First published in 1989. In the climate of long-term unemployment, early retirement, and technology that is seen to threaten jobs, 'leisure’ has been presented as the solution to a multitude of social problems. The essays in this collection represent the most important arguments on the problems, myths, and misunderstandings of leisure. Arguing from a range of positions, some sceptical, others more idealistic, they look at the complexities of this field and the social and political problems...

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-...

Sport is perceived to have the potential to alleviate a variety of social problems and generally to ‘improve’ both individuals and the communities in which they live. Sport is promoted as a relatively cost effective antidote to a range of social problems – often those stemming from social exclusion - including poor health, high crime levels, drug abuse and persistent youth offending, educational under-achievement, lack of social cohesion and community identity and economic decline. To this...

The definitive, never-before-told story of the prep-to-pro generation, those basketball prodigies who from 1995 to 2005 made the jump directly from high school to the NBA.When Kevin Garnett shocked the world by announcing that he would not be attending college—as young basketball prodigies were expected to do—but instead enter the 1995 NBA draft directly from high school, he blazed a trail for a generation of teenage basketball players to head straight for the pros...

"Enlightening" essays on athletes, activism, and the important role sports plays in our society ( Publishers Weekly).Sportscaster Howard Cosell dubbed it "rule number one of the jockocracy": sports and politics just don't mix. But in truth, some of our most important debates about class, race, religion, sex, and the raw quest for political power are played out both on and off the field. From the NFL lockout and the role of soccer in the Arab Spring to the ...

"Like Curt Flood and Oscar Robertson, who paved the way for free agency in sports, Ed O'Bannon decided there was a principle at stake… O'Bannon gave the movement to reform college sports…passion and purpose, animated by righteous indignation." —Jeremy Schaap, ESPN journalist and New York Times bestselling authorIn 2009, Ed O'Bannon, once a star for the 1995 NCAA Champion UCLA Bruins and a first-round NBA draft pick, thought he'd made peace with the NCAA's e...

Sports are perhaps the most visible expression of the ideals of masculinity in our society, and figure as a training ground on which young boys are taught what it means to be a man. Given the involvement of sports with masculinity, the homosexual athlete becomes a paradox, and the recent explosive growth of gay sporting leagues, a puzzle.Pronger explores the paradoxical position of the gay athlete in a straight sporting world, examines the homoerotic undercurrent subliminally presen...

With every positive drugs test the credibility and veracity of modern elite sport is diminished. In this radical and provocative critique of current anti-doping policy and practice, Verner Møller argues that the fight against doping – promoted as an initiative to cleanse sport of cheats – is at heart nothing less than a battle to save sport from itself, located on the fault-line between the will to purity and the will to win.Drawing on extensive and detailed case studies of doping ...

Representing a detailed analysis of footballers' wives and their role in contemporary British culture, this books explores how the generic and stereotypical 'Wag' has been created by newspaper and magazine coverage, auto/biographies and influential television programmes.

In the modern era, sport has been an important agent, and symptom, of the political, cultural and commercial pressures for convergence and globalization. In this fascinating, inter-disciplinary study, leading international scholars explore the making of modern sport in Europe, illuminating sport and its cultural and economic impacts in the context of the supra-state formations and global markets that have re-shaped national and trans-national cultures in the later twentieth century.

This book provides a comprehensive historical account of the evolution of Sport and Exercise Psychology research, charting the progression of the field from the early days when well-controlled experimental research was the standard, to the subsequent paradigm war between positivism, post-positivism and constructivism. The book challenges current thinking and makes a plea for a move towards a future in which the accumulation of knowledge is at the core of Sport and Exercise research, rather...

In 2011, the San Francisco 49ers hosted the Oakland Raiders in a preseason matchup that would become a seminal moment for fan violence. During the game, seventy fans were ejected from the stadium, one person was beaten unconscious in the men’s room, and two men were shot in the parking lot after the game. This is hardly an isolated incident. At any given game, fans get kicked out and arrested for acting out. In the spring of 2014 alone, soccer headlines screamed of a fan killed in Brazil, ...