Routledge Handbook of Sport and Politics

Sport continues to be conceptualised and valued in public and media discourse as something that is, or should be, pure and untainted by the pejoratively understoodpolitical, and continues to be framed by many opinion formers outside of academia as unserious fun, separate from thereal world. This is in spite of universal acknowledgement in academic studies that sport is often at the heart of the political and that the political is often central to sport. From the Berlin Nazi Games, through civil rights activism in Mexico 68, the Cold War and apartheid boycotts, to civil unrest in Brazil in the lead up to the 2014 World Cup, sport and politics have been symbiotic bedfellows and remain so.

The Routledge Handbook of Sport and Politics goes further than any other book in surveying the complex, embedded relationships between sport and politics. Divided into six sections addressing the study of sport and politics, ideologies, nation and statehood, corporate politics, political activism and social justice, and the politics of sports events, the book covers key sporting and political moments, introduces the conceptual foundations that underpin our understanding of the politicsof sport and politics in sport, and examines the full range of established, emergent and residual issues at the heart of the sport and politics nexus. With contributions from leading international scholars, and including cases and source material from North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, this is an essential reference for anybody with an interest in the social scientific study of sport.

John Kelly is a lecturer in sports management at the University of Edinburgh specialising in socio-cultural issues in sport. His main research interests include nationalism, sectarianism and militarism in sport. He has published on these topics and has co-authored Sport, Exercise and Social Theory (2013) (with Gyozo Molnar) and co-editedBigotry, Football and Scotland (2013) (with John Flint).

Jung Woo Lee is a lecturer in sports policy and socio-cultural issues at the University of Edinburgh. His current research centres on sports media and communications, sport and international relations and Olympic studies. He has published a number of journal articles related to these areas of study. He is an associate editor of theAsia Pacific Journal of Sport and Social Science and an editorial board member of theInternational Review for the Sociology of Sport.

Alan Bairner is professor of sport and social theory at Loughborough University. He studied politics at the universities of Edinburgh and Hull. His research interests are diverse and his current focus includes national identity and urban spaces. He has authored Sport, Nationalism and Globalization: Europe and North American Perspectives(2001) and edited Sport and the Irish: Histories, Identities, Issues (2005). He co-authored (with John Sugden)Sport, Sectarianism and Society in a Divided Ireland (1993) and was joint-editor ofSport in Divided Societies (1999), The Bountiful Game? Football Identity and Finances(2005) and The Politics of the Olympics: A Survey (2010).