Abstract

Sport socialisation provides fascinating insights into the tensions between structure and agency particularly in states where there is a strong ideological apparatus, or where capitalist market forces dictate behaviour. It is also concerned with the roles significant more intimate others play in determining a person’s self-hood. Additionally, sport socialisation plays an important role in identity construction and enables us to examine the intersections between gender, race, socio-economic status or class, physical ability and cultural norms. The book takes an international perspective by exploring the topic of sport socialisation through different case studies. The main organising principle is to examine socialisation into, out of, and through sport. The first section analyzes factors that influence initiation and continuation in sport as athlete or consumer. Three case studies of how ideology can socialise people into sport are presented: child athletes in China; African Americans in basketball and American football; and adventure racing and dragon boating in Capitalist corporate culture. In the second section, factors that prevent potential athletes from competing are studied in three contexts: female Muslim athletes; women e-sports athletes; and intersex athletes. The final section, socialisation through sport explores how athletes might be empowered or disempowered through sport participation. In this section, we look at athletes with disabilities; women who fight; and the debate on youth character development through sport participation. Much of what is studied in these pages requires transformation; some of it represents possible positive change taking place at the moment.