically examines the work of the antiracist football movement.
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Cashmore, E. 2004. Beckham. Oxford: Polity.
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Footballer David Beckham has transcended sport to become an all-purpose cultural icon for the 21st century. Why does someone who looks good and does little but play football command the adulation of the planet? By dissecting his life and setting it in the context of the age of celebrity, Cashmore argues that Beckham has been turned into a product, a commodity that can be bought and sold like any other piece of merchandise.
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Dunn, C. 2014. Female football fans: Community, identity and sexism. London: Palgrave Pivot.
DOI: 10.1057/9781137398239Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Most sociological research into football fandom has focused on the experience of men. Dunn shows there have always been female fans of football and that there are some unique facets of female experience, including a strong engagement with the new cooperative supporters’ trust movement, and fascinating negotiations of identity within this male-dominated world. Her book draws upon in-depth interviews to put together a broad picture of women’s experiences of men’s professional football.
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Dunning, E., P. Murphy, and J. Williams. 1988. The roots of football hooliganism: An historical and sociological study. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
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This historical and sociological study of football hooliganism examines the history of crowd disorderliness at football matches in Britain and assesses both popular and academic explanations of the problem. The authors discuss the changing social composition of football crowds and the changing class structure of British society. The genesis of modern football hooliganism is explained by tracing it to the cultural conditions and circumstances that reproduce in young working-class males an interest in a publicly expressed aggressive masculine style.
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Giulianotti, R. 1999. Football: A sociology of the global game. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
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This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the study of football. Giulianotti analyzes the social and historical dimensions of the world′s most popular game. He locates football culture within the broader context of contemporary societies and social trends and examines key social aspects, including the supporter cultures, the development of stadia, the business and television revolution, professional football players, and the diversity of playing styles.
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King, A. 1998. The end of the terraces: The transformation of English football in the 1990s. London: Leicester Univ. Press.
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Through examination of the political economy of football since the 1960s, and the public debates for the reform of the game in the mid-1980s, King situates the transformation of football in the 1990s within the context of the emergence of Thatcherism in Britain. He examines the nature of the new consumption of football with a detailed study of the entrepreneurial directors and different fan groups at football clubs.
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Manzenreiter, W., and J. Horne, eds. 2004. Football goes east: Business, culture and the people’s game in China, Japan and South Korea. London: Routledge.
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This is a collection of essays that discuss national identity, women’s football and gender traditions, finance and investment, the development of professional football, football and the media, and “hooligans” and soccer supporter culture in Japan, South Korea, and China. The development of football as a major participatory and professional sport in Japan, South Korea, and China makes it an ideal case study for analysis of the complex relationships among sport, culture, society, and economy.
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Millward, P. 2011. The global football league: Transnational networks, social movements and sport in the new media age. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
DOI: 10.1057/9780230348639Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This book critically addresses the themes that have come to define the global flow of images, capital, and people that exist in contemporary football. In doing so, it tackles issues of globalization in the English Premier League and unpicks what this means to fan groups in the United Kingdom, the United States, Scandinavia, and East Asia. The text also explores issues connected to the growing trend of overseas ownership in the English Premier League.
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Murray, B. 1984. The Old Firm: Sectarianism, sport and society in Scotland. Edinburgh: John Donald.
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Murray analyzes the intersection of sport, politics, and society from the formation of the Glasgow Rangers and Celtic at the end of the 19th century to the end of the 20th century. Murray traces the origins of the two clubs and shows how they grew in opposition to each other, Celtic as a champion of the Irish Catholic immigrants and Rangers as the standard bearers of the native Scottish Protestants who feared this influx.
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Taylor, R. 1992. Football and its fans: Supporters and their relations with the game, 1885–1985. Leicester, UK: Leicester Univ. Press.
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This account of the role of organized supporters in the development and economy of English professional football during its first one hundred years explores the significance of the supporters’ financial contribution—over and above turnstile cash—to the physical development and amenities of football grounds. It also traces the failed relationship between those who watch the game and those who run it.
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Williams, J., Dunning, and P. Murphy. 2014. Hooligans abroad: The behaviour and control of English fans in continental Europe. London: Routledge.
