Rugby Union and Globalization


Book Description

In 1995 rugby union finally became a professional sport following more than a century as an amateur game. This book offers a critical analysis of the sport in the professional era and assesses the relationship between the local and the global in contemporary rugby union.




Sport, Nationalism, and Globalization


Book Description

Explores the relationship between sport and national identities within the context of globalization in the modern era.




Globalization, Sport and Corporate Nationalism


Book Description

Although New Zealand exists as a small (pop. 4.3 million), peripheral nation in the global economy, it offers a unique site through which to examine the complex, but uneven, interplay between global forces and long-standing national traditions and cultural identities. This book examines the profound impact of globalization on the national sport of rugby and New Zealand's iconic team, the All Blacks. Since 1995, the national sport of rugby has undergone significant change, most notably due to the New Zealand Rugby Union's lucrative and ongoing corporate partnerships with Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and global sportswear giant Adidas. The authors explore these significant developments and pressures alongside the resulting tensions and contradictions that have emerged as the All Blacks, and other aspects of national heritage and indigenous identity, have been steadily incorporated into a global promotional culture. Following recent research in cultural studies, they highlight the intensive, but contested, commodification of the All Blacks to illuminate the ongoing transformation of rugby in New Zealand by corporate imperatives and the imaginations of marketers, most notably through the production of a complex discourse of corporate nationalism within Adidas's evolving local and global advertising campaigns.




Rugby Union and Professionalisation


Book Description

The game of rugby has changed significantly in the course of its history. In the early part of the 19th century it evolved from a folk game played by the working class to a recreational activity for public schoolboys. From the 1820s rugby represented an opportunity for gentlemen to demonstrate physical prowess and masculinity and in more recent times it has developed into an activity that reflects the changing attitudes towards professional sport. For the most part of the last one hundred years, rugby union became an important international sport that represented the nationalistic ideals of a number of countries. However, a number of developments, including the increasing influence of a business ethos within sport during the latter decades of the twentieth century, exposed rugby union to the realities of commercialism and all the factors associated with it, especially the demands of a more diverse spectating public. Drawing on interview material with forty-eight elite level rugby union players from England, Wales, Scotland, France, Ireland, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia who participated in elite level rugby union either before, in the overlapping period or after the declaration of professionalism, this book traces the evolution of attitudes towards professionalism from a players’ perspective and develops a critical review of the impact that professionalism has had upon the sport of rugby union. Rugby Union and Professionalisation: Elite Player Perspectives is fascinating reading for all students and scholars with an interest in rugby union, sport history, sport policy, sport management and the sociology of sport.




Globalization and Sport


Book Description

Globalization and Sport argues that although sport is a source of pleasure, it is also part of the government of everyday life. The creation of a sporting calendar, movements of rational recreation and the development of public sector physical education, are read as ways of disciplining and shaping urban-industrial populations.




Rugby in Global Perspective


Book Description

This book critically examines how rugby union has developed in recent years, in nations on the periphery of the sport. Focusing on people and places on the fringes, it examines contemporary issues and challenges within the global game. Such a collection is timely, as the sport’s governing body seeks to expand influence and participation beyond the eight core nations, with the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan being the first time that that tournament has taken place outside of the core. Presenting case studies from Europe, Africa, North and South America, Asia and the Middle East, this collection offers an interdisciplinary account of a sport that is undergoing a period of significant change. Through examination of topics such as the development of rugby sevens and the growth of women’s rugby, it considers what the future may hold for the sport. Rugby in Global Perspective is important reading for students of sport in society, the globalisation of sport, sports studies, sport development and associated fields. It is also a valuable resource for academic researchers working in rugby union or sport in the peripheral rugby nations, as well as those with an interest in cultural geography, sociology, development studies, events studies, event management and sport management.




Sport and Citizenship


Book Description

Citizenship has become a widely significant and hotly contested academic concept. Though the term may seem obvious, citizenship carries a range of subtle social and political meanings. This volume explores citizenship as it relates to sport, on the micro and macro level of analysis and in a variety of geo-political contexts. Citizenship is a central organizing principle of international competition such as the Olympic Games. Furthermore, sport is used to teach, symbolize and perform citizenship. While related to national identity, citizenship pertains more precisely to how citizens are legally and politically recognized by the state and how citizens engage within the nation state. This volume traces the roots of discourses on citizenship before illustrating a variety of ways in which citizenship and sport impinge upon each other in contemporary contexts. This bookw as published as a special issue of Sport in Society.




Routledge Handbook of the Sociology of Sport


Book Description

The sociology of sport is a core discipline within the academic study of sport. It helps us to understand what sport is and why it matters. Sociological knowledge, implicit or explicit, therefore underpins scholarly enquiry into sport in every aspect. The Routledge Handbook of the Sociology of Sport is a landmark publication that brings together the most important themes, theories and issues within the sociology of sport, tracing the contours of the discipline and surveying the state-of-the-art. Part One explores the main theories and analytical approaches that define contemporary sport sociology and introduces the most important methodological issues confronting researchers working in the social scientific study of sport. Part Two examines the connections and divisions between sociology and cognate disciplines within sport studies, including history, anthropology, economics, leisure and tourism studies, philosophy, politics and psychology. Part Three investigates how the most important social divisions within sport, and in wider society, are addressed in sport sociology, including ‘race‘, gender, class, sexuality and disability. Part Four explores a wide range of pressing contemporary issues associated with sport, including sport and the body, social problems associated with sport, sport places and settings, and the global aspects of sport. Written by a team of leading international sport scholars, including many of the most well-known, respected and innovative thinkers working in the discipline, the Routledge Handbook of the Sociology of Sport is an essential reference for any student, researcher or professional with an interest in sport.




The Rugby World in the Professional Era


Book Description

Twenty years of professionalism has seen rugby union undergo dramatic transformations, from changes to everyday training cultures to the growth of the Rugby World Cup into one of the largest global sporting events. The Rugby World in the Professional Era is the first book to examine the effect that professionalism has had across a number of different aspects of the game and the wider socio-cultural significance of these changes through case studies from across the globe. Drawing on contributions from scholars from across the rugby-playing world, the book explores the role of rugby's professionalisation through a number of social-scientific lenses, including: labour migration race and indigenous populations the globalisation of the game mega-event management male sexualities media representations of rugby - from broadcasting matches to rugby in museums and on stage and screen Offering insights into under-researched areas of the sport, such as the growth of Rugby Sevens into an Olympic sport, and providing the most up-to-date recent history of the sport available, The Rugby World in the Professional Era is essential reading for anyone with an academic interest in rugby, and any student or scholar with interests in sports history, sports sociology, sport management or the economics of professional sport.




Australian Sport


Book Description

Australia is only a small player in the world’s political and economic landscapes, yet, for many decades, it has been considered to be a global powerhouse in terms of its sporting successes. In conjunction with this notion, the nation has long been portrayed as having a preoccupation with sport. This labelling has been seen as both a blessing and a curse. Those who value a Bourdieuian view of culture bemoan sport’s centrality to the national imagination and the consequent lack of media coverage, funding and prestige accorded to the arts. Other scholars question whether the popular stereotype of the Australian sportsperson is, in fact, a myth and that instead Australians are predominantly passive sport consumers rather than active sport participants. Australian sport, through its successes on the field of play and in advancing sport coaching and management, has undergone a revolution, as both an enabler of global processes and as subject to its influences (economic, political, migratory etc.). This book will examine the shifting place of Australian sports in current global and local environs, from the perspective of spectators, players and administrators. This book was previously published as a special issue of Sport in Society.