Globalization and Sport Essay

â€Å"Sport is where an entire life can be compressed into a few hours, where the emotions of a lifetime can be felt on an acre or two of ground, where a person can suffer and die and rise again on six miles of trails through a New York City park. Sport is a theater where sinner can turn saint and a common man become an uncommon hero, where the past and the future can fuse with the present. Sport is singularly able to give us peak experiences where we feel completely one with the world and transcend all conflicts as we finally become our own potential. † This quote by George A. Sheehan taken from Quote Garden definitely says it all. They say if there’s one thing that binds a country and its people despite political differences and social struggles, it is sport. Sport is the most universal characteristic of pop culture. It defies language barriers and national boundaries to a common language of obsessions and desires. Globalization and Sport by Miller, Lawrence, McKay, and Rowe mediates between sport and culture, sport and globalization, or culture and globalization. It discusses that sport is not only an apparent means of one’s pleasure, but also a part of government, economics, and socials of daily life. Sport is also scrutinized as a major guise of globalization. As I have earlier said, sport unifies organizations, communities and brings forth economic abundance. What makes world championships or Olympic Games enticing is the fact that the world is so focused on a specific country or organization. The fight for victory, power, and recognition are mainly the goals of competing countries showing off their skills and strength via television to countless expectant viewers. The fight of their country is the fight for globalization. What then is globalization? It is a â€Å"process through which space and time are compressed by technology, information flows, and trade and power relations, allowing distant actions to have increased significance at the local level† (Miller et al, 2001, p. 131). Also, globalization simply means autonomous movement for goods and people. This movement is said to have a definite influence on intellectual, economic, social, and governmental practices. Thus, it is regarded as the keyword for the international trade plans of the sports industry and the business sector. What are the effects of globalization of sport in the local and national scales? Debates are strong and fierce in globalization. There is a sudden emergence of a pro-globalist and anti-globalist. This new concept is to some extent viewed in two opposing perspectives. Globalization is considered as an indication of progress or advancement, especially for Third World countries who attest to utilizing sport for nation building objectives. But for some people, globalization is an adversity to the world economy. Little nations or few developing countries still do fear of being taken over, completely ruled and dominated by the much industrialized nations such as the United States and Europe through the intervention of sports entertainment. They blame globalization for confusing the true identity of the country and the culture of its people, undermining nationalism. In fact globalized sports in media influence people’s opinions regarding their own origin and other countries as well. Similar writings about sport, globalization, and cultural imperialism offer a full description as to how sport connects with distinct mentalities within the historical and national frameworks. But only time will tell which perspective is correct, if a nation’s transformation towards globalization is actually healthy and significant. Lest we forget that there also people who are standing just in the middle of things, waiting for good endings to happen. The authors see globalization as ugly and dangerous. Our sense of space and time through media is questioned, and jobs are unlikely accepted by individuals on the basis of price and docility rather than work conditions. The authors are also interested in the governmentalization, Americanization, televisualization, and commodification which they see as altogether important to globalization. Globalization process needs to address a lot of political or cultural issues, and so as not to merely be considered as a brand name for economists and sociologists disguising in the world of sports, because it is not only the so-called ruling class that tries to profit from the worldwide focus on a given country or event, but even the opposing forces also try to generate news-value to get the attention of the media. The book is enthralling, ideas are thoroughly researched and written, and evidences are vividly shown through eventful phases in the history of sports and media. It is a fascinating book that discusses the theories and effects of globalization in the sports industry. It brings down a very extensive and critical analysis on the advantages and disadvantages of global sports, its historical and cultural considerations, and the role of media in globalizing it. Television is a particular marker of globalization and thus, inseparable with global sport. Remember how sport communicates with advertising, promotion, and commodification as it collects experiences between nations. The author and contributing writers made a wonderful job in collating data from previous to the current events that are taking hold in the nation. Presenting their sample ideas and evidences in their arguments are great means to fully comprehend the parameters of sport and globalization. In this case, it is not misleading its readers. It is highly recommended to academicians, sports enthusiasts, and even to the newbie in the sociology of sports. The major author Toby Miller is an editor and a professor who studies media, sport, labor, gender, race, citizenship, politics, cultural policy, textual analysis, archival research, and ethnography. Co-author Geoffrey Lawrence is foundation professor of sociology and the executive director of the Institute for Sustainable Regional Development at Central Queensland University, Australia. Co-author Jim McKay teaches pop culture in the Co-author David Rowe is an associate professor in media and cultural studies. Everyday is a lingering moment of reflection. We wake up and see ourselves on a different plane. We sleep and hope that tomorrow will still remain. But again, we wake up and find that who we are yesterday is not who we are now. What we think is real is almost dead and gone in our dreams. Globalization is storming over every nation like angry wind and rain. It is painstakingly taking over each life every single day, changing the course of an individual, a society, and eventually the whole nation. If we cannot escape the evolution in civilization, then our lives will continuously revolve on our country’s political axis. They say the bearing of a man remains to be seen in the culture of its nation. What happens to our culture if we are eventually drowned by globalization? Even in the most entertaining way to release our frustrations, which is sport, globalization has taken over. If we are globalized, are we surely free? Can you clothe the naked with your global brands of sports clothing? Can you feed international recognition and power to the hungry? Can you house the homeless in your house of victory? Can you water hope to the hopelessly stricken? Then each poor man in this world will have to painfully battle against economic modernization or industrialization. Therefore, men should not live in a world where he feels condemned to this kind of fake freedom, and if losing one’s self is the price of it. But that wishful thinking remains up to this day impossible. Reference Miller, T. , Lawrence, G. , McKay, J. , Rowe, D. (2001). Globalization and sport: playing the world. London: Sage.