1st Edition
Understanding Lifestyle Sport Consumption, Identity and Difference
Biography
Belinda Wheaton
"Since they emerged in the 1960s, so-called "lifestyle sports" have offered a radical alternative to mainstream, hyper-commercialized competitive sports. But what happens when "new" sports cultures are no longer new? Are they inevitably compromised, commodified and institutionalized? Do such forms of physical culture still offer modes of cultural resistance to dominant paradigms? In her brilliant new book, Belinda Wheaton answers these questions. From the beaches of Durban, South Africa to Southern California and beyond, Wheaton shows how the emergence and global diffusion of lifestyle sports are complexly bound to questions of identity. As empirically rich as it is theoretically sophisticated, The Cultural Politics of Lifestyle Sports is the definitive text for anyone interested in understanding the history of lifestyle sports why they matter today."
Ben Carrington, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Texas at Austin, USA






