A collection of nine essays weighing the impact sports has on a society's expression and identity. The contributing social anthropologists apply critical cultural theories to topics in ethnicity, representation in Turkish wrestling, regional identity in Northern Pakistan as evidenced by the game of polo, female bullfighting, cricket as a form of social empowerment, soccer as a play of social protest and change in colonial Zimbabwe, and Spanish nationalism on the soccer fields. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The struggle for status within sport is a microcosm of the struggle for rights, freedom and recognition within society. Injustices within sport often reflect larger injustices in society as a whole. In South Africa, for example, sport has been crucial in advancing the rights and liberty of oppressed groups. The geographical and chronological range of the essays in Ethnicity, Sport, Identity reveal the global role of sport in this advance. The collection examines cases of discrimination directed at individuals or groups, resulting in their exclusion from full participation in sport and their consequent struggle for inclusion. It shows how ethnic and national identity are sources of social cohesion and political assertion within sport, and it illustrates the manner in which sport has served to project ethnicity in various, often contradictory ways. It depicts sport as an agent of conservatism and radicalism, superiority and subordination, confidence and lack of confidence, and as a source of disenfranchisement and enfranchisement. That sport has been, and continues to be, a potent means of both ethnic restriction and release can no longer be ignored.

This volume examines the ways in which sport shapes the experiences of various immigrant and minority groups and, in particular, looks at the relationship between sport, ethnic identity and ethnic relations. The articles in this volume are concerned primarily with British, American and Australian sporting traditions and the themes covered include the consolidation of ethnic identity in host societies through participation immigrant sports and exclusive sporting organizations, assimilation into host' societies through participation in indigenous, national sports, and the construction by outsiders of separate ethnic identities according to sporting criteria.

Sport has long been a paradoxical environment with respect to issues of 'race', ethnicity, and identity. For much of the twentieth century, sports around the world were enclaves of difference. Whites and non-whites, for example, were separated on the sports field as they were in many ways off the field. Today sport is much more inclusive, with athletic ability of greater importance than skin colour or ancestry. Yet enmity and antagonism still appear in sport via instances of racial vilification or hostility between some groups. Other problems include the relative absence of minorities from positions of power and influence in sport, as well as folkloric assumptions about athletic ability based upon stereotypes about 'race' or ethnic background. This book discusses issues of diversity, capacity and equity in the colourful world of global sport. A panoramic approach, covering 'race', ethnicity and identity is consistent with the contemporary global migration of professional athletes, as well as the multicultural contexts of sport in various regions. This collection of essays therefore addresses international dimensions of sport, commonality and difference, as well as the special circumstances of sport and social relations in particular places. This book was previously published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

Analyses of racialisation processes within and beyond sport would be incomplete without a consideration of ethnicity and ethnic identities. Why? Because ethnicity, as a concept and as a focus for research, captures better the diverse experiences of social groups and the scope of belonging. Ethnic identities contribute to the way race and racism is constructed and experienced in sport, and to the ways in which racial ideologies are created, recreated and contested. Readers will find here a stimulating array of papers that capture varied aspects of the sport, race and ethnicity nexus around the world. The journey stretches as far afield as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ghana and the USA and, in so doing, it draws on a range of disciplinary approaches that converge or diverge by degrees. Such diversity is to be welcomed in an academic field characterized increasingly by the potential richness of people's experiences of sport, race and ethnicity within various cultural contexts. Included here are papers from a range of disciplines and approaches including sociology, politics, sports feminisms, critical race theory, a strengths perspective, Kaupapa Māori Theory, history and sports development. This book was published as a special issue of Sport and Society.

This text deals with discrimination directed at those excluded from full participation in sport and the consequent struggle through sport for inclusion, recognition and respect. It deals also with sport as a source of cohesion between individuals and groups from persecuted ethnic minorities.

This book discusses issues of diversity, capacity and equity in the colourful world of global sport and addresses international dimensions of sport, commonality and difference, as well as the special circumstances of sport and social relations in particular places. This book was published as a special issue of Sport in Society.