The Denationalization of Sport: De-ethnicization of the Nation and Identity Deterritorialization

Poli, Raffaele

doi:10.1080/17430430701388798

Cited by 53 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…The first strand mainly concerns the alleged marketisation of citizenship (see Iorwerth et al, 2014;Jansen et al, forthcoming;Kostakopoulou and Schrauwen, 2014;Shachar, 2011;Shachar and Hirschl, 2014;Spiro, 2014), whereas the second strand of debate is primarily concerned with the question of nationhood (Adjaye, 2010;Black, 2016;Campbell, 2011;Poli, 2007).…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nationality swapping in the Olympic Games 1978–2017: A supervised machine learning approach to analysing discourses of citizenship and nationhood

Jansen

2018

International Review for the Sociology of Sport

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While the practice of nationality swapping in sports traces back as far as the Ancient Olympics, it seems to have increased over the past decades. Cases of Olympic athletes who switched their national allegiances are often surrounded with controversy. Two strands of thought could help explain this controversy. First, these cases are believed to be indicative of the marketisation of citizenship. Second, these cases challenge established discourses of national identity as the question 'who may represent the nation?' becomes contested. Using state-of-the-art machine learning techniques, I analysed 1534 English language newspaper articles about Olympic athletes who changed their nationalities . The results indicate: (i) that switching national allegiance has not necessarily become more controversial; (ii) that most media reports do not frame nationality switching in economic terms; and (iii) that nationality swapping often occurs fairly unnoticed. I therefore conclude that a marketisation of citizenship is less apparent in nationality switching than some claim. Moreover, nationality switches are often mentioned rather casually, indicating the generally banal character of nationalism. Only under certain conditions does 'hot' nationalism spark the issue of nationhood.

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Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nationality swapping in the Olympic Games 1978–2017: A supervised machine learning approach to analysing discourses of citizenship and nationhood

Jansen

2018

International Review for the Sociology of Sport

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“…For example, Stephen Cherono, who pioneered the movement by Kenyans to the Middle East, was assured an attractive financial package for success in international competitions as well as a monthly stipend of US $1,000 for life (Connor & Griffin, n.d.;Poli, 2007). In track and field, it is now common for athletes to move to countries where their services are paid for by the host country.…”

Section: Economic Empowermentmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Thus, where there is marriage, one is forced to choose a country with better lifestyle prospects. Thus, through marriage, Kenya has in the recent past lost some of the most outstanding athletes of their generation such as Bernard Lagat (to United States), Wilson Kipketer (to Denmark) and Lorna Kiplagat (to the Netherlands), who went on to win and set records for their new countries (IAAF, 2010a;Poli, 2007). The non-provision for dual citizenship in the former constitution of Kenya left the athletes with the option of choosing the spouses' country.…”

Section: Marriagementioning

confidence: 99%

Global inequality and athlete labour migration from Kenya

Njororai¹

2010

Leisure/Loisir

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This article sets out to contextualize the growing phenomena involving migration of athletes from Kenya to other countries. It is argued that Kenya has made a mark in track athletics at world championships, Olympic and other invitation meets particularly in middle and distance running. But the dominance by Kenyan athletes and the scarcity of talent in other countries that would want to gain international recognition have created a new dispensation. The new dispensation is that of sports labour migration from Africa to the oil-rich but talent-starved countries of the Middle East and other countries keen on raising their international profiles. The unbalanced nature of global wealth and sporting corporate power has created movement of sporting talent from less paying to higher paying clubs and now nations. It is recommended that further research be undertaken to establish the level of satisfaction and acceptance of the immigrant athletes in the new countries.Cet article vise à conceptualiser le phénomène croissant de la migration sportive des athlètes kenyans vers d'autres pays. Il est soutenu que les athlètes kenyans sont reconnus pour leurs athlétismes, surtout dans les courses de fond aux championnats mondiaux et aux olympiques. Mais cette domination par les athlètes kenyans et la pénurie de talents dans d'autres pays qui voudraient acquérir une reconnaissance internationale a créé une nouvelle demande. Une migration d'athlètes africains vers les pays riches en huile du Moyen-Orient et d'autres pays désireux de l'accroissement de leurs profils athlétiques est démontrée dans cet article. La nature déséquilibrée de la concentration des richesses mondiales et le pouvoir des entreprises sportives a donc créé un mouvement des talents sportifs moins payés vers les clubs et nations plus payeurs.

