ABSTRACT

Figurational sociology offers an important set of conceptual and methodological tools for helping us to understand sport, leisure and health and their relationship to wider society.  

This book brings together an international team of scholars working within the figurational tradition to explain the significance of figurational sociology in the development of the sociology of sport and to provide empirical case studies of figurational sociology in action. Covering core concepts such as the civilizing process, and key methods such as interviewing and ethnography, the book presents contemporary research in areas as diverse as sport-related health, mixed martial arts, sports policy, gender relations and cycling. 

Figurational Research in Sport, Leisure and Health is an important resource for students of sport and social sciences, sociology, figurational sociology and sociology of sport and exercise.

part I|2 pages

Key concepts

chapter 2|11 pages

The development of modern sport

Sportization and civilizing processes

chapter 4|12 pages

‘Football fitness’

A quest for excitement or a leisure routinization?

chapter 5|14 pages

The theory of established-outsider relations

Understanding gender relations in the cricket figuration

chapter 6|14 pages

The development of Mixed Martial Arts

Using the quest for excitement and informalization to understand sportization

part II|2 pages

The research process

chapter 7|15 pages

Doing developmental research as a figurational sociologist

A case study on the long-term sportization of swimming

chapter 8|13 pages

On (not) becoming

Involved-detachment and sports ‘violence’

chapter 9|14 pages

Doing (figurational) research

Using semi-structured interviews in the field of public health

part III|2 pages

Synthesis and development