Garry Crawford

Professor Garry Crawford is a British sociologist whose research focuses primarily on audiences and consumer patterns, and in particular, sports fans[1] and video gamers.[2]

Garry Crawford began his academic career as researcher at the Sir Norman Chester Centre for Football Research at the University of Leicester. His doctoral research (at the University of Salford) and early publications focused on British ice hockey, its history and supporters.

His first book Consuming Sport (2004) was the first book to explicitly consider the consumption patterns, media use and everyday practices of sports fans,[3] which Martin Johnes in the International Journal of the History of Sport described as "a very important contribution to the field of sports studies".[4] 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, 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.

Garry Crawford works at the University of Salford, where he is a Professor of Cultural Sociology and is the Director of the University of Salford Digital Cluster, which the British governments’ Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) report Higher Ambitions in November 2009 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".[5]

Garry Crawford is a member of the British Sociological Association and the Leisure Studies Association. He is review editor for the journal Cultural 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.