The Athletic Labour of Femininity: Branding and Consumption of Global Celebrity Sportswomen on Instagram
This article explores the relationship between consumer culture, female athletic representation and online fan engagement on the photograph-based social media platform Instagram. It argues that social media interaction between female athletes and fans is governed by gender norms and arrangements…
The Athlete and the Spectator Inside the Man: A Cross-cultural Investigation of the Evolutionary Origins of Athletic Behavior
Athletic contests constitute an important aspect of human affairs. However, the evolutionary origins of athletic behavior, that is, behavior which is associated with participating in and watching athletic contests, are rather obscure, as they do not seem to contribute directly…
The American Dream, Then and Now
America has always taken pride in being the land of opportunity, a country in which hard work and sacrifice result in a better life for one’s children. Economic growth made that dream a reality for generations of Americans, including many…
The Allure of Games: Toward an Updated Theory of the Leisure Class
Gamers spend as many as 2.5 billion hours per week playing games. The gaming literature has relied on the field of positive psychology and the concept of flow to explain why gamers are willing to work so hard in order…
The Adaptation Challenges and Strategies of Adolescent Aboriginal Athletes Competing Off Reserve
Within the motivation literature, it has been indicated that athletes respond more effectively to sport’s contextual challenges through effective adaptation skills. Fiske identified five core motives as facilitators of the adaptation process across cultures: belonging, understanding, controlling, self-enhancement, and trusting.…
The Active Ageing Agenda, Old Folk Devils and a New Moral Panic
The proposal that older people should engage in “active aging” has come to dominate local, national, and international policy agendas. This encompasses a variety of ways that older persons might maintain active citizenship, but invariably promotes physical activity and exercise…
The Academic Reform of Intercollegiate Athletics: The Good the Problematic and the Truly Worrisome
The purpose of this paper is to provide a response to Harrison’s (2012) work. The author highlights the positives associated with many of the academic reform efforts Harrison highlights (i.e., the good); addresses concerns about academic clustering, rewarding teams performing…
The Absence of Resistance Training? Exploring the Politics of Health in High Performance Youth Triathlon
While research and scholarship on the dynamic interconnections between sport and health has steadily grown in the sociocultural study of sport in the past few decades, this paper focuses more directly on the politics of health within sport. Drawing on…
The (In)Validity of Supercrip Representation of Paralympian Athletes
This article provides a critical overview of the viability of the “supercrip” iconography as an appropriate representation of Paralympic athletes. It focuses on its validity as a vehicle for the empowerment of individuals with impairments both within the context of…
The (Im)Possible Sexual Difference: Representations From a Rugby Union Setting
To date Luce Irigaray’s sexual difference theory has had very little impact on sport feminism studies. While sexual difference is still considered in some feminist circles as a regression to the old idea of anatomy as destiny, Irigaray’s sexual difference…
The “Logic” of Specialization: Using Children for Adult Purposes
Decisions and policies in both the public and private spheres were based on the ideological assumptions that (1) the sole foundation of social order was personal responsibility, (2) the most effective source of economic growth was unregulated self-interest, and (3)…
The “Caddie Question”: Why the Golf Caddies of Bangalore Reject Formal Employment
The mainly poor and lower-caste caddies who carry the golf sets of wealthy members at exclusive golf clubs in Bangalore, India, are not employees. Still, they must hand over personal identification to the clubs, sign an attendance register, wear uniforms,…
The ‘Uptake’ of a Sport-for-Development Program in South Africa
This article reports on the ‘uptake’ dynamics and resultant manifestations of a school-based, incentive-driven, sport-for-development programme in the South African context of poverty. The ecological systems theory of Brofenbrenner, the theory of complexity and a neoliberal framework underpin the social…
Television Sport in the Age of Screens and Content
The death of television has been long predicated in the digital age, yet it remains a powerful mediator of live sports. This article focuses on football and examines the implications for the sport of the move to an age of…
Teamwork: A Systematic Review of Implications From Psychosocial Constructs for Research and Practice in the Performance of Ultimate Frisbee Games
