Tag: Mads Skauge

In Dangerous Fun: The Social Lives of Big Wave Surfers (University of Chicago Press), Ugo Corte examines how mentors, novices, and peers interact to create episodes of collective fun in a dangerous setting; how they push one another’s limits, nourish a lifestyle, advance the sport and, in some cases, make a living based on their passion for the sport. Mads Skauge obviously enjoyed reading this sociological treat(ise), heavy on theory, one of the best books of relevance to the sociology of sport in recent years – and written by an “outsider”!

Peter Millward’s Football Fandom, Sexualities and Activism: A Cultural Relational Sociology (Routledge) is the first book to examine the growing movement of organised networks of LGBT+ football supporters, exploring activists’ biographies and the meanings they ascribe to participation in identity politics-centred social movements. Our reviewer Mads Skauge finds a swell of ambition and a swell of data – maybe enough for more books than this one – and the end product, he argues, presents an abundance of useful information about LGBT+ fandom and supporter culture in football.

Christer Thranes bok Helt i mål. Lær statistisk tenkning med tall fra sportens verden (Humanist Forlag) gör till och med de med avancerad statistikångest kompetenta att bedöma trovärdigheten hos statistiskt nyhetsmaterial. Och det kräver inga förkunskaper. Idrottssociologen Mads Skauge har läst Thranes bok med behållning – om än ej okritiskt – och liksom Thrane drar han sig inte för att späcka sin text med idrottsmetaforer. Skojig läsning.

In his book The Politics of Football (Routledge), Christos Kassimeris examines the deep connections between football and politics and explains what those relationships can tell us about sport and wider society. With the game occupying a preeminent place on the world sporting stage, this book argues that the political significance of football has never been greater. And our reviewer Mads Skauge fully agrees. Football is important. Football is politics. He read the book as an introduction to football politics, and as such it is highly recommendable.

Bringing together leading esports experts from Europe, North America, and Australia, Anne Tjønndal’s edited collection Social Issues in Esports (Routledge) provides new sociological analyses that define and locate esports in social studies. Kalle Jonasson, who wrote about esports on idrottsforum.org already back in 2005, is highly appreciative of Tjønndal’s book, notwithstanding the fact that he would have liked to see a bit more of conceptual and philosophical thinking around the social issues surrounding esports.

Full of real-world cases and stories, Wray Vamplew’s Sports Economics for Non-Economists (Routledge) offers a short economic history of sport and explains the economic foundations of the world of sport today, from local leagues to mega-events. Sport sociologist Mads Skauge fits in the book’s target group, and his careful reading and thorough review shows that Vamplew fulfills his stated goal; Skauge himself is proof of this, and he recommends the book to his sport social science peers as well as to their students.

In Racism and English Football: For Club and Country (Routledge), Daniel Burdsey analyses the contemporary manifestations, outcomes and implications of the fractious relationship between English professional football and race. Our reviewer is football fanatic and sport sociologist Mads Skauge. He would have liked a bit more sociology of race in a book that otherwise is an essential read for those interested in the social and organizational dynamics of football – especially English.

In May 2022, Mads Skauge presented and defended his Ph.D. dissertation Non-levelled playing fields and the rise of fitness: Social inequality in late modern youth sport in Norway, which studies inequalities in organized youth sports and commercial fitness participation. We asked Marie Larneby to read his thesis, and her thorough review shows that Skauge, a few problems notwithstanding, adds new knowledge of participation patterns and opportunities in a rapidly changing society.

EJSS’ function is to enable an international discussion about current issues and to foster collaboration between researchers from all social scientific sub-disciplines. It’s published 4 times per year. The Forum Editor’s pick from the current issue: Imagining the nation through football: German national self-stereotypes before, during and after the 2016 UEFA championship by ichael Mutz, Markus Gerke & Henk Erik Meier.

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: Where do they all come from? Youth, fitness gyms, sport clubs and social inequality by Mads Skauge & Ørnulf Seippel.