Overview
- Unfolds who plays and how many people play small, non-organized sports
- Offers a critical autoethnographic perspective, as author operates both as sociological researcher and player and participant in disc golf
- Provides a theoretical framework and innovative methodology to study non-normative sports as grassroots, social movements
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About this book
This volume examines the rise of an emerging sport as a grassroots effort (or “new social movement”), arguing that the growth of non-normative sports movements occurs through two social processes: one driven primarily by product development, commercialization, and consumption, and another that relies upon public resources and grassroots efforts. Through the lens of disc golf, informed by the author’s experience both playing and researching the sport, Joshua Woods here explores how non-normative sports development depends on the consistency of insider culture and ideology, as well as on how the movement navigates a broad field of market competition, government regulation, community characteristics, public opinion, traditional media, social media and technological change. Throughout, the author probes why some sports grow faster than others, examining cultural tendencies toward sport, individual choices to participate, and the various institutional forces at play.
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Keywords
Table of contents (11 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Reviews
“In February of 1975, Sports Illustrated featured a major story on John Kirkland and Victor Malafronte who were then touring with the Harlem Globetrotters doing a pre-game Frisbee show. The piece included three full pages of glorious photos, catching the boys and their discs in full flight. The author extolled the captivating athleticism and artistry of the boys, introducing them to the world of sports as the first ‘Frisbee pros’ and ‘the modern sorcerers of saucers.’ I remember thinking that disc sports had truly arrived.
A week later, in a letter to the editor, a young reader wrote that he had been nauseated by the article, which undermined all his hard work practicing “real sports.”
Over these many years, it has been fascinating to watch the interplay between those “real sports” and ours. In that watching, we’ve made lots of completely unsupported suppositions. On these pages for the first time, Woods clarifies many key issues with his impressive analytical toolbox and innovative methodology. He makes me proud to be a lover of both the saucers and the sociological imagination.So now I’m determined to search for that nauseated fellow and see what he’s up to. Somehow, I just know he’s a disc golfer.”
—Dan “Stork” Roddick, PhD, PDGA #003, USA.“Andy Bernard, the nerdy and socially inept character in the television series The Office once claimed, ‘Are you kidding? I started the main Frisbee golf club at Cornell … I live to frolf.’ This media portrayal of disc golf is an example of a stigmatization. Woods does a masterful job at using theoretical frameworks without letting the reader get bogged down by them. Methodologically sound and innovative analytical techniques are used throughout to support his claim that disc golf is a social movement worthy of academic study. Much more than a pleasurable read, this book is a significant contribution to the field and one of the most meaningful books published about the emerging sport.”
—Justin Menickelli, PhD, Associate Professor of Kinesiology at Western Carolina University, USA, and President of the PDGA Board of Directors“One of the foundational characteristics of any critical sociological analysis is to not simply identify and describe the normative, that which is commonly accepted and taken-for-granted. Instead, a truly critical, engaging work attempts to grapple with questions such as how the non-normative becomes accepted (but not always normatively so), and by whom, and what are the processes, events, and actors associated with these crucial transitions. Emerging Sports as Social Movements does exactly this – grapples with the history and development of the non-traditional sport of disc golf, which has emerged over the past few decades as an “underdog” of sorts in a time of the massive commercialization of major sports globally. Using historical and media analyses, and interviews, Woods’ book explores how the social organization of disc golf, including its networks, developed in large part through social media and the efforts of its participants to create both a physical and social space for its eventual rapid expansion. But disc golf emerges not simply as a past time but as a full-fledged, volunteer driven, social movement and yet one that has none of the hallmarks of either commercialized spectacles (e.g., NFL, NBA, etc.) or the equally commercialized yet more widely played (e.g., golf, tennis, etc.). The development of disc golf follows an unusual arc, one that at times exhibits a tight knit sense of community – but not without its tensions, as Woods details expertly. But disc golfers have also taken advantage of new information technologies to grow its base and share its joy. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in reading how disc golf’s presence in both urban centers and rural regions has become quietly shared among a generation of participants. But the book is equally useful for academics who want to explore the non-normative, yet at times highly recognizable, sociological conditions that link individuals to a broader conceptualization of community across towns, states, and the nation.”
—Christopher Oliver, PhD, Professor of Practice, Sociology and Environmental Studies, Tulane University, USA
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Joshua Woods is Professor of Sociology at West Virginia University, USA.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Emerging Sports as Social Movements
Book Subtitle: Disc Golf and the Rise of an Unknown Sport
Authors: Joshua Woods
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76457-9
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-76456-2Published: 29 July 2021
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-76459-3Published: 29 July 2022
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-76457-9Published: 28 July 2021
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XV, 232
Topics: Sociology of Sport and Leisure, Sport Science , Sociology of Culture, Social Theory, Media Sociology