Ultimate Frisbee (UF) is a non-contact, challenging, and self-promoted team sport. Some factors such as the game environment and rules seem to influence athletes’ behavior. Goals: Provide a robust systematic review (SR) of the psychological domains associated with UF
Teammate Influence on Collegiate Swimmers’ Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction: A Qualitative Perspective
To enhance student-athletes’ psychological welfare and motivation it is essential to foster positive relationships and interactions with those in their surroundings, especially when considering that others’ actions toward them can have a significant impact on their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors…
Teaching Across the Lines of Fault in Psychology and Sociology: Health, Obesity and Physical Activity in the Canadian Context
While interdisciplinary knowledge is critical to moving beyond categorical ways of knowing, this comes with its own set of pedagogical challenges. We contend that acknowledging existing knowledge hierarchies and epistemological differences, recognizing the ideological baggage that students’ bring to the…
Talking Doping: A Frame Analysis of Communication About Doping Among Talented Young Norwegian Road Cyclists
In everyday communication, participants can critically explore their understanding of morally complex phenomena. There has been little effort within the social sciences to provide insight into whether and how athletes communicate among themselves about morally contested topics. This study attempts…
Talking About Trayvon in 140 Characters: Exploring NFL Players’ Tweets About the George Zimmerman Verdict
This research explored how National Football League (NFL) playersused Twitter to discuss the verdict in the George Zimmerman murder trial in the immediate aftermath of its announcement. A textual analysis, using constant comparative procedures of 465 tweets from 125 NFL…
Tales from the Mat: Narrating Men and Meaning Making in the Mixed Martial Arts Gym
Based upon five years of observant participation, I examine how participants justify their engagement with the controversial but increasing popular practice of mixed martial arts. Several themes emerge: necessity (“it is a violent world”), sociobiological discourse, emulating the exotic, spiritual…
Talent Recruitment and Firm Performance: The Business of Major League Sports
Firms rely heavily on their investments in human capital to achieve profits. This research takes advantage of detailed information on worker performance and confidential information on firm revenue and operating costs to investigate the relationship between talent migration and firm…
Taking the Fun Out of It: The Spoiling Effects of Researching Something You Love
This reflexive analysis of two sports ethnographers’ studies of an aerobics class and a swimming pool explores the effects of doing fieldwork on a physical activity that one loves. While using our bodies as phenomenological sites of perception initially created…
Taking South African Sport Seriously
Twenty years on, the image of Nelson Mandela, wearing the number six jersey of the white Springbok captain, Francois Pienaar, remains a poignant moment in South African and global sport. The 1995 Rugby World Cup victory by the overwhelmingly all-white…
Taking Sex Off the Sidelines: Challenging Heteronormativity Within ‘Sport in Development’ Research
The majority of ‘Sport in Development’ (SiD) research imparts a heteronormative framework that serves to prevent nuanced understandings of how sexuality and gender matter in programming that aspires to achieve development through/with sport. The authors review existing SiD academic literature…
Syria and the Olympics: National Identity on an International Stage
Since its independence in 1946, Syria has fielded a team for every summer Olympic competition except 1956, yet has won only three Olympic medals. In contrast with its smaller, higher-powered neighbour Lebanon, its participation at the Olympics has been consistent…
Symbols, Meaning, and Action: The Past, Present, and Future of Symbolic Interactionism
Symbolic interactionism is a theoretical perspective in sociology that addresses the manner in which society is created and maintained through face-to-face, repeated, meaningful interactions among individuals. This article surveys past theory and research in the interactionist tradition. It first provides…
Symbolic Violence and the Olympic Games: Low-income Youth, Social Legacy Commitments, and Urban Exclusion in Olympic Host Cities
Drawing on a five-year qualitative study on the impacts of the Olympic Games on homeless and marginally housed youth in two host cities (Vancouver 2010 and London 2012), this paper explores the instances of ‘symbolic violence’ perpetuated by the institutional…
Sustainable Mega-events: Beyond the Myth of Balanced Approaches to Mega-event Sustainability
The concept of sustainability is now integral to the lexicon of tourism and is increasingly become part of the discourse of mega-events. Yet despite the success of the concept of sustainable development in being adopted in tourism policy-making and research…
