A Companion to Sport brings together writing by leading sports theorists and social and cultural thinkers, to explore sport as a central element of contemporary culture.
- Positions sport as a crucial subject for critical analysis, as one of the most significant forms of popular culture
- Includes both well-known social and cultural theorists whose work lends itself to an interrogation of sport, and leading theorists of sport itself
- Offers a comprehensive examination of sport as a social and cultural practice and institution
- Explores sport in relation to modernity, postcolonial theory, gender, violence, race, disability and politics
"Combining accessible overviews of established fields of research in sport studies with lively discussions of emergent ideas, this landmark text is invaluable."
Samantha King, Queen's University
"An outstanding cast of authors has provided a veritable tour de force of critical inquiry and analysis into the roles of sport in contemporary society. Cutting edge scholarship."
Daryl Adair, University of Technology, Sydney
"This collection offers an important resource documenting the ways in which sport matters culturally as a site of popular pleasure and identifications fraught with ideological and political significance."
Mary McDonald, Miami University
From the paternal bonding ritual of a baseball thrown to a small gloved hand to the shared anxiety and elation of a football crowd, sport has long been a central element of cultures throughout the world. It brings together communities, nations and people with little else in common, whether as an activity or a spectacle, operating as a vital form of human expression.
Yet despite its importance as a means of understanding social formations and interpersonal relations, sport has often been viewed by social scientists as a marginal activity. This wide-ranging collection of essays aims to address this inconsistency, exploring the ways in which sport has been marked by the discourses of race, class, gender, sexuality, and nation which inform the structure and experience of wider society.
Both theoretically ambitious and accessible, A Companion to Sport includes the thoughts of well-known social and cultural theorists whose work lends itself to an interrogation of sport. It is an invaluable extension to the field and is set to become a default text for anyone interested in contemporary cultural forms and their political significance.
