Garry Crawford

Who is Garry Crawford?

Professor Garry Crawford is a British sociologist whose research focuses primarily on audiences and consumer patterns, and in particular, sports fans and video gamers.

A former researcher at the Sir Norman Chester Centre for Football Research at the University of Leicester, his doctoral research and early publications focused on British ice hockey, its history and supporters.

His first book Consuming Sport was the first book to explicitly consider the consumption patterns, media use and everyday practices of sports fans, which Martin Johnes in the International Journal of the History of Sport described as “a very important contribution to the field of sports studies”. His interests in fans and media consumption have led Garry Crawford to publish on a wide range of subjects including cultural studies, film, gender, leisure and beer, and in recent years, most notably, video game culture. His research and writing here seeks to understand gaming culture away from the sight of a games machine, and consider video games within complex everyday social and cultural patterns.