Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-03T19:23:18.457Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Nationalism and Sport: A Review of the Field

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 August 2020

Richard Arnold Open the ORCID record for Richard Arnold [Opens in a new window]
Richard Arnold*
Affiliation:
Muskingum University, New Concord, Ohio, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The connection between nationalism and sport seems at once both obvious and manifest, with the most lavish praise of the nation often arising at sporting events. While a sizeable body of academic literature exists on the connection between the two concepts, it remains overlapping and unstructured. This state of the field review essay accounts for the major works in this field and categorizes it according to the function it fulfills in the subfield. Specifically, it focuses on sport as a mechanism for the diffusion and creation of nationalism, sport under conditions of globalization at Sporting Mega Events (SMEs), and the connection between sport and the distinction between civic and ethnic definitions of nationality.

Keywords

nationalismnational identitynation-buildingsportforeign policy
Type
State of the Field
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 49 , Issue 1 , January 2021 , pp. 2 - 11
Check for updates
Copyright
© Association for the Study of Nationalities 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adair, Daryl. 1998. “Conformity, Diversity and Difference in Antipodean Physical Culture: The Indelible Influence of Immigration, Ethnicity, and Race during the Formative Years of Organized Sport in Australia, c.1788–1918.” In Sporting Nationalisms, edited by Cronin, Mike and Mayall, David, 14–47. Portland: Frank Cass.Google Scholar
France-Presse, Agence. 2017. “Crimean Football in Limbo after Russia’s Land Grab.” World Soccer Talk, December 26. https://worldsoccertalk.com/2017/12/26/crimean-football-in-limbo-after-russias-land-grab/. (Accessed February 14, 2020.)Google Scholar
Amara, Mahfoud. 2012. Sport, Politics, and Society in the Arab World. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Archetti, Eduardo. 2006. “Argentina 1978: Military Nationalism, Football Essentialism, and Moral Ambivalence.” In National Identity and Global Sports Events: Culture, Politics, and Spectacle in the Olympics and the Football World Cup, edited by Tomlinson, Alan and Young, Christopher, 133–147. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Arnold, Richard. 2018. “Sport and Official Nationalism in Modern Russia.” Problems of Post-Communism 65 (2): 129–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, Richard, and Foxall, Andrew. 2014. “Lord of the (Five) Rings: Issues at Sochi 2014.” Problems of Post-Communism 61 (1): 3–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, Richard, and Foxall, Andrew. 2018. “The Beautiful Game.” Problems of Post-Communism 65 (2): 79–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, Richard, and Veth, Manuel. 2018. “Racism and Russian Football Supporters’ Culture: Case for Concern?” Problems of Post-Communism 65 (2): 88–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Back, Les, Crabbe, Tim, and Solomos, John. 1999. “Beyond the Racist/Hooligan Couplet: Race, Social Theory, and Football Culture.” British Journal of Sociology 50 (3): 419–442.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barnier, Alan. 2001. Sport, Nationalism, and Globalization: European and North American Perspectives. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
, BBC 2019. “Russia Banned for Four Years to Include 2020 Olympics and 2022 World Cup.” BBC Sport, December 9. https://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/50710598. (Accessed February 14, 2020.)Google Scholar
Beck, Peter. 2004. “’The Most Effective Means of Communication in the Modern World’? British Sport and National Prestige” in Levermore & Budd [Eds] Sport and International Relations: An Emerging Relationship? New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Billig, Michael. 1995. Banal Nationalism. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publishing.Google Scholar
