This book provides the first comprehensive analysis of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), exploring the role of gender, race, and sexuality in the continuing growth of the league. As the longest running and most successful professional women's sporting league in the United States, the WNBA has evolved into a politically important force both inside and outside the sporting world. Drawing on a variety of research methods, including ethnography, media and literary analysis, and archival research, the book argues that it is its players' dedication and commitment to ensuring a sustainable league that has enabled the WNBA to survive in spite of an American sporting landscape that is otherwise hostile to women.

As such, It will be of interest to academics and students working or studying in the fields of sports sociology, sports management, feminist theory, sports history, and gender studies.

This book presents a history of Swedish sport, highlighting in particular the relationship between sport politics and people's changing attitudes towards sport from the eighteenth century until today. It scrutinizes the interaction between sport politics and people's different approaches to sport in everyday life. By investigating how different ways of pursuing and conceptualizing sport have progressed and interacted, and how they have influenced as well been influenced by sport politics, this book discerns the role of both governmental and municipal politics in the development of sport in Sweden.

Analysing a range of case studies across the globe, chapter authors examine the control exercised by various stakeholders, both sporting and non-sporting, and how their actions contour migration experiences. They cover matters such as globalization, national identity, and intercultural communication, as well as in-depth issues including talent pipelines, bridgeheads and the stereotyping of athletes from different class, ethnic and gender groups. The dynamics of sports migration are highlighted when revealing the tensions concerning the promotion of commercial spectacle versus the advocacy of national and local identities, and the search for short term viability versus longer term development.

The Handbook on Sport and Migration is invaluable for students and scholars of sport law, sociology, migration, policy and globalization. It will also appeal to those working in sport management, sport psychology, exercise sciences, kinesiology, and international migration policy.

This open access book is the first comprehensive guide to identifying antisemitism online today, in both its explicit and implicit (or coded) forms. Developed through years of on-the-ground analysis of over 100,000 authentic comments posted by social media users in the UK, France, Germany and beyond, the book introduces and explains the central historical, conceptual and linguistic-semiotic elements of 46 antisemitic concepts, stereotypes and speech acts. The guide was assembled by researchers working on the Decoding Antisemitism project at the Centre for Research on Antisemitism at Technische Universitaet Berlin, building on existing basic definitions of antisemitism, and drawing on expertise in various fields. Using authentic examples taken from social media over the past four years, it sets out a pioneering step-by-step approach to identifying and categorising antisemitic content, providing guidance on how to recognise a statement as antisemitic or not. This book will be an invaluable tool through which researchers, students, practitioners and social media moderators can learn to recognise contemporary antisemitism online - and the structural aspects of hate speech more generally - in all its breadth and diversity.

This book proposes alternative ways to engage with computer security, rooted in Science and Technology Studies (STS) and extensive ethnographic observations. Computer security, the author argues, is part of living in the Anthropocene - an age of damaged more-than-human relations. As such, doing computer security means not striving for technical solutions, or individual awareness, but living with fragility. The book suggests conceptual approaches and methods of studying computer security which contribute to current debates on infrastructural breakdown and ecological ruins in STS and Anthropology, while offering new perspectives to Usable Security and Critical Security Studies.

This illuminating book is the key to mastering the art of service orchestration in the realm of sports. It dissects each operational level of the process in a variety of contexts, including the role of employees, customer relationship management, and servicescapes. Employing real-world case studies to exemplify and substantiate theoretical constructs, Ekaterina Glebova fosters a deeper understanding of complex scenarios such as the digitalization of sports viewership and fan hooliganism. From the adrenaline-fueled arena of event execution to the nuanced strategies behind athlete advocacy, this book is a pragmatic toolkit designed to address the exigencies of sports service management.

Interdisciplinary in scope, this book is an invaluable resource for students and researchers of sports management, sports sciences, business, marketing, and event management. Providing effective strategies and practical guidance, it is equally beneficial to both established and upcoming sports management and marketing professionals.

"A well-researched and vital contribution to sports collections" (Booklist) and a must-read book on the rise of elite women's boxing
On April 30th, 2022, the first boxing super-fight of the era, headlined by two women and fought at Madison Square Garden, lived up to its hype and then some. The two contestants fought the battle of their lives in front of a sold-out crowd and garnered 1.5 million views through online streaming. It was the culmination of a long, three-centuries arc of women's boxing history, a history fraught with highs and lows but always imbued with the heart and passion of the women who fought.
In The Promise of Women's Boxing: A Momentous New Era for the Sweet Science, Malissa Smith details the exciting period from the 2012 Olympics through the true "million-dollar baby" women's super-fights of 2022 and beyond. Rich in content, the stories that emerge focus on boxing stars new and old, important battles, and the challenges women still face in boxing. Smith examines the development of the sport on a global basis, the transition of amateur boxers to the pros, the impact of online streamlining on the sport, the challenges boxing has faced from MMA, and the unprecedented gains women's boxing has made in the era of the super-fight with extraordinary seven-figure opportunities for elite female stars.
Featuring the stories of women's boxing icons Katie Taylor, Amanda Serrano, Savannah Marshall, and more, and with a foreword by two-time Olympic gold medalist and three-time undisputed champion Claressa Shields, The Promise of Women's Boxing offers unprecedented insight into the incredible growth of the sport and the women who have fought in and out of the ring to make it all possible.

