OUT OF THE SHADOWS - THE CRITICAL-SOCIOLOGY OF SPORT IN AUSTRALIA, 1986 TO 1996

The sociology of sport in Australia has reached a key point in its dev elopment. A critical tradition in the subdiscipline has been establish ed over the last decade, but its intellectual and institutional progre ss has been uneven. This article briefly traces the emergence of criti cal sports sociology in a country outside the major centers in the UK and U.S., its break with functionalist approaches, and its attempts to overcome the neglect of local mainstream sociology. The authors proce ed to examine (self-reflexively) the changes of theoretical direction and the new lines of research that are being explored in the field. A recent ''skirmish'' with narrative history over the preferred theories and methods in sports analysis is discussed as illustrative of the di fficulties encountered by an energetic but small, dispersed and undero rganized scholarly movement in Australia.