Eric Dunning (27 December 1936 – 10 February 2019^[1]) was a British sociologist who was Emeritus Professor of sociology at the University of Leicester.

Eric Dunning was a pioneer in the sociology of sport and the founder, with Patrick Murphy and John Williams, of the Sir Norman Chester Centre for Football Research. He was the author of a number of books and articles on sport and the figurational sociology of Norbert Elias. Although officially retired, Dunning remained an Emeritus Professor of the University of Leicester as well as a visiting professor at the Chester Centre for Research into Sport and Society. Dunning was also a member of the editorial board of the Jornal de Ciências do Exercicio e Esporte, Paraná Federal University, Brazil.^[2]

Dunning had edited and co-authored numerous books in the sociology of sport. In 1999 he published his first sole-authored book, Sport Matters.^[3] In October 2000, he co-edited the comprehensive Handbook of Sports Studies with Jay Coakley.^[4] His book about Norbert Elias, Norbert Elias and Modern Sociology is based partly on Dunning's personal experience working with Elias for more than three decades. The book, co-authored with Jason Hughes, was published in 2012.^[5]

Dunning's supervised PhD students were Joseph Maguire, Dominic Malcolm, Martin Roderick, Yair Galily, Chris Pitts & Andy Smith.

• sociological theory, especially the functional sociology and theory of civilizing processes of Norbert Elias and its place within the wider field of classical and modern sociology
• the sociology of sport and leisure
• problems of violence and civilization, especially sports-related violence such as football hooliganism
• the use of Elias's theory in understanding the Holocaust and genocide more generally.

• Dunning, Eric; Murphy, Patrick; Williams, John (1988). The roots of football hooliganism: an historical and sociological study. London New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. ISBN 9780415036771.
• Dunning, Eric (1999). Sport matters: sociological studies of sport, violence, and civilization. London New York: Routledge. ISBN 9780415093781.
• Dunning, Eric; Coakley, Jay (2000). Handbook of sports studies. London: SAGE. ISBN 9780761949497.
• Dunning, Eric; Murphy, Patrick; Waddington, Ivan; Astrinakis, Antonios (2002). Fighting fans: football hooliganism as a world phenomenon. Dublin: University College Dublin Press. ISBN 9781900621748.
• Dunning, Eric; Mennell, Stephen J. (2003). Norbert Elias. Masters in Modern Social Thought. London Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE. ISBN 9780761974574.
• Dunning, Eric; Dominic, Malcolm (2003). Sport: critical concepts in sociology. London New York: Routledge. ISBN 9780415262927.
• Dunning, Eric; Hughes, Jason (2012). Norbert Elias and modern sociology knowledge, interdependence, power, process. London: Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9781780932255.