Jack Black
Biographic Data
| ID | 3583971 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jack Black |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jack |
| FAMILY NAME | Black |
| SIGNATURE | BLACK J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Sheffield Hallam University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1595-5083 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 49 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 87 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 49 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1961 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
The ethics of outrage: Holocaust memory and the case of Gary Lineker
This article examines the controversy surrounding Gary Lineker's March 2023 tweet, which criticized the U.K. government's Illegal Migration Act by comparing it to 1930s Germany. Focusing on mobilizations of Holocaust memory, it shows how tensions between memory and politics shaped media responses. While Lineker was accused of historical trivialization and breaching BBC impartiality rules, the controversy also revealed the selective application of…
The violence of online hate: Cultivating antagonism through subjective and objective violence
This article presents a novel and comprehensive analysis of online hate, arguing that it should be conceptualized as a form of violence rather than simply hate speech, abuse, harassment, or trolling. Building on Slavoj Žižek’s distinction between subjective and objective violence, the paper demonstrates how explicit and visible acts of online hostility obscure the deeper systemic and symbolic structures that perpetuate online violence. It critiqu…
How do football fans experience online abuse? Impacts, responses and implications
Online abuse, especially in the context of sport and leisure, is a growing and required area of study. Athletes, journalists and officials have been notably subject to various forms of abuse on major social media platforms, and this, in turn, has prompted responses from scholars, media organisations and sports authorities. One stakeholder who’s experience of online abuse has gone largely unexamined, however, is fans. In existing research, fans ha…
What does it mean to psychoanalyse sport? Reflections from the field
What does it mean to psychoanalyse sport? The question itself invites a confrontation with the strange, the opaque, and the frequently overlooked aspects of a cultural form that is typically read f
Exploring the psychoanalytic dimensions of sport: An introduction to sport and psychoanalysis
The intersection of sport and psychoanalysis presents a fascinating and often overlooked area of inquiry. At first glance, the two fields may seem irreconcilable: sport is typically associated with
Paranoia, Delusion, and Doubt: A Lacanian Analysis of Race, Hip-Hop, and Kendrick Lamar
This article applies Lacanian psychoanalysis to explore race as a psychotic structure, marked by delusion, paranoia, and symbolic failure. Focusing on the hip-hop genre, and the music of Kendrick Lamar, it examines how Lamar’s music exposes and unsettles racial certainties by emphasizing lack and doubt. Through an analysis of “Mortal Man”, and Lamar’s imagined interview with Tupac Shakur, the article highlights how silence and absence disrupt fix…
SeAcabó: How a mass-mediated “social drama” made visible and confronted (subjective and objective) violence in women’s football in Spain
The victory of the Spanish national women’s football team at the 2023 FIFA World Cup was marred by the mass-mediated non-consensual kiss on midfielder, Jennifer Hermoso, by Luis Rubiales, then President of the Royal Spanish Football National Federation. The kiss sparked general outrage worldwide and led to the prosecution of Rubiales for sexual assault and coercion. Drawing on the concepts of “moral shock” and “social drama,” this article explore…
Exploring online sexism and misogyny in women’s professional English football
The increased professionalization of women’s football means that women players are now competing in front of sold-out capacity crowds with millions of viewers watching. This enhanced popularity has increased online traffic relating to women’s football. Some of these discussions are abusive, and potentially harmful. Nonetheless, while a growing body of research has investigated online harms in football, most of the attention has centred on men’s f…
JewGoal: Llanguage , enjoyment, and the persistence of antisemitism in online gaming and sports communities
Exploring how online hate speech infiltrates public discourse, this article examines the antisemitic hashtag, ‘#JewGoal’, tracing its spread from the FIFA gaming community to online football discussions. Analysing 1364 public tweets on the platform ‘X’ (formerly Twitter), the article illustrates how the hashtag, framed as humour and sports commentary, perpetuated antisemitic stereotypes through historical tropes and cultural symbols. Utilizing th…