Bromberger, Christian. 1994. “Football Passion and the World Cup: Why So Much Sound and Fury?” In Hosts and Champions: Soccer Cultures, National Identities and the USA World Cup, edited by Sugden, John and Tomlinson, Alan 281–290. Brookfield: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Brownall, Susan. 2013. “‘Brand China’ in the Olympic Context: Communications Challenges of China’s Soft Power Initiative.” Javnost - The Public 20 (4): 65–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broudehoux, Anne-Marie. 2012. “Civilizing Beijing: Social Beautification, Civility and Citizenship at the 2008 Olympics.” In Olympic Games, Mega-Events, and Civil Societies: Globalization, Environment, Resistance, edited by Hayes, Graeme and Karamichas, John, 46–67. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burdsey, Daniel. 2011. “They Think It’s All Over… It Isn’t Yet! The Persistence of Structural Racism and Racialised Exclusion in Twenty-First Century Football.” In Race, Ethnicity, and Football, edited by Burdsey, Daniel 3–20. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Collins, Tony. 2013. “Unexceptional Exceptionalism: The Origins of American Football in a Transnational Context.” Journal of Global History 8: 209–230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Critcher, Chas. 1994. “England and the World Cup: World Cup Willies, English Football, and the Myth of 1966.” In Hosts and Champions: Soccer Cultures, National Identities and the USA World Cup, edited by Sugden, John and Tomlinson, Alan, 77–92. Brookfield: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Doidge, M. 2015. “‘If You Jump Up and Down, Balotelli Dies’: Racism an Player Abuse in Italian Football.” International Review for the Sociology of Sport 50 (3): 249–264.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edelman, Bob, and Riordan, Jim. 1994. “USSR/Russia and the World Cup: Come On You Reds!” In Hosts and Champions: Soccer Cultures, National Identities and the USA World Cup, edited by Sugden, John and Tomlinson, Alan 219–252. Brookfield: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Eren, Colleen. 2017. “Estranged Labor, Habitus, and Verstehen in the Rise of Extreme Endurance Sports.” Journal of Sport and Social Issues 41 (5): 384–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ersherick, Craig, Baker, Robert, Jackson, Steven, and Sam, Michael [Eds]. 2017. Case Studies in Sports Diplomacy. Morgantown, WV:, FIT PublishingGoogle Scholar
Falcous, Mark, and Silk, Michael. 2010. “Olympic Bidding, Multicultural Nationalism, Terror, and the Epistemological Violence of ‘Making Britain Proud’.” Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism 10 (2): 167–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foer, Franklin. 2004. How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization. New York: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Fox, Jon. 2006. “Consuming the Nation: Holidays, Sports and the Production of Collective Belonging.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 29 (2): 217–236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gaffney, Christopher. 2008. Temples of the Earthbound Gods: Stadiums in the Cultural Landscapes of Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Garland, Jon, and Rowe, Michael. 2001. Racism and Anti-Racism in Football. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glathe, Julia. 2016. “Football Fan Subculture in Russia: Aggressive Support, Readiness to Fight, and Far-Right Links.” Europe-Asia Studies 68 (9): 1506–1525.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goksoyr, Matti. 1994. “Norway and the World Cup: Cultural Diffusion, Sportification and Sport as a Vehicle for Nationalism.” In Hosts and Champions: Soccer Cultures, National Identities and the USA World Cup, edited by Sugden, John and Tomlinson, Alan 183–194. Brookfield: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Gorokhov, Vitalii. 2015. “Forward Russia! Sports Mega-Events as a Venue for Building National Identity.” Nationalities Papers 43 (2): 267–282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gorshunov, Iu V., and Gorshunova, E. Iu. 2015. “Verbal’naia ethnogressia na stadionakh” [Verbal Ethno-Aggression in Stadiums]. Politicheskaia Lingvistika 51: 153–157.Google Scholar
