Sport Matters

1999 North American Society for the Sociology of Sport Annual Book Award Sport Matters offers a comprehensive introduction to the study of modern sport from a sociological perspective. It covers such topics as the history of sport, the development of ideas of 'fair play', sport and the emotions, the professionalization of sport, race-relations and sport and sport and gender. Unique in its cross-cultural analysis, it uses examples from around the globe, including sports spectator violence in North America, the growth of international soccer and the role of sport in the European identity.

Eric Dunning is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Leicester and Visiting Professor of Sociology at University College Dublin. He is author of a number of works, including Quest for Excitement (1989) and Sport and Leisure in the Civilizing Process (1992).

Introduction; Chapter 1 On Problems of the Emotions in Sport and Leisure; Chapter 2 Sport in the Western Civilizing Process; Chapter 3 Sport in Space and Time; Chapter 4 The Development of Soccer as a World Game; Chapter 5 The Dynamics of Sports Consumption; Chapter 6 Soccer Hooliganism as a World Social Problem; Chapter 7 Sports Crowd Violence in North America; Chapter 8 Sport in the Process of Racial Stratification; Chapter 9 Sport, Gender and Civilization; Conclusion;