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Continuities and Change in IPE at the Start of the Twenty-first Century Read chapter Read first chapter

2019 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

40. Sport and Contemporary International Political Economy

Authors : David Black, Maya Hibbeln

Published in: The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary International Political Economy

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK

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Abstract

Since the onset of the Cold War and the subsequent rise of neoliberalism, sport has become a focus of intense interest by governments and corporations alike. While competitive sport has long been infused by politics and commercialism, the rapid intensification and systematic co-mingling of these trends is relatively recent. Sport has become a vehicle through which political-economic interests and objectives are aggressively pursued. This chapter considers some principal explanations for the intensified relationship between sport and International Political Economy (IPE), highlighting the affinity between sport and globalization. It explores the relationship between sport and the branding of companies, localities, and nations. Finally, it considers why and how Sport Mega-Events (SMEs) have emerged as a coveted yet contested means to pursue political-economic interests and objectives.

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Footnotes
1
On the resilient ‘myth of autonomy’, see Lincoln Allison (1993).
 
2
See Muggah (Chap. 29), this volume, for a discussion of the links between school activities (including sports), social development, and crime.
 
3
One of the ironies of contemporary high-performance sport is that many of the regimented, top-down, high-performance sport practices pioneered with such success in East Bloc sport systems have been emulated by their ‘advanced capitalist’ counterparts in the post-Cold War era, frequently underwritten by high levels of corporate sponsorship.
 
4
While we argue that these trends were significantly intensified in the context of neoliberalism, it is worth noting that their origins and relationship with capitalist social dynamics are considerably longer and deeper. See, for example, Jhally 1984.
 
5
For example, ice hockey in Canada, baseball, American football, and basketball in the United States, soccer/football in much of the world, or rugby union in New Zealand and (white) South Africa.
 
6
As Jennifer Hargreaves writes, ‘The commercialization of sports stimulated new needs and expectations—they had become firmly established as dramatic entertainment’ (Hargreaves, p. 113). See also Betts 1974.
 
7
In 2000, Adam Bryant, a writer for Newsweek stated ‘The Rant’ had become ‘the unofficial anthem north of the border’ (See Seiler, pg. 52).
In addition, the Molson Ad placed second in the Cannes International Advertising Festival in 2000 (Seiler, 60).
 
8
On the expanding ‘field’ of Sport Mega-Events (SMEs), see Horne 2017.
 
9
It should be noted that SME costs are exceedingly difficult to pin down, since a wide range of infrastructure, security, and other ancillary expenses may or may not be seen as directly linked to the Games themselves.
 
10
Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
 
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Metadata
Title
Sport and Contemporary International Political Economy
Authors
David Black
Maya Hibbeln
Copyright Year
2019
Book
The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary International Political Economy

Print ISBN: 978-1-137-45442-3

Electronic ISBN: 978-1-137-45443-0

Copyright Year: 2019

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-45443-0_40