This important new study examines the changing
place and meaning of lifestyle sports – parkour,
surfing, skateboarding, kite-surfing and others – and
asks whether they continue to pose a challenge to the
dominant meanings and experience of ‘sport’ and physical
culture.
Drawing on a series of in-depth, empirical
case-studies, the book offers a re-evaluation of
theoretical frameworks with which lifestyle sports have
been understood, and focuses on aspects of their
cultural politics that have received little attention,
particularly the racialization of lifestyle sporting
spaces. Centrally, it re-assess the political potential
of lifestyle sports, considering if lifestyle sports
cultures present alternative identities and spaces that
challenge the dominant ideologies of sport, and the
broader politics of identity, in the 21st century.
It
explores a range of key contemporary themes in lifestyle
sport, including:
- identity and the politics of difference
- commercialization and globalization
- sportscapes, media discourse and lived reality
- risk and responsibility
- governance and regulation
- the racialization of lifestyle sports spaces
- lifestyle sports outside of the Global North
- the use of lifestyle sport to engage
non-privileged youth
Casting new light on the
significance of sport and sporting subcultures within
contemporary society, this book is essential reading for
students or researcher working in the sociology of
sport, leisure studies or cultural studies.