Haunted spaces and unsettling predicaments: An interrogation of (capitalist) sport via the work of Mark Fisher
In utilising the work of Mark Fisher, this article critically interrogates contemporary manifestations of capitalist sport. Specifically, it examines how the notion of capitalist realism, as well as the related concepts of hauntology and the weird and the eerie, might serve to resist anthropocentricism and challenge political impotence in the face of multiple existential crises. Emphasising Fisher’s focus on temporality and temporal aberration, t…
Examining the mechanism of disavowal and its two forms: Cynical disavowal and fetishistic disavowal
This paper posits the existence of two forms of disavowal: cynical and fetishistic. It explores how cynical disavowal involves maintaining a manipulative distance by obscuring the gap between belief and action, allowing the cynic to disavow their investment in an unattainable object and their knowledge of the Other’s lack. In contrast, fetishistic disavowal acknowledges both the objective reality of things and their subjective appearance to the f…
Online Abuse, Emotion Work and Sports Journalism
This article generates new insights into the changing profession of journalism. Empirically, we present the findings of 21 interviews with journalists working in the Irish and UK sports beats on their experiences of online abuse. Conceptually, we address the under-theorising of emotions in journalism by extending the utility and entanglement of emotion work and emotional labour. In doing so, we posit future lines of theoretical enquiry about indi…
The Subject of AI: A Psychoanalytic Intervention
This article explores psychoanalytic perspectives, particularly Lacanian theory, on artificial intelligence, with a focus on chatbots, such as, ChatGPT. While ChatGPT is often viewed as mimicking human traits, such conceptions overlook the unique aspects of human subjectivity that AI lacks. Instead, psychoanalytic theory can reveal the social structures underlying AI and human interaction. We argue that ChatGPT should be seen as inherently relati…
Sport and the Anthropocene
This editorial introduction to the special issue, 'Sport and the Anthropocene', examines the entanglements between sport, human activity, and the planet's accelerating ecological crisis. Framing the Anthropocene as a new epoch, marked by irreversible human-induced environmental change, the article highlights the catastrophic consequences of climate disruption, resource depletion, and socio-political instability. Yet, amid collapse, the Anthropoce…
From local fields to global spectacles: Sport in the shadow of the Anthropocene-An interview with Billy Graeff, Brendan Hokowhitu, and Holly Thorpe
This article brings together key insights from Billy Graeff, Brendan Hokowhitu, and Holly Thorpe to critically examine the relationship between sport and the Anthropocene. Together, each writer explores how sport both shapes and is shaped by environmental transformations, raising questions about its role in the accelerating ecological crisis. They discuss the need to rethink the Anthropocene through interdisciplinary perspectives, such as, femini…
[K]neeling only goes to highlight your ignorance. England is NOT! a #racist country’: Aversive racism, colour-blindness, and racist temporalities in discussions of football online
Drawing on theories of aversive racism and colour-blindness, which stress the invisibility of contemporary racism, this article analyses online discussions on taking the knee (TTK) during EURO2020 men’s football tournament. While highly visible racist abuse directed at Black English players after losing the final to Italy (dominative racism) received most public attention and repudiation, based on 6,850 English language tweets published on Twitte…
Can AI Lie? Chabot Technologies, the Subject, and the Importance of Lying
This article poses a simple question: can AI lie? In response to this question, the article examines, as its point of inquiry, popular AI chatbots, such as, ChatGPT. In doing so, an examination of the psychoanalytic, philosophical, and technological significance of AI and its complexities are located in relation to the dynamics of truth, falsity, and deception. That is, by critically considering the chatbot’s ability to engage in natural language…
Let the tournament for the woke begin: Euro 2020 and the reproduction of Cultural Marxist conspiracies in online criticisms of the “take the knee” protest
