The Palgrave Handbook of Olympic Studies

A comprehensive, state-of-the-art reference collection, bringing together an authoritative and international line-up of scholars to examine key social and political issues related to the Olympics. An essential, 'one-stop' volume for a wide range of academics, students and researchers.        

'The Palgrave Handbook of Olympic Studies authoritatively debunks the myth of the world's greatest mega-event as a benign, universally-shared cultural property and critically exposes how it has always represented a barometer of the shifting political, social, cultural, economic and global constellations of modern and late capitalist sport. This collection provides a comprehensive assessment of the modern Olympics from its ideologically-driven inception through the recent, global resistance to leadership corruption, sex and drug testing, and the creation ofthe movement's new social media infrastructure. This book is mandatory reading for policy makers, event practitioners, scholars, students and all people interested in understanding the past, present and future of the Olympics.' - Steven Pope, co-editor of The Routledge Companion to Sports History and author of Patritoic Games: Sporting Traditions in the American Imagaination, 1876-1926

'The Palgrave Handbook of Olympic Studies is essential reading for anyone looking for a critical assessment of Olympic history, practice and theory. It covers the key issues in depth, explores alternatives and refuses to be seduced by orthodoxy or invented tradition. It is a must for any Olympic bookshelf.' - Tony Collins, Director of the International Centre for Sports History and Culture, De Montfort University, UK

'Editors Stephen Wagg and Helen Lenskyj bring together a number of internationally respected scholars each offering a unique and compelling critique of the Olympic movement. Individual chapters include historical and contemporary analyses of the Olympic and Para-Olympic Games as related to such diverse themes as: national and local imaginings, inequality and human rights, new media, globalization, enviornmentalism and sustainability, neoliberalism, security and fears of terrorism, corruption, and performance enhancing drugs. As a whole The Palgrave Handbook of Olympic Studies shows that behind the veneer of the Olympic ideal said to promote international peace, understanding and unity is a global commercial spectacle embedded in a web of hierarchical social, political, and economic relations. This provocative anthology should be required reading for anyone interested in a critical understanding of the Olympic movement.' - Mary G. McDonald, Professor, Miami University, USA, and past president of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport

'At last! An impressive encyclopaedic work covering the good, bad, beautiful and the ugly in Olympism. For athletes and fans, for critics and sceptics, everything is here: de Courbetin's early visions, amateurism, class, gender, disabilities, environment, drugs, globalisation, the enterprise and the marketing, Asian host cities, the Cold War, and Nazi Games.' - Colin Tatz, Professor, University of New South Wales, Australia

'This is, in the reviewer's opinion, simply the best single serious volume on the study of the Olympic Games movement produced to date...This has to be a must for all libraries covering sport. With the considerable public interest in the Olympic Games, it will be well used by all sections of the community school children undertaking projects, students studying sport, descriptive and investigative journalists wanting to have context or understanding of what the Olympic Games are all about and planners understanding the processes and consequences of hosting, benefitting and/or suffering from sporting events.' - Reference Reviews

"The Palgrave Handbook of Olympic Studies is a welcome addition to an increasingly complex and growing body of literature and is one which will help shape the field through more critically informed analyses." - Vassil Girginov, International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics

DAVID L. ANDREWS Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Maryland, USA HAZEL BLUNDEN Political Activist based in Sydney, Australia PHILIP BOYLE PhD candidate in the Sociology Department of the University of Alberta, Canada ANNE-MARIE BROUDEHOUX Associate Professor in the School of Design at the University of Quebec at Montreal, Canada TONI BRUCE Associate Professor of Critical Studies in Education at the University of Auckland, New Zealand KYLE S. BUNDS Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Sport Management at Florida State University, USA DIKAIA CHATZIEFSTATHIOU Reader in Olympic Studies at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK BRYAN C. CLIFT Teaching Assistant in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Maryland, USA EGIDIO DANSERO Associate Professor in the Olympics and Mega Events Research Centre at the University of Turin, Italy MARK DYRESON Professor of Kinesiology at Pennsylvania State University, USA MICHAEL D. GIARDINA Assistant Professor of Sport Management at Florida State University, USA KEITH GILBERT Professor in the School of Health and Bioscience at the University of East London, UK STEVE GREENFIELD Professor in the Department of Academic Legal Studies at the University of Westminster, UK RICK GRUNEAU Professor in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada MARK GOLDEN Professor of Classics at the University of Winnipeg, Canada IAN HENRY Professor of Leisure Policy and Management and Director of the Centre for Olympic Studies and Research at Loughborough University, UK JOHN HORNE Professor of Sport and Sociology at the University of Central Lancashire, UK MARK JAMES Reader in Law and Director of Salford Centre of Legal Research at Salford University, UK ANDREW JENNINGS Freelance Writer and investigative reporter, based in the UK JENNIFER JONES Graduate student in the School of Creative and Cultural Industries at the University of the West of Scotland, UK JOHN KARAMICHAS Lecturer in Sociology at Queen's University Belfast, UK BARBARA KEYS Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Melbourne, Australia DAVID CLAY LARGE Professor of History at Montana State University, USA DAVID LUNT Adjunct Instructor in History at Southern Utah University, USA WOLFRAM MANZENREITER Assistant Professor in the Japanese Studies Division of the Institute of East Asian Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria ALFREDO MELA Professor in the Department of Urban Studies at the University of Turin, Italy JENNIFER L. METZ Visiting Professor of American Studies and Sport Studies at the University of Iowa, USA ANDY MIAH Professor of Ethics and Emerging Technologies and Director of the Creative Futures Research Centre at the University of Western Scotland, UK ROBERT NEUBAUER Masters student in Communication at Simon Fraser University, Cananda CHRISTINE O'BONSAWIN Assistant Professor the Department of History at the University of Victoria, Canada GUY OSBORN Professor in the Department of Academic Legal Studies at the University of Westminster, UK GAVIN POYNTER Professor in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of East London, UK TOBY RIDER PhD candidate in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Western Ontario, Canada IAN RITCHIE Associate Professor in the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences at Brock University, Canada OTTO SCHANTZ Professor of Cultural Studies and the Head of the Department of Sport Science at the University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany JAMIE SCHULTZ Assistant Professor in Physical Cultural Studies and Sport History at Pennsylvania State University, USA CHRISTOPHER SHAW Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of British Columbia, Canada TERRENCE TEIXEIRA Independent scholar, based in Toronto, Canada ALAN TOMLINSON Professor of Leisure Studies in the Chelsea School, University of Brighton, UK KEVIN WAMSLEY Professor the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Western Ontario, Canada EMMA WENSING Independent scholar, based in Australia GARRY WHANNEL Professor of Media Cultures at the University of Bedfordshire, UK KONSTANTINOS ZERVAS did doctoral research on anti-Olympic movements in the Carnegie Faculty at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK