(This entry comprises extracts, from the beginning, a later section, and the conclusion, of a chapter to be included in Helen Lensjky and Stephen Wagg (eds), Handbook of Olympic Studies (Palgrave Macmillan), in 2011.)[i] ‘All these operations take money. You cannot help the developing countries with words. You must help them with money. And that… Continue reading The Making – and Unmaking? – of the Olympic Corporate Class
Tag: Prof Alan Tomlinson
The International Olympic Committee and the Olympic System
Jean-Loup Chappelet and Brenda Kübler-Mabbott, The International Olympic Committee and the Olympic System: The Governance of World Sport, Routledge, 2008, 208pp. + xiv ISBN 978-0-415-43168-2 (This is an amended version of a book review to be published in the academic journal Sport in History) This is the twenty-fourth book to appear in an ambitious initiative,… Continue reading The International Olympic Committee and the Olympic System
Understanding Sports Culture
Tony Schirato, Understanding Sports Culture, Sage Publications Ltd, 2007. 150 pp. Price not stated. Review by Alan Tomlinson Tony Schirato has written an ambitious book in which we are conducted on a worldwide tour of the history of sport, from the ancient Greeks to the contemporary world of globalized international sport. It is a story… Continue reading Understanding Sports Culture
Beckham on the Bus: Reporting the Beijing Olympics
All Olympic Games raise predictable questions of knowledge control, and generate fiery exchanges among journalists and cultural critics and commentators about access. Things are a far cry from the provision of a few telephone and telegraph lines at the local post office, which was all that Amsterdam needed to provide 60 years before Beijing’s Olympic… Continue reading Beckham on the Bus: Reporting the Beijing Olympics
The Beckham of the Cobbles
Harry Potts – Margaret’s Story, by Margaret Potts and Dave Thomas, Sports Books, Cheltenham, 2006, pp. x + 310, and 64 pages of photographs/documents Review by Alan Tomlinson [This review is a longer version of a review that appears in When Saturday Comes] Harry Potts played for and managed Burnley Football Club in some of… Continue reading The Beckham of the Cobbles
Book Review: Raymond Boyle, Sports Journalism: Context and Issues
Raymond Boyle, Sports Journalism: Context and Issues London: Sage Publications, 2006. 198pp, ISBN 1-4129-0798-5 Raymond Boyle’s study of the practices and conventions of sports journalism is based upon his long-standing grasp of the nature of contemporary sport media, and his balanced concern with both the interpretive scrutiny of journalistic texts and output, and the nature… Continue reading Book Review: Raymond Boyle, Sports Journalism: Context and Issues
Olympic Survivals: The Olympic Games as a Global Phenomenon
You can also download a pdf version of this article In this paper I do three things. First, I review come commentaries on globalization and culture, and globalization and sport. Second, I offer some selective reflections on the history of the Olympic Games, casting an analytical, periodizing eye over the 24 (Summer) Games, warning against… Continue reading Olympic Survivals: The Olympic Games as a Global Phenomenon
The commercialization of the Olympics: Cities, corporations and the Olympic commodity
You can also download a pdf version of this article Introduction: the mixed economy and the nascent commercialization of the Olympic Games The Olympics has become such a high-profile global phenomenon that it attracts some of the world’s most prominent cities and capitals to bid for the prize of hosting a Games, particularly the Summer… Continue reading The commercialization of the Olympics: Cities, corporations and the Olympic commodity
Book Review: David Conn, The Football Business: Fair Game in the ‘90s
David Conn, The Football Business: Fair Game in the ‘90s, Edinburgh, Mainstream, 1997; The Beautiful Game? Searching for the Soul of Football, London, Yellow Jersey Press, 2004. David Conn, Britain’s outstanding investigative football journalist, has combined his literary and legal trainings in a distinctive contribution to the investigative journalist’s art. Conn sub-titles his second book… Continue reading Book Review: David Conn, The Football Business: Fair Game in the ‘90s
Theorising a Critical Politics of Sport
Text of oral presentation at Political Studies Association Inaugural Sport Group Meeting, University of Reading April 6 2006 Opening comments In the book Power Games: A Critical Sociology of Sport (2002) critical sociology is presented, by John Sugden and myself, as one of six overlapping elements characteristic of our sociological approach to researching sport: its… Continue reading Theorising a Critical Politics of Sport
Professor Alan Tomlinson - Research 