Suspended Ethics and the Team: Theorising Team Sports Players’ Group Sexual Assault in the Context of Identity
Men’s elite team sports in Australia have recently been the subject of considerable public scrutiny subsequent to a series of instances of group sexual violence against women. Both scholarship and policy work have noted how homosocial institutions such as sporting…
Surviving Rather than Thriving: Understanding the Experiences of Women Coaches Using a Theory of Gendered Social Well-being
In shifting our gaze to the sociological impact of being in the minority, the purpose of this study was to substantiate a model of gendered social well-being to appraise women coaches’ circumstances, experiences and challenges as embedded within the social…
Surveillance and Securitization: A Forgotten Sydney Olympic Legacy
The Sydney 2000 Olympic Games were the last Olympic Games held before 9 Even though the 2000 Games were held prior to this landmark terrorist incident, Australia implemented a range of increased security processes to safeguard the Games. As such,…
Surfistas Locales: Transnationalism and the Construction of Surfer Identity in Nicaragua
Surfers have created their own subculture, which has been associated with concepts such as environmentalism, masculinity, place, and nonconformity, yet the increasing global reach of their sport has created transnational surf communities that bring into question the definition of what…
Surf’s up! A call to take English Soccer Fan Interactions on the Internet more Seriously
Soccer fandom practices in England have been significantly impacted by globalization. The creation of the Premier League in 1992, and the way in which satellite television company BSkyB dominated coverage of this, together with other developments, have led to changes…
Surf Film Then & Now: The Endless Summer Meets Slow Dance
Media shifts in the past 50 years based on a late capitalist economics have profoundly affected how a film is produced, delivered, and received. In this article, I aim to examine two exemplar surf films—The Endless Summer (1964) and Slow…
Supplements for Strength-Power Athletes
STRENGTH-POWER ATHLETES IMPROVE EXERCISE PERFORMANCE PRIMARILY BY IMPROVING THEIR SPORT-SPECIFIC SKILLS. IN ADDITION, EXERCISE PERFORMANCE CAN BE ENHANCED BY IMPROVING STRENGTH, LEAN MUSCLE MASS, AND ANAEROBIC EXERCISE PERFORMANCE. SEVERAL SPORTS SUPPLEMENTS HAVE BEEN DOCUMENTED TO ENHANCE THESE ATTRIBUTES. INCLUDING CREATINE…
Superstar Salaries and Soccer Success: The Impact of Designated Players in Major League Soccer
This study estimates the relationship between production and salary structure in Major League Soccer (MLS), the highest level of professional soccer (association football) in North America. Soccer production, measured as league points per game, is modeled as a function of…
Suicide in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Athletes: A 9-Year Analysis of the NCAA Resolutions Database
Background: The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has recently highlighted mental health concerns in student athletes, though the incidence of suicide among NCAA athletes is unclear. The purpose of this study was to determine the rate of suicide among NCAA…
Sugar and Sports: Age Differences in Children’s Responses to a High Sugar Cereal Advertisement Portraying Physical Activities
This study experimentally investigated whether exposing children to a television advertisement for a high sugar cereal that depicts physical activities influences their perceptions of the promoted food and activities differently than exposure to an advertisement for the same product without…
Suffering and Thriving: Children’s Perspectives and Interpretations of Poverty and well-being in Rural Zambia
Drawing on the findings of a qualitative research in rural Zambia involving 24 children (9- to 16-year old), this article advances our understandings of the ways in which familial and intergenerational relationships influence the experiences, impacts, conceptualizations and interpretations of…
Successful Sexy Popular: Athletic Performance and Physical Attractiveness as Determinants of Public Interest in Male and Female Soccer Players
This study examines to what extent the public attention directed at individual male and female players of various national soccer teams is influenced by (a) their athletic performance and (b) their physical attractiveness. The results prove that public interest in…
Subsidies and Stadia’ Opulence
Quirk and Fort’s gold plating hypothesis stipulates that subsidies are partly capitalized into stadia’ opulence. If the gold plating hypothesis is true, it would indicate that subsidies contribute to their own existence, as owners and major league executives argue subsidies…
Submersed in Social Segregation: The (Re)Production of Social Capital Through Swim Club Membership