Exploring online criticisms of the “take the knee” protest during “Euro 2020”, \nthis article examines how alt- and far-right conspiracies were both \nconstructed and communicated via the social media platform, Twitter. By \nproviding a novel exploration of alt-right conspiracies during an international \nfootball tournament, a qualitative thematic analysis of 1,388 original tweets \nrelating to Euro 2020 was undertaken. The findings reveal how, …
Just a Game? Sport and Psychoanalytic Theory
Sport poses a number of important and no less significant questions, which, on the face of it, may not necessarily seem very important or significant to begin with – a peculiarity that we believe to be integral to sport itself. This article introduces, explores and outlines the psychoanalytic significance of this peculiarity. It explores how the emotions stirred by sport are intertwined with a realm of fiction and fantasy. Despite its lack of pra…
Best run club in the world: Manchester City fans and the legitimation of sportswashing
The term sportswashing has been discussed and analysed within academic circles, as well as the mainstream media. However, the majority of existing research has focused on one-off event-based sportswashing strategies (such as autocratic states hosting major international sports events) rather than longer term investment-based strategies (such as state actors purchasing sports clubs and teams). Furthermore, little has been written about the impact …
The Fetishization of Sport: Exploring the Effects of Fetishistic Disavowal in Sportswashing
Is it possible to remain a sports fan when prominent sports teams and events are utilized to 'sportswash' human rights abuses and other controversies? Indeed, while there is an abundance of analyses critiquing different instances of sportswashing, the exploration of the role of sportswashing and its connection to the 'sports fan' presents an essential and necessary area of investigation and theoretical inquiry. To unpick this dilemma, this articl…
“Love Thy Social Media!”: Hysteria and the Interpassive Subject
According to the 2020 docudrama, The Social Dilemma, our very addiction to “social media” has, today, become encapsulated in the tensions between its facilitation as a mode of interpersonal communication and as an insidious conduit for machine learning, surveillance capitalism and manipulation. Amidst a variety of interviewees – many of whom are former employees of social media companies – the documentary finishes on a unanimous conclusion: somet…
A Scoping Review of Research on Online Hate and Sport
The rise of online hate speech in sports is a growing concern, with fans, players and officials subject to racist, sexist and homophobic abuse (in addition to many other prejudices) via social media platforms. While hate speech and discrimination have always been problems in sports, the growth of social media has seen them exacerbated exponentially. As a consequence, policy makers, sport governing bodies and grassroots anti-hate organisations are…
The dialectic of desire: AI chatbots and the desire not to know
Exploring the relationship between humans and AI chatbots, as well as the ethical concerns surrounding their use, this paper argues that our relations with chatbots are not solely based on their function as a source of knowledge, but, rather, on the desire for the subject not to know. It is argued that, outside of the very fears and anxieties that underscore our adoption of AI, the desire not to know reveals the potential to embrace the very loss…
The electric mountain bike as pharmakon: Examining the Problems and Possibilities of an Emerging Technology
In the last decade there has been an upsurge in the popularity of electric mountain bikes. However, opinion is divided regarding the implications of this emerging technology. Critics warn of the dangers they pose to landscapes, habitats, and ecological diversity, whilst advocates highlight their potential in increasing the accessibility of the outdoors for riders who would otherwise be socially and/or physically excluded. Drawing on interview dat…
Celebrating British multiculturalism, lamenting England/Britain's past
Drawing upon Littler and Naidoo's ‘white past, multicultural present’ alignment, this article examines English newspaper coverage of two ‘British’ events held in 2012 (the Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympic Games). In light of recent work on English nationalism, national identity and multiculturalism, this article argues that representations of Britain oscillated between lamentations for an English/British past – marred by decline – and a pre…
As British as fish and chips’: British newspaper representations of Mo Farah during the 2012 London Olympic Games
This article examines British newspaper representations of the ‘Team GB’ athlete Mohamed ‘Mo’ Farah during the 2012 London Olympic Games. In particular, attention is given to examining how representations of Farah were related to discourses on British multiculturalism. A brief discussion of recent rejections of multiculturalism is provided, with specific reference given to political and public calls for immigrants to assimilate with ‘British valu…
