Exploring Sports and Society: A Critical Introduction for Students

ISBN-13: 9781137341594 / Angielski / Miękka / 2014 / 272 str.

Karl Spracklen

Opis

A critical and insightful text that explores the meaning and purpose of sports in society through an interdisciplinary lens, bringing together sports studies, sociology, philosophy and more, and drawing on a wide range of international examples, in order to provoke readers to question assumptions about the value of sports and physical culture.

Spis treści

Introduction: Sport(s) and Physical Culture PART I: POSITIONS 1. Who Invented Sports? 2. Sporting Myths and Sports Histories 3. Sport, Freedom, Fairness 4. Character and Community Building 5. Embodiment and Gratification 6. Sport and Wellbeing PART II: PROBLEMS 7. The Obesity Epidemic 8. Performance Enhancement 9. Compulsory Physical Education 10. Biology and Essentialism 11. The Limits of Sport Science 12. Watching Sport 13. The Sports Industry 14. Sports Fashions Conclusion: The Future of Sport as Physical Culture.

O autorze

Karl Spracklen is Professor of Leisure Studies at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK, and Project Leader for the Inter-Disciplinary.Net sports conferences. He is the author of several texts on leisure and sport, including The Meaning and Purpose of Leisure, Constructing Leisure, Whiteness and Leisure, as well as the textbook Leisure, Sports and Society, all published by Palgrave.

Blurb

What is the relationship between sports and society? How can we understand sport in relation to physical activities, leisure and physical culture? In this far-reaching and inter-disciplinary textbook, Karl Spracklen brings together ideas and research from sports studies, sociology, cultural studies, history, philosophy and psychology, in order to explore the meaning and purpose of sports in society.

Unique in its critical outlook, the text explicitly aims to challenge readers to question their assumptions about sports and physical culture, through chapters that focus in on the issues and controversies in sports and identify the tensions in the role of sport and physical culture in our everyday lives.

Combining exposition of key concepts with critical analysis of relevant and up-to-date research examples, this informative and provocative textbook makes a distinct companion for students and lecturers across all sports-related courses, from sports science and physical education to sports studies and leisure studies.