CFP: Sports and Globalization: Concepts, Structures, Cases

CALL FOR PAPERS

Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies, University of Toronto
and
the Department of German and Dutch, University of Cambridge

SPORTS AND GLOBALIZATION: CONCEPTS, STRUCTURES, CASES

JUNE 2-4, 2011
University of Toronto

DEADLINE: November 25, 2010

International organizations such as FIFA and the IOC boast more
members than the UN, and offer a platform to large and small nations
alike that is unrivalled by any other cultural or political body. The
production, communication and consumption of sport through myriad and
increasingly complex interrelationships across trans-national
corporations, sports federations and the media has allowed recent
events to balloon to cumulative audiences in excess of 40 billion.
High-performance athletes enjoy greater mobility and visibility, and
conglomerates have more vested interest in supporters, stadia, clubs,
franchises, and international markets than at any other point in the
history of sport. The interest of governments to stage and succeed in
global events ? an increasingly common phenomenon from the interwar
period ? continues unabated.

Critics have, rightly, highlighted the division of labor that
exploits developing countries for the manufacture of sportswear and
equipment; the ?de-skilling? of donor countries, particularly in
Africa and Central and North America, whose athletic base is raided
to supply leagues and markets in more prosperous parts of the world;
and, as evidenced by Chinese basketball player Yao Ming?s drafting
into the NBA, the concomitant drop in spectatorship for national and
regional events when local heroes depart for wealthier climes and are
followed by fans at home spectating via satellite and internet
transmission. At the same time, advocates describe the rise of
?cosmopolitan nationalism? (Foer) in sports such as soccer, noting,
for instance, that fans of this grouping alone voted Democratic in
the 2004 US election; sports are often the first cultural space in
which migrants gain social recognition; and, as Chinese sports
experts have argued, the hype and enthusiasm that surrounds stars
such as Yao Ming evade the control of the regime and could ultimately
undermine it from below. Recent research on sport in the former Soviet
block would certainly support their analysis.

The conference will seek to highlight the uniqueness of sport and
the consequences of this uniqueness for an understanding of the
globalization phenomenon. The conference aims to gather speakers
from, and contributions on, a broad spectrum of countries, but
particularly from newly emerging players (such as India, China,
Brazil) as well as the old-world powers of Europe (especially its
Eastern and peripheral regions) and North America and their
traditional capillary organizations, FIFA and the IOC. Papers on the
impact of globalization on Africa and sport?s as yet unrealized
potential on that continent will be vital. Comparative analyses would
also be particularly welcome.

Presentations might focus on the following:

* What is the theoretical link between ?globalization? and ?sport?,
and how does this link differ from other aspects of globalization?
* What sporting case studies (e.g. soccer, basketball, baseball,
hockey) help us to understand the relationship between globalization
and sport?
* How are we to understand the globalization of fandom with all its
attendant accoutrements and paraphernalia (fanzines, blogs, dedicated
club websites, replica kit sales, etc.)?
* What are the implications of the structure of sports sponsorship?
* In what ways do the major sports events (FIFA World Cup, the
Olympic Games) generate or indeed distort the feeling of
participation in a global conversation?

KEY NOTE SPEAKERS:

Professor Roland Robertson, University of Aberdeen, UK
Professor Andrei Markovits, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA

Abstracts to be submitted to cdts@utoronto.ca[1] by _FRIDAY NOV 25,
2010_

-- Antonela Arhin, M.A. Executive Officer Centre for Diaspora and
Transnational Studies University of Toronto Jackman Humanities
Building 170 St George St, Rm 230 Toronto M5R 2M8 Canada 416.946.8464
416.978.7045 fax www.utoronto.ca/cdts

Links:
------
[1] mailto:cdts@utoronto.ca