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The authors used “participant observation” in their research on British fans at the FIFA World Cup in Spain in 1982 and capture the authentic voice of football hooliganism in their interviews. The introduction to the revised edition traces international developments in the hooligan phenomenon after the Heysel tragedy of 1985. The authors make special reference to the troubled European championships in West Germany and look critically at political responses to the problem. Originally published in 1984.
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Politics and Social Control

It used to be regularly asserted that sport and politics did not mix. This argument no longer holds credibility and most of the contributions cited here explore some of the ways in which sport is necessarily political. Sport (and play) involves rules and regulations that are derived in some way from the “real world”; sport provides politically usable resources; sport can promote nation-building and international image making; in fact, modern sport has seldom been free of politics. Sugden and Bairner 1993 (pp.1–9) suggests that the state seeks to exert a degree of influence over sport because sport has come to play an influential part in an individual’s socialization and the construction of notions of community in modern life. Hoberman 1984 affirms that sport is seen to have no intrinsic value structure; rather, it is a ready and flexible medium through which ideological associations can be relayed. Despite policies of privatization and withdrawal of state funding more generally associated with neoliberalism that have been pursued since the 1980s, sport has received unprecedented state interest and involvement in different societies. For example, the promotion of sport and the nation through the hosting of sports mega-events has become a key aspect of government policy toward sport, and sport has been enlisted in strategies of urban renewal and regeneration. Different states may use sport for different non-sports ends, including to advance economic development and social development, to promote nation-building and signaling (“branding the nation”), and to assist in economic and political liberalization. The state constructs what is and what is not legitimate sports practice. The state also creates the framework within which partnerships among local authorities, voluntary sports, and commercial organizations operate. The neoliberal state may have less responsibility for direct service delivery of sport, but it has retained, if not actually expanded, its influence because of the dependency of the other agencies on state resources. Researchers are now asking different questions about the relationship between sport and politics to look at movements of resistance influencing sport, movements that use sport as an instrument to support their cause, or movements from within sport contributing to larger causes. Since its beginning, according to Harvey, et al. 2014, modern sport as an institution has been challenged for sustaining different forms of discrimination and negative social impacts. In turn, athletes, sport and social activists, and engaged intellectuals and citizens have organized against these developments. Debates about the role of sport in promoting peace and social development are discussed in Wilson 2012.

Atkinson, M., and K. Young. 2008. Deviance and social control in sport. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
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The authors provide an understanding of sport-related deviance through the application of various approaches to deviance in a sport context. Using extended case studies, they examine the subject of deviance through examples that are popular (fan violence, hockey enforcers, effect of the media), understudied (sport-related violence against animals, athletes as on-field victims of violence), or emerging (sport security, drugs and weight control, cybernetic athletes, extreme sports).
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Harvey, J., J. Horne, P. Safai, S. Darnell, and S. C. O’Neill. 2014. Sport and social movements: From the local to the global. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
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Contentious forms of collective actions are now increasingly present in various forms at the local, national, and global levels. This is the first book-length treatment of the way social movements have intersected with sport. It traces the history of various social movements associated with labor, women, peace, the environment, and rights (civil, racial, disability, and sexual), and their relationship to sport and sports mega-events. The book sets out an agenda for future research.
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Hoberman, J. 1984. Sport and political ideology. London: Heinemann.
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This book examines the interpretations of sport that have been promulgated by European political intellectuals, such as cultural conservatives and neo-Marxists, and by the official ideologists of Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic, and China before and after Mao. As a form of mass theater, sport can advertise any ideology. The relationship between sport and political ideology is explored comprehensively.
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Houlihan, B. 1994. Sport and international politics. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
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This book explores the role and significance of sport in international politics. Issues discussed include the impact of international organizations on domestic sport policy, the interpenetration of governmental, business, and sports interests, and the globalization of sport. The book focuses specifically on an analysis of the global infrastructure of sport and the significance of international sports events, such as the Olympic Games, the Commonwealth Games, and the FIFA men’s football World Cup.
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Sugden, J., and A. Bairner. 1993. Sport, sectarianism and society in a divided Ireland. Leicester, UK: Leicester Univ. Press.
