As with most sports, cricket probably had numerous precursors, some of which doubtless remain unknown to us; but its true origins have never been nailed down. There is documentary evidence that a young man, John Derrick, was accustomed to playing ‘crekett’ in the environs of Guildford, Surrey, in the 1550s. By the beginning of the… Read More »
A grasp of contemporary Western sport might be attained via reflections on its parentage; and there is widespread agreement among historians and sociologists that the birth of modern sport, if not necessarily its conception, occurred in England from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Departing from the rather formal analysis of Guttman and others, Dunning… Read More »
Do financial capitalism and its accoutrements, extending to a distinctively postmodern culture, warrant a revision of the characterization of modern sport? Have things moved on? It will be remembered that modern sport was thought to justify unambiguously positive responses to each of Guttman’s original criteria of: secularism, equality, specialization, rationalization, bureaucratization, quantification and records. It… Read More »
The early or mid-1970 have commonly been regarded as transitional. The period since has been variously described as the era of high or late modernity, second modernity, postmodernity or dis- or re-organized capitalism; more graphic choices include predatory, casino and crony capitalism. The label of preference here is the less prejudicial and more evidence-based financial… Read More »
Sport as play, performance, work or fitness, or skilful preparation for inter-community competition or war has been around as long as humans, and conceivably before. But this has not always been sport that ‘we’ identify as such. This blog’s author’s and likely readers’ starting point for defining sport is in all probability the second decade… Read More »
Sociology cannot be defined without causing offence to some at least of its practitioners, let alone to those outside the discipline; and it is one thing to respond positively to C Wright Mills’ injunction to be imaginative, quite another to agree on what this means or on exemplars. The orientation towards the sociology of sport… Read More »
Watching an absorbing BBC4 programme on ancient Delphi brought back memories of a family visit to this magical, mountainous place many years ago. It was a trip that started in Aegina, involved picking up a rental car in Athens, and took us not only to Delphi but to Olympia and Corinth as well. Like Olympia,… Read More »