This article examines the ways in which upper middle class families acquire, transmit, and preserve their social and cultural capitals through membership at the Pine View Swim and Tennis Club, a semi private facility located near a major mid-Atlantic city…
Strong Is the New Sexy: Women, CrossFit, and the Postfeminist Ideal
This article discusses the postfeminist framing of women who participate in CrossFit (CF) and whether that framing provides a counter to traditional narratives regarding the masculinity and manliness of women in competitive sports and activities focused on the body. Our…
Strong and Hard Women: An Ethnography of Female Bodybuilding
In Strong and Hard Women, Tanya Bunsell offers an insightful ethnographic exploration of female bodybuilding in the United Kingdom, questioning whether female bodybuilding can operate as a vehicle for women’s empowerment and for resistance to cultural constructions of hegemonic femininity.…
Strike a Pose! The Femininity Effect in Collegiate Women’s Sport
The apologetic strategies women employ to manage the cultural tension between athleticism and hegemonic femininity are well documented. Existing research, however, tends to be small-scale. The cumulative symbolic implications of female athlete appearance on cultural ideals remain under-theorized as a…
Stigma and Status: Interracial Intimacy and Intersectional Identities Among Black College Men
In this article, I use in-depth interviews with Black college students at two predominantly white universities to investigate the construction of race, gender, and sexuality, and to examine intersectional identities as a dynamic process rather than bounded identity. I focus…
Sticking Out in the Field: No, Ma’am, I Do Not Work for the Governor
The purpose of this paper is to further existing research on fieldwork practices and experiences by focusing on issues of reflexivity (Pillow, 2003) and research ethics (Guillemin & Gillam, 2004) within “openly ideological research” (Lather, 1986) that actively renounces the…
Steroids: A New Look at Performance-enhancing Drugs
From Baron Pierre de Coubertin’s original objectives in establishing the modern Olympic Games to the increasingly widespread use of performance-enhancing drugs during the Cold War to the 1998 drug scandal during the Tour de France and beyond, Steroids: A New…
State of Play: Trends and Developments in Youth Sports
Our fourth annual report is the latest snapshot of how well stakeholders are serving children and communities through youth sports. The report includes the most recent youth sports participation data and coaching metrics from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association;…
State of Play 2018: Trends and Development
Five years ago this spring, Project Play was launched. We invited more than 80 leaders from sport, health, media, philanthropy and other sectors to the Aspen Institute’s campus in Aspen, Colo., to take measure of how well children were being…
Stages of the Global: Media, Sport, Racialization and the Last Temptation of Zinedine Zidane
Major sport spectacles are probably the most potent, vibrant stages on which human drama can be played out in real time before a vast international audience. Media sport, through global scale ‘frozen moments’, can precipitate popular interrogations of ‘race’ and…
Stages and Demands in the Careers of Canadian National Hockey League Players
Researchers have identified some demands of Canadian National Hockey League (NHL) players, yet there is little direction for players hoping to reach the lucrative league. The objectives of this study were to identify the stages, statuses and demands in Canadian…
Sportswomen and Social Media: Bringing Third-wave Feminism Postfeminism and Neoliberal Feminism into Conversation
In this article, we take seriously the challenges of making sense of a sporting (and media) context that increasingly engages female athletes as active, visible, and autonomous, while inequalities pertaining to gender, sexuality, race, and class remain stubbornly persistent across…
Sports’ Disciplinary Legacy and the Challenge of ‘Coaching Differently’
Be empowering. Be athlete-centered. Be autonomy supportive. These are three related topics currently being promoted by sport psychologists and sport pedagogists in an effort to recognize athletes’ unique qualities and developmental differences and make coaching more holistic and coaches more…
Sports-Related Concussion Occurrence at Various Time Points During High School Athletic Events: Part 2
Background: Sports-related concussion (SRC) injury rates, and identifying those athletes at the highest risk, have been a primary research focus. However, no studies have evaluated at which time point during an athletic event athletes are most susceptible to SRCs. Purpose:…
Sports-related Concussion in Youth: Report from the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council
A report from the Institute of Medicine (IoM) and National Research Council has revealed the prevalence of sports-related concussions in youth. The need to view concussions as more serious threats to the health of young athletes is highlighted.
