Garry Crawford is a British sociologist. His interests in fans, audiences, and consumption have led Garry Crawford to publish on a wide range of subjects including

cultural studies Cultural studies is an academic field that explores the dynamics of contemporary culture (including the politics of popular culture) and its social and historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers investigate how cultural practices rel ...

cosplay Cosplay, a blend word of "costume play", is an activity and performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and Fashion accessory, fashion accessories to represent a specific Character (arts), character. Cosplayers often i ...

gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...

leisure Leisure (, ) has often been defined as a quality of experience or as free time. Free time is time spent away from business, Employment, work, job hunting, Housekeeping, domestic chores, and education, as well as necessary activities such as ...

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

, and, most notably,

sports fan A fan or fanatic, sometimes also termed an aficionado or enthusiast, is a person who exhibits strong interest or admiration for something or somebody, such as a celebrity, a sport, a sports team, a genre, a politician, a book, a movie, a video ...

s and

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

culture. Garry Crawford works at the

University of Salford The University of Salford is a Public university, public research university in Salford, Greater Manchester, Salford, Greater Manchester, England, west of Manchester city centre. The Royal Technical Institute, Salford, which opened in 1896, be ...

, where he is a professor of Cultural

Sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

and Lead Professor for the Social Sciences. He established and was the first Director of the University of Salfor
Digital Cluster
which the British governments’ Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) report ''Higher Ambitions'' described as "a forum and centre of excellence, which combines and leads on high quality research, academic enterprise and teaching in areas of informatics, digital media, and new and convergent technologies". He is a member of the British Sociological Association and the Leisure Studies Association. He was the first review editor for, and helped found and establish, the journal ''Cultural Sociology''. He also co-created and was the first editor of the school-focused websit
Discover Sociology
He is a member of the University of Salford's Connected Lives Research group. Garry Crawford is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Science and a Principal Fellow of the HEA.

Sports Fan Studies & Early Career

Garry Crawford began his academic career as a researcher at th
Sir Norman Chester Centre for Football Research
at the

University of Leicester The University of Leicester ( ) is a public university, public research university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park, Leicester, Victoria Park. The university's predecessor, Univ ...

, where he worked as a researcher and consultant on several projects, such a
Asians Can't Play Football
Following this, his doctoral research (at the

) and subsequent early publications focused on British

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

, its history, and supporters. His first book ''Consuming Sport'' (2004) was the first book to offer a detailed consideration of how sport is experienced and engaged with in the everyday lives, social networks, and consumer patterns of its followers which Martin Johnes in the '' International Journal of the History of Sport'' described as "a very important contribution to the field of sports studies". Sports fan culture is an area where Garry Crawford continues to work and publish, such as his edited collection with Stefan Lawrence on ''Digital Football Cultures'' (2019).

Game Studies

Another area where Garry Crawford has made significant and important contributions to is the study video game culture. Significantly, his early work here focused most notably on sports video games, but beyond this his work expanded to explore the sociology of video games in his book ''Video Gamers'' (2012), and then (with Daniel Muriel) the growing social and cultural significance of video game culture in their book ''Video Games as Culture'' (2018). ''Video Games as Culture'' not only considers contemporary video game culture, but also explores how video games provide important insights into the modern nature of digital and participatory culture, patterns of consumption and identity formation, later modernity and contemporary political rationalities. Closely connected to this is his work on

culture, and in particular his book with the practicing artist David Hancock ''Cosplay and the Art of Play''. This book offers an introduction to

as a

subculture A subculture is a group of people within a culture, cultural society that differentiates itself from the values of the conservative, standard or dominant culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures ...

and community built around playful spaces and everyday practices of crafting costumes, identities, and performances. This book draws on new and original ethnographic research with cosplayers, but moreover, also employs more innovative arts-led

practice research Practice research aka practice as research, practice based research or/and practitioner researcher is a form of academic research which incorporates practice in the methodology or research output. Rather than seeing the relationship between pract ...

Selected publications

*''Cosplay and the Art of Play'' (2019) (with David Hancock) *''Digital Football Cultures'' (2019) (edited with Stefan Lawrence) *''Video Games as Culture'' (2018) (with Daniel Muriel) *''Introducing Cultural Studies'' (Third Edition) (2017) (with Brian Longhurst, Greg Smith, Gaynor Bagnall and Michael Ogborn) *''Video Gamers'' (2012) *''Online Gaming in Context: The Social and Cultural Significance of Online Gaming'' (2011) (edited with Victoria K. Gosling & Ben Light) *''Theorising the Contemporary Sports Supporter'' (2010) *''The Sage Dictionary of Leisure Studies'' (2009) (with Tony Blackshaw) *''Introducing Cultural Studies'' (Second Edition) (2008) (with Brian Longhurst, Greg Smith, Gaynor Bagnall and Michael Ogborn) *''Consuming Sport: Sport, Fans, and Culture'' (2004)

References

External links

Academia.edu profileBritish Sociological Association PublicationsUniversity of Salford Digital ClusterBBC Radio 4 ''Thinking Allowed'' interview (2005)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crawford, Garry British sociologists Academics of the University of Salford Alumni of the University of Salford Alumni of the University of Leicester Alumni of the University of Wolverhampton Academics from Wolverhampton 1972 births Living people