Afterword: A sociological future for populism?

Noting the continuing absence or marginality of concepts and theories of populism from the interpretive toolbox of sociology, this short concluding chapter recommends four areas for further work into the populist dimension of sport, leisure and cultural forms. First, the continued usefulness of Stuart Hall’s innovative formulation of authoritarian populism, and its applicability to the analysis of sport-related forms of populist ideology, is confirmed in numerous studies in the book. Second, there is a continued need for feminist and gender theory to further unpick and analyse the patriarchal, male-dominated dimensions of populist practice and ideology as well as female populist leadership, and sport is a prime site for such potentially revealing work. Third, the further conceptualisation of populism in relation to concepts and theories of discourse and ideology could provide the basis of a coherent notion of “sportive populism.” Fourth, studies of “sportive populism” could be complemented by more extensive research on the populist dimensions of other popular cultural forms; music, as several studies in this book have shown, is one such example.