Sport is perceived to have the potential to alleviate a variety of social problems and generally to ‘improve’ both individuals and the communities in which they live. Sport is promoted as a relatively cost effective antidote to a range of social problems – often those stemming from social exclusion - including poor health, high crime levels, drug abuse and persistent youth offending, educational under-achievement, lack of social cohesion and community identity and economic decline. To this end, there is increasing governmental interest in what has become known as ‘sport for good’. A Wider Social Role for Sport presents the political and historical context for this increased government interest in sport’s potential contribution to a range of social problems. The book explores the particular social problems that governments seek to address through sport, and examines the nature and extent of the evidence for sport’s positive role. It illustrates that, in an era of evidence-based policy-making, the cumulative evidence base for many of these claims is relatively weak, in part because such research is faced with substantial methodological problems in isolating the precise contribution of sport in many contexts. Drawing on worldwide research, A Wider Social Role for Sport explores the current state of knowledge and understanding of the presumed impacts of sport and suggests that we need to adopt a different approach to research and evaluation if sports researchers are to develop their understanding and make a substantial contribution to sports policy..

Written by one of the leading international authorities on the sociology of race and sport, this is the first book to address sport′s role in ′the making of race′, the place of sport within black diasporic struggles for freedom and equality, and the contested location of sport in relation to the politics of recognition within contemporary multicultural societies. Race, Sport and Politics shows how, during the first decades of the twentieth century, the idea of ′the natural black athlete′ was invented in order to make sense of and curtail the political impact and cultural achievements of black sportswomen and men. More recently, ′the black athlete′ as sign has become a highly commodified object within contemporary hyper-commercialized sports-media culture thus limiting the transformative potential of critically conscious black athleticism to re-imagine what it means to be both black and human in the twenty-first century. Race, Sport and Politics will be of interest to students and scholars in sociology of culture and sport, the sociology of race and diaspora studies, postcolonial theory, cultural theory and cultural studies.

Over the past three decades there has been widespread commitment to an understanding that sport can play a key role in community development. The role of sport within communities has been promoted with a wide range of goals such as environmental considerations, encouragement of civic pride, enhancement of confidence and self-esteem and development of social cohesion as well as the fostering of a fit and healthy workforce. To address these issues, a number of programmes have been funded and supported to develop the role of sport in communities worldwide and to increase participation and access to sport and physical activities in rural areas. In addition we are witnessing the development of new sports communities through social media such as Facebook and My Space. The concern is that we need to revisit the concept of ‘community and sport’ and to investigate the current understanding of these terms in view of the evolving role of sport in a range of national settings. This book will present the platform upon which this process can be undertaken and offers a fundamental re-evaluation of the relationship that currently exists between sport and communities throughout selected parts of the world. This book was previously published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

1968 was a year of protest in civil society (Prague, Paris, Chicago) and a year of protest in sport. After a world-wide campaign, the anti-apartheid movement succeeded in barring South Africa from the Olympic Games, while US athletes from the Olympic Project for Human Rights used the medals podium to decry the racism of North America. Meanwhile, students in Mexico demonstrated against social priorities in Mexico, the host of the 1968 Games. These events contributed significantly to the rejection of the idea that sports are apolitical, and stimulated the scholarly study of sport across the social sciences. Leading up to the Beijing Olympic Games, similar dynamics were played out across the globe, while a campaign was underway to boycott the ‘Genocide Olympics’. The volume, To Remember is to Resist, came out of a three-day conference on sports, human rights and social change hosted by the University of Toronto forty years after Mexico and eighty days before the Beijing Opening Ceremony. The contributions to this volume capture the memories of activists who were "on the ground" using sport as a site for the struggle for human rights and provide scholarly examinations of past and current human rights movements in sport. This book was previously published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

This book critically examines the ways in which sports contribute to, or inhibit, social well-being, the directions these changes take and the conditions necessary for sport to have beneficial outcomes. The themes addressed in the book demonstrate the diversity and versatility of the social impacts sport can potentially achieve as well as the variable benefits of sport in different social contexts. The contributions are focused around four major themes: - Sport development and social change: intended and unanticipated consequences - Empowerment and personal change through sport - Sport participation, social inclusion and social change - The impact of sport in society: historical and comparative perspectives The volume constitutes the first scholarly attempt to locate, compare and conceptualize the social impact of sport in different local, national and international contexts. Through international comparison and empirically grounded case studies the book provides an important new departure in the study of the social meanings of sport in society, linking themes and areas that have previously been studied merely separately from one another. This book was previously published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

As the role of sport in society becomes ever more prominent and as sports organisations become increasingly influential members of the global community, so it has become more important than ever for sport to consider its wider social responsibilities. The Routledge Handbook of Sport and Corporate Social Responsibility is the first book to offer a comprehensive survey of theories and concepts of CSR as applied to sport, and the social, ethical and environmental aspects of sport business and management. It offers an overview of perspectives and approaches to CSR in sport, examines the unique features of the sport industry in relation to CSR, explores the tools, models, common pitfalls and examples of best practice on which managers can draw, and discusses how CSR and corporate citizenship can be integrated into the sport management curriculum. The book covers every key issue and functional area, including implementation, strategic benefits, communication and corporate image, stakeholder engagement, and the measurement and evaluation of CSR policies and practices, and includes detailed international case studies, from the NBA and the Olympic Games to Japanese soccer. The Routledge Handbook of Sport and Corporate Social Responsibility is important reading for any student, researcher, manager or policy maker with an interest in sport business, management, ethics or development.