Sports-Based Interventions for Socially Vulnerable Youth: Towards Well-defined Interventions with Easy-to-Follow Outcomes?
In this paper, we critically examine the burgeoning scientific discourse about sports-based interventions for socially vulnerable or disadvantaged youth from a socio-pedagogical perspective. It is argued that the call for more well-defined sports-based social interventions with easier-to-follow outcomes may be…
Sports-Based Interventions and the Local Governance of Youth Crime and Antisocial Behavior
Drawing on analysis of youth crime and antisocial behavior reduction policies and a qualitative study of sports-based interventions (SBIs) in England, the article considers three ways in which SBI staff, managers, partners, and participants suggest projects contribute to youth crime…
Sports Volunteering on University-led Outreach Projects: A Space for Developing Social Capital
The focus of this article centers around an established universities sports outreach program—the Sport Universities North East England (SUNEE) project—and explores how its core workforce, student volunteers, perceive that they develop effective working relationships with the project’s “hard-to-reach” clients. The…
Sports Tribes and Academic Identity: Teaching the Sociology of Sport in a Changing Disciplinary Landscape
Using data from 15 semi-structured interviews with UK-based early/mid-career academics, this paper offers an empirically informed assessment of how lecturers teaching/researching the sociology of sport are managing their careers in a changing higher education landscape. Those interviewed were involved in…
Sports Specialization, Part II: Alternative Solutions to Early Sport Specialization in Youth Athletes
Context: Many coaches, parents, and children believe that the best way to develop elite athletes is for them to participate in only 1 sport from an early age and to play it year-round. However, emerging evidence to the contrary indicates…
Sports Sociology’s Still Untapped Potential
Following up on Zirin’s (2008) challenge that sports sociologists “get off the bench,” and Karen and Washington’s (2001) plea to make sports sociology more central to analysis of social power, this article empirically reviews and assesses the sociology of sports…
Sports Review: A Content Analysis of the International Review for the Sociology of Sport, the Journal of Sport and Social Issues and the Sociology of Sport Journal Across 25 years
The International Review for the Sociology of Sport, the Journal of Sport and Social Issues and Sociology of Sport Journal have individually and collectively been subject to a systematic content analysis. By focusing on substantive research papers published in these…
Sports Participation Styles Revisited: A Time-trend Study in Belgium From the 1970s to the 2000s
Social changes have been influencing determinants for sports participation since the introduction of the Sport for All ideology in the early 1970s. Consistent with Crum’s sportisation theory, today’s modes of sports practices, as well as the network of sport services,…
Sports on Traditional and Newer Digital Media: Is There Really a Fight for Fans?
In this essay, we examine a series of platform, content, reception, and lifestyle factors likely to shape sports fans’ use of traditional and newer digital media. Because of signal fidelity, screen size, presence, and the rights to air top-tier sports…
Sports Morality and Body: The Voices of Sportswomen Under Franco’s Dictatorship
The aim of this research is to study sports women’perceptions and experiences of women’s sport in Francoist Spain (1939–1975). The main objective is to analyse the social, moral and aesthetic elements that are present in the experience of these athletes.…
Sports Mega-events, Soft Power and Soft Disempowerment: International Supporters’ Perspectives on Qatar’s Acquisition of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Finals
Through the use of document analysis, field work and semi-structured interviews at five major tournaments in Asia, North America, Europe and South America, the paper examines the perspectives of international football supporters on the Fédération Internationale de Football Association’s (FIFA)…
Sports in Society; Issues and Controversies, Southern African Edition
Sports in Africa reflect a complex, colonial history in which recent democratic changes have set out to redistribute wealth, reclaim notions of an African heritage and celebrate diversity. With a growing need to discuss and analyse issues, images and controversies…
Sports Coaches as ‘Dangerous Individuals’—Practice as Governmentality
Recent concern surrounding sports coaches’ interaction with young people has reflected a fundamental change in the way coaches and others regard the role of sports. In this paper, we consider the identification and definition of the contemporary sports coach (whether…
Sports Coach as Transformative Leader: Arresting School Disengagement Through Community Sport-Based Initiatives
Reducing social exclusion through interventions designed to sustain school engagement is a key aim of the education and social policy of any government. This paper is a response to the call for there to be more focused empirical sports coaching…
Sports Clubs’ Volunteers: Bonding In or Bridging Out?
