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This chapter provides readers with a summary of sport sociology in the United States. It begins with a brief overview of sport in the United States before describing the development of the sociology of sport in the United States and some of the major contemporary patterns in sport research. They key movement in US sport sociology was the critical-cultural turn that took place during the 1980s and 1990s when critical theory and feminism became dominant approaches to research. Scholarship in the 21st century has largely developed upon that turn and is generally qualitative and cultural. Contemporary US sport sociology is a critical endeavor heavily influenced by cultural studies, post-structuralism, feminism, queer theory, critical race theory, post-colonial theory, and theories of globalization. Despite a fairly consistent approach to sport research in the United States, sport sociology remains contentious and in disunity. This chapter argues that the contention and disunity results from broader structural patterns that guide sport sociologists’ social actions.

This paper investigates the energy performance of aquatic centres in Victoria.

Physical and occupancy characteristics and energy consumption from various centres were analysed to understand the interrelationship between numerous factors that contribute to the energy consumption of these facilities.

The energy usage intensity of the facilities ranged from 632 to 2,247 kWh/m2 or 8 to 17 kWh/visit. Primary and secondary indicators were examined to find the key performance indicators.

This study sheds some light into the overall energy performance of aquatic centres in the temperate climate of Australia. More samples need to be collected to perform rigorous statistical analysis leading to a reliable benchmark model. System-wise investigation of energy consumption is required to determine where the energy is being used and the saving potentials of each system.

This study has arisen from the need of managers of large aquatic and recreation facilities to benchmark the energy consumption of their own facilities. This study will fill the gap that currently exists in the area of energy rating systems for aquatic centres.

The results of this study showed that aquatic centres consume around seven times more energy than a commercial office building. Thus, if the energy consumption of aquatic centres could be reduced by as little as only 10 per cent, at least 3.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emission can be reduced.

Environmental design standards for aquatic centres have generally been overlooked due to the complex nature of these buildings. As a result, this sector suffers from a general lack of both qualitative and quantitative information and benchmarking.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate “tribal” consumption behaviour and its relationship to branding, in the particular context of the surfing community in Portugal.

Two focus group meetings with “surfers” and “fans” respectively, in April 2006, were enriched by computerised projective techniques and program‐assisted design (PAD) technology, backed by high quality video prompts. Qualitative data analysis was enhanced by quantified data collected in the PAD phase. The design was expressly directed at future quantification and model building.

Four research propositions, derived from an extensive literature review, were mostly confirmed: surfing does exhibit characteristics of a cult. There are three distinct types of adherent, their associative behaviour characterized by affiliation, social recognition, socialization and symbolism. Surfers and fans exhibit strong brand awareness and less strong preferences for surf‐linked brands, in different ways.

Interpretation is limited by the scope of the study: two focus groups in one country. There is some compensation in the richness of the data.

Marketers involved with cult consumers and tribal brands need a body of knowledge on which to base their marketing intelligence gathering and strategic planning.

This paper provides exploratory research findings related to one classic example of the tribal brand‐consumption behaviour that accounts for significant consumer spending around the postmodern world.

The paper seeks to concern itself with the research field of public sector performance measurement and to introduce the national identity as a performance factor, through a case study.

The paper attempts an innovative presentation and identification of the attitudes, motivations and beliefs of both Greek people and the volunteers regarding the organisation, the success and the benefits of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. The paper reviews the literature on the relation of national identity and sports and analyses the opinion polls on the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.

The paper demonstrates that national identity has been the major motivational factor for the volunteers, whose contribution represented a significant added value to the success of the Olympics. The measurement of performance in such a qualitative analysis is supported by self‐reported customers' satisfaction.

It is not a quantitative, structured and executed initial survey, but a secondary, qualitative one.

The paper suggests the re‐definition of the usually negatively conceived notion of national identity, in a new managerial framework, as a performance factor.

This paper is original in its conception, when linking national identity/patriotism with sports and volunteerism in the context of performance measurement, and has a practical dimension, since it proposes tools for measuring performance in cases where a qualitative analysis is appropriate.