Critique of Sports and Globalization

1. Critique of Sport and the Repudiation of the Global (Rowe, 2003)
In sports socio-cultural field, mega sport events have been deemed as a major catalyst of cultural
globalisation. However, Rowe (2003) maintains an opposite standpoint, asserting that mega-media
sport events contradict cultural globalisation since their differentiation and competition nature and
tendency among nations consequently lead physical and emotional conflicts and hostility. Hence, to
assess his theory, this critique provides succinct summary of his assertion, and then explores various
viewpoints in this field by investigating other researcher’s studies, finally evaluate validity of his
concept.
Firstly, to summarize the argument of Rowe (2003), sport would be considered to be a key agent of
globalisation in culture, as Wenner (1998) articulate that media sport is aired and consumed beyond
national boundaries. However, Rowe (2003) condemn that the nature of sport, especially mega-
media sport events, is fundamentally counteracts based on his research of FIFA World Cup. He
defines that cultural globalisation is a longitudinal and fluctuate transformation process that
undermines local culture at every levels and concurrently construct common global culture. Also,
sport is one of core components of society and therefore it is a key agent of globalisation. In
addition, stress is put on significance of mega-media sport event as a social institution and also
overwhelmingly developed media, which provokes global cultural and economy connectivity,
referring FIFA World Cup 2002 Korea/Japan as an example that attracted 1.5 billion global viewer
at its final match. Concurrently, he states that media stimulate public emotional national identity by
narrating competition among countries in programs and commentaries. National competition in
global sport events is a key factor of emergence of nationalism. Also, mentioning mega-media
sports event as the one that circulated globally by mass media broadcasting such as Olympics and
FIFA World Cup, he attempts to examine outcome of globalisation of sports. Consequently, he
maintains that sports contradict globalisation mechanism fundamentally since it relies on deference
and competition.
When it comes to the context of sports and national identity, Bainer (2001) stated that global sports
culture is profoundly associated with nationalism due to ongoing globalisation process. Also,
Andrews and Cole (2002) acknowledge that in spite of continuous globalising world, nations is still
definitive boundary in everyday life for the public. Furthermore, Bairner (2001) revealed that
Canadian affection for ice-hockey is enforced by prevalence of American sports such as American
football and baseball in North America. Applying these concepts and studies, Rowe (2003) proposes
the theory that national sport practice is formed by defensive reaction against external forces. this is
underpinned by his observation study of FIFA World Cup 2002 Korea/Japan, as he confirmed that
mega-media event encouraged nationalism and hostility against another nations during the event.
For instance, at national level, Chinese emergence in the tournament stimulated historical hostility
against South Korea and Japan. Likewise, South Korea was involved military collision with North
Korea. Concurrently, at public level, national identity of England was considerably strengthened by
media coverage and its narratives, while in Australia and Netherlands, which were eliminated in
preliminary regional round and therefore were not qualified to attend, the tournament is watched
without hostility to particular nations. Hense, he concluded that participation for World Cup
encourages nationalism and hostility, and it contradicts the idea of globalisation in sports culture.
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2. Secondly, to examine sport and globalisation in other following studies, this context appears to
embrace two components of global and local level. Sport and globalisation at global viewpoint
context includes unity, connectivity, sharing, inclusiveness, totalism of the world. Giulianotti and
Robertson (2007a) acknowledge significant presence of mega sports event and its governing
organisation as a international social institution. Olympic and IOC clearly prove it, as they embrace
203 national olympic committees, which is 11 more than United Nations do. Also, according to
Horne and Manzenreiter (2006), mega sport event is a opportunity for local to be connected the
world. Showcasing of country and vast amount of media coverage allows them to have new identity
as part of global community citizen. Furthermore, Rumford (2007) explain globalisation in sports
based on his cricket study. According to him, global development of cricket followed two stages.
Initially, Western world had dominated the cricket world, but then reconstruction of international
organisation, match operation and rule had been seen, consequently more sophisticated cricket
world has organised. In addition, Giulianotti and Robertson (2007b) confirmed that football is a
core agent for international social relations from their study of developing football culture in Japan.
The study saw global connectivity and concurrently disconnectivity at mega-media sport event.
During World Cup, media provoked global connectivity, but at the same time, it also made social
exclusion that derives from elimination from predominant international competition and inability of
broadcasting access.
