The Sport Star
The Sport Star
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Summary
Addressing a number of prominent sports and sport stars, this book demonstrates the economic and cultural factors that have contributed to the popularity of sport stars. It also examines issues such as race and gender, the impact of professionalization, growing media coverage, and the role of agents.
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The Sport Star by Barry Smart
Why are sport stars central to celebrity culture? What are the implications of their fame? Proceeding from a broadly based discussion of heroism, fame and celebrity, Smart addresses a number of prominent modern sports and sport stars, including Michael Jordan (basketball), David Beckham (football), Tiger Woods (golf), Anna Kournikova and the Williams sisters (tennis). He analyses the development of modern sport in the UK and USA, demonstrating the key economic and cultural factors that have contributed to the popularity of sport stars, while examining issues such as race and gender, the impact of professionalization, growing media coverage, the role of agents and the increasing presence of commercial corporations providing sponsorship and endorsement contracts. This book situates the sport star as the embodiment of the various tensions of age, class, race, gender and culture. It argues that sporting figures possess an increasingly rare quality of authenticity that gives them the capacity to lift and inspire people. The book is a major contribution to the sociology and culture of sport and celebrity.
"Global celebrity is created by a ménage a trois: professional sports, television, and multinational corporationsRecognizing how commercialization has transformed sports, Smart discusses how television contracts dictate the number of commercial breaks per game and how athletes are required to use the equipment they endorse." -- A. Guttmann * CHOICE *
Barry Smart is Professor of Sociology at the University of Portsmouth and has longstanding research interests in the fields of social theory, political economy, and philosophy. His research interests include critical social research ethics; higher education; and collaborative work on veganism, ethics, lifestyle and environment.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780761943518 |
| ISBN 10 | 076194351X |
| Title | The Sport Star |
| Author | Barry Smart |
| Series | Published In Association With Theory Culture And Society |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc |
| Year published | 2005-08-24 |
| Number of pages | 224 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |