The Ethics of Sports Fandom

Year:2022
Pages:156
Language:Routledge
Format:PDF
Size:1 MB
ISBN-10:1032122315, 1032120193
ISBN-13:978-1032122311, 978-1032120195, 9781032122311, 9781032120195
ASIN:B09K4BJ9FK

by Adam Kadlac (Author)

Fans largely regard sports as an escapist pursuit―something that provides distraction from the cares and concerns of “real life.” This book pushes back against the fully escapist account of sports fandom and argues that we understand the value of fandom in terms of the ability of sports to prompt fans to reflect meaningfully on the notion of the good life. Even if we are not engaged in high-level athletics ourselves, it is possible to learn a great deal from those who are: about what sacrifices are required to achieve our goals; about how to persevere through failure and disappointment; and about teamwork and the rewards of accomplishing things together. Moreover, partisan fandom, which has been criticized from various quarters, can teach us valuable lessons about love and what it means to be invested in things over which we have no control. If our reflection on the efforts of individual athletes helps us reflect on our own pursuit of the good life, our attachments to teams can help us to cultivate a certain kind of humility and openness to all that life has to offer.

The Ethics of Sports Fandom is an accessible resource for researchers and students interested in the ethics and philosophy of sport that offers an analysis of several different aspects of contemporary fandom: fantasy sports, the ways that fans interact with athletes on social media, violent sports, women’s sports, and the support for our countries’ national teams. In all these areas, reflecting on what it means to respect athletes as individual human beings engaged in their own pursuit of the good life requires that fans consider their sports-related behavior in a new light.