Globalization of Sports

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This class is primarily based on the book Gaming the World: How Sports Are Reshaping Global Politics and Culture, written by Andrei S. Markovits and Lars Rensmann. In addition, we will read some articles from academic journals and magazines such as The Economist. We will become familiar with terms such as assimilation, citizenship, cosmopolitanism, globalization, glocalization, identity, nationalism, and localism. Markovits and Rensmann focus on one field of popular culture, sport, which has become a universal global language: people all over the world follow professional leagues such as the American NBA (basketball) and the English Premier League, EPL (soccer). Unlike the cosmopolitan composition of teams in those leagues, international sport is (apart from a few exceptions such as the Tour de France) organized along national lines: The FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games have become arenas for countries to compete with each other for soft power. At the same time, international sports serve governments as a tool to prove to the domestic audience the capabilities of the nation-state, even while witnessing external threats from economic globalization. Interestingly, despite the emergence of global sporting arenas, some unique local sporting cultures persist, such as the Australian Rules Football (AFL, the most popular sport in the Australian state of Victoria), Gaelic football in Ireland, and camel racing in Qatar. To situate the course within the context of contemporary issues, students are expected to give a class presentation reviewing the press coverage of any recent topic on the intersection of globalization and sports, for example on the postponement of major sporting events such as the 2020 Olympic Games due to the coronavirus outbreak.