Emerging Sports as Social Movements Disc Golf and the Rise of an Unknown Sport

This volume examines the rise of an emerging sport as a grassroots effort (or “new social movement”), arguing that the growth of non-normative sports movements occurs through two social processes: one driven primarily by product development, commercialization, and consumption, and another that relies upon public resources and grassroots efforts.

“I’ve loved these magical platters since their very beginning, and it has been fascinating to watch the interplay between the ‘real sports’ and our own. In that watching, we’ve made lots of completely unsupported suppositions. On these pages for the first time, Woods clarifies many key issues with his impressive analytical toolbox and innovative methodology. He makes me proud to be a lover of both the saucers and the sociological imagination.”

— Dan “Stork” Roddick, PhD, PDGA #003, USA

“Woods does a masterful job at using theoretical frameworks without letting the reader get bogged down by them. Methodologically sound and innovative analytical techniques are used throughout to support his claim that disc golf is a social movement worthy of academic study. Much more than a pleasurable read, this book is a significant contribution to the field and one of the most meaningful books published about the emerging sport.”

— Justin Menickelli, PhD, Associate Professor of Kinesiology at Western Carolina University, USA, and President of the PDGA Board of Directors
“Using historical and media analyses, surveys and interviews, Woods shows how disc golfers created both a physical and social space for the sport’s eventual expansion. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in disc golf, but also to academics who study non-normative sports and the sociological conditions that link individuals to communities.”

—Christopher Oliver, PhD, Professor of Practice, Sociology and Environmental Studies, Tulane University, USA

This volume examines the rise of an emerging sport as a grassroots effort (or “new social movement”), arguing that the growth of non-normative sports movements occurs through two social processes: one driven primarily by product development, commercialization, and consumption, and another that relies upon public resources and grassroots efforts. Through the lens of disc golf, informed by the author’s experience both playing and researching the sport, Joshua Woods here explores how non-normative sports development depends on the consistency of insider culture and ideology, as well as on how the movement navigates a broad field of market competition, government regulation, community characteristics, public opinion, traditional media, social media and technological change. Throughout, the author probes why some sports grow faster than others, examining cultural tendencies toward sport, individual choices to participate, and the various institutional forces at play.

Joshua Woods is Professor of Sociology at West Virginia University, USA.