scholarly journals Politics and Sport don’t mix – or do they? National Identity and New Zealand’s Participation in the Olympic Games

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Micheal Warren
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Olympic Games ◽  
Imagined Community ◽  
Olympic Movement ◽  
The World ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Benedict Anderson ◽  
The Olympic Games ◽  
New Zealanders

<p>Sports matter. Today sport is one of the most enduring social events that humans from across the world participate in, no matter their race, religion or gender. Moreover, the biggest of all those sporting events is the Olympic Games, which is held every four years. The modern version of the Games was founded by Frenchman Baron Pierre de Coubertin and first took place in Athens in 1896. New Zealand first competed alongside Australia as Australasia in London 1908 and Stockholm 1912. Following the games of 1916 which were cancelled due to World War I, New Zealand has competed as a sovereign nation since Antwerp 1920. Since 1908, over 1200 New Zealanders have competed at the Olympic Games, winning more than 100 medals. That performance in itself makes New Zealand one of the most successful nations in Olympic history on a per capita basis. That statistic alone underscores the relationship between the Olympics and national identity, as an embodiment of New Zealanders believing they ‘punch above their weight’ on the world stage.  Benedict Anderson wrote about the imagined community, where the nation is imagined because it is impossible for every citizen to know each other.¹ This research has found that sporting teams like the All Blacks and the New Zealand Olympic Team are perfect avenues to help create this imagined community. New Zealand’s national identity is not fixed, it has evolved, but the one mainstay of that identity is the sense of being an underdog on the world stage.  The research has found that over the past three decades New Zealand governments have increasingly woken up to the importance of high-performance sport and following the disappointment of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, funding was increased, which has led to better results and more medals. Today New Zealand athletes are funded on a per-capita basis just as well as many other nations we would compare ourselves with. New Zealand politicians have been quick to associate themselves alongside sportsmen and women and often speak about the close link that exists between sport and identity in New Zealand. However, unlike Australia, New Zealand does not have a national sports museum, and also unlike Australia, and the United Kingdom, New Zealand legislation does not allow for free-to-air television coverage of games of national significance. New Zealand does not adequately showcase its sporting history, and this has the potential to negatively affect the importance New Zealanders place on sport and the Olympic Movement as an important part of its national identity.  Ultimately this research has found that the New Zealand Olympic Team epitomises what it means to be a New Zealander and has found that across multiple levels of analysis, the Olympic Movement has significantly contributed to the development of New Zealand’s national identity. More broadly, the Olympic Games have become a key avenue in which that national identity can be projected to the world.  ¹ Benedict Anderson, ‘Imagined Communities,’ (London: Verso, 2006), pp.6-7.</p>

Book Review

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 386-389
Author(s):  
Eduardo Oliveira
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Urban Design ◽  
Olympic Games ◽  
City Image ◽  
European Capital Of Culture ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The World ◽  
The City ◽  
The Olympic Games

Evinç Doğan (2016). Image of Istanbul, Impact of ECoC 2010 on The City Image. London: Transnational Press London. [222 pp, RRP: £18.75, ISBN: 978-1-910781-22-7]The idea of discovering or creating a form of uniqueness to differentiate a place from others is clearly attractive. In this regard, and in line with Ashworth (2009), three urban planning instruments are widely used throughout the world as a means of boosting a city’s image: (i) personality association - where places associate themselves with a named individual from history, literature, the arts, politics, entertainment, sport or even mythology; (ii) the visual qualities of buildings and urban design, which include flagship building, signature urban design and even signature districts and (iii) event hallmarking - where places organize events, usually cultural (e.g., European Capital of Culture, henceforth referred to as ECoC) or sporting (e.g., the Olympic Games), in order to obtain worldwide recognition. 

Editorial

2017 ◽  
pp. 2-3
Author(s):  
Peter Hoar
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Editorial Team ◽  
Local Market ◽  
Design History ◽  
Recorded Sound ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The World ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
New Zealanders

