The entire book has been streamlined and updated to include 53 new photos and over 200 new references.
Expanded global coverage widens the research base with studies and examples from countries around the globe, fostering analysis and understanding sports and society across national boundaries.
A new "On the OLC" icon throughout the text points out additional readings and resources available on the book's online learning center.
Chapter 1: The Sociology of Sport: What is it and why study it?
Added a brief introduction on the definition of sociology, key sociology concepts, and the research basis of sociology.
A new figure demonstrates the relationships of play, sports, and spectacle.
Added discussion of sports as social capital.
Streamlined sections on the definition of sports.
Chapter 2: Producing Knowledge About Sports in Society: What is the Role of Research and Theory?
Entire chapter has been revised to focus on how research and theory are used to study sports in society.
A unique case study presents social theory and research methods in a real-world context.
A critical approach is emphasized to get students thinking about the applications of theory to society.
Chapter 3: Studying the Past: Does it help us understand sports today?
Added discussion of the historical roots of sports as we know them today, with a global perspective acknowledging that the definition and values of sports in other cultures may not match those of the post-Industrial society studied in this book.
History timeline updated to include significant recent milestones in the social history of sport.
Chapter 4: Sports and Socialization: Who plays and what happens to them?
Revised discussion to use a critical approach and cultural, interactionist, and structural theories to define socialization.
Added examples to further a global understanding of sport socialization, such as acceptance of competitive running for Ethiopian women and the interpretation of Michael Jordan's persona in other countries.
Added current studies and statistics regarding health and incidence of injury related to sports.
Chapter 5: Sports and Children: Are organized programs worth the effort?
Analysis of informal games revised to discuss generational changes to the structure and culture of childhood sports.
Developmental research presented from several studies supports that informal play helps children learn to cooperate and express themselves and leads to later success in chosen organized sport activities.
Added discussion of the Citizenship Through Sport Alliance (CTSA) Youth Sports National Report Card project.
Revised analysis of children sport programs to focus on issues of access, development, and family dynamics.
Additional recommendations for improving sport programs include hybrid sports (to combine features of player-controlled informal games and adult-controlled organized sports) and encouraging personal expression.
Chapter 6: Deviance in Sports: Is it out of control?
Definition of deviance clarified to discuss in terms of supranormal as well as subnormal.
Methods of studying deviance in sports revised to focus on absolutist and constructionist approaches.
Expanded discussion of deviant overconformity, with new studies on injuries and new quotations from athletes such as Troy Aikman documenting the extreme risks and pain that athletes endure for sports.
New discussion on using deviance to create commercial personas in sports.
Breaking Barriers box updated to document Oscar Pistorius's attempts to challenge his ban from the 2008 Olympics.
Discussion of performance-enhancing substances updated with the latest research and recent events, such as reports of professional soccer players storing stem cells from the umbilical cords of their newborn children and U.S. Congress's attempts to intervene in enforcing anti-doping policies.
Chapter 7: Violence in Sports: How does it affect our lives?
Added coverage of mixed martial arts (Ultimate Fighting Championship, Cage Fighting Championship, and Fatal Femmes Fighting Championship).
Added recent research showing that sport participation, especially for young men in contact sports, is associated with fighting and delinquency off the field.
Chapter 8: Gender and Sports: Does equity require ideological changes?
Added example of women in traditionally Catholic nations facing restrictions grounded in beliefs about their reproductive and childrearing roles.
Expanded discussion of gender and fairness issues in sports with additional examples of how sports is a male-identified social world.
Statistics related to jobs for women updated.
A recent study of lesbian softball leagues throughout North America is presented to investigate the tensions around policies that allowed or excluded the participation of transgendered persons.
Chapter 9: Race and Ethnicity: Are They Important in Sports?
Added a figure to clarify the concept of racial ideology as a continuum with many different ways to draw lines.
Updated chapter with recent research, statistics, and current events, such as Don Imus's racial comments about the 2007 NCAA Women's basketball championship game.
Added discussion to distinguish among and discuss the social sport experiences for three categories of Latino/as: native born and naturalized citizens, Latin Americans working as athletes in the U.S., and workers and their family members who are in the U.S. without legal approval.
Expanded discussion of sport participation among Asian Pacific Americans to acknowledge different experiences depending on their immigration histories
Chapter 10: Social Class: Do Money and Power Matter in Sports?
Dramatically revised the section on class ideology in the United States to clarify the major beliefs that support class ideology.
Streamlined the section on class relations and who has power in sports to critically analyze the class makeup of the power positions in sports.
Added concrete examples to demonstrate social class in action, such as an Olympic swimmer's $100,000-per-year support staff and the opening of a baseball stadium at a cost of $611 million to taxpayers in the same city where twenty-four public schools are set to close down.