The Fetishization of Sport: Exploring the Effects of Fetishistic Disavowal in Sportswashing
Is it possible to remain a sports fan when prominent sports teams and events are utilized to 'sportswash' human rights abuses and other controversies? Indeed, while there is an abundance of analyses critiquing different instances of sportswashing, the exploration of the role of sportswashing and its connection to the 'sports fan' presents an essential and necessary area of investigation and theoretical inquiry. To unpick this dilemma, this articl…
Re-establishing the ‘outsiders: English press coverage of the 2015 Fifa Women’s World Cup
In 2015, the England Women’s national football team finished third at the Women’s World Cup in Canada. Alongside the establishment of the Women’s Super League in 2011, the success of the women’s team posed a striking contrast to the recent failures of the England men’s team and in doing so presented a timely opportunity to examine the negotiation of hegemonic discourses on gender, sport and football. Drawing upon an ‘established-outsider’ approac…
Team GB’ or ‘Team Scotland’? Media representations of ‘Britishness’ and ‘Scottishness’ at London 2012 and Glasgow 2014
This article critically reflects upon media coverage of the 2012 London Olympic Games and the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, scrutinising the emergent discursive constructions of ‘Britishness’ and ‘Scottishness’ through an examination of both London-based (English) and Scotland-based publications. Drawing upon Dayan and Katz’s portrayal of ‘media events’, the article explores how both events presented competing sites of symbolic struggle during…
Let the tournament for the woke begin: Euro 2020 and the reproduction of Cultural Marxist conspiracies in online criticisms of the “take the knee” protest
Exploring online criticisms of the “take the knee” protest during “Euro 2020”, \nthis article examines how alt- and far-right conspiracies were both \nconstructed and communicated via the social media platform, Twitter. By \nproviding a novel exploration of alt-right conspiracies during an international \nfootball tournament, a qualitative thematic analysis of 1,388 original tweets \nrelating to Euro 2020 was undertaken. The findings reveal how, …
From mood to movement: English nationalism, the European Union and taking back control
This article considers whether the 2016 EU referendum can be perceived as an English nationalist movement. Specifically, attention is given to examining how memories of the former British Empire were nostalgically enveloped in anxieties regarding England’s location within the devolved UK state. The comments and work of Enoch Powell and George Orwell are used to help explore the link between nostalgia and anxiety in accounts of English nationalism…
Best run club in the world: Manchester City fans and the legitimation of sportswashing
The term sportswashing has been discussed and analysed within academic circles, as well as the mainstream media. However, the majority of existing research has focused on one-off event-based sportswashing strategies (such as autocratic states hosting major international sports events) rather than longer term investment-based strategies (such as state actors purchasing sports clubs and teams). Furthermore, little has been written about the impact …
Glasgow 2014, the media and Scottish politics: The (post)imperial symbolism of the Commonwealth Games
This article critically examines print media discourses regarding the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games. The forthcoming analysis examines the political symbolism of the Commonwealth Games with regard to the interlinkages between the British Empire, sport and the global political status of the United Kingdom. The article gives specific consideration to the United Kingdom’s declining global power as well as the interconnections between the 2014 Game…
The subjective and objective violence of terrorism: Analysing “British values” in newspaper coverage of the 2017 London Bridge attack
This article examines how Žižek’s analysis of “subjective” violence can be used to explore the ways in which media coverage of a terrorist attack is contoured and shaped by less noticeable forms of “objective” (symbolic and systemic) violence. Drawing upon newspaper coverage of the 2017 London Bridge attack, it is noted how examples of “subjective” violence were grounded in the externalisation of a clearly identifiable “other”, which symbolically…
The reification of celebrity: Global newspaper coverage of the death of David Bowie
