ABSTRACT

The Western ‘imperial’ world view has been described as a ‘core ideology’ with confident attendant belief systems based on associated uncomplicated self-belief in the mandate for control. Western imperialists used their sports for hegemonic domination, an early manifestation of globalisation still barley investigated. However, the claim for these imperialists as exclusive disseminators should not be pressed too vigorously. The time is ripe for caveats, caution and complexities. There was never a monolithic cultural response to the use of sport in imperial control. Thus it is time for a provocative agenda for analytical modernists and for a further and fuller study of the evolution of modern sport set hard in a political context.