The Cultural Politics of Sport: Why This,Why Now?

The genesis for this special issue can be traced to a similarly-named symposium hosted by the Physical Cultural Studies research program at the University of Maryland, in February 2023. At this event, Professors Boykoff, Joseph, Hartmann, and Carrington, were invited to critically consider the state of play within the cultural politics of sport. In the broadest possible terms, the cultural politics of sport refers to the phenomenon of sport (and, crucially, the way of conceptualizing and engaging it) as a distinct form of culture through which power and power relations are enacted—whether materially, spatially, symbolically, and/or affectively. The cultural politics of sport are, of course, rarely neutral, yet always contextual. Power or influence works, or perhaps more accurately is mobilized, in such a way as to inveterately advantage certain social groups, meanings, and identities, while simultaneously disadvantaging (or, at the very least, not advantaging) others. Crucially, approaching sport as a site of cultural politics demands a recognition of its contextual and dynamic nature, such that the ascendancy of a dominant order is never guaranteed across space and time. Furthermore, such an understanding implies—at least within the pseudo-democratic, and ostensibly non-authoritarian, confines of contemporary neoliberal societies—power is not simply a matter of orchestrated and imposed domination. Rather, as Viviani (2023, p. 150) cogently identified, power is “something that is not possessed but exercised” across a range of interrelated social spheres. Power is exercised within “political society through the public apparatus,” within economic society through the corporate apparatus, and within “civil society through the private apparatus” (Viviani, 2023, p. 164). Sport being co-constitutively articulated to, and through, each of these apparatus renders it unavoidably and complexly implicated in the broader field of contemporary power forces and relations.

As numerous critical and incisive studies over the past five decades (at the very least) have explicated (for an unrepresentative, but hopefully illustrative sample, see here: Adams, 2011; Chen, 2023; Cole & Hribar, 1995; Cooper et al., 2019; Farred, 2003; Gennaro & McGowan, 2023; Grano, 2017; Gruneau & Whitson, 1993; Hargreaves, 1986a, 1986b; King, 2006; Kusz & Hodler, 2023; McClearen, 2023; McDonald & Birrell, 1999; Miller, 2001; Newman & Giardina, 2011; Pullen & Silk, 2020; Silk, 2012; Smith, 2006; Sugden & Tomlinson, 2002; Swanson, 2009), sport constitutes a multifaceted cultural setting through which power (and the empowered group's, interests, meanings, and identities) is oftentimes enacted (or exercised), and frequently reproduced. Yet, as much of this foundational research has identified, sport can also be site for creative negotiation with, and/or active resistance against, an operative power formation. Sport is thus, potentially, a vehicle for transformative social change. This latter point is perhaps the most instructive when considering the incitements impelling this project more specifically. The symposium which served as the precursor to this special issue, was prompted by the accumulated—if oftentimes masked—disquiet of successive waves of Physical Cultural Studies graduate students at the University of Maryland (not that I would consider this affective response to be unique to this program, since assuredly likeminded researchers are doubtless experiencing similar uncertainties). Despite being initially animated by the perceived possibilities of cultural politics of sport research, many have become palpably disillusioned with what they consider to be a failure to realize the potential of such avowedly critical scholarship to meaningful socio-structural transformation or, indeed any discernible socio-cultural impact. This may well be an example of well intentioned, yet perhaps misguided, academic catastrophizing. While its influence may be difficult to verify, over the past two decades critical sport scholarship has periodically escaped academic confines to inform public, private, and, in places, policy spheres with regards to numerous issues (i.e., those pertaining to the relationship between contextually contingent sport practices, representations, and institutions, and the exercise of race/ethnic, gender/sex, social class, age, nation, and/or ability-based power relations, to name but a few). That having been, we cannot pretend that critical studies of the cultural politics of sport have had the type of broader social impact that many crave. For this reason, the Physical Cultural Studies graduate students’ agitation for more can only be viewed as a positive, since it compels us to revisit, and seriously reflect upon, precisely what we do as critical sport scholars, why we do it, and how we can do it better (whether it be in empirical, theoretical, methodological, and/or axiological terms).

For fear of falling foul of the twin perils of repetition and redundancy, many scholars ceaselessly, if oftentimes intuitively, carry out such internal audits as part of their on-going critical intellectual practice. Some do not, however, and are therefore prone to sliding into the comfort zone of academic (empirical, theoretical, and/or methodological) stagnation. With the intellectual health, empirical vigor, and political orientation of critical sport scholarship in mind, this special issue seeks to contribute to the necessary and on-going process of critical and, at times uncomfortable, self-reflection (see Mwaniki, 2023, for a telling and compelling recent example). Hence, although differing in focus and intensities, the contributions from Carrington, Hartmann, Boykoff, and Joseph variously compel us to consider such key problematics as: the complexities of sport as a site of political expression and/or contestation; various theoretical and/or methodological approaches to sport's cultural politicization; and, the progressive importance and transformative possibilities of doing such work within the context of the contemporary moment. Neither prescriptive nor doctrinaire, both individually and collectively, and exhibiting humility and realism, these broad-ranging discussions contribute toward on-going debate, and stimulate further reflection, within the broader intellectual community regarding the possibilities of cultural politics of sport research. Indeed, this critical and constructive dialogue is advanced within the concluding contribution to this special issue, wherein a heterogeneous assembly of University of Maryland-based early career scholars (Wallace, Nowosatka, Drafts-Johns, Weber, and Yang) offer their commentary on the contributions to the special issue as a way of heralding their call for greater contingency, vitality, and impact within future work focused on the cultural politics of sport: Something they consider “not only necessary but possible” (Wallace et al., this issue). Possible it may be, but necessary it most definitely is, particularly when we consider sport's multifarious implications in the unravelling political forces and formations compromising existence within many 21st century societies.