ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines sport’s main historical features with reference to globalization processes since the nineteenth century. It considers the main political and economic aspects of globalization and sport, with reference to the diversity of political actors and the global sport economy. The chapter examines the socio-cultural dimensions of global sport with regard to debates on cultural imperialism and cultural creativity and hybridity. Sport was a highly important constituent of this take-off phase in two obvious ways. First, most important, many modern sports underwent very rapid forms of global spread, development, and institutionalization during this time. Second, sport fed significantly into wider globalization processes that were central to the ‘take-off’ phase. The global sport economy may be understood as reflecting the broader world economy, in being principally structured to promote the interests of wealthy individuals, nation-states, and corporations that are based in the ‘global North’.
