ABSTRACT
The conclusion to the volume focuses on four key aspects which are critical to future debate on the interlocking axis between sport, national identities and globalisation. First, consideration is given to a number of theoretical perspectives that resonate in the study: banal nationalism, the creation of imagined communities, the commodification of sport within the context of McDonaldization, together with Joseph S. Nye’s seminal concept of “soft power” are all evaluated in this concluding chapter. Some attention is then afforded to future relationships around sport as the cultural custodian of identities before discussing the challenges and opportunities represented by the issues facing sport in the globalisation era. Finally, sport is conceptualised as a matrix of power relations in the contemporary idiom, a set of oscillating tensions which shape and impact upon the core themes examined in this study, encapsulating six central elements: the state, the media, the market, fandom, sporting bodies and tradition.