This paper examines global English-language newspaper coverage of the death of David Bowie. Drawing upon the concept of reification, it is argued that the notion of celebrity is discursively (re)produced and configured through a ‘public face’ that is defined, maintained and shaped via media reports and public responses that aim to know and reflect upon celebrity. The findings highlight how Bowie’s reification was supported by discourses that repr…
[K]neeling only goes to highlight your ignorance. England is NOT! a #racist country’: Aversive racism, colour-blindness, and racist temporalities in discussions of football online
Drawing on theories of aversive racism and colour-blindness, which stress the invisibility of contemporary racism, this article analyses online discussions on taking the knee (TTK) during EURO2020 men’s football tournament. While highly visible racist abuse directed at Black English players after losing the final to Italy (dominative racism) received most public attention and repudiation, based on 6,850 English language tweets published on Twitte…
The electric mountain bike as pharmakon: Examining the Problems and Possibilities of an Emerging Technology
In the last decade there has been an upsurge in the popularity of electric mountain bikes. However, opinion is divided regarding the implications of this emerging technology. Critics warn of the dangers they pose to landscapes, habitats, and ecological diversity, whilst advocates highlight their potential in increasing the accessibility of the outdoors for riders who would otherwise be socially and/or physically excluded. Drawing on interview dat…
Success in Britain comes with an awful lot of small print: Greg Rusedski and the precarious performance of national identity
Sport continues to be one of the primary means through which notions of Englishness and Britishness are constructed, contested, and resisted. The legacy of the role of sport in the colonial project of the British Empire, combined with more recent connections between sport and far right fascist/nationalist politics, has made the association between Britishness, Englishness, and ethnic identity(ies) particularly intriguing. In this paper, these int…
London 2012, glasgow 2014 and athletes as political symbols – the precarious positioning of athletes within the evolving contemporary politics of the United Kingdom
This article considers the implications for athletes who hold a position as a ‘political symbol’ in the context of the United Kingdom (UK), and specifically Scotland, particularly those who publicly stated their personal political opinions during the periods of the London 2012 Olympic Games and the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. These two major international sporting events were hosted during a period of political upheaval within the UK, eviden…
Running away from the taskscape: Ultramarathon as ‘dark ecology’
Drawing on reflections from a collaborative autoethnography, this article argues that ultramarathon running is defined by a ‘dark’ ecological sensibility [Morton, Timothy. 2007. Ecology without Nature. London: Harvard University Press; Morton, Timothy. 2010. The Ecological Thought. London: Harvard University Press; Morton, Timothy. 2016. Dark Ecology: For a Logic of Future Coexistence. New York: Columbia University Press], characterized by moment…
The Day the Flame Came to Town’: The Olympic Flame, Symbol, Community and Commodification
Debates regarding the Olympic Flame Relay oscillate between questions concerning the symbolic value of the Relay and the commodified nature of the Games more generally. While some argue for the potential intercultural understanding that the Flame Relay fosters, others point to the extent to which Olympism is embedded within the practices of commercial companies. Research thus tends to use either ethnographic accounts or media analysis—the former …
SeAcabó: How a mass-mediated “social drama” made visible and confronted (subjective and objective) violence in women’s football in Spain
The victory of the Spanish national women’s football team at the 2023 FIFA World Cup was marred by the mass-mediated non-consensual kiss on midfielder, Jennifer Hermoso, by Luis Rubiales, then President of the Royal Spanish Football National Federation. The kiss sparked general outrage worldwide and led to the prosecution of Rubiales for sexual assault and coercion. Drawing on the concepts of “moral shock” and “social drama,” this article explore…
Haunted spaces and unsettling predicaments: An interrogation of (capitalist) sport via the work of Mark Fisher
In utilising the work of Mark Fisher, this article critically interrogates contemporary manifestations of capitalist sport. Specifically, it examines how the notion of capitalist realism, as well as the related concepts of hauntology and the weird and the eerie, might serve to resist anthropocentricism and challenge political impotence in the face of multiple existential crises. Emphasising Fisher’s focus on temporality and temporal aberration, t…
