UNDERSTANDING SPORT A SOCIO-CULTURAL ANALYSIS SECOND EDITION JOHN HORNE, ALAN TOMLINSON, GARRY WHANNEL AND KATH WOODWARD UNDERSTANDING SPORT In the decade or more since publication of the first edition of Understanding Sport, both sport and wider global society have undergone profound change. In this fully updated, revised and expanded edition of their classic textbook, John Horne, Alan Tomlinson, Garry Whannel and Kath Woodward offer a critical and reflective introduction to the relationship between sport and contemporary society and explain how sport remains an important agent and symptom of socio-cultural change. Fully integrating historical, sociological, political and cultural analysis, the book covers every key topic in the study of sport and society, including: I debate, interpretation and theory I sport and the media I sport and the body I sport and politics I commercialisation I globalisation. Retaining the accessibility and scholarly rigour for which Understanding Sport has always been renowned, this new edition includes entirely new chapters on global transformations, sports mega-events and sites, and sporting bodies and governance, as well as a brief commentary on researching sport. With review and seminar questions included in every chapter, plus concise, helpful guides to further reading, Understanding Sport remains an essential textbook for all courses on sport and society, the sociology of sport, sport and social theory, or social issues in sport. John Horne is Professor of Sport and Sociology in the School of Sport, Tourism and the Outdoors at the University of Central Lancashire, where he is Director of the International Research Institute for Sport Studies (IRiSS). Alan Tomlinson is Professor of Leisure Studies and Director of Research and Development (Social Sciences) at the University of Brighton, and has authored and edited numerous volumes and more than 100 chapters/articles on sport, leisure and popular culture. Garry Whannel is Head of the Centre for International Media Analysis, Research and Consultancy (CIMARC) at the University of Bedfordshire, is one of the world’s leading experts on the cultural analysis of media sport, and has written extensively on media and culture for over thirty years. Kath Woodward is Professor of Sociology and Head of Department at the Open University and works in the Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC) on feminist materialist critiques, most recently in the field of sport, especially boxing. She has published extensively on identities and diversity and on issues in social science. CULTURE, ECONOMY AND THE SOCIAL A new series from CRESC – the ESRC Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change EDITORS Professor Tony Bennett, Sociology, Open University; Professor Penny Harvey, Anthropology, Manchester University; Professor Kevin Hetherington, Geography, Open University EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Andrew Barry, University of Oxford; Michel Callon, Ecole des Mines de Paris; Dipesh Chakrabarty, The University of Chicago; Mike Crang, University of Durham; Tim Dant, Lancaster University; Jean-Louis Fabiani, Ecoles de Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales; Antoine Hennion, Paris Institute of Technology; Eric Hirsch, Brunel University; John Law, Lancaster University; Randy Martin, New York University; Timothy Mitchell, New York University; Rolland Munro, Keele University; Andrew Pickering, University of Exeter; Mary Poovey, New York University; Hugh Willmott, University of Cardiff ; Sharon Zukin, Brooklyn College City University New York/ Graduate School, City University of New York The Culture, Economy and the Social series is committed to innovative contemporary, comparative and historical work on the relations between social, cultural and economic change. It publishes empirically-based research that is theoretically informed, that critically examines the ways in which social, cultural and economic change is framed and made visible, and that is attentive to perspectives that tend to be ignored or side-lined by grand theorising or epochal accounts of social change. The series addresses the diverse manifestations of contemporary capitalism, and considers the various ways in which the ‘social’, ‘the cultural’and ‘the economic’ are apprehended as tangible sites of value and practice. It is explicitly