ABSTRACT
In Chapter 4, the focus is on the distinction between lifeworld and system developed by Habermas. Rates of participation in sport and exercise in the lifeworld are discussed, as is their pertinence for health, well-being and longevity. An assessment is offered of the extent to which sport has been one important avenue for the systemic colonisation of the lifeworld by money and power. Special attention is paid here to the ‘stretch’ between schools, streets and parks to global media in athletics, cricket, football and rugby. The mushrooming of the business of ‘fandom’ is discussed with reference to this stretch. The chapter closes with a discussion of the rapid global spread of eSports and of the implications of this new family of phenomena for sport’s alternate futures.
