'Investigating the Sports Spectacle in an Era of Post-Nationalism'

When?

Monday 1 November 2004, 17:00 to 18:30

Where?

19AD04

Open to:

Public, Staff, Students

Speaker:

Drs. Eileen Kennedy, Helen Pussard and Andrew Thornton

Drs. Eileen Kennedy, Helen Pussard and Andrew Thornton (Roehampton Univ.)

'By means of the spectacle the ruling order discourses endlessly upon itself in an uninterrupted monologue of self-praise.' (Debord, 1995: 19)

In this paper, we will argue that in an era of post-nationalism, the sport spectacle becomes the primary medium through which nations and national identities are re-imagined. There are few other opportunities to evoke and display the figure of the nation with such uncritical optimism and celebratory zeal. However, the concept of the post-national not only refers to the recent disintegration of the modernist meanings and structures of the nation. It also indicates a critical awareness of the parade of long-empty signifiers through which nationalism has flourished. Within this confusing and contradictory global context, the sport spectacle presents the 'world of nations' (Roche, 2000) as nostalgic and insubstantial, yet enduring.

The stylised production of Athens 2004 epitomised the capacity of the mega-event to entrench the myths of a pan-historic Olympic Games. Within this context, nation and sport appear symbiotically intertwined, benign and inevitable. This paper will argue that the characteristics of the sport spectacle - fleeting, ephemeral, grandiose, ubiquitous and familiar - foster an embodied sense of the national with a specific intensity. Drawing on research currently being undertaken at the CSCRS on past and present sport spectacles, the paper will discuss ways of understanding the significance of contemporary sport mega-events and reflect on the current 'Leap for London' campaign to host the Olympics in 2012.

Eileen Kennedy, Helen Pussard and Andrew Thornton are lecturers and researchers within the Centre for Scientific and Cultural Research in Sport at Roehampton University. Their research focuses on identity construction - class, gender, race, ethnicity - in the consumption of sport and leisure. Recent publications include:

Eileen Kennedy & Andrew Thornton, eds, (2004), Leisure, Media and Visual Culture: Representations and Contestations, Eastbourne: LSA

Cara Aitchison & Helen Pussard, eds, (2004), Leisure, Space and Visual Culture: Practices and Meanings, Eastbourne: LSA

Eileen Kennedy, (2004), 'Under the skin of Manchester United: Knowing footballing bodies', in David Andrews, ed, Manchester United. A Thematic Study, London: Routledge

Helen Pussard, (2003), 'The Blackshirts at Belle Vue: Fascist Theatre at a North-West Pleasure Ground', in Julie Gottlieb and Thomas Linehan, eds, Cultural Expressions of the Far Right in 20th Century Britain, London: I.B. Tauris

Andrew Thornton, (2004), '"Anyone can play this game": ultimate frisbee, identity and difference', in Belinda Wheaton, ed, Understanding Lifestyle Sports. Consumption, identity and difference, London: Routledge