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Sport and Physical Activity across the Lifespan

Critical Perspectives

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Provides a critical social science perspective of age-focused ‘Sport for All’ policy and approaches
  • Considers the ways in which and the reasons why sport is not part of people’s lives at certain ages
  • Criticises the notion of sport for all ages as a marketing strategy and for regulating certain groups

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Table of contents (17 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxi
  2. Sport for All Ages? Weighing the Evidence

    • Rylee A. Dionigi, Michael Gard
    Pages 1-20
  3. Setting the Context: Sport Participation and Sport Policy

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 21-21
    2. From a Lucky Few to the Reluctant Many: Interrogating the Politics of Sport for All

      • Michael Gard, Rylee A. Dionigi, Claudio Dionigi
      Pages 67-89
  4. Sport in Adulthood

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 193-193
    2. The Gay Games, Safe Spaces and the Promotion of Sport for All?

      • Chelsea Litchfield, Jaquelyn Osborne
      Pages 245-260
  5. Sport in Mid-life and Old Age

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 261-261
    2. The Mid-life ‘Market’ and the Creation of Sporting Sub-cultures

      • Rylee A. Dionigi, Chelsea Litchfield
      Pages 283-300

About this book

This edited collection problematizes trajectories of health promotion across the lifespan. It provides a distinctive critical social science perspective of the various directions taken by dominant policies in their approach to promoting sport for all ages. It offers an array of theoretical and methodologically diverse perspectives on this topic, and highlights the intersections between different life stages and social, economic and cultural factors in the developed world, including class, gender, ability, family dynamics and/or race.

Sport and Physical Activity across the Lifespan critically explores dominant policies of age-focussed sport promotion in order to highlight its implications within the context of particular life stages as they intersect with social, cultural and economic factors. This includes an examination of organised sport for pre-schoolers; ‘at-risk’ youth sport programmes; and the creation of sporting sub-cultures within the mid-life ‘market’.

This book will be of interest to those wanting to learning more about how age and life stages affect the way people think about and participate in sport, and to better understand the impacts of sport across the lifespan.

Reviews

“The content provides new perspectives related to themes that would interest academics and students in the fields of sport and physical activity, particularly those who are keen to explore the impact of political factors and geographical locations upon participation, programmes and policy. … the book makes links between social, political and economic factors and the influences they exert on sport and physical activity, its readership is likely to be broad and diverse.” (Jane Dorrian, Sport, Education and Society, Vol. 24 (8), 2019)

“The strength of this book is that it is an ambitious overview that offers a far-reaching and coherent argument about the state of sport participation across Australia, Europe and UK. It offers the reader a wide and comprehensive selection of perspectives … . this book is suitable for researchers, undergraduate and post-graduate students and public health practitioners, who will all gain useful insights from it.” (Anne Elliott, Annals of Leisure Research, February 01, 2019)




“This edited volume comprises some extremely thought-provoking chapters within the field of the “Sport for All” discourse. … The book seeks to bust the myths perpetuated by the “sport evangelists” by deconstructing them through empirical and historical analyses and presents the tensions within and unintended consequences of such narratives.” (Mark Brooke, idrottsforum.org, June, 2018)



Editors and Affiliations

  • Charles Sturt University, Port Macquarie, Australia

    Rylee A. Dionigi

  • University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

    Michael Gard

About the editors

Rylee A. Dionigi is Associate Professor in the School of Exercise Science, Sport and Health at Charles Sturt University, Australia.

Michael Gard is Associate Professor in the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences at the University of Queensland, Australia.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Sport and Physical Activity across the Lifespan

  • Book Subtitle: Critical Perspectives

  • Editors: Rylee A. Dionigi, Michael Gard

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-48562-5

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-48561-8Published: 11 December 2017

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-69503-4Published: 04 November 2020

  • eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-48562-5Published: 27 November 2017

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXI, 362

  • Number of Illustrations: 5 b/w illustrations, 3 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Sociology of Sport and Leisure, Sociology of Culture, Medical Sociology, Sport

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 100.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access