Kategoria BISAC: Sports & Recreation >> Cultural & Social Aspects

Sport science can quantify many aspects of human performance but the spiritual dimensions of sports experience cannot be fully understood through measurement. However, the spiritual experience of sport - be it described as 'flow', 'transcendence' or the discovery of meaning and value - is central both to our basic motivation to take part in sports, and to achieving success.

Sport and Spirituality: An Introduction explores these human aspects of sports experience through the perspectives of sport psychology, philosophy, ethics, theology and religious studies. It...

Why do many athletes risk their careers by taking performance-enhancing drugs? Do the highly competitive pressures of elite sports teach athletes to win at any cost?

An Introduction to Drugs in Sport provides a detailed and systematic examination of drug use in sport and attempts to explain why athletes have, over the last four decades, increasingly used performance-enhancing drugs. It offers a critical overview of the major theories of drug use in sport, and provides a detailed analysis of the involvement of sports physicians in the development and use of...

Key Themes in Youth Sport is a concise, easy to read guide to core concepts in the study of young people's relationship with sport, exercise and leisure. Designed to help students get to grips with the basics and go on to master the central ideas and debates in contemporary youth sport, this book reflects the multi-disciplinary interest in youth sport, exploring perspectives from sociology, psychology, physiology, sports policy, sports development, and physical education.

This important new study examines the changing place and meaning of lifestyle sports - parkour, surfing, skateboarding, kite-surfing and others - and asks whether they continue to pose a challenge to the dominant meanings and experience of 'sport' and physical culture.

Drawing on a series of in-depth, empirical case-studies, the book offers a re-evaluation of theoretical frameworks with which lifestyle sports have been understood, and focuses on aspects of their cultural politics that have received little attention, particularly the racialization of lifestyle sporting spaces....

There are few, if any, aspects of contemporary sport that do not raise ethical questions. From on-field relationships between athletes, coaches and officials, to the corporate responsibility of international sports organizations and businesses, ethical considerations permeate sport at every level.

This important new collection of articles showcases the very best international scholarship in the field of sports ethics, and offers a comprehensive, one-stop resource for any student, scholar or sportsperson with an interest in this important area. It addresses cutting-edge...

Traditional research methods textbooks tend to present an idealized and simplistic picture of the research process. This ground-breaking text however, features leading international sport researchers explaining how they actually carried out their real life research projects, highlighting the practical day-to-day problems, false starts and setbacks that are a normal part of the research process.

This book focuses on ten pieces of research that have made a distinctive and valuable contribution to the study of sport. For each one the author of that research explains how the project was...

Starting university can be a daunting prospect, as students come to grips with new ways of working, learning and thinking. Studying sport at university poses particular challenges, with students often engaged in playing or coaching sport alongside their studies and having unconventional working patterns.

Study Skills for Sport Studies is the only complete guide to degree-level study to be written specifically for students on sport-related courses, outlining the core academic competencies needed to succeed at university. The textbook offers tips and techniques for all aspects...

The field of sports development is becoming ever more professional, with the levels of expertise in planning and efficiency required of those working in private or national sports institutions higher than they have ever been. In response to this, strategic sports development has emerged as a means of applying business strategies to the context of sports development. Strategic Sports Development is the first book to directly address this important new field.

The book comprehensively explains the strategic concepts and techniques that sports students and...

Sport is increasingly regarded as a powerful tool in international development. In this comprehensive introduction to the area of 'sport-for-development', leading researcher Fred Coalter critically evaluates the strengths and weaknesses and successes and failures of sport-for-development policies and programs.

Beginning with an outline of the historical development of policies of sport-for-development, this book explores the objectives that remain central to international sport-for-development initiatives, including issues of defining and measuring impacts, the development...