MCS0006 - Major cultural and sporting events

Given the specific question in this DCMS ‘Call for Evidence’ on ‘What needs to happen for major events to successfully bring people from all four nations of the UK together?’, it is clear that the Department is explicitly acknowledging the political and symbolic importance of sport and sporting events - a position that we support as academics within the field of the sociology and politics of sport. To this end, we argue that such refutation of the ‘sport and politics do not mix’ fallacy is important to shed light on the political and ideological impact of sporting events, drawing upon our empirical evidence from past sporting events. In considering whether the hosting of major events can successfully bring people from all four nations of the UK together, policymakers require a critical appreciation of the double-edged symbolism of international sporting events in relation to national identity in the UK. In this vein, we draw upon an extensive body of research that has investigated this element of national identity politics at the following sporting events: a) London 2012 Olympic Games; b) Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games; c) Gleneagles 2019 Solheim Cup; and, d) Portrush 2020 Open Championship. In light of the above comments regarding the double-edged symbolism of international sporting events in relation to national identity in the UK, we set out below the ways in which past sporting events have offered potential for unifying symbolism which responds in the affirmative (in a caveated manner) to the Call for Evidence proposition of using ‘...major events to successfully bring people from all four nations of the UK together’. Equally, we also contend that past sporting events simultaneously offered potential for the growth of distinctive national identities - and to a lesser degree, political nationalism - which suggests that the proposition of using ‘...major events to successfully bring people from all four nations of the UK together’ can potentially be counter-productive. Our evidence argues that sport can act as an additional marker of difference between the ‘home nations’, underpinning a sense of distinctiveness within British identity politics. Notwithstanding these comments, it is also important for politicians and policy-makers to avoid conflation between sporting nationalism and political nationalism in relation to sporting events, given the lack of evidence of such correlation. Therefore, the question of whether major events can successfully bring people from all four nations of the UK together needs to be considered in a measured and realistic degree - to this end, we specifically draw upon extensive evidence from the Scottish context. In order for major sporting events to be successfully used to bring people from all four nations of the UK together, policymakers need to be wary of the dangers of the conflation between Britishness and Englishness at international sporting events which can become evident at international sporting events. Such conflation often leads to the alienation of the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish population. Furthermore, there are risks entailed with regards to the recent increase in symbolism of the United Kingdom in political communication, such as the recent promotion of the Union Flag in public communication and government buildings, if this is replicated at international sporting events. This would potentially undermine the potential to use such events to bring people from all four nations of the UK together. Finally, we would like to stress that a sensitive and respectful approach to the use of sporting events to bring people from all four nations of the UK together, mindful of the arguments presented above, does indeed possess potential benefits which make the pursuit of sporting events worthwhile. Thus, we reiterate evidence of the potential for harnessing intangible ‘legacies’ of sporting events, such as image promotion, diplomatic goodwill, reconciliation, and ‘feel-good factor’, for achieving broader cultural, social and economic goals. However, to achieve these goals, acknowledging such negative images of ‘Britishness’ is crucial

Sport for Yes? The role of sporting issues in pro-independence political discourse during the Scottish independence referendum campaign

This article critically considers the extent to which sporting issues were harnessed by pro-independence political campaigners during the Scottish independence referendum campaign. Developments such as the inclusion of sport within the Scottish Government’s White Paper on Scottish independence, the establishment of the ‘Working Group on Scottish Sport’ and the establishment of the ‘Sport for Yes’ campaign group demonstrate the harnessing of sporting issues as an additional, if somewhat peripheral, debate point in the referendum campaigns (Lafferty 2014, Scottish Government 2013, Working Group on Scottish Sport and Scottish Government 2013, 2014). The latter of these developments, the establishment of the ‘Sport for Yes’ campaign group, is of particular interest, offering evidence of the explicit political mobilisation of past and present athletes in support of the ‘Yes Scotland’ pro-independence campaign. The use of sport within pro-independence political discourse is therefore scrutinised, drawing upon the principles of critical discourse analysis to explore the ideological assumptions underpinning the discursive representation of sport in relation to Scottish independence

Assessing the sociology of sport: On race and diaspora

© The Author(s) 2014 On the 50th anniversary of the ISSA and IRSS, a key foundational scholar on the intersection of race and sport, Ben Carrington, reflects on the field as a whole and the notion of “diaspora” in understanding race and sport. In considering the trajectory of the sociology of sport, questions are raised about whether a coherent field has ever existed. Noting relative failures in getting “mainstream sociology” to take sport seriously, the challenges ahead are for a field that is necessarily a “multifaceted” entity, and one that ironically has never been more impactful while at its weakest institutional moment. Noting the paradox between the relative little consideration given to sport in the main sociology journals in the US and UK in contrast with the sociology of sport having successfully established self-reproducing and self-referencing spaces of critical enquiry, a key challenge for the field continues to be in its search for a “scholarly place;” it is less than clear whether the banner of “the sociology of sport” continues to resonate in the face of the neo-liberal assaults on critical scholarship within higher education. The concept of “diaspora,” surprisingly ignored in the study of sport, will be increasingly important in the future as it will enable critical race scholars to problematize the often Eurocentric and teleological underpinning of globalization theory in relation to sport; considerations of diaspora will fuel more meaningful accounts of how sport reconnects geographically dispersed groups and changes identities and subjectivities in hostile circumstances