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The authors show how in Northern Ireland every significant aspect of life is bound up with the politics of division, and sport is no exception. They argue that state-sponsored attempts to use sport and recreation to diffuse the volatile political situation seriously underestimate the important significance of these areas of popular culture in defining the boundaries between two warring factions. On publication, this award-winning book was the first examination of the political nature of sport and leisure in Northern Ireland.
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Thibault, L., and J. Harvey, eds. 2013. Sport policy in Canada. Ottawa, ON: Univ. of Ottawa Press.
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Recent decades have seen a sharp increase in state intervention and public funding in pursuit of medals on the international sporting stage and in support of a more active lifestyle. This book provides the first and most comprehensive analysis of the new Canadian sport policy adopted in 2012. In light of this new policy the authors provide detailed accounts of the most salient sport policies and programs, while also discussing issues and challenges facing policymakers. Available as an e-book.
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Wilson, B. 2012. Sport and peace: A sociological perspective. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
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Since 2000 the social role of sport has received unprecedented attention, as global leaders ranging from politicians to high-profile celebrities have championed sport as a tool for promoting peace. In many areas, sport has successfully drawn attention to such causes as conflict resolution, HIV prevention, environmental initiatives, and improved international relationships. Yet sport continues to reflect and reproduce social inequalities. Wilson uses critical sociological theories to investigate the complex, and controversial, relationship between sport and peace.
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Globalization

How is sport being transformed by globalization? How is sport contributing to globalization? How does the globalization of sport affect sport at the national and local levels? These are three key questions that sociologists of sport examine (Bairner 2001, Giulianotti and Robertson 2009). In addition, they ask to what extent globalization is a useful term with which to try to understand the development of modern sport. Miller, et al. 2001 suggests that the best way to understand the growth of the sports industry is by focusing on its global political economy. Sporting goods manufacturers and businesses are increasingly transnational corporations (TNCs) based in advanced capitalist countries. They have undergone consolidation through mergers and acquisitions. Global horizontal and vertical integration has occurred. The network approach to production and subcontracting has precipitated the creation of several flexible business networks in the sports goods industry. A transfer of labor-intensive production to the less-developed “South” has taken place. Export-oriented industrialization in some of these countries has created a “new international division of labor” (NIDL), and Miller, et al. 2001 suggests that in sport there is a “new international division of cultural labor” (NICL). Other researchers have drawn attention to the existence of “global commodity chains” in much sports goods manufacturing (Maguire 1999). Hence, businesses such as Nike do not own production facilities, and strictly speaking they are not manufacturers because they have no factories. Instead, they design and market the branded products they sell. The firm relies on a complex tiered network of contractors that perform all their specialized tasks. Sports participants in the richer countries rely on the manufacturing, distribution, and circulation of goods from a global sports industry whose key characteristics researchers suggest are sweatshops, high-profit margins, and the exploitation of vulnerable groups of workers. Hence, concerns that include child and labor rights, gender divisions, freedom of association, health and safety, the monitoring of conditions, and rehabilitation of those affected by the practices of some of the manufacturers has led to a backlash against some of the best-known sports brands. In addition to the movement of goods, globalization has been researched in terms of the flows of sports people, including migrant sports labor from the South to the North (Darby 2001) and the experiences of migrant athletes (Maguire and Falcous 2011). Most recently, sociologists have investigated the role that sport might play in social development and peace (Darnell 2012).

Bairner, A. 2001. Sport, nationalism and globalization: European and North American perspectives. Albany: State Univ. of New York Press.
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Bairner explores the relationship between sport and national identities within the context of globalization. The book discusses the relationship between sport and national identities in Europe and North America—specifically Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, the United States, and Canada—within the context of a broader theoretical debate about the impact of globalization in the modern era. Through a unique comparative perspective, the author sheds new light on the ways that sport impacts the construction and reproduction of national identities.
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Darby, P. 2001. Africa, football and FIFA: Politics, colonialism and resistance. London: Frank Cass.
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This book explores the role of FIFA in brokering the development of football in Africa and its relationship with that continent’s football associations and regional governing body. Africa is no longer on the periphery of world football, but the economic disparities between advanced, wealthy nations and developing countries hinder the development of the game. The author shows how the balance of power within FIFA still clearly favors its European members.
