Sport and Politics in Modern Britain

Jefferys, Kevin

doi:10.1007/978-1-137-02341-4

Cited by 23 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…No previous Games has set out to ‘inspire a generation’ to physical activity like London; some evidence exists which indicates that lapsed sports people or those already involved in sport can be inspired even further (Weed et al ., ), but these are not the hard‐to‐get‐at groups that need to be mobilised. Ironically, perhaps, the coalition government has taken resources out of schemes that have been shown successfully to promote sport participation among children (the School Sports Partnerships) and put them into a controversial annual Olympic‐style sports event, the School Games (Jefferys, , pp. 262–3; Keech, , p. 93).…”

Section: Olympic Legacies and The Commercialisation Of The Gamesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sport Politics and the Olympics

Grix

2013

Political Studies Review

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Sport and politics have long been linked, but the Olympic Games represent the most political sports event of all. The following article focuses on two of the most important aspects of the Olympics (and sports 'mega-events' in general) that students of politics and international relations could make a major contribution towards: the use of the Olympics by states to showcase the host nation and the hoped-for 'legacies' that arise from them. Both aspects are, of course, interlinked: the 'legacies' are often put forward as the key rationale for the bidding for, and hosting of, the Olympics.

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Section: Olympic Legacies and The Commercialisation Of The Gamesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sport Politics and the Olympics

Grix

2013

Political Studies Review

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“…During its early years in office, the Blair government was keen on iconic projects, with the Millennium Dome and the Olympics being examples of its modernist ideology (this argument rather goes against that of the account of the decline of high modernism in the British state -Bevir, 2010). Blair's marathon trip to lobby International Olympic Committee (IOC) members at the vote in Singapore came to demonstrate the political capital invested by the government in its support for the London bid (see Jefferys, 2012). Resistance to the bid needed to be overcome through high politics inside government.…”

Section: Understanding the High Politics Of Mega-eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Governing the Games: High Politics, Risk and Mega-Events

Jennings

2013

Political Studies Review

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Prima facie, spectacular public events and large-scale capital projects are an ideal vehicle for 'high politics' and the predilection of policy-making elites for grand, iconic and schematic visions that offer high-profile policy successes and historic legacies.Yet the prospective political rewards from such mega-events and projects must be offset against high levels of risk and complexity. Further, such schemes tend to be at odds with the prevailing doctrines and practices of the modern state: in particular its deference to market-based mechanisms and its liking for instruments of calculation and control. Indeed, mega-projects and events often prove uneconomic despite the predictions of forecasters.This review essay considers how the bidding and planning process for the London 2012 Olympic Games demonstrates this tension between high politics, risk and the preferred methods of governing the modern state.Who gains and who loses from spectacular public events and the large-scale capital projects often associated with them? 'Mega-events' and 'mega-projects' are often linked to 'high politics', specifically in policy-making elites' adoption of these sorts of projects and policies with a view to their symbolic value, at the same time as highlighting the role of power in planning disasters and policy fiascos (see Moran, 2001, for a discussion of how different 'systems' of politics give rise to catastrophes under the British regulatory state and see Flyvbjerg, 1998, for an in-depth study of the relationship between 'rationality' and power in urban policy and planning). They are also, increasingly, vehicles for neo-liberal ambitions of the state, facilitating its ties with private interests (such as private financing, multinational corporations, property developers, professional services firms), yet they often violate neo-liberal deference to the ability of the market to enforce discipline in public projects. Because of this, major events such as the Olympic Games raise a number of questions that are political in character yet encompass a wide range of disciplines, theories and fields of inquiry. This review article explores how mega-events shed light on the relationship between politics, risk and the modern state.Decision makers at the highest reaches of government are often attracted to grand, schematic visions and the potential for high-profile policy successes with the hope of reaping political rewards and leaving historic legacies. Mega-events such as the Olympics tend to be iconic either through the visual spectacle of the event itself or otherwise through the construction of vast and impressive infrastructure and buildings and the recreation of public space, and the communication of political or ideological narratives through events and ceremonies. At the same time, ambitious expressions of design and engineering can provide justifications or opportunities for governments to implement projects that are of strategic importance, signalling their economic power, technological innovation or global status. Such symboli...

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“…Politicians in many nations have responded to societal changes and developed more specific sports policies and researchers have become more concerned with sports, both as a response to developments in sports policies and as part of a broader social science interest in leisure and culture (Houlihan 2000, Bergsgard et al 2007, Jefferys 2012, Hallmann and Petry 2013, Henry and Ko 2013. Political researchers have especially been concerned with two sets of issues when it comes to sports, the first of which is the structure of sports politics and how the actors involved -sports organisations, politicians, and bureaucrats -interact.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political framing of sports: the mediated politicisation of Oslo’s interest in bidding for the 2022 Winter Olympics

Seippel

Broch

Kristiansen

et al. 2016

International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics

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Sport is a malleable phenomenon: it is not obvious what might be contentious about sports and how sports eventually turn into political questions. For years, there had been discussions on whether the city of Oslo should make a bid for the Winter Olympics 2022. In 2012, it was decided that the issue should be the topic for an advisory referendum in 2013. This guaranteed the presence of a sport issue on the public agenda for a longer period. We used the occasion of the referendum to study how a sports issue was framed politically through a content analysis of articles on the issue in a selection of Norwegian papers the year leading up to the election (N = 362). We first give a basic overview of number of articles, the papers in which they occur, article type, and timing. Then, we present the stand taken on the issue and identify the actors involved. Two groups of actors, both positive to making a bid, dominated the debate: sport organisations and Oslo politicians. Finally, we look at the issues discussed. The dominant themes were sport facilities, economic questions, urban development, and sport goods. In our conclusion, we emphasised three aspects of the debate. First, Norwegian regional politics were central in giving meaning to the issue and sports-specific benefits became more marginal. Second, the core argument became that we need a large sports event primarily because of indirect effects. Third, sports as a political issue lacks 'severity' and 'efficacy' and sports are lacking 'propriety'.

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Sport and Politics in Modern Britain

Cited by 23 publications

References 0 publications

Sport Politics and the Olympics

Sport Politics and the Olympics

Governing the Games: High Politics, Risk and Mega-Events

Political framing of sports: the mediated politicisation of Oslo’s interest in bidding for the 2022 Winter Olympics

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