ABSTRACT
Chapters 6 seeks to establish the parameters for a critical realist theory of sport, setting out its prospects and acknowledging the empirical challenges of realising them. This involves revisiting the notion that critical realist philosophy essentially comprises an under-labouring project. The claim that the evidence and arguments of the preceding chapters add up to a credible critique and elaboration of extant sociologies of sport is defended in Chapter 6, which concludes with a discussion of ‘six types of sociology’, with a focus of need for more developed foresight and action sociologies of sport. Here, the case for a critical realist theory of sport is summarised. The book closes with reference to the special significance of the concepts of freedom and absence and lists outstanding macro-, meso- and micro-sociological questions that might comprise an agenda for the future.