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Darnell, S. 2012. Sport for development and peace: A critical sociology. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
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The role of sport in development initiatives has grown dramatically over the last five years, now finding a place in the United Nation’s millennium development goals. Darnell analyzes the relationship between sport and international development and looks at what this reveals about the sociopolitical economy. The book focuses on issues of politics, power, and culture, particularly looking at volunteer experience, mega-sporting events, and sporting celebrity in the context of development.
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Giulianotti, R., and R. Robertson. 2009. Globalization and football. London: SAGE.
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This book provides an overview of the interrelationships between globalization processes and football. Combining the conceptual and methodological aspects of global studies with the specific cultural conditions of the “beautiful,”the authors illuminate its social history and diffusion as well as wider cultural, economic, political, and social dimensions. Using football to chart an increasing global connectivity, or “globality,” they explore how the game may be understood as a metric, mirror, motor, and metaphor of globalization.
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Maguire, J. 1999. Global sport: Identities, societies, civilizations. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
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In this book Maguire develops an account of sport in a global context, examining the changing nature of sport in relation to globalization. Drawing on the work of Elias, Dunning, and others, he develops a five-stage model of the emergence and global diffusion of modern sport. Global Sport draws on a range of international case studies, from Britain, Australia, and North America, on elite labor migration, media sport, sports industry and the environment, sport, politics, and national identity.
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Maguire, J., ed. 2005. Power and global sport: Zones of prestige, emulation and resistance. London: Routledge.
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The contributors to this collection examine changes in sport, investigate the power relations that govern the new global sport, and assess the consequences for the future of sport. The book is founded on a series of case studies, linked by a common sociological approach that treats the emerging political, economic, and cultural forces that are shaping global sport. It is divided into four sections: “Local-Global Nexus,” “Lived Experiences,” “Identity Politics,” and “Sporting Futures.”
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Maguire, J., and M. Falcous, eds. 2011. Sport and migration: Borders, boundaries and crossings. London: Routledge.
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The international migration of sporting talent and labor, encouraged and facilitated by the social and economic undercurrents of globalization, means that world sport is now an important case study for anyone with an interest in international labor flows, economic migration, global demography, or the interdependent world economy. In this collection, scholars chart the patterns, policies, and personal experiences of labor migration within and around sport.
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Miller, T., G. Lawrence, J. McKay, and D. Rowe. 2001. Globalization and sport: Playing the world. London: SAGE.
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This book argues that although sport is obviously a source of pleasure, it is also part of the government of everyday life. The creation of a sporting calendar, movements of rational recreation, and the development of physical education in the public sector are read as ways of disciplining and shaping urban-industrial populations. In addition, sport is examined as a principal front of globalization. The book demonstrates how commodification, bureaucratization, and ideology are fundamental to the organization of sporting cultures.
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Thorpe, H. 2014. Transnational mobilities in action sport cultures. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
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This book offers a sociological examination of the global phenomenon of action sports. Adopting a global ethnographic approach and engaging multiple theoretical perspectives, it examines how transnational action sport corporations; mega-events and media spectacles; the international travel patterns of athletes, tourists, and migrants; and the high use of social media among participants are contributing to the emergence of a transnational imaginary within and across action sport communities.
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Media and Consumption

Sport is both modern, as practice, and postmodern, as part of media culture. In the 20th century, professional spectator sports developed before advances in radio and television broadcasting, but the relationship between the mass media and sport has always been an important one (Whannel 1992). Since the 1990s in the United Kingdom and throughout the advanced capitalist economies coverage of sport on television and in the press, radio, and other forms of media has increased enormously. The media have helped to construct what is meant by sport. Professional sport has become increasingly allied to the consumption of goods and services, which is now the structural basis of the advanced capitalist countries. Hargreaves 1986 argues: “What links up consumer culture with sports culture so economically is their common concern with, and capacity to accommodate, the body as a means of expression” (cited under Classic Works, p. 134). Sport may be both a commercial spectacle and a means by which to resist commercial values. These issues are taken up in the works cited here as well as in debates about the role of celebrity, sports stars, the way in which representations of athletes in the media continue to frame ideas about national identities, and the way in which engagement in sport and physical culture can shape personal identities. The contributions in Andrews and Jackson 2001 investigate the nature of contemporary sporting celebrity, examining the relationships of sports stars with the media and with the sporting establishment. This theme is also taken up in Whannel 2002 in a series of case studies of British and American sportsmen. In his earlier book Fields in Vision (Whannel 1992), Whannel considers the historical development of sport on television, the growth of sponsorship, and the way that television and sponsorship have reshaped sport in the context of the enterprise culture. Boyle and Haynes 2004 examines the battle for control of football in the United Kingdom as media, business, and fans all seek to redefine the sport in the 21st century. How has globalization impacted sports media? What are the economic ramifications? And what is the future of sports media? To answer these questions, Rowe 2011 investigates the constituents, dimensions, and implications of the flows of media sport from the Global West to the Global East, and in the reverse direction. Both Horne 2006 and Smith Maguire 2008 provide distinctive ways of understanding the position of sport and fitness culture in consumer society.