comparative, publishing books that work across disciplinary perspectives, cross-culturally, or across different historical periods. The series is actively engaged in the analysis of the different theoretical traditions that have contributed to the development of the `cultural turn’ with a view to clarifying where these approaches converge and where they diverge on a particular issue. It is equally concerned to explore the new critical agendas emerging from current critiques of the cultural turn: those associated with the descriptive turn for example. Our commitment to interdisciplinarity thus aims at enriching theoretical and methodological discussion, building awareness of the common ground that has emerged in the past decade, and thinking through what is at stake in those approaches that resist integration to a common analytical model. Series titles include: The Media and Social Theory (2008) Inventive Methods: The Happening of the Edited by David Hesmondhalgh and Jason Social (2012) Toynbee Edited by Celia Lury and Nina Wakeford Culture, Class, Distinction (2009) Understanding Sport: A Socio-Cultural Tony Bennett, Mike Savage, Analysis (2013) Elizabeth Bortolaia Silva, Alan Warde, John Horne, Alan Tomlinson, Garry Modesto Gayo-Cal and David Wright Whannel and Kath Woodward Material Powers (2010) Rio de Janeiro: Urban Life through the Eyes Edited by Tony Bennett and Patrick Joyce of the City (forthcoming) Beatriz Jaguaribe The Social after Gabriel Tarde: Debates and Assessments (2010) Interdisciplinarity: Reconfigurations of the Edited by Matei Candea Social and Natural Sciences (forthcoming) Edited by Andrew Barry and Georgina Born Cultural Analysis and Bourdieu’s Legacy (2010) Devising Consumption: Cultural Economies Edited by Elizabeth Silva and Alan Ward of Insurance, Credit and Spending (forthcoming) Milk, Modernity and the Making of the Liz McFall Human (2010) Richie Nimmo Diasporas and Diplomacy: Cosmopolitan Contact Zones at the BBC World Service Creative Labour: Media Work in Three (1932–2012) (forthcoming) Cultural Industries (2010) Edited by Marie Gillespie and Alban Webb Edited by David Hesmondhalgh and Sarah Baker Unbecoming Things: Mutable Objects and the Politics of Waste (forthcoming) Migrating Music (2011) Nicky Gregson and Mike Crang Edited by Jason Toynbee and Byron Dueck Sport and the Transformation of Modern Europe: States, Media and Markets 1950–2010 (2011) Edited by Alan Tomlinson, Christopher Young and Richard Holt UNDERSTANDING SPORT A socio-cultural analysis SECOND EDITION JOHN HORNE, ALAN TOMLINSON, GARRY WHANNEL AND KATH WOODWARD First published 1999 by E & FN Spon, an imprint of Routledge This edition published 2013 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2013 John Horne, Alan Tomlinson, Garry Whannel and Kath Woodward The right of John Horne, Alan Tomlinson, Garry Whannel and Kath Woodward to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Understanding sport : a socio-cultural analysis / John Horne... [et al.]. – 2nd ed. p. cm. Prev. ed. cataloged under Horne, John. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Sports–Great Britain–Sociological aspects. 2. Sports–Great Britain–History. I. Horne, John, 1955– II. Horne, John, 1955– Understanding sport. GV706.5.H664 2012 306.4'830941–dc23 2012006470 ISBN: 978-0-415-59140-9 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-415-59141-6 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-203-80713-2 (ebk) Typeset in Zapf Humanist and Eras by Keystroke, Station Road, Codsall, Wolverhampton CONTENTS List of illustrations xii Preface xiii Acknowledgements xvii 1 Industrial society, social change and sports culture 1 Introduction 1 Social change and the cultural implications of change 1 The characteristics of pre-industrial and modern sports 5 Athleticism and its contribution to the growth of modern sports 8 ‘Teaching the poor how to play’: rational recreation and the struggle over sport 13 Conclusion 16 Essay questions 16 Exercises 16 Further reading 16 2 Case studies in the growth of modern sports 18 Introduction 18 Modern sport: the nature of contemporary sports culture and the social influences upon it 29 Conclusion 32 Essay questions 32 Exercises 33 Further reading 33 3 Debates, interpretations, theories 34 Introduction: the history and sociology of sport in creative tension? 34 Interpretations illustrated 40 Conclusion