This handbook provides a critical assessment of contemporary issues that define the contours of the Paralympic Movement generally and the Paralympic Games more specifically. It addresses conceptualisations of disability sport, explores the structure of the Paralympic Movement and considers key political strategic and governance issues which have shaped its development. The Palgrave Handbook of Paralympic Studies is written by a range of international authors, a number of whom are senior strategists as well as academics, and explores legacy themes through case studies of recent Paralympic games. Written in the wake of the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games, it provides an assessment of contemporary challenges faced by the International Paralympic Committee and other key stakeholders in the Paralympic Movement. Its critical assessment of approaches to branding, classification, social inclusion and technological advances makes this handbook a valuable resource for undergraduate study across a range of sport and disability related programmes, as well as a point of reference for researchers and policy makers.

This handbook questions, debates and subverts commonly held assumptions about disability and citizenship in the global postcolonial context. Discourses of citizenship and human rights, so elemental to strategies for addressing disability-based inequality in wealthier nations, have vastly different ramifications in societies of the Global South, where resources for development are limited, democratic processes may be uncertain, and access to education, health, transport and other key services cannot be taken for granted. In a broad range of areas relevant to disability equity and transformation, an eclectic group of contributors critically consider whether, when and how citizenship may be used as a lever of change in circumstances far removed from UN boardrooms in New York or Geneva. Debate is polyvocal, with voices from the South engaging with those from the North, disabled people with nondisabled, and activists and politicians intersecting with researchers and theoreticians. Along the way, accepted wisdoms on a host of issues in disability and international development are enriched and problematized. The volume explores what life for disabled people in low and middle income countries tells us about subjects such as identity and intersectionality, labour and the global market, family life and intimate relationships, migration, climate change, access to the digital world, participation in sport and the performing arts, and much else.

This book explores how the Olympic industry has shaped hegemonic concepts of sporting masculinities and femininities for its own profit and image-making ends, examining its continuing marginalization of athletes on account of their race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and class.

As the number of adaptive sport and recreation programs increases, athletes with disabilities now have more opportunities than ever to participate in sports, recreation, and physical fitness. In response, students pursuing a career in sport management need to be fully prepared to incorporate adaptive sport and recreation into their organizations. Introduction to Adaptive Sport and Recreation is a groundbreaking text designed to address this need. Written and edited by a team of esteemed educators and professionals, this comprehensive textbook offers a broad exploration of sport and recreation for people with disabilities within the framework of sport management. It begins with social and theoretical discussions covering topics such as defining disability, confronting ableism, considering the concepts of inclusion versus integration, and understanding contact theory and social isolation theory. Students are exposed to participation barriers faced by athletes with disabilities and learn about models of disability perception and legal efforts to address disparities (such as the Americans with Disabilities Act). Also discussed are the disability rights movement as well as legal efforts and policies that have affected access to sport and recreation opportunities for people with disabilities. Perhaps the most visible example of adaptive sports is the Paralympic Games. The history of this competition is explored in detail, and the text offers an overview of other elite adaptive global competitions as well. Differences between the Paralympics and the Special Olympics are examined, including their participants, organizational philosophies, and governance. The text explores media coverage of adaptive sports and explains how the stereotypical frames of the past—which often clash with how athletes wish to be presented—are yielding to today’s more empowering and preferred position of viewing participants as athletes. Students will also see how opportunities for adapted sport are expanding. The long-term athlete development (LTAD) model has been applied to adaptive sports at all levels of competition worldwide. A sidebar spotlights efforts made in this area by Swimming Canada. In addition, the benefits and challenges of offering adaptive programs for military populations and young people are discussed. Because the costs associated with adaptive sport programs often exceed those of able-bodied sports, financial considerations are sometimes cited as a barrier. Students will learn about typical expenses for adaptive programs, along with different ways of identifying funding sources. The text concludes with an insightful case study featuring the University of Alabama Adapted Athletics (UAAA) program. This case study offers a managerial perspective on starting an athletics program for athletes with disabilities by exploring all facets, including sports offered, funding, and facilities. Throughout the text, profile sidebars, critical thinking exercises, and key points foster further discussion and enhance understanding of the concepts presented. Introduction to Adaptive Sport and Recreation serves as the authoritative guide to prepare students to integrate adaptive sport and recreation programs in their future work as a sport management professional.

Sport has come to have an increasingly large impact on daily life and commerce across the globe. From mega-events, such as the World Cup or Super Bowl, to the early socialization of children into sport, the study of sport and society has developed as a distinctly wide-ranging scholarly enterprise, centered in sociology, sport studies, and cultural, media, and gender studies. In The Oxford Handbook of Sport and Society, Lawrence Wenner brings together contributions from the world's leading scholars on sport and society to create the premier comprehensive and interdisciplinary reference for scholars and students looking to understand key areas of inquiry about the role and impacts of sport in contemporary culture. The Handbook offers penetrating analyses of the key ways that today's outsized sport is integrated into the lives of both athletes and fans and increasingly shapes the social fabric and cultural logics across the world. Featuring 85 leading international scholars, the volume is organized into six sections: society and values, enterprise and capital, participation and cultures, lifespan and careers, inclusion and exclusion, and spectator engagement and media. To aid comprehension and comparison, each chapter opens with a brief introduction to the area of research and features a common organizational scheme with three main sections of key issues, approaches, and debates to guide scholars and students to what is currently most important in the study of each area. Written at an accessible level and offering rich resources to further study each topic, this handbook is an essential resource for scholars and students as well as general readers who wish to understand the growing social, cultural, political, and economic influences of sport in society and our everyday lives.

This book focuses on the ground-breaking coverage of the London 2012 Paralympic Games by the UK’s publicly owned but commercially funded Channel 4 network, coverage which seemed to deliver a transformational shift in attitudes towards people with disabilities. It sheds important new light on our understanding of media production and its complex interactions with sport and wider society. Drawing on political economy and cultural studies, the book explores why and how a marginalised group was brought into the mainstream by the media, and the key influencing factors and decision-making processes. Featuring interviews with key people involved in the television and digital production structures, as well as organisational archives, it helps us to understand the interplay between creativity and commerce, between editorial and marketing workflows, and about the making of meaning. The book also looks at coverage of the Rio Paralympics, and ahead to the Tokyo Games, and at changing global perceptions of disability through sport. This is fascinating reading for any advanced students, researchers, or sport management or media professionals looking to better understand the media production process or the significance of sport and disability in wider society.

This empirically-grounded text examines the policy, planning, development and implementation of disability sport events. It draws insights from a major international comparative study of different types of large multi-national sporting events: integrated events where able-bodied athletes and athletes with a disability compete alongside one another, and non-integrated events where athletes with a disability are separated by time but occurring in the same location. Guided by a critical disability studies perspective, the book highlights the strategic opportunity of sporting events to influence social change around community participation, and attitudes and awareness about disability more broadly. It also challenges assumptions about positive event legacies and suggests a need for a multi-lateral approach to planning. An important read for students, researchers and scholars in the fields of sport policy, sport development, disability sport, sport management, disability studies and event studies.