Greenfeld, Liah. 1992. Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Grix, Jonathon, and Houlihan, Barrie. 2014. “Sports Mega-Events as Parts of a Nation’s Soft-Power Strategy: The Cases of Germany (2006) and the UK (2012).” The British Journal of Politics and International Relations 16: 572–596.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grix, Jonathon, and Branaghan, Paul. 2016. “Of Mechanisms and Myths: Conceptualising States’ ‘Soft Power’ Strategies through Sports Mega-Events.” Diplomacy and Statecraft 27 (2): 251–272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grix, Jonathon, and Kramareva, Nina. 2017. “The Sochi Winter Games and Russia’s Soft Power Strategy.” Sport in Society 20 (4): 261–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guoqi, Xu. 2008. Olympic Dreams: China and Sports 1895–2008. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Guttman, Allan. 2004. Games and Empires: Modern Sports and Cultural Imperialism. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Hobsbawm, Eric. 1990. Nations and Nationalism Since 1780: Programme, Myth, and Reality. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Jarvie, Grant. 1993. “Sport, Nationalism, and Cultural Identity.” In The Changing Politics of Sport, edited by Allison, L.. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Keech, Marc. 2004. “‘One Nation, One Soul, One Dream, One Goal?’ Sport and National Identity in South Africa.” In Sport and National Identity in the Post-War World, edited by Smith, Adrian and Porter, Dilwyn, 105–127. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
King, Anthony. 2006. “Nationalism and Sport.” In The SAGE Handbook of Nations and Nationalism, edited by Delanty, Gerard and Kumar, Krishan, 249–259. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publishing.Google Scholar
Koch, Natalie. 2013. “Sports and Soft Authoritarian Nation-Building.” Political Geography 32: 42–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuper, Simon. 2006. Soccer Against the Enemy: How the World’s Most Popular Sport Starts Wars, Fuels Revolutions, and Keeps Dictators in Power. New York: Nation Books.Google Scholar
Lee, Jung Woo, and Barnier, Alan. 2009. “The Difficult Dialogue: Communism, Nationalism, and Political Propaganda in North Korean Sport.” Journal of Sport and Social Issues 33 (4): 390–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leite Junior, Emanuel., and Rodrigues, Carlos. 2017. “The Chinese Football Development Plan: Soft Power and National Identity.” Holos 33 (5): 114–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levermore, Roger. 2004 “Sport’s Role in Constructing the ‘Inter-State’ Worldview.” In Sport and International Relations: An Emerging Relationship?, edited by Roger Levermore and Adrian Budd. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Levermore, Roger, and Budd, Adrian, 2004. “Introduction: Sport and International Relations: Continued Neglect?” In Sport and International Relations: An Emerging Relationship, edited by Levermore, Roger and Budd, Adrian, 6–15. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lu, Zhouziang, and Hong, Fan. 2017. Sport and Nationalism in China. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
MacClancy, Jeremy. 1996. “Sport, Identity, and Ethnicity.” In Sport, Identity, and Ethnicity, edited by MacClancy, Jeremy, 1–20. Herndon: Berg Publishers.Google Scholar
Maguire, Joseph, and Tuck, Jason. 2005. “Global Sports and Patriot Games: Rugby Union and National Identity in a United Sporting Kingdom since 1945.” In Sporting Nationalisms: Identity, Ethnicity, and Assimilation, edited by Cronin, Mike and Mayall, David, 103–126. Portland: Frank Cass.Google Scholar
Mauro, Max. 2016. The Balotelli Generation: Issues of Inclusion and Belonging in Italian Football. New York: Peter Lang.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moser, Sarah. 2010. “Creating Citizens Through Play: The Role of Leisure in Indonesian Nation-Building.” Social and Cultural Geography 11 (1): 53–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, Murray. 2005. “Basketball as Cultural Capital: The Original Celtics in Early Twentieth Century New York City. In Sporting Nationalisms: Identity, Ethnicity, and Assimilation, edited by Cronin, Mike and Mayall, David, 67–81. Portland: Frank Cass.Google Scholar
O’Laughlin, John, and Talbott, Paul. 2005. “Where in the World is Russia? Geopolitical Perceptions and Preferences of Ordinary Russians.” Eurasian Geography and Economics 46 (1): 23–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orwell, George. 1945. “The Sporting Spirit.” Tribune, December 14.Google Scholar
Orttung, Robert, and Zhemukhov, Sufian. 2014. “Munich Syndrome: Russian Security in the 2014 Sochi Olympics.” Problems of Post-Communism 61 (1): 13–29.Google Scholar
Orttung, Robert, and Zhemukhov, Sufian. 2017. “Russia, Vladimir Putin, and Sport Diplomacy.” In Case Studies in Sport Diplomacy, edited by Ersherick, Jackson, Baker, and Sam, 1–18. Morgantown: FiT Publishing.Google Scholar
