Athletes' Careers Across Cultures

Athletes' Careers Across Cultures is the first book of its kind to bring together a truly global spread of leading sports psychology career researchers and practitioners into one comprehensive resource. This extensive volume traces the evolution of athlete career research through a cultural lens and maps the complex topography of athletes' careers across national boundaries exploring how social and cultural discourses shape their development.
The area of athlete career development has traditionally been dominated by a Western perspective, an imbalance which has had a considerable influence on the shaping of career studies more generally. Stambulova and Ryba adopt a more culturally sensitive approach, offering a comprehensive analytical review of athlete career research and assistance in 19 different nations. The authors employ diverse theoretical, methodological and practical ideas to demonstrate how local knowledge enables a better understanding of the dynamics of cultural diversity within the field.
Athletes' Careers Across Cultures considers the 'cultural praxis' of athletes' careers as a practical implication of the cultural turn. As such it will stimulate the development of culturally situated career research and assistance and be an invaluable and internationally relevant resource for academics, professionals and students working in sport and exercise psychology.

Natalia B. Stambulova is Professor of Sport and Exercise Psychology in the School of Social and Health Sciences at Halmstad University, Sweden. She has been a member of the ISSP Managing Council since 2001 and its vice-president since 2009. In 2004, she received the Distinguished International Scholar Award of the Association of Applied Sport Psychology. Tatiana V. Ryba is Associate Professor of Sport Psychology at Aarhus University, Denmark. She is the current chair of the Cultural Issues in Applied Sport Psychology Committee for ISSP and past chair of the International Relations Committee at the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP). In 2009, she received the ISSP Developing Scholar Award.

Contents. Editors and Contributors. Acknowledgements. Sidonio Serpa, Foreword. Tatiana V. Ryba and Natalia B. Stambulova, Turn to a Culturally Informed Career Research and Assistance in Sport Psychology. Tim Chambers, Sandy Gordon, and Tony Morris, Athletes' Careers in Australia: From Retirement to Education and Beyond. Paul Wylleman, Anke Reints, and Paul De Knop, Athletes' Careers in Belgium: A Holistic Perspective to Understand and Alleviate Challenges Occurring throughout the (Post-)Athletic Career. Maria Regina Ferreira Brandão and Lenamar Fiorese Vieira, Athletes' Careers in Brazil: Research and Application in the Land of Ginga. Robert J. Schinke, Jessica Cummings, and Justin Bonhomme, Athletes' Careers in Canada: Four Decades of Research and Practice. Zhijian Huang, Menglin Chen, and Na Qiao, Athletes' Careers in China: Advances in Athletic Retirement Research and Assistance. Kristoffer Henriksen and Mette Christensen, Athletes' Careers in Denmark: Nurturing Athletic Talents. Nadine Debois and Véronique Leseur, Athletes' Careers in France: In Pursuit of Excellence in Sport and Life. Dorothee Alfermann and Franziska Preis, Athletes' Careers in Germany: Research and Assistance Programs. Stiliani "Ani" Chroni, Eleni Diakaki, and Athanasios Papaioannou Athletes' Careers in Greece: Impulses for Culturally Infused Future. Norishige Toyoda, Athletes' Careers in Japan: Before and After Termination in Sports. Cristina Fink, Athletes' Careers in Mexico: Learning How to Handle Transitions. Christina Ryan and Holly Thorpe, Athletes' Careers in New Zealand (Aotearoa): The Impact of the Graham Report and the Carding System. Natalia Stambulova and Elena Hvatskaya, Athletes' Careers in Russia: From 1980 Moscow to 2014 Sochi Olympics. Saša Ceci- Erpi-, Athletes' Careers in Slovenia: Remarkable Sporting Achievements of a Small Country. Miquel Torregrosa and Mª Dolores González Athletes' Careers in Spain: Professionalization and Developmental Consequences. Natalia Stambulova and Urban Johnson Athletes' Careers in Sweden: Facilitating Socialization into Sports and Re-Socialization upon Retirement. Sunghee Park, David Lavallee, and David Tod, Athletes' Careers in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland: Differences in the Evolution of Research and Support Programs between the Two Neighbor Nations. Albert Petitpas, Judy Van Raalte, & Britton Brewer, Athletes' Careers in the United States: Developmental Programming for Athletes in Transition. Natalia B. Stambulova and Tatiana V. Ryba, Setting the Bar: Towards Cultural Praxis of Athletes' Careers.