Tag: Alan Bairner

Sedan historikern Jan Lindroth disputerade med sin avhandling om idrotten som folkrörelse 1974 har det gått ett halvt sekel, och således firar svensk idrottsforskning sitt femtioårsjubileum 2024. Under perioden har idrottsvetenskap vuxit fram som ett nytt utbildnings-, forsknings- och forskarutbildningsämne. Idag finns det idrottsvetenskapliga institutioner eller motsvarande vid tio lärosäten, och fem av dem har forskarutbildning. Forskningsämnena, som från början var pedagogik, historia och psykologi, omfattar idag över trettio olika ämnesdiscipliner.

Swedish sport historian Jens Ljunggren’s latest book, A Political History of Sport in Sweden (Palgrave Macmillan) presents a history of Swedish sport, highlighting in particular the relationship between sport politics and people’s changing attitudes towards sport from the eighteenth century until today. Our reviewer Alan Bairner wishes had had had this book when he started studying Swedish sports 30 years ago. He commends Ljunggren’s impressive research, but would have liked elaborations on the issue of sport and politics, as well as a chapter on gender and one on migration.

Athlete activism by female Olympians and Paralympians is wide-ranging, with a colorful, sometimes contentious history blending sport and society. Linda K. Fuller’s Female Olympian and Paralympian Athlete Activists highlights 800+ women from 90 countries (including the Refugee Olympic Team). Our reviewer Alan Bairner is duly impressed by the author’s effort, noting unexpected inclusions and surprising omissions, while at the same time being slightly puzzled as to the purpose of the book.

Soccer, a.k.a (association) football is the most popular mass spectator sport in the world. Soccer & Society is the first international journal devoted to the game of soccer, and aims to focus on the game in the context of a more global world. The Forum Editor’s pick from the current issue: Beyond ‘good’ and ‘bad’ fans: exploring the mechanisms enabling football fans’ position as a stakeholder in the management of circulations by Jan Andre Lee Ludvigsen (open access).

ESMQ publishes articles that contribute to our understanding of sport organizations. The Journal sets out to enhance our understanding of the role of sport management and sport bodies in social life. The Forum Editor’s pick from the current issue: Understanding the interplay between event communications and local business decision-making using signalling theory: the case of the 2018 Commonwealth Games by Joan Carlini, Alana Thomson, Andrew O’Neil & Amelia Green.

IRSS is a peer reviewed academic journal. Its main purpose is to disseminate research and scholarship on sport throughout the international academic community. The journal publishes research articles of varying lengths, as well as book and media reviews. The Forum Editor’s pick from the current issue: Training the Mobile Great Wall: Social class and player–coach interactions in a Chinese basketball academy by Teng Ge.

The Political Football Stadium: Identity Discourses and Power Struggle, edited by Başak Alpan, Albrecht Sonntag & Katarzyna Herd (Palgrave Macmillan) focuses on the football stadium as a political space and examines how stadiums can be viewed as the objects and catalysts of political change. Alan Bairner has read a well-researched and informative tome with a wealth of interesting materials, but he is still able to suggest a couple of politically interesting stadiums to include in a second volume.

IRSS is a peer reviewed academic journal. Its main purpose is to disseminate research and scholarship on sport throughout the international academic community. The journal publishes research articles of varying lengths, as well as book and media reviews. The Forum Editor’s pick from the current issue: FIFA’s utopia: An analysis of FIFA’s football for hope movement by Shawn D. Forde.

Academics in various disciplines are writing about sport. Sport in Society is a multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary forum for academics to discuss the growing relationship of sport to significant areas of modern life. The Forum Editor’s pick from the current issue: Urban development, city planning, and hosting major events: the cases of Birmingham and Guangzhou by Shushu Chen, Yonghui Yu & Emma Baker.

The collected volume Softpower, Soccer, Supremacy: The Chinese Dream by J.A. Mangan, Peter Horton & Christian Tagsold (Peter Lang) looks at Xi Jinping’s “Soccer Revolution”, the most extensive politicization and geo-politicization of the Global Game. Oliver Rick, well acquainted with sports in China, considers the book an important collection that provides keen insights into the role of football in China’s politics in the Southeast. He does have reservations though, regarding the inclusion of an Australian perspective.