Overview
Is sport good for kids? When answering this question, both critics and advocates of youth sports tend to fixate on matters of health, whether condemning contact sports for their concussion risk or prescribing athletics as a cure for the childhood obesity epidemic. Child's Play presents a more nuanced examination of the issue, considering not only the physical impacts of youth athletics, but its psychological and social ramifications as well. The eleven original scholarly essays in this collection provide a probing look into how sports—in community athletic leagues, in schools, and even on television—play a major role in how young people view themselves, shape their identities, and imagine their place in society. Rather than focusing exclusively on self-proclaimed jocks, the book considers how the culture of sports affects a wide variety of children and young people, including those who opt out of athletics. Not only does Child's Play examine disparities across lines of race, class, and gender, it also offers detailed examinations of how various minority populations, from transgender youth to Muslim immigrant girls, have participated in youth sports. Taken together, these essays offer a wide range of approaches to understanding the sociology of youth sports, including data-driven analyses that examine national trends, as well as ethnographic research that gives a voice to individual kids. Child's Play thus presents a comprehensive and compelling analysis of how, for better and for worse, the culture of sports is integral to the development of young people—and with them, the future of our society.
Full Product Details
Author: Michael A. Messner ,
Michela Musto ,
Don Sabo ,
Phil Veliz
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Imprint: Rutgers University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 1.50cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.426kg
ISBN: 9780813571454
ISBN 10: 0813571456
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 01 May 2016
Recommended Age: From 16 years
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.
Reviews
A carefully crafted and meticulously organized anthology, Child's Play provides a much needed research agenda for studying physical activities and sport participation among young people, and serves as a valuable source of information for any parent or adult concerned about youth sports. --Jay Coakley author of Sports in Society: Issues and Controversies
'A much needed contribution to the fields of childhood and sport studies.' -Sport in American History
Author Information
MICHAEL A. MESSNER is a professor of sociology and gender studies at the University of Southern California. He is the author of several books, including It's All for the Kids: Gender, Families, and Youth Sports and Some Men: Feminist Allies and the Movement to End Violence Against Women. MICHELA MUSTO is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at the University of Southern California. Her work has appeared in Gender & Society and Sociology of Sport Journal.
