This document discusses several perspectives on the role of sport in society. It notes that while sport can provide a common shared experience globally, it is also often tied to national identity and rivalry. Some argue that serious competitive sport is akin to war, prioritizing hatred and violence over fair play. Others see potential for sport to foster intercultural understanding, but also acknowledge it can be dominated by commercial and media interests. The document also examines views that the Olympics, while promoting ideals of peace, are steeped in nationalism and racial supremacy.

1. Uniting, Dividing?
BPS2011 20 October

2. Macro (System)
Micro (Agency)

3. Link

5. Sport as a local social occasion
National leagues and identity
Global polity and economy

6. ... sport provides a commonality of experience
on a global scale that is extremely rare ...
Laker (2003)

8. Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is
bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of
all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in
other words it is war minus the shooting.
Orwell (1945)

9. Peaceful coexistence
Intercultural understanding
Hyper commercialism
Mass media dominance

11. Link

12. Olympism as an antidote?

13. Despite voluminous Olympic rhetoric stressing the noble,
humanistic and pacifistic character of the Games, ever
since their reinvention at the end of the 19th century by
the French aristocrat Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the
Modern Olympics have been steeped in nationalistic
and ethno-racial supremacist sentiment.
Sugden (2007)

16. Companies including British Airways and BP are among
sponsors who have paid £700 million to become official
partners of the 2012 Games.

17. Streakers to Face Fines at London 2012
for Potential Ambush Marketing

19. Link

20. Link

21. Link

22. you do make things worse by sending forth a team of
eleven men, labelled as national champions, to do battle
against some rival team, and allowing it to be felt on all
sides that whichever nation is defeated will “lose face”.
Orwell (1945)

24. References
Australian Sports Commission (2011) http://www.ausport.gov.au/participating/all_cultures/about.
Burcher, N (2008) http://www.nickburcher.com/2008/08/tutu-wearing-horse-impressionist.html
Film Australia (1980) War Without Weapons (http://www.abc.net.au/aplacetothink/#watch/mh_1980/weapons/watchVideo)
ICSSPE (2011) Sport as a mediator between cultures (http://www.icsspe.org/index_782f7fac.php.html)
Laker, A (2003) The future of physical education: building a new pedagogy. London: Routlege. (http://bit.ly/qVZJDR)
Lyons, K (2010) Hometown Memories (http://keithlyons.me/2010/05/11/hometown-memories-1-buckley-in-the-1950s/)
Mangan, J (2005) Militarism, Sport, Europe: War Without Weapons. London: Frank Cass.
Orwell, G (1945) The Sporting Spirit (http://orwell.ru/library/articles/spirit/english/e_spirit)
Sugden, J (2007) http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=90313&sectioncode=22
TriviaMania (2008) http://www.triviamania.com/events/002-olympic-streaker-2008/
United Nations (2011) Sport for development and peace (http://www.un.org/wcm/content/site/sport/home/unplayers/
memberstates/pid/6229)
Note: All online resources accessed 19 October 2011.

25. Photographs
The Dutch team scores (1934) http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationaalarchief/4681264217/
Sydney Cricket Ground (1900) http://www.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryofnsw/3063952301/
School Sports Day (2010) http://www.flickr.com/photos/dullhunk/4483674964/
Sports programs for young Haitians (2007) http://www.flickr.com/photos/un_photo/6046744572/
Rugby World Cup (2011) http://www.flickr.com/photos/sumofmarc/6246837532/