Paradoxes of Youth and Sport
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Highlights the practical benefits and the many problems of youth and sports in the United States.
Description
Paradoxes of Youth and Sport explores emergent debates among scholars, youth advocates, and sport practitioners concerning the role of sport in the lives of young people in urban settings. Specialists from diverse fields examine how sport can address social ills and act as a resource in the lives of disadvantaged youth versus how sport itself harbors and fosters social problems and is dominated by unequal access, the obsession to win, and commercialization. This book places sport at the crossroads of inquiry and practice regarding critical issues of our time, including youth development; violence; racial, gender, and class inequities; and inter-group relations.
Margaret Gatz is Professor of Psychology at the University of Southern California, and the editor of Emerging Issues in Mental Health and Aging. Michael A. Messner is Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at the University of Southern California, and the author of Politics of Masculinities: Men in Movements and Power at Play: Sports and the Problem of Masculinity. Sandra J. Ball-Rokeach is Professor of Communication and Sociology at the University of Southern California, and coeditor, with Melvin L. DeFleur, of Theories of Mass Communication.
Reviews
"This is a timely and useful book that will make a significant contribution. Sport psychologists are just beginning to assess whether or not sports have something positive to offer young people. Political leaders, educators, physical educators, school administrators, and community planners want useful ideas and evaluation information that tells them whether or not sports are an asset in young people's lives, especially poor and marginalized young people. This book takes an important step in this exploratory direction, and will help us plot a course for future research and advocacy. " — Donald F. Sabo, coeditor of Masculinities, Gender Relations, and Sport
"It is in both the individual scholarship and the juxtaposition of interdisciplinary perspectives that this book truly shines. The multiple voices focusing on similar issues from varying perspectives—research, theory, practical applications, athlete reflections—allow the reader to mentally walk around the complex issues of sport, youth, violence, sport violence, gender, race, and media. " — Kate F. Hays, author of Working it Out: Using Exercise in Psychotherapy