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On Boxing: Critical Interventions in the Bittersweet Science book cover

1st Edition

On Boxing Critical Interventions in the Bittersweet Science

By Joseph D Lewandowski Copyright 2022
108 Pages 6 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

108 Pages 6 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

108 Pages 6 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
This book is a philosophical and cultural critique of contemporary boxing. It broadens and deepens our understanding of the empirically and normatively entwined complexities of a sport that is often misunderstood and all too easily reduced to stereotypes. Moving between and among work in ethnography, sociology, urban studies and, especially, the philosophy of sport, and drawing on research in... Read more

Introduction

 

Part I: Boxing and Culture

 

1          Boxing and Urban Culture

2          Pugilistic Selfhood and Structural Violence

3          Boxer Cool

4          Boxing and Social Capital?

5          The Marginality of Urban Boxing Clubs

 

Part II: Boxing and Philosophy

 

6          Outline of a Constraint Theory of Sport

7          Boxing as the Bittersweet Science of Constraints

8          Combat Sport Violence and Sparring

9          Fight Plan Aesthetics

10        Cornerman Ethics

 

Conclusion

Biography

Joseph D Lewandowski is a writer, researcher, educator, and avid pugilist. A former holder of the Fulbright Masaryk Distinguished Chair in Social Studies, he currently serves as Professor of Philosophy at the University of Central Missouri, USA.

'Why would anyone, especially those born under the bad sign of poverty and exploitation, take up the cruel sport of boxing? A long practicing pugilist himself, Joseph Lewandowski's crisply written On Boxing surpasses all studies in excavating the personal and sociological meaning of the sport. Lewandowski's profound but non-sentimental care for boxing resonates on every page, both in tone and in the creative reforms he proposes.'

Gordon Marino, former boxer and boxing coach, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at St. Olaf College (USA), and author of The Existentialist Survival Guide: How to Live Authentically in an Inauthentic Age (HarperOne, 2018).

　

'On Boxing takes us on a journey through socioeconomic and cultural forces at play in the intersecting, inseparable worlds of boxing and the urban landscape. This is a fascinating study on every front—from the physical to the philosophical—capturing the complex nature of boxing and the absorbing characters who partake in it.'

David Albertyn, author of Undercard (Spiderline, 2019).

　

'On Boxing is the perfect introduction to the sport—brief, yet wide-ranging, and personal, but with a sharp scholarly focus. Lewandowski cleverly connects sociological aspects of boxing with ethnography, cultural studies and philosophy to create a critical understanding of the complexities inherent in a sport he knows well.'

Kjell E. Eriksson, Professor of Sociology, Malmö University (Sweden) and Editor-in-chief, idrottsforum.org.

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