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“…It is becoming increasingly commonplace for sportspeople to represent nations other than the one in which they were born and brought up, and in some instances, to switch nationality purely for sporting purposes. For some these trends mirror the increasing elasticity and decreasing importance of national identities more generally (Poli 2007). On a more cynical and problematic note, however, others (Maguire 1996;Walsh and Guilianotti 2007;Holmes and Storey 2011) have suggested that the driving force initiating such flexibility is often the commercial and instrumental orientation of contemporary sport.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…While this issue has been discussed in several contexts within the sociology of sport (Maguire 1996;Chiba et al 2001;Grainger 2006;Poli 2007;Holmes and Storey NATIONAL SPORTING REPRESENTATION 269 2011), these discussions have tended to be descriptive in nature. Our aim within this paper is to build on the aforementioned work by developing a moral perspective on issues of ISR.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

The Moral Pathologies of National Sporting Representation at the Olympics

Iorwerth¹,

Jones²,

Hardman³

2012

Sport, Ethics and Philosophy

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Nationality, citizenship and eligibility have become increasingly relevant in sport, especially under current conditions where there is an increasing number of players who change their 'allegiances' for international sporting purposes. While it is reasonable to link such trends to wider processes of globalisation and accelerated migratory flows, it is also evident that national sporting representation is subject to the venal power of commercialism. The concern is that national representation has developed into a more strategic, planned and economically driven activity that involves the overt collusion of national governing bodies and individual athletes. This paper evaluates the moral status of current international sporting representation (ISR) rules and practices as they relate to the Olympics. By drawing on de Coubertin's notion of 'sincere internationalism ' and Walsh and Guilianotti's (2007) work on hyper-commercialisation in sport, we will attempt to demonstrate how some of the current practices and regulations of ISR are ethically problematic. We conclude that current ISR regulations are drawn too loosely and need to be amended in order to limit the moral pathologies identified. Our critique is informed by empirical data collected from members of the Welsh sports practice community. ResumenLa Nacionalidad, la ciudadanía, y la elegibilidad se han vuelto más y más importantes para el deporte, especialmente bajo las condiones actuales donde hay un número cada vez mayor de jugadores que cambian sus «lealtades» por motivos deportivos internacionales. Mientras que es razonable el conectar tales tendencias a procesos más amplios de globalización y de flujos migratorios acelerados, también es evidente que la representación nacional deportiva está sometida al poder venal del comercialismo. La inquietud es pues que la representación nacional se ha convertido en una actividad más estratégica, más planificada, y motivada de manera más económica que implica la colisión patente de las federaciones y consejos nacionales con los atletas individuales. El artículo evalúa el estatus moral de las reglas y prácticas internacionales de representación deportivas (ISR) [siglas en inglés] vigentes y su relación con las olimpiadas. Basándonos en la noción de Coubertin del «internacionalismo sincero» y la publicación de Walsh y Guilianotti (2007) sobre la hipercomercialización en el deporte, intentaremos demostrar cómo algunas de las prácticas y regulaciones actuales de ISR son problemáticas éticamente. Concluímos que las regulaciones actuales de ISR han sido desarrolladas de manera demasíado poco rígida y que necesitan ser corregidas para poder limitar las patologías morales identificadas. crítica está basada en datos empíricos obtenidos a partir de miembros de la comunidad deportiva galesa. ZusammenfassungNationalität, Staatsangehörigkeit und Zugangsberechtigung haben wachsende Bedeutung im Sport, insbesondere unter den gegenwärtigen Bedingungen, d. h. bei einer wachsenden Zahl von Spielern, die ihr «Zugehörigkeitsgefühl'' gegen e...

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The Denationalization of Sport: De-ethnicization of the Nation and Identity Deterritorialization

Cited by 53 publications

References 14 publications

Nationality swapping in the Olympic Games 1978–2017: A supervised machine learning approach to analysing discourses of citizenship and nationhood

Nationality swapping in the Olympic Games 1978–2017: A supervised machine learning approach to analysing discourses of citizenship and nationhood

Global inequality and athlete labour migration from Kenya

The Moral Pathologies of National Sporting Representation at the Olympics

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