Andrews, David, and Steve Jackson, eds. 2001. Sport stars: The cultural politics of sporting celebrity. London: Routledge.
DOI: 10.4324/9780203463543Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Through a series of case studies of sporting stars, including Diego Maradona, Michael Jordan, Venus Williams, and David Beckham, Sport Stars examines the cultural, political, economic, and technological forces that combine to produce sporting celebrity and considers the ways in which these most public of individuals inform and influence private experience.
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Boyle, R., and R. Haynes. 2004. Football in the new media age. London: Routledge.
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Football in the New Media Age analyzes the impact of media change on the football industry, drawing on extensive interviews with key people in the media and football industry. The authors examine the finances of the game, the rising importance of rights and rights management in the industry, and attempts by clubs to develop their own media capacity.
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Horne, J. 2006. Sport in consumer culture. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave.
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Drawing on recent developments in sociological theory and research, particularly in relation to debates about culture and consumption, the book examines how sport—as both recreational practice and commercial spectacle—has become more central to the capitalist “economies of signs and space,” Contains research findings and identifies key issues in the study and politics of sport in consumer culture.
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Rowe, D. 2011. Global media sport: Flows, forms and futures. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
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This book appraises and analyzes the state of sports television; rise of new sports media; emergence of hybrid sport cultural forms; eruption of sport-related political controversies, scandals and power struggles; mutations of forms of global sport fandom; and projections of the future of global media sport.
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Smith Maguire, J. 2008. Fit for consumption: Sociology and the business of fitness. London: Routledge.
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Fitness today is not simply about health clubs and exercise classes or measures of body mass index and cardiovascular endurance. Fit for Consumption conceptualizes fitness as a field within which individuals and institutions may negotiate the competing and often conflicting social demands made on the individual body that characterize our current era. The book utilizes the US fitness field as a case study through which to explore the place of the body in contemporary consumer culture.
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Wenner, L., ed. 1998. Mediasport. London: Routledge.
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Featuring seventeen chapters written by leading experts from around the world in the field of sports studies, sports journalism, and leisure studies, this book is organized in four parts dealing with the media sport playing field, media institutions, media texts, and media audiences. Among the subjects covered are: sports ethics, sport and race, sport and gender, sport and violence on television, the globalization of sports, and marketing sports on the Internet.
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Whannel, G. 1992. Fields in vision: Television sport and cultural transformation. London: Routledge.
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Fields in Vision is a classic analytical study of the international phenomenon of television sports coverage. Whannel explains the development of television sport by linking its economic transformation with the cultural forms through which it is represented, offering a study encompassing not simply the sports world, but our relationship with television and the media industries as a whole.
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Whannel, G. 2002. Media sport stars: Masculinities and moralities. London: Routledge.
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Media Sport Stars considers how masculinity and male identity are represented through images of sport and sport stars. From the pre-radio era to today’s specialist TV channels, newspaper supplements, and websites, Whannel traces the growing cultural importance of sport and sportsmen, showing how the very practices of sport are still bound up with the production of masculinities.
