Social Dimensions Of Canadian Sport

Social Dimensions of Canadian Sport and Physical Activity by Jane Crossman and Jay Scherer is an up-to-date, comprehensive overview of the relationship between sociological issues and sport, with a specific focus on the Canadian sports industry. Each chapter in this contributed text is written by experts in their field, using both Canadian and international perspectives to address contemporary sociological issues. The authors hope that this text will provide students with a sound basis for understanding the social dimensions of sport and physical activity from a uniquely Canadian perspective.

Social Dimensions of Canadian Sport and Physical Activity by Jane Crossman and Jay Scherer is an up-to-date, comprehensive overview of the relationship between sociological issues and sport, with a specific focus on the Canadian sports industry. KEY TOPICS: Sport and Physical Culture in Canadian Society;Thinking Sociologically: Sport, Physical Culture, and Critical Theory;Sport and Physical Culture in Historical Perspective;Sport and Social Stratification;Physical Culture, Sport, Ethnicity, and Race in Canada;Sex, Gender, and Sexuality;Youth Sport and Physical Culture;Deviance, Sport, and Physical Culture;Violence and Sport;Sport and Health;Sport, Media, and Ideology;Sport, Politics, and Policy;The Business of Sport;Globalization, Sport, and International Development;Sport and the Environment;Sport and the Future MARKET: Appropriate for Sociology of Sport courses.

Taking Sport Seriously: Social Issues in Canadian Sport is a unique collection of primary Canadian readings in sport and recreation for students and teachers at community colleges and universities across Canada. This book covers such important topics as: drugs, the Olympic movement, sport and health, violence in sport, masculinity and sport, women and sport, youth and sport, sexuality and sport, the economics of sport, sport and the newsmedia, and race. An entire new section deals with the crisis in Canadian hockey. The second edition has been substantially revised, comprising numerous additional selections as well as new introductions. Approximately 65% of the selections are new to this edition. This Canadian-content book can be used as a supplement to a core text on sport in Canadian society such as Winners and Losers: Sport and Physical Activity in the 90s (Jill LeClair) or Sport Ethics: Concepts and Cases in Sport and Recreation (David Cruise Malloy, Saul Ross and Dwight Zakus). These books are also published by Thompson Educational Publishing

Canadian sports were turned on their head during the years between the world wars. The middle-class amateur men's organizations which dominated Canadian sports since the mid-nineteenth century steadily lost ground, swamped by the rise of consumer culture and badly battered and split by the depression. In The Struggle for Canadian Sport Bruce Kidd illuminates the complex and fractious process that produced the familiar contours of Canadian sport today -- the hegemony of continental cartels like the 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. Kidd focuses on four major Canadian organizations of the interwar period: the Amateur Athletic Union, the Women's Amateur Athletic Federation, the Workers' Sport Association, and the National Hockey League. 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: The AAU sought `the making of men' and the strengthening of English-Canadian nationalism; the WAAF promoted the health and well-being of sportswomen; the WSA was a vehicle for socialism; and the NHL was concerned with lucrative spectacles. These national organizations stimulated and steered many of the resources available for sport and contributed significantly to the expansion of opportunities. They enjoyed far more power than other Canadian cultural organizations of the period, and they attempted to manipulate both the direction and philosophy of Canadian athletics. Through their control of the rules and prestigious events and their countless interventions in the mass media, they shaped the dominant practices and coined the very language with which Canadians discussed what sports should mean. The success and outcome of each group, as well as their confrontations with one another were crucial in shaping modern Canadian sports. The Struggle for Canadian Sport adds to our understanding of the material and social conditions under which people created and elaborated sports and the contested ideological terrain on which sports were played and interpreted. Winner of the North American Society for Sports History (NASSH) 1997 book award

Organized sport as we know it is not an expression of social consensus or of continuing progess toward a better world, nor is it a homogenous, cohesive entity. This book invites us to consider the hidden face of Canadian sport.

"Research Centre for Sport in Canadian Society, University of Ottawa."

"During her twenty-five years of teaching sport sociology, Dr Crossman has noticed that many of her students enter the study of this discipline with their own perceptions of what sport and physical activity are all about. One or two courses later, their perceptions have changed remarkably. Like her students, you will learn that the opportunities to participate in sport aren't equitable; that the control of sport is in the hands of a minority; that racism in sport still exists today; that economic and political forces shape what sport is today and what it might look like in the future; and that the mass media act as a filter of what we see and how we see it. 'Canadian sport sociology' not only examines such issues related to sport in Canada but provides the foundations, theories, and trends needed to give you a sound basis for understanding sport sociology from a uniquely Canadian perspective. Reflecting the latest research by drawing on expertise from across the country, 'Canadian sport sociology' examines Canadian sport from a sociological perspective. While many themes in this text are universal -- such as economics in sport, social problems, politics, and gender -- the contributors examine and analyze how these and other issues pertain to the Canadian situation." --