The Challenges of Sport and Globalization

Abstract

The academic study of sport flourished at a time when the concept of globalization began to insinuate itself with increasing force into social scientific discourse at the expense of the conventional framework of the single society. Globalization is quite an abstract process, and mega media events, such as the Opening Ceremony of the Summer Olympics and the final of the FIFA World Cup, can present a vivid picture of a world substantially united ‘in the moment,’ with dispersed multitudes engaging in the same activity at the same time. Nonetheless, the nation-state and, more symbolically the sporting nation, remain crucial features of the global sport landscape. This chapter explores the relationship between globalization and sport, and the crucial role of the media in consolidating and extending that relationship. Drawing on the field theory of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, it argues that the globalization of sport has been shaped by the intersection of the sport and media fields, each of which is characterized by struggles for position and also possession of various forms of capital, notably social, economic, and cultural. The analysis encompasses trends and tensions in the globalization of sport, cautioning against approaches that are overly deterministic and unilinear, and which ignore the range of contextual complexities that are evident at local, regional, and national levels. It uses Australia as a case study of how so-called global sport is the product of multiple historical, social, economic, and technological forces producing idiosyncratic outcomes within an expansive ‘media sports cultural complex.’ The conclusion is advanced that the relationship between sport and globalization is of profound significance, but it is one that, after lengthy social scientific consideration, appears to be more opaque and, perhaps, capricious than many—perhaps most—analysts originally conceived.