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Mega-Events

New developments in the technologies of mass communication, especially the development of satellite television, have created the basis for global audiences for sports mega-events. The expansion of mega-events has seen the formation of an alliance of sports, media, and business that transformed professional sport generally in the late 20th century. Interest in hosting sports mega-events has proliferated because they have become seen as valuable promotional opportunities for nations, cities, and regions. Mega-events fit very well with consumption-based development strategies. While mega-events have routinely been viewed as economic stimulants, hosting international mega-events also has a symbolic effect, announcing the status of the host city or country as an important site in global networks of political and economic power. In this sense, the increasing visibility of cities and countries in the East and Global South in the hosting of spectacular mega-events might arguably be taken as an indicator of global power shifts in an increasingly contingent world order. Yet, it is important to note that controversy remains ongoing about the value, impact, and legacy of global mega-events in eastern and southern nations, with critics questioning their effectiveness as avenues for economic development and the gap between the rhetoric and reality of the mega-event “effect.” Each of the sports mega-events that have taken place since 2000 has engendered debates over the following topics: the benefits of consumption-based development versus social redistribution policies, regeneration (or “gentrification”), displacement of local communities, public benefit versus private benefit, global impact versus local impact, spatial concentration of impacts, effects on employment and tourism, the manufacturing of consent by boosters, and the existence of “opposition coalitions.” These topics will continue to be central to sociological and social science research in the future and are discussed in each of the texts cited. Contributors to Horne and Manzenreiter 2006 explore the apparent paradox that while the enthusiasm to host sports mega-events has grown massively since the 1980s, scholarly research has pointed out significant gaps between forecast and actual outcomes. An edited collection, Tomlinson and Young 2006 focuses on the Olympic Games and the men’s football World Cup. Sugden and Tomlinson 1998 provides the first full-length study of FIFA (the Fédération Internationale de Football Association) and its role in framing and controlling world football. Lenskyj and Wagg 2012 is a reference collection that fills a gap in the fields of Olympic studies and sports sociology by applying a critical lens to a wide range of issues and controversies that have surrounded the Olympic movement.

Horne, J., and W. Manzenreiter, eds. 2006. Sports mega-events: Social scientific analyses of a global phenomenon. Oxford: Blackwell.
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This collection of essays asks penetrating questions about why governments and cities compete for the right to host these major international sporting events. What are the trade-offs and opportunity costs of doing so? Do such events ultimately deliver the benefits, economic and otherwise, that their proponents proclaim? The volume offers a comparative analysis of the sociological, economic, and political significance of bids for, and the hosting of, sports mega-events throughout the world.
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Horne, J., and G. Whannel. 2012. Understanding the Olympics. London: Routledge.
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The Olympic Games is unquestionably the greatest sporting event on earth, with television audiences measured in billions of viewers. By what process did the Olympics evolve into this multinational phenomenon? How can an understanding of the Olympic Games help us to better understand international sport and society? This book answers all of these questions, and more, The book includes illustrations, information boxes, chronologies, glossaries, and “Olympic Stories” in every chapter.
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Lenskyj, H., and S. Wagg, eds. 2012. The Palgrave handbook of Olympic studies. New York: Palgrave.
DOI: 10.1057/9780230367463Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This edited collection includes debates on race, gender, amateurism, the environment, security, sponsorship, housing, indigenous peoples, and the mass media, and it provides in-depth case studies on individual Olympic Games ranging from the St Louis Olympic Games in 1904 to the Summer Olympics in Beijing in 2008, and discusses the Olympics in London and those forthcoming in Rio de Janeiro.
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Sugden, J., and A. Tomlinson. 1998. FIFA and the contest for world football: Who rules the people’s game? Cambridge, UK: Polity.
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The book includes analyses of football’s contributions to the growth of nationalism and anti-imperialism, the use of football by ruthless and sometimes corrupt officials and political despots, and its expansion under the influence of increasingly prominent commercial paymasters. Football’s role in Africa, Asia, and the United States is also illuminated, and FIFA’s global mission and rhetoric are evaluated.
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Tomlinson, A., and C. Young, eds. 2006. National identity and global sports events: Culture, politics and spectacle in the Olympics and the football World Cup. Albany: State Univ. of New York Press.
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National Identity and Global Sports Events looks at the significance of international sporting events and why they generate enormous audiences worldwide. Through rigorous scholarly analyses, the book’s contributors help to illuminate the increasing significance of large-scale sporting events on the international stage.