POLITICAL issue- Sport and US/ Soviet Confict (Cold War) Flashcards
In what ways can we view sport?
A a form of pedagogy, directly linked to culture.
(Gramsci’s hegemonic theory)
Define popular culture?
An umbrella term for the many facets/ ways of living, norms and artistic practices- creates MEANING.
Define nationalism?
A set of stories, images, landscapes and historical events which represent shared experiences (Hall, 1992)
‘The stories we tell about who we are’
Defines who you are as a nation but also who you aren’t.
What are the stories a nation tells about itself?
Who came up with the idea of Hegemony?
Antonio Gramsci
Taken from Marxism, he rejected economic reductivism/ determinism and stated this was too simple, the HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL are important.
Instead, power lies with the STATE, and culture is controlled and mediated.
=domination of the ruling class through the state, but also through beliefs, culture, ideology, values and ideas of ruling that become COMMON SENSE
Explain more how the dominating classes control others through hegemony?
Cannot dominate by coercion alone: effective domination requires consent from the dominated.
Follow the dominant agenda but maintain some social freedom- culture is a sight of conflict- in a constant state of ‘flux’
Working classes need to gain control of the state and QUESTION social organisations
Why is culture in a constant state of flux?
Culture is a battle for control over ideas- counter hegemonic groups can also have an output of power.
How does culture function as a PEDAGOGY?
(Giroux, 2001)
- influences us consciously and subconsciously
- teaches us how to think, speak and behave
= we can examine how sport is used as a tool to construct narratives within the US (“hegemonic conceptions of the nation, citizenship and relations of power are reinforced through sport”)
What was the Cold War?
A war of ‘culture’ between the US and Soviet Union.
1947 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
- wanted to assert the perceived importance/ moral superiority of themselves
- SPORT became a central TOOL in this proxy war
Define Militarisation?
A process helping to perpetuate the belief that war and military force is normal and logical
(Montez de Oca, 2013)
Militarisation influences social practices and institutions through media images, storytelling and political messages.
Links between the Cold War and sport lay at the foundations.
What happened during the Cold War in relation to Militarisation?
- The ‘Crisis of Boys’- white, middle class boys, WW2 revealed a large part of the population is becoming soft and unfit
- The ‘Muscle Gap’ (Montez De Oct, 2013) between the US and the Soviet Union
- The penetration of communism from the Soviet Union was a fear.
What was the US’s Cold War strategy?
- Containment of Soviet Union hegemony
- Economic and military development
- PE= heavily pushed and influenced by Kennedy
= wanted to toughen up boys to reclaim their manhood
How did ideas of Militarisation and the Cold War affect women?
The role of women- worried that women in athletics were becoming masculinised
Too strenuous for women, and athletics was worse than other sport such as swimming.
VS
The Soviet Union- at the time the USSR women athletes were being pushed to take steroids and pushed to success
(Beamish and Richie, 2002)
The role of Black Women?
(Cahn, 1994)
-The most prominent women winning medals
-Black women dominated in US athletics
-Often ignored by the media as seen as unfeminine= the ‘feminine apologetic’- woking to appear more feminine
What happened in the 1960’s in relation to black athletes?
PROTESTING- the Soviet Union hammering the US for their lack of support towards black athletes= would take black athletes to carry out diplomatic relations
What was the ‘Miracle on Ice’ in 1980?
The Soviet Union vs the US during an ice hockey game.
US beats them, Ice Hockey framed as communism vs capitalism.
The arena of sport functions to highlight the ‘superiority’ of US life.
