Alan Bairner

Consides the relationship between sport, national identities and gender in a contemporary Irish context

Sport and the Irish

John Sugden

This text examines the political nature of sport and leisure in Northern Ireland as an (often overlooked) aspect of the divided community. The politics of partition are integral to the rivalry between clubs, to the support the clubs receive, and even to the very choice of games played and watched.

SPORT, SECTARIANISM AND SOCIETY

Gyozo Molnar

With the ever increasing global significance of the Olympic Games, it has never been more topical to address the political issues that surround, influence and emanate from this quadrennial sporting mega event. In terms of the most recent evidence of the politics of the Olympics, the 2008 Beijing Games were riddled with political messages and content from the outset, and provided a global stage for protesters with numerous agendas. These included, to name but a few, proposed boycotts, potential terrorist attacks, the question of open media access, protests against China’s political practices and attempts to interrupt the ‘traditional’ torch rally. Essays in this collection focus on numerous political aspects of the Olympics from a variety of different perspectives, with a Glossary that contains a range of politically relevant entries relating to famous and infamous Olympic athletes, Olympic movement personnel and events and broader political issues and developments which have affected the modern Games. The purpose of this anthology is not to perpetuate hatred towards the concept and practices of Olympism or to regurgitate a ‘celebratory party line’. Instead, in addition to being informative, the book offers critical engagement with the Olympics by raising awareness of the movement’s political significance. Consequently, the essays in this anthology illustrate the strong but changing links between the modern Olympic Games and politics, in general, and address and discuss the key political aspects and issues with regard to the Games themselves, to national and international sport organisations and to specific countries’ attitudes to (ab)using the idea/ideal of the Olympics for their own political ends.

A Survey

The Politics of the Olympics

Friederike Trotier

Despite a widely held, and not entirely erroneous, view that the cultures of East and Southeast Asia commonly favour the mind over the body or, at least mental activity rather than physical endeavour, this collection of essays sheds light on the wide range of diverse ways in which sport and body cultures feature in that part of the world. Contributors to the collection work in many different countries but are united in their shared interest in increasing our understanding of the social role of sport and body cultures which is manifest in their work. The countries that are discussed are Indonesia, the People’s Republic of China, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, and the former Netherlands New Guinea. Themes considered in these chapters are the implications of hosting sport events, the focus on sport and the body by a group of Buddhist monastics, belly dancing in the lives of women in Taiwan, the sociopolitical role of the scouting movement in a colonial setting, and issues relating to the functioning of sport clubs. The chapters were originally published in Asia Pacific Journal of Sport and Social Science.

Alan Bairner

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