Stanley Thangaraj – författare

Leisure, Racism, and National Populist Politics responds to the rise and revival of nationalistic, ethnocentric, and authoritarian forms of hegemony, power, and control. Importantly, as a collection of essays, it foregrounds and (re)politicises debates around race and racism, recognising the significance of leisure spaces to the emergence of bottom-up, polymorphous, and dynamic forms of community, resistance, and belonging. A range of authors present a critical and varied exploration of the global manifestations of state-based, increasingly mainstream, racist politics, whilst concomitantly unpicking connected assemblages of power and control. For example: how homonormativity and whiteness structure queer visibility, sexual and civic rights; how white supremacist rhetoric is transformed and differently coded through anti-Black university traditions and state pride; how Western nation-states structure Muslim identity as opposite to national identity; how leisure becomes the site of protest against larger classist and corporate ventures; and how the hegemony of neoliberal, state, and municipal planning practices, and policies about rights to spaces of the neighbourhood, city, and sport, are understood, negotiated, and challenged.

The book serves to not only enhance understanding of populist politics but, also, to demand an end to ethnic and racial violence perpetuated through nationalistic and racialised discourses about belonging, citizenship, and social rights to the nation. This edited volume will be a key resource for students and scholars interested in the dynamics of race, gender, and nation, and the politics of belonging in the realm of leisure.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Leisure Studies.

Leisure, Racism, and National Populist Politics responds to the rise and revival of nationalistic, ethnocentric, and authoritarian forms of hegemony, power, and control. Importantly, as a collection of essays, it foregrounds and (re)politicises debates around race and racism, recognising the significance of leisure spaces to the emergence of bottom-up, polymorphous, and dynamic forms of community, resistance, and belonging. A range of authors present a critical and varied exploration of the global manifestations of state-based, increasingly mainstream, racist politics, whilst concomitantly unpicking connected assemblages of power and control. For example: how homonormativity and whiteness structure queer visibility, sexual and civic rights; how white supremacist rhetoric is transformed and differently coded through anti-Black university traditions and state pride; how Western nation-states structure Muslim identity as opposite to national identity; how leisure becomes the site of protest against larger classist and corporate ventures; and how the hegemony of neoliberal, state, and municipal planning practices, and policies about rights to spaces of the neighbourhood, city, and sport, are understood, negotiated, and challenged.

The book serves to not only enhance understanding of populist politics but, also, to demand an end to ethnic and racial violence perpetuated through nationalistic and racialised discourses about belonging, citizenship, and social rights to the nation. This edited volume will be a key resource for students and scholars interested in the dynamics of race, gender, and nation, and the politics of belonging in the realm of leisure.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Leisure Studies.

Athletes across the globe have engaged in high profile protests against state violence since NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s refusal to stand during the US national anthem in protest of state violence against Black communities. There is, however, a much longer global history that precedes and follows Kaepernick’s protest. This series of sport protests, across both professional and amateur levels, has invigorated progressive politics around the world and drawn attention to ongoing authoritarianism, state violence, and vigilante violence, as well as the role sport can play in both exposing and combatting such issues.

Challenging the dominant Global North narrative, Athletic Activism: Global Perspectives on Social Transformation demonstrates how athletic activism can not only impact global discourse about inequity, but also foster institutional change that advances social justice. This volume uses the term ‘athletic activism’ to understand how athletes, coaches, and sports professionals use sports, sporting institutions, and athletics to engage in conscious, concerted, and sustained efforts to transform the world they inhabit. Borrowing both historical and contemporary approaches to examine grassroots youth sports, quotidian sites of amateur sport, and mega-sporting events, chapters expand on how we conceptualize athletic activism and theorize the transformative potential of sport and sporting participants.

Rooting athletic activism in a global, transnational perspective, Athletic Activism: Global Perspectives on Social Transformation broadens the focus on athletic activism from highly publicized, performative forms of protest on the pitch to local grassroots efforts that seek to address issues of race, violence, gender, sexuality, sustainability, identity, and community development.