Tag: Mahfoud Amara

In Global China and the Global Game in Africa: China-Africa Engagement through the Lens of Football, edited by Jonathan Sullivan, Tobias Ross, and Angela Lewis and published by Peter Lang, uses the interaction between China and African countries in football to critically examine how engagement through football reproduces unequal outcomes but also positive developments on both sides. Alan Bairner finds that the collection deserves to be read not only by people with a specific interest in football in China and Africa but also by anyone who simply wants to learn more about the important relationship between these two parts of the world in an era in which the global order is being dramatically reconfigured.

The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar was the first World Cup to be held in the Middle East, and thus a unique sporting mega‑event. The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar: Global and Local Perspectives, edited by Nikolay Kozhanov, Mahfoud Amara & Mahjoob Zweiri (Routledge) explores its wider significance across political, socio‑cultural, economic, organisational and historical dimensions. Our reviewer, renowned sport and football sociologist Arve Hjelseth is generally appreciative of the analyses offered in the various contributions, albeit not uncritical.

The Geopolitical Economy of Sport: Power, Politics, Money, and the State edited by Simon Chadwick, Paul Widdop & Michael M. Goldman (Routledge), is the first book to define and explore the geopolitical economy of sport where power, politics, money, and state intersect. Harald Dolles is our reviewer, and while lauding many aspects of the book and the editors’ efforts, he points to the dangers of obsolescence as well as finding several instances where the book not quite measures up to reasonable demands of scholarly astuteness.

The Research Handbook on Major Sporting Events, edited by Harry Arne Solberg, Rasmus K. Storm and Kamilla Swart (Edward Elgar) examines the hosting of major sporting events and the impacts they can have on stakeholders. Christian Tolstrup Jensen has read an impressive compilation of scientific studies in the field of major sport event research that gives the initiated reader a useful and nuanced overview of the state-of-the-art in event studies, its understudied areas and a who-is-who in the field.

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: Investigating the effect of walking football on the mental and social wellbeing of men by Dominic Taylor & Andy Pringle.

In his latest book, Egypt’s Football Revolution: Emotion, Masculinity, and Uneasy Politics (University of Texas Press), Carl Rommel examines the politics of football as a space for ordinary Egyptians and state forces to negotiate a masculine Egyptian chauvinism. We asked Mahfoud Amara of Qatar University for a review, and his knowledgeable reading offers insights into the course of events during the revolution and the book is given a thorough and appreciative evaluation.

Five hundred pages, forty-five chapters, forty-nine authors – the Routledge Handbook of Tennis: History, Culture and Politics is a veritable treasure trove for academic tennis aficionados. Edited by renowned tennis historian Robert J. Lake, the volume elicited numerous unsolicited enthusiastic exclamations of appreciation and joy from our reviewer, renowned historian of Swedish tennis Johnny Wijk. Actually, his only complaint was the glaring paucity of Swedish tennis.

The International Journal of the History of Sport is the world’s leading sport history academic periodical with fully-refereed global coverage of the subject. The Forum Editor’s pick from the current issue: ELEMENTS OF THE HABITUS OF CHINESE FOOTBALL HOOLI-FANS AND COUNTERMEASURES TO ADDRESS INAPPROPRIATE BEHAVIOUR by Jiahao Hu & Guangying Cui.

In Jörg Krieger’s and Stephan Wassong’s edited collection Dark Sides of Sport (Common Ground), leading international scholars explore multifaceted historical and contemporary challenges for sport. We asked Mark Brooke at the National University of Singapore for a review. Our reviewer is very appreciative of the book; it fills a void in the existing academic literature as it explores, in one book, various areas of deviance that pose a threat to sport.

Soccer a.k.a (association) football, the most popular mass spectator sport in the world, has become a major social phenomenon since the late nineteenth century. Through the social prism of soccer, scholars across the world have tended to understand various aspects of life. Soccer & Society is the first international journal devoted to the game of soccer, aims to focus on the game in the context of a more global world.