| The Cultural Politics of the Paralympic Movement: Through an Anthropological Lens Contributor(s): Howe, P. David (Author) |
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ISBN: 041528886X ISBN-13: 9780415288866 Publisher: Routledge OUR PRICE: $152.00 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: May 2008 Annotation: Expansion of the Paralympic Games has to some extent mirrored expansion of the mainstream Olympics and the event now constitutes an internationally significant sporting festival. This book examines the development of the Paralympics and asks whether we are justified in describing the Games as a vehicle for the empowerment of the disabled community. A highly successful paralympian athlete in his own right, David Howe uses ethnographic research methods to investigate the economic, social, cultural and political processes shaping the Paralympic movement on a local and global scale, and develops a new theory of the relationship between sport, the body and the culture of disability. By critiquing contemporary attitudes to disability within sport and within society more generally, and by challenging the orthodox view of the Paralympics as a vehicle for empowerment, this book raises important questions and debates crucial to the study of sociology and sports studies. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Health & Fitness | Physical Impairments - Social Science | People With Disabilities - Sports & Recreation | Olympics & Paralympics |
| Dewey: 796.087 |
| LCCN: 2007027950 |
| Series: Routledge Critical Studies in Sport |
| Physical Information: 0.5" H x 6.14" W x 9.21" (1.01 lbs) 188 pages |
| Themes: - Topical - Physically Challenged |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Do the Paralympic Games empower the disability sport community? Like many other contemporary sporting institutions, the Paralympic Games have made the transition from pastime to spectacle, and the profile of athletes with disabilities has been increased as a result. This book reviews the current status of the Paralympics and challenges the mainstream assumption that the Games are a vehicle for empowerment of the disabled community. Using ethnographic methods unique in this area of study, P. David Howe has undertaken an innovative and critical examination of the social, political and economic processes shaping the Paralympic Movement. In The Cultural Politics of the Paralympic Movement he presents his findings and offers a new insight into the relationship between sport, the body and the culture of disability. In doing so he has produced the most comprehensive and radical text about high performance sport for the disabled yet published. P. David Howe is Lecturer in the Sociology of Sport at Loughborough University. He is also a four-time Paralympian and former Athlete's Representative to the International Paralympic Committee. |