On the other hand, local viewpoint of sport and globalisation context embraces differenciation,
competitiveness and national identity. Horne and Manzenreiter (2006) explain that mega sport event
and sport culture are central component of modern society. Mega-media events, such as Summer
Olympics and FIFA World Cup provide opportunity to reflect identity, and to share feelings and
experiences in devotional and celebrative setting. Besides, Rowe and Stevenson (2006) support the
theory that globalisation strengthen local identity. Sports and media event is associated national
cultural identity. And it allows the populace to glimpse emphasised particular subject on media,
which evokes significant national identity, such as Aboriginal-ethnic Australian field and track
athlete Cathy Freeman’s race at Sydney 2000 Olympics. This is clearly provoke strong identity of
Australian. Further, Horne (2006) underpins development of local identity in media perspective.
Current globalising world is still based on nation-state in terms of governing and functional body,
and concurrently global institution can not cover the state completely, or nation-state works more
efficiently than worldwide institution does for local. In this circumstance, media illustrate sports
with national stereotype, such as national flag and story, and sports competition visualise difference
among the nations. Following these concept of polarisation of globalisation and local identity, and
as a consequence, localisation of globalisation, namely glocalisation, Andrews and Ritzer (2007)
suggested more complex theory that local and global are interdependet and complement each other.
The key idea of this theory is that globalisation is not only simple process of complete dominance
of global or application of global, which is glocalisation, but also unfixed interconnection and mix
of global and local. Take sport event for example, News Corporation’s network is global, but
components and of contents and narratives and they way of their reconstruction and programming
are hugely depend on countries since market needs of them are significantly various.
Following the summary and the exploring, to evaluate arguments, although the view that sport has
scaled to global level appears to be agreed among researchers mentioned above, relationship with
local would be controversial. This is because Rowe (2003) denies potential of globalisation of
sports culture whilst following studies such as Horne (2006) admit localisation of globalisation, that
is glocalisation, and also Andrews and Ritzer (2007) develop the theory to be balanced, suggesting
the framework of interrelationship and interdependence of global and local. Reflecting these
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3. arguments, it would be obvious that there are more viewpoints and ideas than Rowe (2003) has.
Therefore, this critique consider that his theory is a narrow scope and radical assertion. For this
consequence, Andrews and Ritzer (2007) also claimed articulately regarding the idea of Rowe
(2003) that even though it is unrealistic that globalism transform local completely, it would be also
overestimation if only glocal and local are taken account. In addition, other than theoretical
frameworks mentioned prior, possible bias by his presumption and interpretation, particularly about
public reaction in his observational research could be contested.
To be concluded, although Rowe (2003) assert that the nature of sport contradicts the concept of
cultural globalisation fundamentally since it is based on differences and competition among nations,
which result in disconnectivity and detachment. However, another studies underpin the relationship
between sport and globalisation, and also offer wider range of standpoints from glocalisation to
interconnection of global and local. Hence, this critique evaluates the argument of Rowe (2003)
does not overweigh the other studies, and points out potential drawbacks of his study itself.
References
Andrews, D. L., Ritzer, G. (2007). The Grobal in the Sporting Glocal. Global Networks, 7(2),
pp135-153.
Andrews, D. L., Cole, C. L. (2002). The Nation Reconsidered. Journal of Sport & Social Issues,
26(2), pp123-124.
Bairner, A. (2001). Sport, Nationalism, and Globalization: European and North American
Perspectives. Albany : State University of New York Press.
Giulianotti, R., Robertson, R. (2007a). Introduction Sport and Globalization: Transnational
Dimensions. Global Networks, 7(2), pp107-112.
Giulianotti, R., Robertson, R. (2007b). Recovering the Social: Globalization, Football and
Transnationalism. Global Networks, 7(2), pp166-186.
Horne, J. (2006). Sports in Consumer Culture. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
Horne, J., Manzenreiter, W. (2006). An Introduction to the Sociology of Sports Mega-Events. The
Sociological Review, 54(s2), pp1-24.
Rowe, D. (2003). Sport and the Repudiation of the Global. International Review for the Sociology
of Sport, 38(3), pp281-294.
Rowe, D., Stevenson, D. (2006). Sociality and Spatiality in Global Media Events. In Tomlinson, A.,
Young, C. (ed.) National Identity and Global Sports Events, pp197-214. Albany: State University of
New York Press.
Rumford, C. (2007). More Than a Game: Globalization and the Post-Westernization of World
Cricket. Global Networks, 7(2), pp202-214.
Wenner, L. A. (1998). Playing the MediaSport Game. In Wenner, L. A. (ed.) MediaSport. London:
Routledge.
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