’Team GB’ and London 2012: The Paradox of National and Global Identities

This article explores the problems associated with ’national identity’ in the UK and examines the tensions arising between the international and local dimensions of the games through examples of domestic (UK) and international (Brazil, Chicago) media coverage of the key debates relating to London’s period of preparation. The chapter proposes a conception of London 2012 as exemplar of an event poised to generate insights and experiences connected to a new politics of ’cosmopolitan’ identity; insights central to grasping the cultural politics of contemporary urban development-and the paradoxes of national identity in current discourses of Olympism. Properly speaking, cosmopolitanism suits those people who have no country, while internationalism should be the state of mind of those who love their country above all, who seek to draw to it the friendship of foreigners by professing for the countries of those foreigners an intelligent and enlightened sympathy. © 2010 Taylor & Francis

Sport events and human rights: positive promotion or negative erosion?

© 2015 Taylor & Francis. In this paper, we build upon recent scholarship on sport event legacies to identify, categorise, and describe the key processes underpinning sport event interactions with human rights (HR). It develops a simple, representative model to illustrate the points where sport events bisect with HR and considers what factors can modify these impacts. The development of this model is based on a meta-review of literature and examination of case studies. It is clear from our analysis that sport events are malleable, symbolic, and political occurrences that can be positioned to provide evidence and support of benefice or harm to the cause of HR. The model also provides a nuanced approach to consider how sport event organisers may begin to think about the tactics and strategies that might be employed, and how they might leverage HR through their sport event. The model also indicates that HR, being similarly malleable political tools, are paradoxical in application in the sport event context and consequently cannot be assumed to be taken-for-granted as event outcomes or outputs

An ‘anti-sectarian’ act? Examining the importance of national identity to the ‘offensive behaviour at football and threatening communications (Scotland) act’

The 2010-11 football season in Scotland was affected by many incidents of violence and threatening behaviour. Fans of the two Glasgow clubs, Celtic and Rangers, were involved in the majority of these incidents. Players and officials of Celtic were targeted by Loyalist terrorists and sent bullets through the post. The Scottish government felt that many of the incidents were motivated by religious, ethnic, and national hatred, and introduced an Act of Parliament in order to tackle the problems that had arisen. The 'Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act' came into law on 1 March 2012, representing a governmental judgement that Scottish football is negatively affected by inter-communal tension. The Act criminalises violent incidents and threatening behaviour related to the expression of religious hatred towards football fans, players, and officials. It also explicitly targets expressions of hatred on ethnic and national grounds. This is significant because in the contemporary era, much of what is termed 'sectarianism' in Scotland is directly related to national identity, particularly British and Irish identities. The modern iconography of Celtic and Rangers has comparatively little to do with religion, and relates to differing visions of Scotland, the United Kingdom, and the island of Ireland. Incidents that are termed 'sectarian' are often best examined through the prism of nationalism, for in contemporary Scotland it is national identity that is most significant to those who perpetrate the actions that the Act seeks to tackle

Glasgow 2014, the media and Scottish politics – the (post)imperial symbolism of the Commonwealth Games

This article critically examines print media discourses regarding the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games. The forthcoming analysis considers the political symbolism of the Commonwealth Games with regards to the interlinkages between the British Empire, sport and the global political status of the UK, with specific consideration given to the UK’s declining global power as well as the interconnections between the 2014 Games and the Scottish independence referendum. Hechter’s (1975) ‘internal colonialism’ thesis, which portrays Scotland’s marginalised status within the UK, is drawn upon to critically explore the political symbolism of sport for Scottish nationalism, before discussion focuses upon the extent to which the modern Commonwealth is symptomatic of the UK’s declining status as a global power. Finally, the existence of these narrative tropes in print media coverage of the Commonwealth Games is examined, allowing for critical reflections on the continuing interconnections between the media, sport, nationalism and post-imperial global politics

Three lions on her shirt: hot and banal nationalism for England’s sportswomen

It has long been claimed that sport plays an important role in the formulation of national identity. Key to understanding this relationship is Michael Billig’s (1995) concept of banal nationalism which is used in this article to examine national symbols that act as daily reminders of the nation. Specifically, the article discusses the relationship between Englishness and sport by drawing upon data from interviews with representative English sportswomen in association football, cricket, netball and rugby union. The article demonstrates the important role that (men’s) sport plays in developing a sense of national identity in England and, in particular, one that is distinct from Britishness. Furthermore, the significance of national symbols are evidenced as banal reminders of national identity for England’s sportswomen