Sport, Globalisation and Identity

Sport can be a vehicle for the expression of identity, and also a factor in the shaping of identity. This book explores the complex interrelationships between nations, regions and states in the landscape of contemporary international sport, with a particular focus on identity.

Exploring important themes such as the geopolitics of sports events, contested identities, and ownership of sport and its impact on sporting cultures, the book presents contemporary and historical cases from around the world, including football in a divided Ireland; sport and the anti-Apartheid movement; Chinese sporting nationalism and soft power; and the role of sport media in the shaping of Catalan identity.

This is an important resource for students and researchers working in Sports Studies, Sports Journalism, Sports Management Studies, Sports Marketing, Football Studies, Sport and Identity Studies, Sociology of Sport Studies, and Cultural Studies.

Jim O'Brien is Senior Lecturer at Solent University, Southampton, UK, where he teaches and develops the academic curriculum across the sports journalism and journalism degrees. He is also an author and researcher, with a particular interest in the history, politics, culture and mediatisation of Spanish football.

Russell Holden is an established Lecturer, Writer, Researcher and Broadcaster specialising in the Sociology of Sport with a particular emphasis on the interconnection between sport and politics. In 2009 he launched In the Zone Sport and Politics Consultancy. In the Zone offers a unique range of services for academics, teachers, journalists and sport policy-makers on issues including the links between sport and nationalism, identity, human rights, gender and reconciliation.

Xavier Ginesta is Senior Lecturer at the University of Vic-Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC). He also collaborates with the Olympic Studies Centre at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), Spain. His main research interests are sport management, communication and politics and sport place branding. He collaborates regularly with different media outlets as an expert in sport and politics and is a member of the Traducció Audiovisual, Comunicació i Territori (TRACTE) research group at UVic-UCC.