ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of the book. It is about sporting pleasures. It is not a text on how to maximize experiences of pleasure in sport settings, but a critical socio-cultural examination of the significance of pleasure in the constitution of the sporting world, identities and sets of relations of power. The examination of sport pleasure has not been a central topic of examination within sport sociology. Richard introduces and undertakes an analysis of the role of affect associated with the production of viewing pleasures of the Olympics. The chapter examines pleasure arose in part from human recognition that the sociological study of sport has been predominantly focus on issues and problems, such as the critical excavation of racism, sexism, nationalism, violence and homophobia. It subsequently employs a variety of methods, the use of poetics and autoethnography and boundary crossing in its examination of sport pleasures.
