Sport And The Social Significance Of Pleasure

This innovative text's critical examination foregrounds the prime reason why so many people participate in or watch sport – pleasure. Although there has been a "turn" to emotions and affect within academia over the last two decades, it has been somewhat remiss that pleasure, as an integral aspect of human life, has not received greater attention from sociologists of sport, exercise and physical education. This book addresses this issue via an unabashed examination of sport and the moving body via a "pleasure lens." It provides new insights about the production of various identities, power relations and social issues, and the dialectical links between the socio-cultural and the body. Taking a wide-sweeping view of pleasure - dignified and debauched, distinguished and mundane – it examines topics as diverse as aging, health, fandom, running, extreme sports, biopolitics, consumerism, feminism, sex and sexuality. In drawing from diverse theoretical approaches and original empirical research, the text reveals the social and political significance of pleasure and provides a more rounded, dynamic and sensual account of sport.

This innovative text's critical examination foregrounds the prime reason why so many people participate in or watch sport – pleasure. Although there has been a "turn" to emotions and affect within academia over the last two decades, it has been somewhat remiss that pleasure, as an integral aspect of human life, has not received greater attention from sociologists of sport, exercise and physical education. This book addresses this issue via an unabashed examination of sport and the moving body via a "pleasure lens." It provides new insights about the production of various identities, power relations and social issues, and the dialectical links between the socio-cultural and the body. Taking a wide-sweeping view of pleasure - dignified and debauched, distinguished and mundane – it examines topics as diverse as aging, health, fandom, running, extreme sports, biopolitics, consumerism, feminism, sex and sexuality. In drawing from diverse theoretical approaches and original empirical research, the text reveals the social and political significance of pleasure and provides a more rounded, dynamic and sensual account of sport.

Sport, Fun and Enjoyment explores the pleasurable aspects of sport within the context of everyday recreational and competitive physical activities. While much recent work has focused on the relationships between physical activity, health and wellbeing, much less attention has been paid to pleasure and fun, key aspects of our engagement with sport but not so easy to measure in terms of specific outcomes. By offering a critical exploration of what can be constituted as ‘fun’ in a sporting context, this book reveals the complex ways in which individuals approach sport and engage with it throughout the life course. The book considers the importance of pleasure and fun as a factor in our initial, formative experiences of sport activity, and as a factor in participation and continued participation. It explores the nature of fun as an embodied experience which incorporates a multitude of social, psychological and physiological components, and as a subjective experience which cannot be fully explained through simplistic binary formulations of pleasure and pain. Drawing on a wide research literature and original empirical research with children and adults, the book outlines a new theoretical framework for thinking about pleasure and fun in sport, highlighting the contrasting ways in which sport and physical activity is experienced and the interplay between individual and social contexts. Sport, Fun and Enjoyment is important reading for anybody with an interest in physical education, youth sport, the sociology of sport, physical activity and health, sport development or sport policy.

Women worldwide are making their presence felt as sport fans in rapidly increasing numbers. This book makes a distinctive and innovative contribution to the study of sport fandom by exploring the growing visibility and interest in women who follow sport. It presents the latest data on women’s sport spectatorship in different regions of the world, posing new theoretical paradigms to study the globalised nature of female sport fandom. This book goes beyond conventional approaches to analysing the practices of women sport fans. By using a critical feminist perspective to investigate cultural conditions and social contexts (including globalisation, digital networked technologies, consumerism, neoliberalism and postfeminism), it brings into view a diversity of women’s voices and experiences as sport fans. It sheds new light on the power dynamics of gender, ethnicity and sexuality influencing women’s participation in sport spectatorship and interrogates the ways female sport fandom is made visible through transnational media networks. Women Sport Fans: Identification, Participation, Representation is fascinating reading for all those interested in sport and gender, the sociology of sport, or women’s studies.

Providing key data, insights, and ways of thinking about women and sports, this book is an excellent resource for high school and undergraduate students as well as for sport organizations serving girls and women. Women are participating in sports in record numbers, and thanks in part to Title IX and a growing interest in women's sports, they're breaking records and achieving remarkable success in sports in every conceivable manner. However, women still struggle for equitable treatment in a variety of sports and face different obstacles than do their male counterparts. How can these issues be solved? Are women in sports being treated fairly? This book provides a comprehensive yet accessible overview of the state of women's participation in sports by referencing both current events and research. Additionally, it offers a breadth of information pertaining to work in sports made available to girls and women. Key aspects include a detailed history of women in sports since 1900 as well as a discussion of current issues surrounding their participation in high school and college athletics, recreational sports, physical activity, and leadership in sports organizations. In particular, the material not only recounts history and analyzes issues but also presents perspectives as to how and why sports continue to be simultaneously a means of empowerment and a conduit for the marginalization of girls and women.

Despite the growing literature on spirituality and its positive impact on well-being in health psychology, education, occupational psychology and leisure studies, it has been less examined in sport studies. Meaning and Spirituality in Sport and Exercise: Psychological Perspectives examines the many forms of spirituality in sport from a psychological perspective, from moments of transcendence and finding deeper meaning and value to prayer before an important competition or in adversity, such as a career-threatening injury. Based on the latest research and the Nesti’s experience in applied sport psychology service delivery, this book covers a range of novel topics linking spirituality to athlete development, injury, exercise motivation, and ageing athletes, and offers applied, practical guidance for sport psychologists working with spiritual athletes. Offering a unique contribution to the study of spirituality in sport, and to sport psychology practice, this book is vital reading for any upper-level student or academic working in sport and exercise psychology, religion and sport, or the philosophy of sport, and any practising sport psychologist.

This text looks at the sociology of sport. Narrative case studies of sports sociology from all over the world provide examples of how to interpret issues in professional and elite sports from a sociological perspective.

Few activities bring together physicality, emotions, politics, money, and morality as dramatically as sport. In Brazil’s stadiums or China’s parks, on Cuba’s baseball diamonds or Fiji’s rugby fields, human beings test their physical limits, invest emotional energy, bet money, perform witchcraft, and ingest substances. Sport is a microcosm of what life is about. The Anthropology of Sport explores how sport both shapes and is shaped by the social, cultural, political, and historical contexts in which we live. Core themes discussed in this book include the body, modernity, nationalism, the state, citizenship, transnationalism, globalization, and gender and sexuality.