Statistics for salaries updated.
Updated discussion of employment barriers in coaching with analysis of the current percentages of blacks head coaches in football and women's basketball.
Expanded discussion of class, gender, and race dynamics in connection with college athletic scholarships.
Chapter 11: Sports and the Economy: What Are the Characteristics of Commercial Sports?
Updated discussion with recent events, such as the WWE's campaign to overcome the bad press of the Chris Benoit tragedy.
Added details of a study of the building of three sport facilities and Cleveland and the economic impacts for the surrounding area and team owners.
Statistics for salaries and costs updated.
Streamlined and reorganized discussion of professional sports in North America.
Chapter 12: Sports and the Media: Could They Survive Without Each Other?
Included discussion of content provided by internet bloggers and independent journalists.
Expanded discussion to include new media innovations, such as streaming video for mobile devices and the use of YouTube to share alternative and action sports.
Updated text to include recent events, such as the ruling of the Supreme Court on the MLB's case for rights fees by anyone using players' names and performance statistics in a for-profit online fantasy league.
Updated discussion of video games and virtual sports to include Nintendo's Wii platform.
Added a discussion of consumption in media representations of sports.
Revised discussion of audience experiences of viewing media sports with examples of two unique social experiences.
Streamlined discussions of race, ethnicity, and nationality in media representations of sports.
Updated discussion of sports journalists to acknowledge the way interactivity of online media has changed the relationships between journalists and their audiences.
Added discussion of the consequences of consuming media sports.
Chapter 13: Sports and Politics: How Do Governments and Global Political Processes Influence Sports?
Updated chapter with recent events such as a federal court's 2008 ruling in favor of the Michigan Paralyzed Veterans of America to force the University of Michigan to increase accessibility for people with disabilities and U.S. Congress's committee investigations into performance enhancing drugs and human growth hormones in baseball.
Expanded discussion of government's involvement in sports to promote prestige and power, with examples such as government cash rewards for Olympians who bring home medals.
Added concrete examples to the Reflect on Sports box about the Olympics to show how the status of the Olympics could be altered or changed; for example, added a new table to contrast Olympic medal count by total medals versus medals per capita, to discuss promoting fair methods of calculating medal counts.
Streamlined section on new political realities in an era of transnational corporations
Updated discussion with global examples of sports related to government, such as examples of sellout crowds and messages of national identity at an Olympic qualifying tournament for men's team handball in Zadar, Croatia and the promotion of the formation of a European identity related to golf's Ryder Cup Team Europe.
Updated section on athletes as global migrant workers to more thoroughly discuss the issue of blurred national identies.
Updated discussion of global politics and sports labor with the latest status on issues such as Nike's factories in Southeast Asia and Indonesia.
Significantly streamlined the closing section on politics in sports.
Added discussion of the way that the military is connected with sports, such as color guard units that present the American flag at sporting events and sponsored demonstration "fly-overs" by fighter jet teams for certain sports.
Chapter 14: Sports in High School and College: Do Competitive Sports Contribute to Education?
Revised discussion of high school sports as learning experiences.
Revised discussion of intercollegiate sports to emphasize that most research covers focuses on the Division I universities; details added on other programs, including two new tables showing the percentage of schools and the percentage of athletes in each category of athletic program.
Details added on a recent survey showing that most NCAA athletes report spending close to 40 hours per week doing their sports, and more time on their sports than on their academic work.
Streamlined section on grades and graduation rates.
Updated status of the NCAA's academic reform, with discussion of the minimum academic progress rate (APR) results for 2008.
Updated statistics for budgets and scholarships.
Updated discussion of the relationship between sports and school budgets, with a new table listing median revenues and expenditures by Division I subdivisions.
Added discussion of the antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA for restriction of scholarships to the cost of tuition, books, housing, and meals.
Chapter 15: Sports and Religions: Is It a Promising Combination?
Revised section on how sociologists define and study religion to clarify the definition of religion and compare and contrast with ideologies.
Updated Reflect on Sports box on dilemmas for Islamic women in sport with discussion of the threats against Sania Mirza, a tennis player from India, for her tennis clothes that violated Sharia Law; and Bahrain-born sprinter Ruqaya Al Ghasara's decisions to wear the hijab in races.
Added a section about sport participation among Jews.
Chapter 16: Sports in the Future: Are We Agents of Change?
Revised chapter to focus on the goal of becoming agents of change rather than passive spectators of the future of sports.
Clarified three types of goals for the future of sports: growth, improvement, and social transformation.
Revised discussion of using theories to develop the future of sports in terms of cultural, interactionist, and structural theories.
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