Online Abuse, Emotion Work and Sports Journalism
This article generates new insights into the changing profession of journalism. Empirically, we present the findings of 21 interviews with journalists working in the Irish and UK sports beats on their experiences of online abuse. Conceptually, we address the under-theorising of emotions in journalism by extending the utility and entanglement of emotion work and emotional labour. In doing so, we posit future lines of theoretical enquiry about indi…
Sport and the Anthropocene
This editorial introduction to the special issue, 'Sport and the Anthropocene', examines the entanglements between sport, human activity, and the planet's accelerating ecological crisis. Framing the Anthropocene as a new epoch, marked by irreversible human-induced environmental change, the article highlights the catastrophic consequences of climate disruption, resource depletion, and socio-political instability. Yet, amid collapse, the Anthropoce…
Can AI Lie? Chabot Technologies, the Subject, and the Importance of Lying
This article poses a simple question: can AI lie? In response to this question, the article examines, as its point of inquiry, popular AI chatbots, such as, ChatGPT. In doing so, an examination of the psychoanalytic, philosophical, and technological significance of AI and its complexities are located in relation to the dynamics of truth, falsity, and deception. That is, by critically considering the chatbot’s ability to engage in natural language…
An unnerving otherness: English nationalism and Rusedski’s smile
Football is “the most important of the least important things: The Illusion of Sport and Covid-19
In his book, On the Pleasure Principle in Culture (2014), Robert Pfaller argued that our relationship to sport is one grounded in “illusion”. Simply put, our interest in and enjoyment of sport occurs through a process of “knowing better”. Here, one’s knowledge of the unimportance of sport is achieved by associating the illusion of sport with a naïve observer – i.e. someone who does believe in sport’s importance. In the wake of the global pandemic…
The United Kingdom and British Empire: A figurational approach
Drawing upon the work of Norbert Elias and the process [figurational] sociology perspective, this article examines how state formation processes are related to, and, affected by, expanding and declining chains of international interdependence. In contrast to civic and ethnic conceptions, this approach focuses on the emergence of the nation/nation-state as grounded in broader processes of historical and social development. In doing so, state forma…
Primary Antirabies Immunization of Man with HEP Flury Virus Vaccine
Primary Antirabies Immunization of Man with HEP Flury Virus Vaccine James M. Ruegsegger, Jack Black, and George R. Sharpless CopyRight https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.51.5.706 Published Online: August 29, 2011
Football stadia developments in England and Wales: A research note
The Day the Flame Came to Town’: The Olympic Flame, Symbol, Community and Commodification
Debates regarding the Olympic Flame Relay oscillate between questions concerning the symbolic value of the Relay and the commodified nature of the Games more generally. While some argue for the potential intercultural understanding that the Flame Relay fosters, others point to the extent to which Olympism is embedded within the practices of commercial companies. Research thus tends to use either ethnographic accounts or media analysis—the former …
As British as fish and chips’: British newspaper representations of Mo Farah during the 2012 London Olympic Games
This article examines British newspaper representations of the ‘Team GB’ athlete Mohamed ‘Mo’ Farah during the 2012 London Olympic Games. In particular, attention is given to examining how representations of Farah were related to discourses on British multiculturalism. A brief discussion of recent rejections of multiculturalism is provided, with specific reference given to political and public calls for immigrants to assimilate with ‘British valu…
Celebrating British multiculturalism, lamenting England/Britain's past
Drawing upon Littler and Naidoo's ‘white past, multicultural present’ alignment, this article examines English newspaper coverage of two ‘British’ events held in 2012 (the Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympic Games). In light of recent work on English nationalism, national identity and multiculturalism, this article argues that representations of Britain oscillated between lamentations for an English/British past – marred by decline – and a pre…
The reification of celebrity: Global newspaper coverage of the death of David Bowie
