ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the theoretical tensions, debates and synergies of the terrain. Tensions and complexities between notions of sport and leisure, sport management and DIY community sport, power and empowerment, competition and participation are thrown up by the emergence of roller derby. The chapter provides an introduction to key issues in sport, gender studies, cultural studies, and sport management. Kath Woodward states that sensations, sensibilities and sensuality are all implicated in sporting embodied practices. In sport, marketing and management discourses have become coherent techniques with definite goals: to increase participation and profits. Feminist sport management research, which takes up feminist methodologies and theories, is needed to better deal with gender complexities and questions raised in a sport such as roller derby. The social goods' of sport are often promoted as central to ongoing public and private support and funding, and are an important leverage for sport managers to use.