Kia ora and welcome to the second issue of BackStory. The members of the Backstory Editorial Team were gratified by the encouraging response to the first issue of the journal. We hope that our currentreaders enjoy our new issue and that it will bring others to share our interest in and enjoyment of the surprisingly varied backstories of New Zealand’s art, media, and design history. This issue takes in a wide variety of topics. Imogen Van Pierce explores the controversy around the Hundertwasser Art Centre and Wairau Māori Art Gallery to be developed in Whangarei. This project has generated debate about the role of the arts and civic architecture at both the local and national levels. This is about how much New Zealanders are prepared to invest in the arts. The value of the artist in New Zealand is also examined by Mark Stocker in his article about the sculptor Margaret Butler and the local reception of her work during the late 1930s. The cultural cringe has a long genealogy. New Zealand has been photographed since the 1840s. Alan Cocker analyses the many roles that photography played in the development of local tourism during the nineteenth century. These images challenged notions of the ‘real’ and the ‘artificial’ and how new technologies mediated the world of lived experience. Recorded sound was another such technology that changed how humans experienced the world. The rise of recorded sound from the 1890s affected lives in many ways and Lewis Tennant’s contribution captures a significant tipping point in this medium’s history in New Zealand as the transition from analogue to digital sound transformed social, commercial and acoustic worlds. The New Zealand Woman’s Weekly celebrates its 85th anniversary this year but when it was launched in 1932 it seemed tohave very little chance of success. Its rival, the Mirror, had dominated the local market since its launch in 1922. Gavin Ellis investigates the Depression-era context of the Woman’s Weekly and how its founders identified a gap in the market that the Mirror was failing to fill. The work of the photographer Marti Friedlander (1908-2016) is familiar to most New Zealanders. Friedlander’s 50 year career and huge range of subjects defy easy summary. She captured New Zealanders, their lives, and their surroundings across all social and cultural borders. In the journal’s profile commentary Linda Yang celebrates Freidlander’s remarkable life and work. Linda also discusses some recent images by Friedlander and connects these with themes present in the photographer’s work from the 1960s and 1970s. The Backstory editors hope that our readers enjoy this stimulating and varied collection of work that illuminate some not so well known aspects of New Zealand’s art, media, and design history. There are many such stories yet to be told and we look forward to bringing them to you.

Colonization, Decolonization, and Power: Ruptures and Critical Junctures Out of Dominance

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
James H. Liu ◽  
Felicia Pratto
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
National Identity ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Critical Junctures ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
European Colonization ◽  
Historical Trajectory ◽  
The Impact

Colonization and decolonization are theorized at the intersection of Critical Junctures Theory and Power Basis Theory. This framework allows human agency to be conceptualized at micro-, meso-, and macro-levels, where individuals act on behalf of collectives. Their actions decide whether critical junctures in history (moments of potential for substantive change) result in continuity (no change), anchoring (continuity amid change with new elements), or rupture. We apply this framework to European colonization of the world, which is the temporal scene for contemporary social justice. Several critical junctures in New Zealand history are analyzed as part of its historical trajectory and narrated through changes in its symbology (system of meaning) and technology of state, as well as the identity space it encompasses (indigenous Māori and British colonizers). The impact of this historical trajectory on the social structure of New Zealand, including its national identity and government, is considered and connected to the overarching theoretical framework.

scholarly journals Performance of the national fencing team of Ukraine at the XXXII Olympic Games and the prospects of its performance at the next Olympic Games

2021 ◽  
pp. 84-87
Author(s):  
Olga Kuvaldina ◽  
Volodymyr Driukov
Keyword(s):  
Olympic Games ◽  
Crucial Importance ◽  
Team Members ◽  
National Team ◽  
Sports Events ◽  
The World ◽  
High Level ◽  
Sports Statistics ◽  
Stimulation Of ◽  
The Olympic Games

Analysis of Ukrainian athletes’ results at the XXXII Olympiad Games allows pointing out the factors of the weak performance of Ukrainian athletes in women's individual saber and epee competitions, as well as men's team epee competitions, despite the possibility of winning medals in these sports events according to many analysts including those of Infostrada Sports and other sports statistics experts. These, in our opinion, include an unsatisfactory level of efficiency of the process of reaching the peak of readiness for the Olympic Games; lack of psychological stability of athletes at the competitions; weak tactical preparation of some athletes. Based on the performances of athletes of the Ukrainian fencing team in Tokyo, a conclusion was made about the unsatisfactory level of athletes’ preparation for the XXXII Olympic Games. Only 20% of the national team members were able to realize their potential at the XXXII Olympic Games. The dynamics of the athletes’ results at the World Championships 2017 – 2019 indicates the need to use in the new Olympic cycle the planning, which is focused on our athletes reaching the peak of readiness for the Olympics: at first, the training should be aimed at the maximum stimulation of the growth of sportsmanship, whereas at the final stage it should be focused on its realization in the major competitions. It is shown that despite the unsuccessful performance of the Ukrainian fencing team in the Olympic Tokyo, this type of martial arts has significant potential for improving sports achievements at the XXXIII Olympic Games 2024 in Paris. It is noted that in the new Olympic cycle it is of crucial importance to identify candidates for the XXXIII Olympic Games as soon as possible and to create all the conditions for their full-fledged preparation. Thus, to ensure further winning medal places at the Olympic Games, it is necessary to improve the system of sports training in the Olympic cycle, which envisages participation in numerous competitions during the year to achieve a high level of readiness in the major competitions of triennial – the Olympic Games.

