Defining Sport

Defining Sport: Conceptions and Borderlines is not about the variations of usage of the term "sport." It is about the concept, the range of activities in the world that we unite into one idea-sport. It is through the project of defining sport that we can come to understand these activities better, how they are similar or different, and how they relate to other human endeavors.
This definitional inquiry, and the deeper appreciation and apprehension of sport that follows, is the core of this volume. Part I examines several of the standard and influential approaches to defining sport. Part II uses these approaches to examine various challenging borderline cases. These chapters examine the interplay of the borderline cases with the definition and provide a more thorough and clearer understanding of both the definition and the given cases.
This work is not meant to be the definitive or exhaustive account of sport. It is meant to inspire further thought and debate on just what sport is; how it relates to other activities and human endeavors; and what we can learn about ourselves through the study of sport. This book will be of interest to scholars in philosophy of sport, history, communications, sociology, psychology, sports management, cultural studies, and physical education.

Shawn E. Klein is a philosophy instructor at Arizona State University.

1. Introduction by Shawn E. Klein
Part 1: Conceptions of Sport
2. A Three-Pointer: Revisiting Three Crucial Issues in the "Tricky Triad" of Play, Games, and Sport by Chad Carlson
3. Broad Internalism and Interpretation: A Plurality of Interpretivist Approaches by Francisco Javier López Frías
4. Hopscotch Dreams: Coming to Terms with the Cultural Significance of Sport by Kevin Schieman
5. Defining Olympic Sport by Heather L. Reid
6. Early Modern Athletic Contests: Sport or Not Sport? by John McClelland
7. The Impact of Mass Media on the Definition of Sport by Keith Strudler
Part 2: Borderline Cases
8. Borderline Cases: CrossFit, Tough Mudder, and Spartan Race by Pam R. Sailors, Sarah Teetzel, and Charlene Weaving
9. Evolution of the Action Sports Setting by Chrysostomos Giannoulakis and Lindsay Pursglove
10. Skateboarding, Sport, and Spontaneity: Towards a Subversive Definition of Sport by Brian Glenney
11. Bullfighting: The Mirror and Reflection of Spanish Society by Teresa González Aja
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