This paper examines global English-language newspaper coverage of the death of David Bowie. Drawing upon the concept of reification, it is argued that the notion of celebrity is discursively (re)produced and configured through a ‘public face’ that is defined, maintained and shaped via media reports and public responses that aim to know and reflect upon celebrity. The findings highlight how Bowie’s reification was supported by discourses that repr…
Team GB’ or ‘Team Scotland’? Media representations of ‘Britishness’ and ‘Scottishness’ at London 2012 and Glasgow 2014
This article critically reflects upon media coverage of the 2012 London Olympic Games and the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, scrutinising the emergent discursive constructions of ‘Britishness’ and ‘Scottishness’ through an examination of both London-based (English) and Scotland-based publications. Drawing upon Dayan and Katz’s portrayal of ‘media events’, the article explores how both events presented competing sites of symbolic struggle during…
The subjective and objective violence of terrorism: Analysing “British values” in newspaper coverage of the 2017 London Bridge attack
This article examines how Žižek’s analysis of “subjective” violence can be used to explore the ways in which media coverage of a terrorist attack is contoured and shaped by less noticeable forms of “objective” (symbolic and systemic) violence. Drawing upon newspaper coverage of the 2017 London Bridge attack, it is noted how examples of “subjective” violence were grounded in the externalisation of a clearly identifiable “other”, which symbolically…
Reflexivity or orientation? Collective memories in the Australian, Canadian and New Zealand national press
With regard to the notion of ‘national reflexivity’, an important part of Beck’s cosmopolitan outlook, this article examines how, and in what ways, collective memories of empire were reflexively used in Australian, Canadian and New Zealand national newspaper coverage of the 2012 Diamond Jubilee and London Olympic Games. In contrast to Beck, it is argued that examples of national reflexivity were closely tied to the history of the nation-state, wi…
Glasgow 2014, the media and Scottish politics: The (post)imperial symbolism of the Commonwealth Games
This article critically examines print media discourses regarding the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games. The forthcoming analysis examines the political symbolism of the Commonwealth Games with regard to the interlinkages between the British Empire, sport and the global political status of the United Kingdom. The article gives specific consideration to the United Kingdom’s declining global power as well as the interconnections between the 2014 Game…
The United Kingdom and British Empire: A figurational approach
Drawing upon the work of Norbert Elias and the process [figurational] sociology perspective, this article examines how state formation processes are related to, and, affected by, expanding and declining chains of international interdependence. In contrast to civic and ethnic conceptions, this approach focuses on the emergence of the nation/nation-state as grounded in broader processes of historical and social development. In doing so, state forma…
From mood to movement: English nationalism, the European Union and taking back control
This article considers whether the 2016 EU referendum can be perceived as an English nationalist movement. Specifically, attention is given to examining how memories of the former British Empire were nostalgically enveloped in anxieties regarding England’s location within the devolved UK state. The comments and work of Enoch Powell and George Orwell are used to help explore the link between nostalgia and anxiety in accounts of English nationalism…
Running away from the taskscape: Ultramarathon as ‘dark ecology’
Drawing on reflections from a collaborative autoethnography, this article argues that ultramarathon running is defined by a ‘dark’ ecological sensibility [Morton, Timothy. 2007. Ecology without Nature. London: Harvard University Press; Morton, Timothy. 2010. The Ecological Thought. London: Harvard University Press; Morton, Timothy. 2016. Dark Ecology: For a Logic of Future Coexistence. New York: Columbia University Press], characterized by moment…
Grand Hotel Abyss: The Lives of the Frankfurt School
This review considers Stuart Jeffries’s Grand Hotel Abyss: The Lives of the Frankfurt School. Providing a detailed account of the work and lives of the Frankfurt School, Jeffries is commended for his ability to present an illustrative biography of the school’s members and associates as well as the variety of topics that their work engaged with. However, while Jefferies manages to merge biography and academic theory in a readable and at times deta…
Conviviality and parallax in David Olusoga’s Black and British: A Forgotten History
