Category Archives: Football and Globalization

Acculturation and Racialization (Seth Browner PCQ 1/16/14)

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Racialization and the Last Temptation of Zinedine Zidane

I enjoyed this article because I felt it touched on several points that are salient to the study of global football. For example, the author in great detail elaborated on the influence that the media plays in the spread of global soccer more than ever before in the game’s history. It also delves into the 20th century advent of investigative journalism.

The media has incredible power over how audiences come into contact with sports. More than simply reporting, I believe the explosion of the mobile device era is equally as potent in information’s spread. I really give specific credit to the iPhone and iPad. The ease of using them, the accessibility of international news, and the almost uninterrupted internet connection makes them especially worthy of note. The iPhone popularized the smartphone craze. They are so widespread in the rich world. Even in the semi-peripheral tier of countries, Apple’s technology is influencing culture there.

Most significantly is the impact that globalized media wields over culture. Culture is being re-shaped and broken down. New trends and fads are materializing. I would say that soccer’s prominence in the United States is part of that materialization.

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Cole PCQ 1/16/2014 Problems with 21st Century Football

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Racism, Sexism, and International Migration in 21st Century Football

The football academies in the United Kingdom are an excellent example of how commercialized and global all aspects of the game have become.  These youth football academies were originally formed to propagate talented football players from an early age.  By having Premier League clubs sponsor these schools, these clubs got were able to keep the talent for themselves and in the UK.  Recently, other countries have followed the UK’s example, but with one key difference; from the start, they actively sought out young players from around the world for their academies.  These academies are also responsible for teaching the youth players workforce skills to fall back on in case their football dreams fall short.

By actively looking for and recruiting youth players from around the world, European football academies are embodying some of the founding ideas of the European Union.  Even if the extranational youth players do not make it in the big leagues, they become a part of that country’s workforce and contribute to its global image.   Continue reading →

Style and Identity PCQ 6

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Lechner’s article focuses on the Dutch national team and their development of a “Dutch National Style” of football throughout the late 20th century. Lechner bases some of the Dutch resurgence in the late 20th century on the collective memory of earlier Dutch victories.  It can be drawn from our discussion about national myths that the Dutch victories of ’74 and ’78 are part of the foundation of Dutch soccer. The Dutch as a team know they are capable of this greatness, therefore blocking one of the first hurdles of attaining a championship, the preconceived notions of a teams limitations. Tying this back to the article of American exceptionalism, I feel that it is this preconceived notion of limitations that is hindering America in adopting the sport of soccer. Continue reading →

Stages of the global: Media sport, racialization and the last temptation of Zinedine Zidan

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Stages of the global: Media sport, racialization and the last temptation of Zinedine Zidane

 The institution of the media is an enormously powerful force in shaping knowledge and understanding of increasingly dynamic, complex societies. This is not to argue, of course, that the media are all-powerful, creating new ideologies and values out of thin air.

Reaction: This statement is so true because from an early age one can learn their alphabet, numbers along with other vital things which are important to human development. Media also shapes our understanding of what is going on around the world and helps us to broaden our knowledge.

Without media I don’t think that sports would be as big as it is today. Media helps people to follow teams from all over the world in real time. However, if you missed the game you will get all the important highlights that shaped the final outcome. Media brings people who share a certain commonality together.

A Short not on ‘race’

The meanings of ‘race’ generated through such processes both draw on and re-draw those located at their points of origin, and are diffused through global commodification into new zones of cultural interpretation.

 In the case of Zidane you can see that race causes you to do things that you will end up regretting for the rest of you life. His actions showed that you have to be strong willed and put your pride away in cases like he was in.

 Global boys: Exploring experiences of acculturation amongst migrant youth footballers in Premier League academies

 The rule of recruiting youths from abroad has been around for centuries. European countries realized that they needed new talent back in the late nineteen hundreds so they started looking at countries they once occupied. These academic schools are very rigorous for these youths but it is molding them into players the club will hopefully use.

Players are not the only people who migrate to these school also coaches and future majors.

Acculturation as an experiential facet of globalization

‘acculturating strategies’ through which migrants make decisions as to what extent they wish to maintain their indigenous cultural heritage and/or embrace their culture of settlement. These strategies include: assimilation, in which the migrant actively interacts with the host culture whilst showing little or no desire for indigenous cultural maintenance; separation, where indigenous cultural norms are maintained with no desire to embrace the host culture; marginalization, when neither cultural maintenance nor interaction with the host culture are desired; and integration, when both the maintenance of one’s cultural behaviors and involvement in the host society are sought (Berry, 1997).

