This edited collection problematizes trajectories of health promotion across the lifespan. It provides a distinctive critical social science perspective of the various directions taken by dominant policies in their approach to promoting sport for all ages. It offers an array of theoretical and methodologically diverse perspectives on this topic, and highlights the intersections between different life stages and social, economic and cultural factors in the developed world, including class, gender, ability, family dynamics and/or race.

Sport and Physical Activity across the Lifespan critically explores dominant policies of age-focussed sport promotion in order to highlight its implications within the context of particular life stages as they intersect with social, cultural and economic factors. This includes an examination of organised sport for pre-schoolers; at-risk youth sport programmes; and the creation of sporting sub-cultures within the mid-life market.

This book will be of interest to those wanting to learning more about how age and life stages affect the way people think about and participate in sport, and to better understand the impacts of sport across the lifespan.

Rylee A. Dionigi is Associate Professor in the School of Exercise Science, Sport and Health at Charles Sturt University, Australia.

Michael Gard is Associate Professor in the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences at the University of Queensland, Australia.

1. Introduction and Overview; Rylee A. Dionigi and Michael Gard .- Section 1: Setting the Context: Sport Participation and Sport Policy .- 2. Sport Participation Across the Lifespan: Australian Trends and Policy Implications; Rochelle M. Eime and Jack Harvey .- 3. Diversity in Participation Reigns, Policy Challenges Ahead: Sport for All (Ages) From a European Perspective; Jeroen Scheerder, Hanne Vandermeerschen and Koen Breedveld .- 4. From a Lucky Few to the Reluctant Many: Interrogating the Politics of Sport for All; Michael Gard, Rylee A. Dionigi and Claudio Dionigi .- Section 2: Early Childhood, Youth and Sport .- 5. Tykes and Timbits: A Critical Examination of Organized Sport Programs for Preschoolers; Jessica Fraser-Thomas and Parissa Safai .- 6. An Uneven Playing Field: Talent Identification Systems and the Perpetuation of Participation Biases in High Performance Sport; Nick Wattie and Joseph Baker .- 7. Girls Presentationsof Self in Physical Culture: A Consideration of Why Sport is Not Always the Answer; Eimear Enright .- 8. At-Risk Youth Sport Programs: Another Way of Regulating Boys?; Rachael Hutchesson, Rylee A. Dionigi and Kristina Gottschall .- 9. Sport is Not for All: The Transformative (Im)possibilities of Sport for Young Disabled People; Hayley Fitzgerald .- Section 3: Sport in Adulthood .- 10. Adult Sport Participation and Life Transitions: The Significance of Childhood and Inequality; David Haycock and Andy Smith .- 11. Sport for All, or Fit for Two? Governing the (In)active Pregnancy; Shannon Jette .- 12. The Role of Sport in the Lives of Mothers of Young Children; Katherine E. Soule .- 13. The Gay Games, Safe Spaces and the Promotion of Sport for All?; Chelsea Litchfield and c="" efforts="" to="" offset="" adults="" psychosocial="" obstacles; bradley="" w.="" young="" bettina="" callary="" 15.="" the="" market="" creation="" of sporting="" sub-cultures;="" rylee="" a.="" dionigi="" chelsea="" litchfield="" 16.="" outdoor="" adventurous sport:="" all="" ages?;="" elizabeth="" c.j.="" pike="" 17.="" sport,="" physical="" activity="" ageing:="" are="" we on="" right="" track?;="" kelly="" carr,="" kristy="" smith,="" patricia="" weir,="" sean="" horton.