The aim of this study is to re-evaluate the nature of bonding and bridging social capital in sports clubs. Exploratory research involving interviews with club volunteers reveals that shared values and norms of commitment to the sport or the club…
Sports as Never Before: Isolating Celebrity Athletes in Football as Never Before, Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, and Kobe Doin’ Work
This article constructs a genealogy of three poetic sports documentaries, all of which use multiple cameras to isolate a star athlete for the duration of a team game. All three films are defined by their distinction from dominant forms of…
Sports and Structured Leisure as Sites of Victimization for Children and Young People in Finland: Looking at the Significance of Gender and Ethnicity
Availability and access have been central worries that are discussed related to children’s and young people’s sport and other structured leisure activities. In this article, we shift the focus towards children’s and young people’s experiences of violence perpetrated by coaches…
Sports and Religion
The purpose of this study was to look at the two concepts Sports and Religion as an essential tool for development, unity and peaceful co-existence. Both of them have laid down rules and encourage team work and discipline among others.…
Sports and Exercises in Spiritual Formation
Some followers of Christ claim that sports are pointless activities and even spiritually dangerous, given some of the values that are present within them. Other Christians look more favorably upon the value of sports. In this paper, I defend the…
Sports Activities in a Psychosocial Perspective: Preliminary Analysis of Adolescent Participation in Sports Challenges
As the literature is far from being unanimous in regards to the psychosocial benefits of sports practice, we conducted a preliminary qualitative study with nine teenagers who participated in a group sporting challenge to better understand: (1) youths’ perceptions regarding…
Sporting Spinal Cord Injuries Social Relations and Rehabilitation Narratives: An Ethnographic Creative Non-fiction of Becoming Disabled Through Sport
Working at the intersection of sociology and psychology, the purpose of this paper was to examine people’s experiences during rehabilitation of being and having an impaired body as a result of suffering a spinal cord injury (SCI) while playing sport.…
Sporting Space Invaders: Elite bodies in Track and Field, a South African Context
This article builds on previous work that conceptualizes certain bodies – particularly women and racialized minorities – as ‘bodies out of place’ and ‘space invaders’ – to put forth the notion of the sporting space invader. I argue that certain…
Sporting Mythscapes, Neoliberal Histories, and Post-Colonial Amnesia in Aotearoa/New Zealand
Andrews (1999) has argued that under conditions of market-based liberalization, the sporting past has increasingly been put to use for the purposes of accumulation. This selectively rendered “sporting historicism,” he argues, results in “a pseudo-authentic historical sensibility, as opposed to…
Sport. In D. Southerton (Ed.)
Once formally codified and standardised the social practice we now term ‗modern‘ sport was destined to form part of consumer culture. In the 21st century we now find ourselves in a position where sport—both in terms of an activity that…
Sport,Fiction and Sociology: Novels as Data Sources
This paper is primarily concerned with the types of data that are of value to sociologists – in this instance, particularly to sociologists of sport. It is argued here that we can and should add works of fiction to the…
Sport, Violence and Society
Is violence an intrinsic component of contemporary sport? How does violence within sport reflect upon the attitudes of wider society? In this landmark study of violence in and around contemporary sport, Kevin Young offers the first comprehensive sociological analysis of…
Sport, Theology, and the Special Olympics: A Christian Theological Reflection
The authors explore the potential of the Special Olympic movement to act as a counternarrative and prophetic message to the big-business world of professional sports. Drawing on the work of pioneers in the field of theology of disability, such as…
Sport, Religious Belief, and Religious Diversity
In this paper I examine some issues raised by conspicuous displays of religiosity in sports. In particular, important questions have been occasioned by the relatively recent pronouncements and behavior of a celebrated evangelical Christian athlete in American professional football. I…
Sport, Race, and Bio-Politics: Encounters with Difference in “Sport for Development and Peace” Internships
This article analyzes young Canadian volunteer interns’ encounters with sociocultural difference within the Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) movement. Using Foucauldian biopower, Third Wave, or transnational feminism and Hardt and Negri’s Empire, it examines how interns interpreted difference as…
Sport, Politics and the Charity Industry: Running for Water
Sport is commonly used by charities and philanthropic organisations as a way of acquiring donors and fundraisers. In this groundbreaking study, Kyle Bunds examines the nexus of sport, politics and the charity industry through an investigation of water development agencies…
Sport, Physical Culture, and the Environment: An introduction
We1 were excited that day in December of 2015 when world leaders in Paris announced that representatives of 196 countries—all living in very different circumstances, constraints, politics, and economic disadvantages—had committed to reducing their respective country’s environmental footprint. As Domonoske…
Sport, Physical Activity and Well-being: An Objectivist Account
It is widely maintained that sport and physical activities contribute to the development of young people’s well-being. Others argue that sports’ contribution to good living is so strong that it is even thought to be a human right. Typically, however,…
Sport, Islam, and Muslims in Europe: In Between or on the Margin?
