The Blackwell Companion to Globalization

Chapter 25

Sport and Globalization

DAVID L. ANDREWS AND ANDREW D. GRAINGER

As evidenced by the seemingly near-universal popularity of particular practices, spectacles and bodies, sport (the socially regulated expression of physical culture) and globalization (the process of spatial and temporial inter-connectivity) are emblematic features of the contemporary age (Bairner 2001). Moreover, the multifaceted inter-penetration of sport and globalization – the one being realized, and modified, by the other and vice versa – speaks to the conclusive collapse of rigid superstructural demarcations so symptomatic of late twentieth/early twenty-first century capitalism (Jameson 1991, 1998). Within this moment, sport is simultaneously a central element of the ‘global popular’ (Kellner 2003), and a vehicle for institutionalizing the global condition (interestingly, the membership of the United Nations [191 member states] is less than that of the Olympic Movement [202 national Olympic committee members], and the Fédération Internationale de Football Association [FIFA; 204 member national federations]). As such, sport cannot be simply ignored, or summarily dismissed, by the sociological mainstream for being little more than a diversion from the most pressing social issues of the day. It is, as we intend to demonstrate in this chapter, an important empirical window into such concerns, specifically that of globalization.

Sport’s innate visceral appeal and resonance have rendered it the ‘most universal ...