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Abstract
The article focuses on the multi-dimensional relationships between sport and globalization. From the historical perspective, the paper examines the 'take-off' period of globalization, during which many sports underwent global spread. From a socio-cultural perspective, it discusses issues of cultural sameness and divergence within sport across different societies. From a political-economic perspective, the paper considers the contemporary relevance of the nation-state and national identity, and the impact of the hyper-commodification of sport in the wider context of neoliberal policies.
Key words: Globalization, global sport, glocalization, hyper-commodification
INTRODUCTION
Sport is one of the most important cultural drivers of globalization, and has been since the late 19th century. It has been argued that sport is both a motor and a metric of globalization: sport accelerates, and enables us to measure, global change and different forms of global interconnection [Giulianotti and Robertson 2007a] [Giulianotti and Robertson 2009]. Economically, sport generates vast revenues worldwide. One market research report estimated that, at the global level, professional sports generated up to US$ 120 billion in annual revenues [First Research Inc, 2012]. Global sport mega-events - such as the Olympics and football's World Cup - attract worldwide television audiences. Sport also allows different societies to become more embedded within international society, thus we find that the football and Olympic global governing bodies (FIFA and the IOC respectively) each have more national members than the United Nations.
We should note at the outset that globalization per se is far older than modem sports. Whereas the latter developed primarily in the 18th, 19th (especially), and early 20th centuries, the former extends back to at least the 15th century, for example through the first wave of European colonization of the Americas. Hence, globalization is a much older phenomenon than is sometimes claimed, for example, by some social scientists and social movements who understand globalization as being synonymous with the rise of (Western) modernization [Giddens 1990], or with neo-liberal capitalism from the 1970s onwards [Bourdieu 1999; Wolf 2004]. In addition, I would argue that globalization involves more than economic processes; rather, it also features historical, cultural, economic, political, and social aspects.
How should we define globalization? In this discussion, I follow the approach of Roland Robertson [1992: 8], one of the world's leading analysts of...