Research Handbook of Employment Relations in Sport, Edited by Michael Barry, James Skinner and Terry Engelberg (2016) London: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd, 424 pages., ISBN: 978-178-34-7 046-7

In addition to an introduction by the editors, this volume includes 16 chapters organized into four main themes: regulation of professional sports, employment relations of professional sports, the management of professional sports and sporting careers and the economics of professional sports. The contributors are an international bunch specializing in economics, psychology, organizational behaviour and human resource management, employment relations, and law, most with a specific academic focus on professional sports. The chapters in the volume include discussions of many sports and national regulatory contexts but focus primarily on Europe and North America and the sports of European football, North American football, baseball, ice hockey and basketball. As stated in the Introduction, the book “aims to address an area of research that remains greatly underdeveloped in sport management…the interconnection between Employment Relations (ER) and sport.” (p. 1) The editors note that sport may represent an optimistic trend to the de-unionization and declining union influence across OECD countries. They point to the strength and development of player associations and the movement to institutionalize more collectivist approaches which support elements of seniority and greater attention to the equity of team salary structures, bargaining power, and working conditions. As such the Introduction places the volume as an important contribution to studies of union revitalization and renewal. The volume also situates occupational health and safety, and discrimination and harassment as key and growing issues in sport. The former in the context of the obvious wear and tear of sport on an athlete’s body and mind, but also in regard to drug use and anti-doping initiatives, and the latter in terms of sexual harassment of women, the objectification of bodies, as well as aggressive coaching and management styles which include bullying. The book readily achieves the goal of raising the profile of employment relations in sport. As a handbook, it is an excellent primer and starting point for those interested in what are often very complex environments. One of the volume’s main achievements is to clearly elucidate the key aspects that differentiate the work environments and realities of professional sports from more ‘typical’ workplaces. These include issues related to the monopolistic nature of sport labour markets, the history of reserve rights, the power of owners and the unique constraints on player mobility, the polarization of bargaining power among ‘stars’ versus new entrants, the complex web of rules introduced by the inclusion of player agents, regulatory and political issues related to sectoral and multi-level bargaining regimes and the role of additional local, national and international regulatory bodies. The style of writing in each chapter is accessible to a broad audience. Indeed, some readers may find the contributions too ‘light’. Chapters lean to the descriptive and many chapters are written largely as a sort of historical play by play of key events, including the role of famous sport personalities. Some chapters are almost overtly whimsical, such as that by Maynes, Mitchell, Schuwalow and Stewart, which advises the reader on the best sport to play professionally to ensure economic success. However, all in all, the volume is a robust entrée to the core issues. After reading the book, I did wish for more—not precisely in terms of detail about the employment relations of sport, but rather about the import of this sub-field for the study of employment relations, labour studies and employment law as a whole. Some of the broader claims in the Introduction regarding import to union renewal, for instance, were not then borne out in the chapters or the overall volume simply because the analytical connections were not overtly made. The chapters were largely isolated from each …