Child's play : sport in kids' worlds / edited by Michael A. Messner and Michela Musto.

"Child's Play collects state-of-the-art research on sport in children's worlds, studies that illuminate scholarly questions in the burgeoning sociological and interdisciplinary fields of children and youth, bodies and health, and intersectional analyses of social inequality. At the heart of Child's Play is a critical scholarly engagement with the question of how, when, and under what conditions sport is good for kids. The chapters in the first half of the book illuminate with broad brush-strokes what we know about kids and youth sports, and they ask probing questions about the role of sport in schools, health policy, race and gender relations, and social mobility. Together, these chapters critically assess the ways in which organizations, corporations and the state target kids with sport-related policies and marketing schemes. The second half of the book consists of interview-based, participant-observation and ethnographic studies by scholars who have entered into children's worlds to explore how youth make meanings, shape identities and relationships in sport; how sport participation connects with other things kids do in their daily lives (including school, family life, peer groups, adult mentors, health and violence, etc.). Throughout the text, Child's Play is attentive to differences and inequalities among kids: how different sport opportunities and experiences shape gender for boys, girls, Muslim immigrant girls and transgender kids, and the ways that race/ethnicity and social class differently constrain and enable kids' access to and experiences with youth sport"-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.