The Making of Sporting Cultures
John Hughson - Routledge 2012
The Making of Sporting Culturespresents an analysis of western sport by
examining how the collective passions and feelings of people have contributed to
the making of sport as a ‘way of life’. The popularity of sport is so pronounced
in some cases that we speak of certain sports as ‘national pastimes’. Baseball
in the United States, soccer in Britain and cricket in the Caribbean are among
the relevant examples discussed.
Rather than regarding the historical development of sport as the outcome of
passive spectator reception, this work is interested in how sporting cultures
have been made and developed over time through the active engagement of its
enthusiasts. This is to study the history of sport not only ‘from below’, but
also ‘from within’, as a means to understanding the ‘deep relationship’ between
sport and people within class contexts – the middle class as well as the working
class. Contestation over the making of sport along axes of race, gender and
class are discussed where relevant. A range of cultural writers and theorists
are examined in regard to both how their writing can help us understand the
making of sport and as to how sport might be located within an overall cultural
context – in different places and times.
The book will appeal to students and academics within humanities disciplines
such as cultural studies, history and sociology and to those in sport studies
programmes interested in the historical, cultural and social aspects of
sport.
This book was published as a special issue of Sport in Society
