Thanks Jan for your really enjoyable piece. I've been thinking along the lines of your #3 on my own and with students in the past month, and I'm struck by the question of whether one would be as engaged in the competition were "your" team not involved.
The world cup games that began this week in Brazil offer us a fascinating mirror of the complex nature of current international politics.
Dear H-Nationalism Members,
... and a post on the World Cup, Iran, and contested nationalism from The Washington Post.
Hi
Also today elsewhere on H-Net there is https://networks.h-net.org/node/3911/discussions/31304/reflections-football-nationalism-and-national-identity
It is quite a good piece but there are gaps that seem to me to reinforce the need for sport studies and nationalism studies scholars to talk to each other more.
Malcolm
I look forward to the USA/Ghana game tonight. Despite the many issues that occupy us, it's great to watch the greatest and most global sport in the entire world.
Kuria Githiora
Along with Peter's suggestions, I'd also suggest Roger Kittleson's great new book: The Country of Football: Soccer and the Making of Modern Brazil (University of California Press, 2014) and for a more pan-Latin American look, my Fútbol!: Why Soccer Matters in Latin America.
I think the World Cup offers an instructive example of the intersection of (neo-)colonialism, race, class, and sports. I'm thinking of issues around dispossession (esp. land), health, resource distribution, and forms of protest, and the way that some of these issues have made it into mainstream media and others haven't. Some articles that might be of interest to begin this conversation:
