National Identity and Global Sports Events : Culture, Politics, and Spectacle in the Olympics and the Football World Cup

by Tomlinson, Alan; Young, Christopher

• ISBN13: 9780791466155
• ISBN10: 0791466159
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-03-06
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr

Summary

National Identity and Global Sports Events looks at the significance of international sporting events and why they generate enormous audiences worldwide. Focusing on the Olympic Games and the men's football (soccer) World Cup, the contributors examine the political, cultural, economic, and ideological influences that frame these events. Selected case studies include the 1936 Nazi Olympics in Berlin, the 1934 World Cup Finals in Italy, the unique case of the 1972 Munich Games, the transformative 1984 Games in Los Angeles, and the 2002 Asian World Cup Finals, among others. The case studies show how the Olympics and the World Cup Finals provide a basis for the articulation of entrenched and dominant political ideologies, encourage persisting senses of national identity, and act as barometers for the changing ideological climate of the modern and increasingly globalized contemporary world. Through rigorous scholarly analyses, the book's contributors help to illuminate the increasing significance of large-scale sporting events on the international stage.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Culture, Politics, and Spectacle in the Global Sports Event---An Introduction	1	(14)
Alan Tomlinson
Christopher Young
The Theory of Spectacle: Reviewing Olympic Ethnography	15	(26)
John J. MacAloon
Italy 1934: Football and Fascism	41	(24)
Robert S. C. Gordon
John London
Berlin 1936: The Most Controversial Olympics	65	(18)
Allen Guttmann
England 1966: Traditional and Modern?	83	(16)
Tony Mason
Mexico City 1968: Sombreros and Skyscrapers	99	(18)
Claire
Keith Brewster
Munich 1972: Re-presenting the Nation	117	(16)
Christopher Young
Argentina 1978: Military Nationalism, Football Essentialism, and Moral Ambivalence	133	(16)
Eduardo P. Archetti
Moscow 1980: Stalinism or Good, Clean Fun?	149	(14)
Robert Edelman
Los Angeles 1984 and 1932: Commercializing the American Dream	163	(14)
Alan Tomlinson
Barcelona 1992: Evaluating the Olympic Legacy	177	(20)
Christopher Kennett
Miquel de Moragas
Sydney 2000: Sociality and Spatiality in Global Media Events	197	(18)
David Rowe
Deborah Stevenson
Korea and Japan 2002: Public Space and Popular Celebration	215	(18)
Soon-Hee Whang
Contributors	233	(4)
Index	237	(8)
Books in Series	245