ABSTRACT

Are pain and injury managed appropriately in the environment of professional sport?
Is sports medicine a tool to empower or to disempower athletes?

David Howe considers these and other pertinent concerns and questions whether, in the world of modern sport, it is the participants themselves or the sport's administrators who exert more control over athletes' well being. Exploring the historical transformation of sports medicine and the relationships between medicine, body and culture, Sport, Professionalism and Pain bridges a perceived space in the literature between medical anthropology, medical sociology and sport studies.

chapter |9 pages

Introduction

part I|60 pages

The cultural nexus

chapter 1|21 pages

Investigating sports medicine

Medical anthropology in context

chapter 2|21 pages

Amateur pastime to professional spectacle

chapter 3|17 pages

Sporting bodies

Mortal engines

part II|55 pages

Pain, injury and the culture of risk

chapter 4|17 pages

Pain and injury

Signal and response

chapter 6|20 pages

Risk culture as a ‘product'

part III|53 pages

Theory into practice

chapter 7|19 pages

Distinctive community

The Welsh rugby club

chapter 8|16 pages

Elite distance runners

chapter 9|17 pages

Bodily dysfunction

The Paralympics as an arena for risk

chapter |9 pages

Conclusion