Sport and Cultural Transformation in Southeast Asia (Research in the Sociology of Sport, 28)

Despite its wide reception and productive applications in various regions across the world, the Sociology of Sport has only recently begun to gain scholarly attention in the field of Southeast Asian Studies.Recognizing that the role of sport in the region merits thorough and comprehensive analysis, the studies in this volume shed light on the socio-cultural dynamics within Southeast Asia’s sporting sphere. Demonstrating how Southeast Asian sporting games, during both the precolonial and (early) modern-state eras, have played a key role in broader social processes and social change, and how, in turn, they themselves have transformed in content and meaning, the chapters in this collection reveal how people construct their group, national, economic, and social identities to negotiate with each other in sporting settings across the region and the world during each epoch.This volume covers the long-term development of sport in Southeast Asia, affirming the importance of sport in every era.I