Sport Histories: Figurational Studies in the Development of Modern Sports

by Eric Dunning (Editor), Dominic Malcolm (Editor), Ivan Waddington (Editor)

Overview

Sports Histories draws on figurational sociology to provide a fresh approach to analysing the development of modern sport. The book brings together ten case studies from a wide range of sports, including mainstream sports such as soccer, rugby, baseball, boxing and cricket, to other sports that until now have been largely neglected by sports historians, such as shooting, motor racing, tennis, gymnastics and martial arts. This groundbreaking work highlights key debates in the analysis of modern sport, such as:

• the relative influence of intra-national class conflict and international conflict
• the relative prominence of commercially led processes in different contexts
• the centrality of concerns over violence
• differences between elite and mass-led sports developments.

Above all, Sport Histories proves the distinctiveness of the figurational sociological approach and its usefulness in the study of the development of modern sport.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781134447473
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/01/2004
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	363 KB

About the Author

Eric Dunning is an Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Leicester and Visiting Professor of Sociology at the University College Dublin and the University of Ulster at Jordanstown. Dominic Malcolm is a Lecturer in the Sociology of Sport at the University of Leicester. Ivan Waddington is Visiting Professor at the University College Dublin, Norweigen University of Sport and Physical Education, Oslo, and University College Chester.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: History, Sociology and the Sociology of Sport: the Work of Norbert Elias 2. Boxing in the western Civilizing Process 3. Public Schools, Status Rivalry and the Development of Football 4. Rugby Union Football in England: Civilizing Processes and the De-institutionalization of Amateurism 5. Cricket: Civilizing and De-civilizing Processes in the Imperial Game 6. Baseball: Myths and Modernization 7. Game, Set and Match. Lawn Tennis: from Early Origins to Modern Sport 8. The Influence of State Formation Processes on the Early Development of Motor Racing 9. Clay Shooting: Civilization in the line of fire 10. The Development of Sport in Japan: Martial Arts and Baseball 11. After Olga: Developments in Women's Artistic Gymnastics Following the 1972 'Olga Korbut Phenomenon' 12. Conclusion: Figurational Sociology and the Development of Modern Sport