New Zealand Vegetarians: At Odds with Their Nation

2008 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 336-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mandala White ◽  
Annie Potts
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Meat Production ◽  
Animal Farming ◽  
Everyday Lives ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
New Zealanders

AbstractThis qualitative study, conducted between August and December 2006, explored the opinions and experiences of New Zealanders who challenge orthodox attitudes to the use and consumption of nonhuman animals. To date, New Zealand (NZ) has under-investigated the perspectives of those who oppose animal farming, the eating of nonhuman animals, and the exploitation of nonhuman animals. Agriculture substantially influences the economy and cultural heritage of the nation. Given that national identity in New Zealand strongly associates with farming and meat production, this paper investigates how vegetarians living in this country experience and challenge prevalent imagery and ideas about New Zealand. In particular, the paper examines the ways in which “kiwi” vegetarians are disputing the dominant image of New Zealand as “clean and green” and a land of "animal lovers" and how they are experiencing mainstream (meat-loving) kiwi culture in their everyday lives. The paper also examines some of the more positive aspects for vegetarians of living in New Zealand.

Tourism at the Olympic Games: visiting the world

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josef Ploner ◽  
Mike Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Olympic Games ◽  
The World ◽  
The Olympic Games

Understanding Sport as a Religious Phenomenon

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Bain-Selbo ◽  
D. Gregory Sapp
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
National Identity ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Religious Experience ◽  
American South ◽  
The World ◽  
Methodological Approaches ◽  
The American South ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Classroom Use

Readers are introduced to a range of theoretical and methodological approaches used to understand religion – including sociology, philosophy, psychology, and anthropology – and how they can be used to understand sport as a religious phenomenon. Topics include the formation of powerful communities among fans and the religious experience of the fan, myth, symbols and rituals and the sacrality of sport, and sport and secularization. Case studies are taken from around the world and include the Olympics (ancient and modern), football in the UK, the All Blacks and New Zealand national identity, college football in the American South, and gymnastics. [new paragraph] Ideal for classroom use, Understanding Sport as a Religious Phenomenon illuminates the nature of religion through sports phenomena and is a much-needed contribution to the field of religion and popular culture.

Sustainability in Photography Can Change the World

2014 ◽  
pp. 39-53
Author(s):  
Rowena H. Scott
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
International Competition ◽  
Landscape Photography ◽  
Political Messages ◽  
Raising Awareness ◽  
The World ◽  
The University ◽  
World Environment

Photography plays important, but undervalued and misunderstood, roles in how modern urban humans relate to nature and how nature is mediated to us, forming our perceptions and national identity. Typically landscape photography depicts nature aesthetically as sublime, picturesque and beautiful. Photographs have been powerful raising awareness of sustainability and communicating political messages. The chapter reviews the influence of two great Australian wilderness photographers, Olegas Truchanas and Peter Dombrovskis, as well as Edith Cowan University's (ECU) Photography for Environmental Sustainability Competition. In conjunction with World Environment Day, the university invited students to submit photographs that showcase the principles and practices of environmental sustainability. This chapter describes the history, purposes and impact of photography and the competition. Starting as an engagement partnership between the environment coordinator, academics and the Perth Centre for Photography, it is now an international competition across Australia and New Zealand, not exclusive to photography students, hosted by Australasian Campuses Towards Sustainability (ACTS).

Re-Constructing the Map: NBC's Geographic Imagination and the Opening Ceremony for the 2012 London Olympics

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Shears ◽  
Emily Fekete
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Screen Time ◽  
Olympic Games ◽  
Visual Representation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Opening Ceremony ◽  
The World ◽  
London Olympics ◽  
The Way ◽  
The Olympic Games

The 2012 Olympic Games was an event watched on television by billions of viewers worldwide. In the United States, approximately 40 million people viewed a tape-delayed opening ceremony of the games on the NBC network. With such a high viewership, NBC was in a position of power to influence and educate their audience on the various countries across the globe who participated in the Olympic Games and opening ceremony. Drawing on Gregory's notion of a ‘geographic imagination’, we suggest NBC editors put their version of the world on display to the American audience, thus influencing the way in which American viewers may understand the world. In this paper, we have constructed a map to provide a visual representation of NBC's geographic imagination. We find this map, based on total screen time the countries received during the ‘Parade of Nations’ segment of the opening ceremony, to suggest a unique geographic imagination worthy of further study because of its potential wide influence.

The Ultimate Move

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew P. Llewellyn ◽  
John Gleaves
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Olympic Games ◽  
Professional Sport ◽  
Professional Athletes ◽  
Global Media ◽  
Television Broadcasting ◽  
Olympic Movement ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Late Twentieth Century ◽  
The Olympic Games

This chapter discusses the continued decline of amateurism in the late twentieth century. As professional sport grew in popularity, the lines between amateurism and professionalism blurred further. An expanding global media apparatus, in concert with avaricious corporations and shrewd marketing agencies, transformed professional athletes into global sporting icons. The Olympic Movement faced higher competition. Although the fusion of nationalism and Citius, Altius, Fortius made the Olympic Games an attractive commodity, the Internatioal Olympic Commitee's eligibility code—and the forced prohibition of some of the world's leading athletes—dampened the spectacle. Public condemnations and accusations of hypocrisy damaged the Olympic brand. With multimillion dollar television broadcasting deals at stake, Olympic officials displayed an unwillingness to make the necessary sacrifices to preserve amateurism.

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