Description
Book SynopsisShowcasing some of the most important current research in football studies, this book demonstrates the value of social theory and sociology in helping us to better understand the world's favourite sport.
This book sheds critical new light on key issues in contemporary football, with each chapter using a different theoretical lens, drawing on the work of key thinkers from Elias and Foucault to Hall and Maffesoli. It explores issues and topics central to the study of modern football, including homophobia, feminist-informed coaching practice, the racialised experiences of black professional footballers, the concussion crisis and the role of identity in online football communities. It also looks ahead at the issues that are likely to define the research agenda in football studies in years to come.
This is fascinating reading for any student or researcher with an interest in football, the sociology of sport, social theory or social issues in wider society.
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Examining Critical Issues in Football Through Sociological Theory
STUART WHIGHAM, WILL ROBERTS, ALEX CULVIN, AND DANIEL PARNELL
PART I
Established Social Theories and Football
1 Tottenham Hotspur, Fan Identity and Figurational Sociology: ‘Yid Army’
BONITA LUNN
2 How an Ethos of Amateurism Can Support the Integration of an Ecological Approach to Learning and Development in Football Academies: Too Much Too Early?
WILL ROBERTS, MARTYN ROTHWELL, HAYDN MORGAN, JAMES VAUGHAN, AND CARL WOODS
3 The McDonaldisation of Football’s Formal Coach Education?: Creating the McCoach
ANTHONY BUSH AND SHAUN WILLIAMS
PART II
Emerging Social Theories and Football
4 Desire, Drive and the Melancholy of English Football: ‘It’s (not) Coming Home’
JACK BLACK
5 An Alternative Lens for Grassroots Sport: De-schooling Football
ANDREW PITCHFORD, BEN MORELAND, DEBBIE SAYERS, AND WILL ROBERTS
6 Negotiating Identity Conflict Through Football: Experiences of People Living with Type 1 Diabetes
CHRISTOPHER BRIGHT AND GYŐZŐ MOLNÁR
7 Professional Knowledge Development in Performance Pathways: A Futsal Case Study Through the Lens of Practice Architectures
SIÔN KITSON, PETE VALLANCE, AND SIMON PHELAN
PART III
Social Theories of Gender and Sexuality in Football
8 Experiences of Female Football Referees: Using the Lack of Fit Model to Explore Gender Stereotypes in Football in England
LAURA GRUBB, TOM WEBB, AND MIKE RAYNER
9 Critical Feminism and Football Pundits: Calm Down… It’s Just a Woman Talking Football
ALI BOWES, MOLLY MATTHEWS, AND JESS LONG
10 Towards the Application of Feminist-Informed Pedagogical Principles into Coaching Practice: Personal Narratives and Implications for Football Coaches
ADI ADAMS, ALICE HUNTER, AND ELLIE GENNINGS
11 English (Men’s) Football, Masculinity and Homophobia: From Hegemonic to Inclusive Masculinity
JAY WILLSON AND RORY MAGRATH
PART IV
Social Theories of ‘Race’ and Ethnicity in Football
12 The Racialised Construction of Black Professional Footballers in Engl(ish) Football: Love the Game, Hate the Player
JASON ARDAY
13 Black Professional Football Players, Social Capital and Social Change: A Case Study of Marcus Rashford’s Child Poverty Campaign
KEON RICHARDSON
14 ‘Pogba x Stormzy’ and the Politics of Race and Representation: An Introduction to Stuart Hall and British Cultural Studies
MICHAEL HOBSON
