Mega-events like the Olympics, the World Cup of soccer, the World Series of baseball, cycling's Tour de France, and the Super Bowl draw our attention to the deep cultural significance of sport and its role in fostering social bonds. Yet when it comes to sport, there is no shortage of debate: stereotypes regarding sexuality, race, gender, and children have been hotly contested by critics for over 40 years. Even today, sport is one of the very few socially accepted sites of violence, intense competition and controlled forms of social disorder. Battleground: Sports presents the 100 most contentious public and private controversies of the sports world. Highlighted throughout are debates surrounding ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and social identity, sports fan behavior, as well as the role of governments and corporations. Engaging and accessible to a wide variety of readers, this fascinating reference illustrates how sports controversies reflect the historically enduring and changing nature of our broader cultures, and the social battles we engage on a day-to-day basis surrounding the struggles for equality, debates about social violence, the ethics of competition, the politics of civic life, the creation of global communities, and the State's role in protecting citizens. Entries contain an array of thoughtful perspectives on historic and current controversies, and allow readers to formulate their own conclusions. Enhanced with a timeline, a thorough guide of print and electronic resources for high school and undergraduate student research, this one-stop reference goes beyond the newspaper headlines to provide readers with a guide map for understanding what sport controversies teach us about our culture and ourselves.

Business is one of the most potent cultural forces today, profoundly affecting every facet of our lives whether we are working in a corporate environment or not. This book surveys some of the most controversial issues and topics central to the contemporary business world. Included are more than 70 alphabetically arranged entries written by expert contributors. Each entry explores a topic's relevance and influence, highlights opposing viewpoints, provides sidebars of interesting information, and lists resources for further research. For students and general readers, this book is an engaging, accessible, and essential resource on the role of business in society. Globalization. Outsourcing. Downsizing. These are some of the economic issues at the center of today's society. Time after time, we see that business is one of the most powerful forces in the modern world, profoundly affecting every facet of our lives whether we work in a corporate environment or not. Because in one way or another the world is all about economics, students need to understand and appreciate the role of business in their lives. This book overviews the most important topics and issues characterizing the role of business in today's society. Included are alphabetically arranged entries on more than 70 critical issues or topics central to the role of business in our lives. Each is written by an expert contributor and provides a summary of the topic's relevance and influence, a consideration of opposing viewpoints, and a list of resources for further research. For students and general readers, this book is an engaging, accessible, and essential resource on the role of business in everyday life.

Stearns (history, Carnegie Mellon University) explores the history of American self control and discusses the wide social implications of self control as a characteristic prescribed by every culture in different ways. He investigates issues that define American attitudes towards morality, sexuality, and disciplines of the body, covering the Victorian legacy through current norms. In comparing trends throughout our cultural history, he points out that there has been no collapse of impulse control or moral demonstration between the eras, only a shift in form. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Whether in the home or in the public arenas of media, work, sports, politics, art or religion, women often become embroiled as subjects in the political, social, and cultural debates in America. People on all areas of the political landscape see women in diverse and conflicting ways -- as either too liberated or not liberated enough, or whether and how gender and sexual roles are rooted in either biology or culture. Battleground: Women, Gender, and Sexuality helps readers navigate contemporary issues and debates pertaining to women's lives in the United States and globally. This work examines how science and culture intertwine to influence how we think about our identities, desires, relationships, and societal roles today. Battleground: Women, Gender, and Sexuality comprises lengthy, in-depth discussions of the most timely issues that are debated in today's culture, such as: Birth Control BLComparable Worth BLDisability and Gender BLGlass Ceiling BLImmigration BLPlastic Surgery, Tatooing, and Piercing BLSame-Sex Marriage BLSexual Assault and Sexual Harrassment Each essay provides a balanced overview of these hot-button topics, and a list of works for Further Reading after each entry serves as a stepping-stone to more in-depth material for students who are writing papers or researching reports.

Includes a Dresden files short story: "Christmas Eve" Ã2018.

Is sport good for kids? When answering this question, both critics and advocates of youth sports tend to fixate on matters of health, whether condemning contact sports for their concussion risk or prescribing athletics as a cure for the childhood obesity epidemic. Child’s Play presents a more nuanced examination of the issue, considering not only the physical impacts of youth athletics, but its psychological and social ramifications as well. The eleven original scholarly essays in this collection provide a probing look into how sports—in community athletic leagues, in schools, and even on television—play a major role in how young people view themselves, shape their identities, and imagine their place in society. Rather than focusing exclusively on self-proclaimed jocks, the book considers how the culture of sports affects a wide variety of children and young people, including those who opt out of athletics. Not only does Child’s Play examine disparities across lines of race, class, and gender, it also offers detailed examinations of how various minority populations, from transgender youth to Muslim immigrant girls, have participated in youth sports. Taken together, these essays offer a wide range of approaches to understanding the sociology of youth sports, including data-driven analyses that examine national trends, as well as ethnographic research that gives a voice to individual kids. Child’s Play thus presents a comprehensive and compelling analysis of how, for better and for worse, the culture of sports is integral to the development of young people—and with them, the future of our society.