Why sports matter: Leisure, recreation and participation are vital parts of any good society

This Saturday marks the one-year anniversary of the start of the London Olympics. Editor of the new book London 2012: How Was It For Us? Mark Perryman argues why sport is a political subject. He urges us to combine a critique of the London Olympics with an understanding of what a better sport culture would look like, to recognise that the corporate domination of sport for many is their most vivid and meaningful experience of commodification, and to appreciate that sport is politics.