This succinct and comprehensive account of the contemporary sociology of sport starts by tracing the key 'moments' in the transition from pre-modern to modern sport. It gives detailed accounts of the athletic competition in the ancient games at Olympia; the genesis of modern track-and-field athletics in nineteenth-century England; and the reconstruction and unfolding of the Olympic movement by de Coubertin through the twentieth century. The second section critically analyses the various theoretical approaches adopted by sociologists, and presents a distinctive new theoretical framework for understanding the changing role of sport in society in the era of global disorganized capitalism. The third section uses this framework to analyse in detail the links between exercise, sport and health, rates and patterns of participation in sport; the hyper-commodification of football in the 1990s; representations of sport in the media; the re-emergence of violence in sport; the notion of a 'de-civilizing spurt' in contemporary society; the dialectic between sporting icons or celebrities and sports audiences; and the potential for a critical sociology of sport.