Sport, Professionalism and Pain

Are pain and injury managed appropriately in the environment of professional sport? Is sports medicine a tool to empower or to disempower athletes? David Howe considers these and other pertinent concerns and questions whether, in the world of modern sport, it is the participants themselves or the sport's administrators who exert more control over athletes' well being. Exploring the historical transformation of sports medicine and the relationships between medicine, body and culture, Sport, Professionalism and Pain bridges a perceived space in the literature between medical anthropology, medical sociology and sport studies.

Prof. David Howe is a Senior Lecturer in the Anthropology of Sport in the School of Sport and Leisure at the University of Gloucestershire.

Introduction Part One: Sports Medicine: Pain and Injury in Context 1. Investigating Sports Medicine: Medical Anthropology in Context 2. Sporting Bodies: Mortal Engines 3. Pain and Injury: Signal and Response Part Two: Professionalism and Commercialism and the Culture of Risk 4. How Professional Attitude Commercialises Sport 5. The Importance of Injury in the Commercialised World of Sport 6. Risk Culture as 'a Product' Part Three: Theory into Practice 7. Distinctive Community: The Welsh Rugby Club 8. At Any Cost: Success in Athletics 9. Bodily Dysfunction: The Paralympics as an Arena for Risk Afterward Part Four: Conclusions