Sport, Activism, and Social Movements

This book examines how sport and leisure have the capacity to impact our understanding and experience of culture, protest, and social change. The temporal dimensions of sport and leisure across different but interdependently connected sociopolitical lifeworlds demonstrate the ways in which popular cultural and subcultural forms intersect across temporal periods, which then force us to stretch and problematize the relationship between sport, leisure, and sociology. Bringing together chapters from experts on topics such as the modern Olympic studies, the sociology of English and US soccer, and feminist cultural studies, this collection presents new empirical and theoretical insights into the mobilizations and collective behaviours of sports athletes and fans on equal pay, environmental destruction, disability rights, safety and securitization, and anti-Olympic opposition. This collection seeks to address one of the most under-researched lifeworlds in the study of protest, activism, and social movements: the construction of relational collective identities in and through sport and leisure. Sport, Activism, and Social Movements is an essential text for scholars and students interested in sport and leisure, protest, social movements, and activism.

Mark Turner is Senior Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, and the author of The Safe Standing Movement in Football: Fan Networks, Tactics and Mobilizations published by Routledge in 2023. He is specifically interested in the sociology of generations, temporality, collective action, and social networks. His work cross-pollinates ideas from sociology, political science, and social movement studies, and has been published in: The British Journal of Sociology; Sociology; Sociology Compass; Sociological Research Online; The Sociological Review; the International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics; and the International Review for the Sociology of Sport. Jan Andre Lee Ludvigsen is Senior Lecturer in International Relations and Politics with Sociology at Liverpool John Moores University, UK. He has published widely on security and supporter cultures in European football contexts and sport mega-events.

1. Introduction: Sport, Leisure, and Social Movements 2. NOlympics Anywhere: Building a Transnational Anti-Olympic Movement 3. "We Are All True Believers in Democracy": Successful Anti-Olympics Activism in Boston 4. Environmental Waves: The America's Cup Contested 5. Armband Activism: English Fan Responses to Controversy at Qatar 2022 6. Black Women Athlete Activism in the United States: A Movement, Not A Moment 7. Gender Equality and Collective Action: Fan Mobilizations in Women's Soccer 8. Non-Political Politicization in and through Sports in Turkey: Four Fragments of Opposition 9. Collective Action, Sport Spectatorship, and Disability 10. Social Movements and Sport-Focused Security Fields