The aim of this paper is to reveal how misconceptions-or using the concept of Arkoun, “the crisis of meanings”-about the role and position of Islam in Europe is impacting on the discourse on sport, Islam, and immigration. France is selected…
Sport, Celebrity and Religion: Christianity, Morality and the Tebow Phenomenon
Sporting celebrities are rarely discussed within the broader realms of theological debate. Yet that is not to say that their identities cannot offer insight into wider patterns of cultural influence. Indeed, it is our contention within this paper that the…
Sport-Specific Yearly Risk and Incidence of Anterior Cruciate Ligament Tears in High School Athletes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Background: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury rates are affected by frequency and level of competition, sex, and sport. To date, no study has sought to quantify sport-specific yearly risk for ACL tears in the high school (HS) athlete by sex…
Sport-for-Development in the South Pacific Region: Macro- Meso- and Micro-Perspectives
As the field of sport-for-development (SFD) has developed, there has been increasing debate over the ability of SFD programs to effect lasting structural change on target communities. Highlighting the barriers to SFD program delivery in five Pacific Island nations, in…
Sport-for-Development Impact Study: A Research Initiative Funded by Comic Relief and UK Sport and Managed by International Development Through Sport
This report provides an analysis of data collected as part of a major research project funded by Comic Relief and UK Sport and managed by International Development through Sport (IDS). The research sought to test the hypothesis that ‘sport contributes…
Sport-for-Change: Some Thoughts from a Skeptic
Sport’s historic attraction for policy makers has been its claims that it can offer an economy of remedies to seemingly intractable social problems–“social inclusion”, “development”. Such usually vague and ill-defined claims reflect sport’s marginal policy status and its attempts to…
Sport-based Youth Development Interventions in the United States: A Systematic Review
The growing number of sport-based youth development interventions provide a potential avenue for integrating sport meaningfully into the U.S. public health agenda. However, efficacy and quality must be reliably established prior to widespread implementation.
Sport Transitions as Epiphanies
Sport managers design development systems with the intent of retaining and advancing athletes through that system (Green, 2005). Important to this basic goal is the participant’s transition from one sport context to another. Transition research has focused primarily on elite…
Sport on the Move: The Unfolding Impact of Mobile Communications on the Media Sport Content Economy
The increased popularity of mobile smartphones and tablet computers in developed economies is transforming how and where sports footage, highlights and information are accessed. These developments are contributing to new commercial arrangements in the media sport sector, as well as…
Sport Mega-Events: Can Legacies and Development Be Equitable and Sustainable?
Sport mega-events (SMEs) involve struggles to determine the definition of legacy and the outcome priorities that guide legacy planning, funding, and implementation processes. History shows that legacies reflect the interests of capital, and legacy benefits are enjoyed primarily, if not…
Sport Mega-Events and Public Opposition: A Sociological Study of the London 2012 Olympics
This article examines the diverse forms of public opposition, protest, criticism, and complaint in the United Kingdom on the staging of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in London. Our discussion draws heavily on empirical research, primarily fieldwork and interviews…
Sport Involvement: A Conceptual and Empirical Analysis
The conceptual roots of involvement are considered to better understand the construct’s use in sport management research and practice. Sport involvement is conceptualized as a multifaceted construct representing the degree to which participation in a sport activity becomes a central…