Acculturation is the movement from a norm that you know to the adaption of new customs and traditions.

The four things that these individuals might encounter in the new environment are transformation, relativization, accommodation and hybridization.

 

Female Athlete Reports on Treatment of Female Players in Brazil (Seth Browner TIFO 1/14/14)

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Caitlin Fisher Condemns the Portrayal of Women Footballers in Brazil

Caitlin Fisher, a former US soccer player and Santos FC footballer, reports in this short video on the feminization of female players in the Brazilian women’s league.  A graduate of Harvard University, she currently works in collaboration with South American football players in various charity organizations meant to push for the expansion of the women’s game. In her discussion, Fisher acknowledges improvement in the public’s favorable perception of female soccer, yet does not fail to raise points where steps forward have yet to be taken. TEDTalks host a variety of commentators of which she is featured.

Aline Pellegrino Comments on Women’s Soccer in Brazil (Seth Browner TIFO 1/13/14)

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Female Footballer Divulges the Inequalities in the Football-Crazed Nation of Brazil

Brazil, famous for its lush jungles and sunny beaches, is a hub of success international soccer playing. Claiming more World Cup titles than any other country, football is an indispensable facet of its diverse society. However, the hidden side to this athletic fanaticism is that the nation’s love of football is highly unequal. Women soccer players receive little acclaim. The sport has many steps to take before it can catch up to the level it is practiced at for men. Brazilian international player Aline Pellegrino deplores these inequities and succinctly elaborates on her active front to ignite the women’s soccer movement in an article in Public Radio International.

Women’s Soccer Improving in the United States (Seth Browner TIFO 1/10/14)

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How Women’s Soccer has Grown in the United States

There is a universal note in inequality movements where improvement must acknowledged for the growth of any campaign. Women’s soccer in the United States, and abroad, is not any different. Since, the first women’s team played on a field in the United States in 1985, much progress has been made. Title IX legislation has expanded soccer programs for females at the university dramatically. Female soccer players had at one time been as celebrated profiles as athletes like Ryan Lochte and Mariano Rivera. Mia Hamm and Joy Fawcett boasted numerous sponsorships and captured the adulation of a generation of Americans. The US women’s team has never a slot lower than second in FIFA’s international rankings- something the US men’s team would adore. However, there’s work to be done. WUSA discontinued due to low attendance and investors look askance at the worthwhileness of pouring money into a women’s  league in this country, blogger Julian Cardillo reports.  But, headway has been made.

http://www.boston.com/sports/soccer/blog/2013/04/in_100_years_wo.html

TIFO: “A Century of Soccer Migration” – by Eamon Boussa

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This short article and video shows how players were traded between countries between 1900 and 2013.  The video shows little to no trading from 1900 to around 1950 where trades begin to increase substantially.

There is a further increase in the 1970s and a massive number of transfers in the past two decades.  Throughout the video it is clear the majority of player transfers involve Europe.

TIFO: “Djibril Cisse Hits Out at ‘Racist’ Greek League . . .”

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While this incident occurred over two years ago, this is simply a prime example of blatant racism in the footballing world.

Djibril Cisse was the victim of racial abuse during the 2011 season in the Greek football league and claimed that racism was an issue throughout the entire league. Players even stormed the field after a game and attacked him.

Cisse insisted, “I was their target. Some of them hit me and I retaliated to defend myself. It’s a disgrace”.

Read more here.

Race, Nationalism, Globalization and Sports – by Jordan Adams

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Theories of “Race” 

Michael Banton’s piece on the theories of race help the readers understand how the idea of race came to be and how different races were identified. Cuvier believed that one’s physical prowess determined the quality of their culture and the limits of their mental abilities. Banton’s article explains the theories behind racism, a social response that cannot be inherited, yet can be learned through social practices. The creation behind different races seems to be linked to the belief that whites were superior beings to humans of different color, race allowed European colonists to justify their capitalist motives in foreign territories.

Banton points out that while discrimination and crime are inevitable parts of society, racial discrimination places certain people within a perceived social category solely based off of differences in appearance. The theories of race piece also explain a shift in the use of different racial identifications from one that justified exploitation of labor to practices of expulsion.

Race

Mikalila and Lemonik declare that race was born out of capitalist beliefs, those who could not advance as quickly or as efficiently as the Europeans did must be lesser beings.  Colonizing the Irish helped establish a racial dominance that the British spread throughout the expansion of their empire. If race was not born out of capitalism it must have been a belief founded in religion where whites claimed that blacks must be lesser beings because they believed they were the descendants of Ham. What caught my attention was the creation of the IQ test in 1905 Continue reading →