Through examining the BBC television series, Black and British: A Forgotten History, written and presented by the historian David Olusoga, and in extending Paul Gilroy’s assertion that the everyday banality of living with difference is now an ordinary part of British life, this article considers how Olusoga’s historicization of the Black British experience reflects a convivial rendering of UK multiculture. In particular, when used alongside Žižek…
Re-establishing the ‘outsiders: English press coverage of the 2015 Fifa Women’s World Cup
In 2015, the England Women’s national football team finished third at the Women’s World Cup in Canada. Alongside the establishment of the Women’s Super League in 2011, the success of the women’s team posed a striking contrast to the recent failures of the England men’s team and in doing so presented a timely opportunity to examine the negotiation of hegemonic discourses on gender, sport and football. Drawing upon an ‘established-outsider’ approac…
London 2012, glasgow 2014 and athletes as political symbols – the precarious positioning of athletes within the evolving contemporary politics of the United Kingdom
This article considers the implications for athletes who hold a position as a ‘political symbol’ in the context of the United Kingdom (UK), and specifically Scotland, particularly those who publicly stated their personal political opinions during the periods of the London 2012 Olympic Games and the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. These two major international sporting events were hosted during a period of political upheaval within the UK, eviden…
Retroactive causation and the temporal construction of news: Contingency and necessity, content and form
This article affords particular attention to the relationship between memory, the narrativization of news and its linear construction, conceived as journalism’s ‘memory-work’. In elaborating upon this ‘work’, it is proposed that the Hegelian notion of retroactive causation (as used by Slavoj Žižek) can examine how analyses of news journalists ‘retroactively’ employ the past in the temporal construction of news. In fact, such retroactive (re)order…
Football is “the most important of the least important things: The Illusion of Sport and Covid-19
In his book, On the Pleasure Principle in Culture (2014), Robert Pfaller argued that our relationship to sport is one grounded in “illusion”. Simply put, our interest in and enjoyment of sport occurs through a process of “knowing better”. Here, one’s knowledge of the unimportance of sport is achieved by associating the illusion of sport with a naïve observer – i.e. someone who does believe in sport’s importance. In the wake of the global pandemic…
Success in Britain comes with an awful lot of small print: Greg Rusedski and the precarious performance of national identity
Sport continues to be one of the primary means through which notions of Englishness and Britishness are constructed, contested, and resisted. The legacy of the role of sport in the colonial project of the British Empire, combined with more recent connections between sport and far right fascist/nationalist politics, has made the association between Britishness, Englishness, and ethnic identity(ies) particularly intriguing. In this paper, these int…
Race Racism and Political Correctness in Comedy
An unnerving otherness: English nationalism and Rusedski’s smile
A form of socially acceptable insanity: Love, comedy and the digital in Her
Posthuman to Inhuman: MHealth Technologies and the Digital Health Assemblage
In exploring the intra-active, relational and material connections between humans and non-humans, proponents of posthumanism advocate a questioning of the "human" beyond its traditional anthropocentric conceptualization. By referring specifically to controversial developments in mHealth applications, this paper critically diverges from posthuman accounts of human/non-human assemblages. Indeed, we argue that rather than "dissolving" the human subj…
“Love Thy Social Media!”: Hysteria and the Interpassive Subject
According to the 2020 docudrama, The Social Dilemma, our very addiction to “social media” has, today, become encapsulated in the tensions between its facilitation as a mode of interpersonal communication and as an insidious conduit for machine learning, surveillance capitalism and manipulation. Amidst a variety of interviewees – many of whom are former employees of social media companies – the documentary finishes on a unanimous conclusion: somet…
Sociology (37 works) · Political science (28 works) · Law (27 works) · Media studies (22 works) · Politics (19 works) · Law (18 works) · Sports, Gender, and Society (18 works) · Psychology (15 works) · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts (14 works) · Aesthetics (13 works)