The Best-Selling Sociology of Sports Books of All Time

In today's world, people's perceptions of various individuals, countries, races, genders, schools, and even companies are often affected by the sports they watch, read about, or listen to. The impact of sport on these perceptions is covered extensively in Contemporary Issues in Sociology of Sport. This text provides some of the best contemporary writing and research on the sociology of sport. The text is organized into 12 learning units and includes 34 articles from writers and researchers with varied backgrounds. Introductions are provided for each of the units.

They include brief summaries of the articles that follow and probing study questions that challenge the reader to think critically about the material. Edited by Andrew Yiannakis, PhD, and Merrill J. Melnick, PhD, Contemporary Issues in Sociology of Sport includes. -an exploration of topics and themes that have received limited attention in other sociology of sport texts but have been long-standing social concerns,. -a review of the attitudes toward female athletes and the anti-homosexual phobias present in sport,. -an in-depth look at the impoverishment of children's games in America,. -an overview of high school sport participation,. -a study of the challenges and benefits of the big-time collegiate sport experience,. -a critique of television's impact on sport and its portrayal of gender and race, and. -a review of sport and globalization. Unit I provides the reader with a historical background on the development of sociology of sport and addresses several critical issues about the relationship between sociology, physical education, and sociology of sport. The text includes an explanation of the growth of the sociology of sport field since 1980, the emergence and growth of the New Physical Education, and a review of the emerging field of sport pedagogy. Unit II illustrates the power and influence of sport on American values, attitudes, behaviors, and cultural practices and its manifestations in our interpersonal and gender relations. Unit III examines whether adult-controlled sport programs are good for children. The authors explore the Little League phenomenon, which they contrast and compare with the spontaneous culture of free play. Unit IV examines the positive and negative effects of high school sport participation, in relationship to other extracurricular activities, on the educational and developmental experiences of student-athletes. Unit V explores the realities, demands, and opportunities created by commercialized, high-visibility collegiate sports and their effects on athletes and universities. Unit VI illustrates and examines how race-related discriminatory practices continue to manifest themselves in the world of sport. Specific topics include the allocation of playing positions by race, the use of racially insensitive team names, and racial stratification in professional sport. Unit VII focuses on the social construction of feminine, masculine, and heterosexualized bodies within exercise and sport-related contexts. Unit VIII explores the ways sport produces and reproduces the gender order while serving as “contested terrain” with respect to the construction of feminine and masculine gender scripts. Unit IX explores the mass media's coverage of selected athletes and their sports, and how heavily mediated representations influence perceptions of race, class, gender, and sexuality. Unit X examines the underlying causes of deviance in sport and focuses on such activities as larceny, drug use, and aggression outside of sport. Unit XI explores the role and structure of alternative sport communities, especially in creating and maintaining personal identity, in satisfying psychological needs, and in providing contexts for resistance to dominant sport ideologies. Unit XII reviews the influence of Americanization and globalization processes on local sport cultures and practices. Contemporary Issues in Sociology of Sport is a must-read for anyone interested in a better understanding of the social significance of sport.

This text, intended for undergraduates on various education and sport related degree courses, covers the key, current issues in the field of sociology of sport and physical education. The first section of the text covers the importance of sport in culture, its theoretical background, and methodological issues in research. The main body of the text then discusses issues including the sporting body, participation and socialisation into sport, the hidden curriculum, critical pedagogy, and sport and the media.

Laker discusses in depth gender, race and ethnicity, class, and equality, and he looks at sport and the media, and the involvement of politics. The chapters are each rounded off with challenging 'reflection' questions, activities and tasks for the reader to fulfill.

Elite-level athletes are placed upon heightened pedestals in societies world-wide. At the same time, there is a dark side to these glorified competitors that remains hidden from those outside of exclusive athletic circles. Dr. Nick Pappas' athletic background in collegiate and professional sports has provided insider access, enabling him to uncover an array of disturbing sexually deviant and aggressive behaviors, which have silently thrived for decades in many athlete cultures.

These findings, expressed through the athletes' own words, are the result of more than 10 years of cutting-edge research involving in-depth interviews with 142 collegiate, minor, and major league athletes from five prominent U.S. sports. Written in an engaging style, The Dark Side of Sports is a must read with messages not only for athletes, coaches, managers, and administrators, but also for parents, women, students, and sports enthusiasts. While these important discoveries are certain to shock, raise awareness, and provide a wake-up call for those in and outside of the sports world, they also promote a sense of urgency for taking action to prevent and address these harmful behaviors. The Dark Side of Sports has strong appeal for diverse audiences because it highlights the need for risk management in every male athletic culture. This includes individuals with direct involvement in sports such as athletes, coaches, managers, administrators, and support staff, who see the importance of addressing and deterring potentially harmful and dangerous behavior that can ruin an athletic program's reputation in an instant. At the same time, this book serves as an invaluable resource for parents, women, and fans by raising awareness to the significant issues surrounding a darker, hidden side of sports. The fact that certain negative practices were discovered at the high school level means that millions of middle and high school coaches and athletes, in addition to those at elite levels, need this information to keep deviant practices from gaining a foothold and becoming normalized within youth-oriented sports cultures. Finally, The Dark Side of Sports will be a welcomed addition to courses such as sociology of sport, sports psychology, women's studies, and an array of sociology classes including deviant behavior.