Contrary to the popular belief that sport is an arena largely free from the corrosive effects of racism, this book argues that racism is evident throughout British sport. From playing fields and boardrooms of sports organisations, to the offices of sports policy makers and the media, this book breaks new ground in showing how discourses of 'race' and nation continue to pervade our sporting life. Looking at a range of sports, including football, rugby league and cricket, this book covers key topics such as: * British nationalism and nationalist ideology * racial science and the images of Asian and black physicality * sport, racism and the law * black feminism and the issues of race, gender and sport * the role of the media in perpetuating and challenging racial stereotypes. Challenging the prevailing liberal view that sport is one area of society where 'good race-relations' are developed, this book offers a wealth of research material, and a strong theoretical perspective on contemporary British sport. It will therefore be of vital interest to sociologists, sports studies students, sport policy-makers and anyone with an interest in contemporary British sport.

Arguing that racism is evident throughout British sport, this book breaks new ground in showing how the discourses of race and nation continue to pervade our sporting life.

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.

Horse racing was the first and longest-lasting of Britain's national sports. This book explores the cultural world of racing and its relationship with British society in the long eighteenth century. It examines how and why race meetings changed from a marginal and informal interest for some of the elite to become the most significant leisure event of the summer season. Going beyond sports history, the book firmly places racing in its cultural, social, political and economic context. Racing's development was linked to the growth of commercialized leisure in the eighteenth century, a product of rising wealth amongst the middling group; changes in transport; the expansion of the newspaper press; and the new democratic and individualistic spirit of the age, especially the more flexible social codes of the late Georgian and Regency eras. In this book, horse racing emerges as the first 'proto-modern' sport, with links with the widespread popularity of gaming and betting which forced ever-increasing codification, regulation and event organization. Racing also gave expression to highly nuanced concepts of local, regional, national, class, gender (primarily male) and political identities. Drawing on the fields of social, cultural and sports history and utilizing many hitherto ignored or under-exploited sources, the book revises current histories of eighteenth-century leisure and sport, showing how horse racing links to debates about commercialization, consumer behaviour, the 'urban renaissance' and human-horse relationships. It also sheds new light not only on racehorse ownership, but also on the hitherto hidden world of racing's key professionals: jockeys, trainers, bloodstock breeders, stud grooms and stable hands. MIKE HUGGINS is Emeritus Professor of Cultural History at the University of Cumbria.

First Published in 1991. Over the past decade there has been a notable growth of interest in the study of sport in the contexts of race and ethnicity. A number of developments have contributed to stimulate this interest, but three sets of considerations appear to have been of decisive importance. First, black sportsmen and sportswomen have experienced remarkable successes in international sport. Second, such a disproportionately high level of athletic participation by various ethnic minority cultures has often been used by liberal-minded sports enthusiasts to presume that sport enjoys a certain degree of democratisation and equality. Third, that in certain areas of the world sport itself has been central to struggles of popular resistance against dominant groups. The papers in this volume not only consider the racisms experienced by various ethnic minority sportsmen and sportswomen in Britain, but also the way in which various racisms have been articulated in South Africa, the Caribbean, Canada and the United States. The following are indicative of the key issues addressed by this text: the extent to which cricket has stimulated the role of nationalist and racial self-consciousness in the Caribbean; the extent to which young black Afro-Caribbean sports-people are agents of racialised social control in Britain; the contribution of sport to popular struggles in South Africa; the experience of young children of South Asian origin of sport in Britain; and the extent to which Native American women are accommodated in sport in Canada. This book sets out to challenge many of the voluntarist racist cherished beliefs surrounding sport.

A Companion to Sport brings together writing by leading sports theorists and social and cultural thinkers, to explore sport as a central element of contemporary culture. Positions sport as a crucial subject for critical analysis, as one of the most significant forms of popular culture Includes both well-known social and cultural theorists whose work lends itself to an interrogation of sport, and leading theorists of sport itself Offers a comprehensive examination of sport as a social and cultural practice and institution Explores sport in relation to modernity, postcolonial theory, gender, violence, race, disability and politics

Elucidating the linkages between race, ethnicity, gender and masculinity in football, this volume addresses topics such as the experience of Muslim players, recruitment of African players, devolution and national identities, minority ethnic clubs, "mixed-race" players, sectarianism, and foreign club ownership.