The SAGE Dictionary of Sports Studies - Dominic Malcolm

The SAGE Dictionary of Sports Studies
- Dominic Malcolm -

Sage Publications Ltd 2008 | ISBN-10: 1412907349 | 304 Pages | PDF | Size : 1.57 MB | rar

Sports studies is an emerging academic discipline, reputed to be the fastest
growing subject area in the UK. The impetus for this growth appears to be market
driven. In part this is a consequence of the expansion of employment opportunities
in the sport and leisure fields. Gratton and Taylor (2000: 19) note that
employment in sport in the UK rose by 28 per cent between 1985 and 1995, and
that by the end of that period sport accounted for 1.61 per cent of the total UK
workforce. By 2003 the figure for sports-related employment had risen to 2 per
cent (or approximately 515,000 jobs). The leisure industry (much of which is
sporting or sports-related) is even larger, employing 13.5 per cent of UK workers
(Prospects.ac.uk).
But this growth in employment is itself partly a consequence of the increasing
cultural centrality of sport in Western cultures in recent years. Once a
peripheral or playful aspect of social life, sport is now centre stage. Almost a
third of the UK population tuned in to watch Portugal knock England out of the
2006 FIFA World Cup Finals. But sport is more properly a global phenomenon.
An incredible 1.5 billion television viewers worldwide are estimated to have
watched the tournament’s opening match and FIFA estimated that over 30 billion
people would watch some television coverage of the tournament.
This dictionary is another consequence of the growing recognition in recent
years of sport’s social significance. A number of the entries contained herein
describe this growth in more detail. Some bring these modern phenomena into
sharper relief by providing comparisons with the sports forms of previous eras
and some highlight the social issues that have arisen in conjunction with these
changes. Other entries look at the psychological techniques and the social policies
used to make sport ‘work’ more effectively for us as participants and citizens,
while others detail the methods by which researchers have attempted to
understand more about the social world of sport. And some entries introduce
the reader to the theoretical concepts that are being used to make sense of these
developments. Sports studies is an emerging discipline, and thus much of the
clarification, definition and consolidation that other subjects take for granted,
still needs to be achieved. This dictionary is intended as a tool to be used for this
end; an educational resource for all those interested in the study of the social
aspects of sport.

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