Orttung, Robert, and Zhemukhov, Sufian. 2018. Putin’s Olympics: The Sochi Games and the Evolution of Twenty-First Century Russia. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Penfold, Tom. 2018. “National Identity and Sporting Mega Events in Brazil.” Sport in Society 22 (3): 384–398.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petersson, Bo. 2014. “Still Embodying the Myth? Russia’s Recognition as a Great Power and the Sochi Winter Games.” Problems of Post-Communism 61 (1): 30–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Polo, Jean-Francois. 2012. “Istanbul’s Olympic Challenge: A Passport for Europe?” In Olympic Games, Mega-Events, and Civil Societies: Globalization, Environment, Resistance, edited by Hayes, Graeme and Karamichas, John, 68–86. New York: Palgrave Macmillan)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, Jessica. 2009. “Tackling the Anxieties of the English: Searching for the Nation through Football.” In Football: From England to the World, edited by Martinez & Mukharji, 49–64. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Rocha, Claudio, and Grix, Jonathon. 2017. “Can Sport Mega-Events Change the ‘Diplomatic Dwarf’ Status of Brazil?” In Case Studies in Sport Diplomacy, edited by Ersherick, Craig, Baker, Rort, Jackson, Steve, & Sam, Michael, 87–100. Morgantown: FiT Publishing.Google Scholar
Scherer, Jay, Duquette, Gregory, and Mason, Daniel. 2007. “The Cold War and the (re)Articulation of Canadian National Identity: The 1972 Canada-USSR Summit Series.” In East Plays West: Sport and the Cold War, edited by Wagg, Stephen and Andrews, David, 163–186. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Smith, Anthony. 2002. “When Is a Nation?” Geopolitics 7 (2): 5–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Martin, Harrison, Louis, and Brown, Anthony. 2017. “The Misintegration of the Negro: A Historical Analysis of Black Male Habitus in Sport and Schooling.” Urban Education 52 (6): 745–774.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soares, John. 2014. “‘Our Way of Life Against Theirs’ Ice Hockey and the Cold War.” In Diplomatic Games. Sport, Statecraft, and International Relations Since 1945, edited by Dichter, Heather and Johns, Andrew, 251–296. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press.Google Scholar
Sotomayor, Antonio. 2016. The Sovereign Colony: Olympic Sport, National Identity, and International Politics in Puerto Rico. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevenson, Thomas, and Alaug, Abdul-Karim. 1999. “Football in the Yemens: Integration, Identity, and Nationalism in a Divided Country.” In Sport in Divided Societies, edited by Sugden, John Peter and Bairner, Alan, 183–212. Lansing: Meyer & Meyer Sport.Google Scholar
Stokes, Martin. 1996. “‘Strong as a Turk’: Power, Performance, and Representation in Turkish Wrestling.” In Sport, Identity, and Ethnicity, edited by MacClancy, Jeremy, 21–42. Herndon: Berg Publishers.Google Scholar
Stuart, Ossie. 1996. “Players, Workers, Protestors: Social Change and Soccer in Colonial Zimbabwe.” In Sport, Identity, and Ethnicity, edited by MacClancy, Jeremy, 167–180. Herndon: Berg Publishers.Google Scholar
Stura, Claudia, and Lepadatu, Darina. 2014. “The Black Box of Diversity in Sports Teams: Converging Factors and Theoretical Expectations.” International Journal of Sport & Society 4 (2): 47–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sugden, John and Alan, Bairner. 1999. “Introduction” Sport in Divided Societies, edited by Peter Sugden, John and Bairner, Alan, 183–212. Lansing: Meyer & Meyer Sport.Google Scholar
Symanski, Stefan, and Zimbalist, Andrew. 2005. National Pastime: How Americans Play Baseball and the Rest of the World Plays Soccer. Washington, DC.: Brookings.Google Scholar
Testa, Alberto, and Armstrong, Gary. 2008. “Words and Actions: Italian Ultras and Neo-Fascism.” Social Identities 14 (4): 473-490.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wachter, Kurt, Franke, Susanne, and Purski, Jacek. 2009. “Football Against Racism in Europe.” In Anti-Racism in European Football: Fair Play for All, edited by Kassimeris, Christos 35–66. Lanham: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Watson, Scott. 2016. “Everyday Nationalism and International Hockey: Contesting Canadian National Identity.” Nations and Nationalism 23 (2): 289–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wawrzyczek, Irmina. 2017. “Racist and Neo-Nazi Panic in the EURO 2012 Coverage by the British Press: A Discursive Failure at Interculturalism.” Brno Studies in English 43 (1): 89–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar