The Cosmopolitan Mind and Unintentional Glocalization

Modernity is characterized by the constant transnational flows of people, goods, services, information, data, and finances. The interconnected relation between the local and the global is as intricate as it is reciprocal and transforms both on the level of the good, service, or human as well as in social and cultural dimensions. This article explores this principle and presents the findings of a multi-sited ethnography that contextualizes data from National Football League games in the United States with a visit to the London Games, a series of regular season games played in the United Kingdom. While spectators at the London Games presumably sought an authentic American experience, and the NFL attempted to provide just that, they actually experienced an event that was inadvertently localized by London’s infrastructure and culture. It is argued that the differences can only be captured by a participant informed in both the American original and the British iteration of American football events

Ethnography · Football · League · Modernity · Participant observation · Reciprocal · Philippine History and Culture · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society