About the Book
This comprehensive, state-of-the-art reference collection fills a long-standing gap in the fields of Olympic studies and sports sociology by applying a critical lens to a wide range of issues and controversies that have surrounded the Olympic movement. Mapping the past, present and future of the Olympic Games and drawing together an impressive line-up of international scholars from across a variety of disciplines, this essential guide provides an authoritative overview of the core debates and key social and political issues related to the most established and influential sporting event in the world. Divided into five parts - Olympic History, Olympic Case Studies, Olympic Disciplines, Social and Political Issues and the Olympics: For and Against - this substantive reference work includes debates on race, gender, amateurism, the environment, security, sponsorship, housing, Indigenous peoples and the mass media and provides in-depth case studies on individual Olympic Games ranging from the St Louis Games in 1904 to the most recent Games in Beijing in 2008, and discusses the forthcoming Olympics in London and Rio.
Global in its perspective and definitive in content, this one-stop volume will be an indispensable reference resource for a wide range of academics, students and researchers in the fields of sociology, sports studies, sports history, Olympic studies, politics, media and communication studies and leisure and tourism studies.
Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction; H.Lenskyj & S.Wagg PART I: THE MODERN OLYMPICS: PRE-HISTORY The Ancient Olympics and the Modern: Mirror and Mirage; M.Golden Pierre de Coubertin: Man and Myth; D.Chatziefstathiou PART II: THE OLYMPICS: CASE STUDIES The 1904 Olympic Games: Triumph or Nadir?; M.Dyreson & D.Lunt The Nazi Olympics: Berlin 1936; D.Large The Early Cold War Olympics, 1952-60: Political, Economic and Human Rights Dimensions; B.Keys The Winter Olympics: Geography is Destiny?; H.Lenskyj Olympic Tales from the East: Tokyo, 1964, Seoul, 1988 and Beijing, 2008; J.Horne & W.Manzenreiter The XXI Olympiad: Canada's Claim or Montreal's Gain? Political and Social Tensions Surrounding the 1976 Montreal Olympics; T.Teixeira A Gold Medal for the Market: The 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, the Reagan Era, and the Politics of Neoliberalism; R.Gruneau & R.Neubauer A Source of Crisis? Assessing Athens 2004; J.Karamichas Bringing the Mountains into the City: Legacy of the Winter Olympics, Turin 2006; E.Dansero & A.Mela The Social and Spatial Impacts of Olympic Image Construction: The Case of Beijing 2008; A.Broudehoux Living Lula's Passion? The Politics of Rio 2016; B.Clift & D.Andrews PART III: THE OLYMPICS: DISCIPLINES The Making - and Unmaking? - of the Olympic Corporate Class; A.Tomlinson The Economics and Marketing of the Olympic Games from Bid Phase to Aftermath; C.Shaw The Rings and the Box: Television Spectacle and the Olympics; G.Whannel The Olympic Movement's New Media Revolution: Monetization, Open Media and Intellectual Property; A.Miah & J.Jones Myth, Heritage and the Olympic Enterprise; T.Rider & K.Wamsley The Olympics, the Law and the Contradictions of Olympism; S.Greenfield, M.James & G.Osborn PART IV: THE OLYMPICS: POLITICAL ISSUES Tilting at Windmills: Olympic Politics and the Spectre of Amateurism; S.Wagg Celebrate Humanity: Cultural Citizenship and the Global Branding of 'Multiculturalism'; M.Giardina, J.Metz & K.Bunds The Paralympic Movement: Empowerment or Disempowerment for People with Disabilities?; O.Schantz & K.Gilbert The Olympics and the Environment; J.Karamichas Securing the Olympic Games: Exemplifications of Global Governance; P.Boyle The Use of Performance-Enhancing Substances in the Olympic Games: History and Critical Issues; I.Ritchie The Olympic Industry and Women: An Alternative Perspective; H.Lenskyj Disciplining Sex: 'Gender Verification' Politics and Women's Sport; J.Schultz The Love that Dare Not Speak its Name: Corruption and the Olympics; A.Jennings 'There Will Be No Law That Will Come Against Us': A Foremost Episode of Indigenous Resistance and Activism Within Olympic History; C.O'Bonsawin The Olympics and Indigenous Peoples: Australia; T.Bruce & E.Wensing The Olympics of 2012: East London's Renewal and Legacy; G.Poynter The Olympics Games and Housing; H.Blunden The Olympic Games and its Opponents; K.Zervas PART V: THE OLYMPICS: FOR AND AGAINST The Olympics: Why we Should Value Them; I.Henry The Case Against the Olympic Games: The Buck Stops with the IOC; H.Lenskyj Bibliography Index
About the Author :
HELEN LENSKYJ Professor Emerita at the University of Toronto, Canada, where she had worked since 1986. A leading academic researcher on the Olympics, she has authored three books on the Games, the most recent of which is Olympic Industry Resistance: Challenging Olympic Power and Propaganda. Her other critiques of the Olympic industry are The Best Olympics Ever? Social Impacts of Sydney 2000 and Inside the Olympic Industry: Power, Politics, and Activism. STEPHEN WAGG Professor in the Carnegie Faculty of Leeds Metropolitan University, UK. He has written widely on the history and sociology of sport and his publications include Key Concepts in Sports Studies, Cricket and Globalization, East Plays West: Sport and the Cold War and Myths and Milestones in the History of Sport.
Review :
'The Palgrave Handbook of Olympic Studies authoritatively debunks the myth of the world's greatest mega-event as a benign, universally-shared cultural property and critically exposes how it has always represented a barometer of the shifting political, social, cultural, economic and global constellations of modern and late capitalist sport. This collection provides a comprehensive assessment of the modern Olympics from its ideologically-driven inception through the recent, global resistance to leadership corruption, sex and drug testing, and the creation ofthe movement's new social media infrastructure. This book is mandatory reading for policy makers, event practitioners, scholars, students and all people interested in understanding the past, present and future of the Olympics.' - Steven Pope, co-editor of The Routledge Companion to Sports History and author of Patritoic Games: Sporting Traditions in the American Imagaination, 1876-1926 'The Palgrave Handbook of Olympic Studies is essential reading for anyone looking for a critical assessment of Olympic history, practice and theory. It covers the key issues in depth, explores alternatives and refuses to be seduced by orthodoxy or invented tradition. It is a must for any Olympic bookshelf.' - Tony Collins, Director of the International Centre for Sports History and Culture, De Montfort University, UK 'Editors Stephen Wagg and Helen Lenskyj bring together a number of internationally respected scholars each offering a unique and compelling critique of the Olympic movement. Individual chapters include historical and contemporary analyses of the Olympic and Para-Olympic Games as related to such diverse themes as: national and local imaginings, inequality and human rights, new media, globalization, enviornmentalism and sustainability, neoliberalism, security and fears of terrorism, corruption, and performance enhancing drugs. As a whole The Palgrave Handbook of Olympic Studies shows that behind the veneer of the Olympic ideal said to promote international peace, understanding and unity is a global commercial spectacle embedded in a web of hierarchical social, political, and economic relations. This provocative anthology should be required reading for anyone interested in a critical understanding of the Olympic movement.' - Mary G. McDonald, Professor, Miami University, USA, and past president of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport 'At last! An impressive encyclopaedic work covering the good, bad, beautiful and the ugly in Olympism. For athletes and fans, for critics and sceptics, everything is here: de Courbetin's early visions, amateurism, class, gender, disabilities, environment, drugs, globalisation, the enterprise and the marketing, Asian host cities, the Cold War, and Nazi Games.' - Colin Tatz, Professor, University of New South Wales, Australia
