Head in the Game: Sociocultural Analyses of Brain Trauma in Sport. By S.Townsend, M. G.Phillips, G.Osmond, and R.Olive, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2025. 307 pp. £90.00. ISBN: 978‐1‐5261‐7693‐6

In everyday life people tend to protect their heads. This is wise and advisable because we know how central our brain is to what it means to be human. In many of the world's most popular and profitable sports, however, the socially constructed rules and practices mean the head (and therefore, brain) is subjected to repeated, often forceful and sometimes harmful impacts. The issue of brain trauma in sport is then as much a social problem as it is a medical one. Yet, it is a bio-medical framing that has dominated much of the discourse in research, policy and practice, with brain trauma being understood as a phenomenon to be ‘solved’ through science and medicine alone. Against this wider context, Stephen Townsend and colleagues' Head in the game: Sociocultural analyses of brain trauma in sport is a very welcome contribution to the literature. In the introduction, the editor's note that ‘…debates about brain trauma in sport are propelled as much by politics, ideology, culture and ethics as they are by neuroscience and epidemiology.’ (8). As an academic with a background in sociology, and a research focus on the book's subject matter, I felt my neck beginning to strain as I enthusiastically nodded along in agreement to the set up and rationale for this new edited collection. Head in the game brings some fresh perspectives on this topic from a collective of 24 international scholars with backgrounds across the humanities, social sciences and scientific disciplines. The editors frame the work as both multi- and inter-disciplinary in the introduction, noting the tendency for disciplinary boundaries to obfuscate collective quests towards knowledge generation. The multidisciplinary-ness comes in the research, analysis, evidence and commentary being drawn from a wide spectrum of scholarly disciplines. The interdisciplinary-ness comes from the overall theoretical framing of the book taking a socioecological approach, which positions each chapter as offering unique yet connected insights to understanding brain trauma in sport as the product of a complex system. This approach, and its threading throughout, is a real strength of the work. In all, the book consists of 14 chapters organised around three themes: (1) Cultivating brain trauma in sport, (2) knowing brain trauma in sport and (3) resisting brain trauma in sport. The first theme contains five chapters exploring some of the socio-cultural conditions that enable brain trauma in sport, with analyses of gender featuring heavily. The second theme brings together five chapters broadly focused on epistemological concerns regarding brain trauma; exploring knowledge creation and contestation at personal, community and structural levels. The final theme contains four chapters focused on institutional (mis)handling of brain trauma by sporting organisations. Taken together, the various contributions give readers a comprehensive insight to the social dynamics driving the ‘concussion crisis’ in sport. To my mind the book ought to have a wide appeal to scholars of sport, social scientists of health, those in the humanities concerned with sport and/or health, and to be honest, anyone with an interest in understanding brain trauma in sport. Townsend et al. do a good job in the introduction of positioning the issue as a ‘public concern’, which is most clearly unpacked in Harrison and Bachynski's chapter showing sport-related brain trauma to be a public health problem. This framing encourages readers to exercise a sociological imagination, showing that this issue is not a benign personal trouble of sport but impacts significant numbers of the public. The study of sport has long been marginalised in social science as non-serious business. Yet, sport is a hugely popular cultural practice, and the fact that many of the world's most popular sports entail brain trauma by the very rules of play, and people, particularly children, continue to be encouraged into participating in such sports is very serious business indeed. This is highlighted by the text. The conclusion by the editors picks up on their discussion in the introduction on why the term ‘brain trauma’ is used. This was a conscious decision to include the repetitive head impacts now strongly associated with increased risk for neurodegeneration, which has been overshadowed by an over-focus on ‘concussion’ and the ‘big hits’ in sport. This focus has directed critical attention away from questioning the everyday, routine sporting practices of heading, tackling, punching and kicking which may not be such a good idea should one wish to protect one's brain health. Personally, I would have liked a bit more from the editors in the conclusion in terms of what's next, what ought to be done, where research goes from here and what's the scholar's role in all this. The closing to the introduction is subtitled ‘The fight ahead’, and I'd have loved to have felt more of this fighting spirit in the conclusion. Overall, though, this is a timely, accessible and engaging book. I will be recommending it to students and colleagues, as well as crossing my fingers that it has a wide readership and impact which pushes along the social movement towards healthier sports for all. J.H. responsible for aspects of producing this work. Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.