What is compersion? Is it the "opposite" of jealousy, as it is usually believed? Is it an emotion or a behavior? What causes it to arise and bloom? Can we "learn" compersion or invite more of it into our lives?
Based on her seminal research with consensually non-monogamous (CNM) individuals, Dr. Marie Thouin unravels these questions and more in the first-ever book to offer a comprehensive model of compersion and a practical road map to cultivating it. Each chapter features compelling stories from real CNM people, making this a captivating and highly applicable read. In addition, Thouin addresses the broader social context, explaining how understanding compersion is a groundbreaking step toward a world that supports relational diversity and freedom. By disrupting the idea that jealousy is the only valid response to intimacy beyond monogamy, the existence and practice of compersion builds the foundation for a completely new paradigm of loving relationships. This book and its conclusions have profound implications for many fields of study and practice including psychology, sexuality studies, philosophy and ethics, and law. Indispensable for CNM individuals, therapists, counselors, and scholars, this book is also invaluable for anyone curious to learn about positive empathy, intentional relationships, and radical love.

The European Union has high ambitions in relation to Africa and in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. One example is the new Africa Strategy, where the EU wants to have a strong partnership with the African Union. Other European policies contribute to the lofty objectives of the EU, which is the world's largest donor of development aid.

The high ambitions are not matched by the implementation. The European policies, shaped by the Commission and the member states, are partly contradictory and hard to fulfill locally in Africa. Furthermore, they are focused on intentions rather than outcomes. The European policies need to be decentered to allow for the African context to play a larger role in the design and execution of policies.

The Sustainable Development Goals call for fundamental transformations, where political and economic development are of great importance to reach the social and environmental goals. This implies greater attention to the drivers and barriers for political and economic transformation in Africa. It also calls for a greater interest in the relationship between donors and recipients, to build trust and to find mutual gain. The EU needs to recognize that it is dependent on its African partners, while it simultaneously wants to influence and revise some of the African policies.

Counting Matters examines the ways in which the rise of gender equality measurement contributes to, but falls short of, effective gender equality policy implementation.

As technocrats adopt often contextless indices, questions of the theoretical and practical limitations of measurement arise, especially as they pertain to social and cultural relations.

The indicators being produced influence the allocation of resources as political decisions but are themselves part of a power regime based on the collection and analysis of data, a regime that obfuscates biases and the agendas behind the statistics.

The book's contributors pose critical questions of the ways in which measurement culture manifests within the field of gender equality, asking how it is measured in different policy areas, how we might improve existing practices, and what is revealed through the examination and critique of the "technical turn" in policies that purport to promote gender equality.

This book analyzes the goals of Western sanctions imposed on Russia from 2014 to 2023. It explores the effects of sanctions on the Russian economy and its political course, as well as the repercussions of the sanctions to the senders and third parties, including spillover effects on neighboring countries and boomerang effects on the senders. While sanctions can be considered relatively effective in terms of economic damage, the Russian economy is far from being crushed. Importantly, sanctions proved to be ineffective as an instrument of foreign policy. They have failed to alter Moscow's resolve to continue its military operation and are unlikely to change it in the near future. The effects of the sanctions extend well beyond their anticipated impact on Russia itself, primarily due to the Western nations' limited experience and knowledge in implementing sanctions against a major power with extensive global connections, such as Russia.

'Thoughtful, considered and understated . . . a fine book telling a story that needed to be told. . . Gavin deserves a lot of credit for threading together the lives of civilians on both sides in this humane account.' - The Times

On 19 September 2023, war broke out once again in Nagorno-Karabakh, a tiny breakaway state nestled in the mountains at the very edge of Europe.

This geopolitical hotspot had been fought over since the Soviet Union fell, with tens of thousands dead and up to a million homeless. This time, though, was different. Within 24 hours, Armenian forces surrendered to Azerbaijan, as Russian peacekeepers abandoned post--and the entire population packed their bags to flee.

Through the stories of ordinary Armenians and Azerbaijanis, Gabriel Gavin chronicles how Nagorno-Karabakh went from an ancient home shared by both peoples to a battle-scarred land of empty houses and untended graves. Ashes of Our Fathers reveals a simmering ethnic conflict inside the Kremlin's self-declared sphere of influence; the lives and loyalties of the people caught up in the chaos; and the decisions, from Yerevan and Baku to Moscow and Washington to Tel Aviv and Tehran, that enabled one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of the 2020s.