Japan Journal of Sport Sociology
Online ISSN : 2185-8691
Print ISSN : 0919-2751
ISSN-L : 0919-2751
Volume 24, Issue 1
Displaying 1-7 of 7 articles from this issue
  • C.L.R. James, Resistance Theory and Cultural Studies
    Atsuhisa YAMAMOTO
    2016 Volume 24 Issue 1 Pages 19-34
    Published: March 25, 2016
    Released on J-STAGE: March 24, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

     This essay is concerned with finding ways of “resistance through sport” under the conditions that we cannot completely escape the dominant effects of social powers. For this purpose, this essay firstly refers to C.L.R James’s brilliant work, Beyond the Boundary, in which James analyzes the way in which cricket, a product of the British Empire, came to be an important site for anti-colonial struggle for black citizens. For James, sport was a culture that contained the moments in which people, especially black people, could imagine an alternative collectivity beyond national boundaries and cultural genres through connecting to other contexts or memories. This essay next describes how James’s argument on sport influenced the Birmingham School of cultural studies. Tracing the arguments of such scholars as Stuart Hall, Paul Gilroy and Paul Willis, it examines the theories of cultural resistance in recent works of cultural studies of sport. One of the seminal among them is Ben Carrington’s argument of “Sporting Black-Atlantic,” which he poses as a complex cultural and political space beyond national boundaries through the sporting experiences of black athletes that produces solidarity of black diasporas. This kind of counter public sphere is, ironically however, a product of modern capitalism itself which has had an exploitative effect on black people. Considering these arguments, this essay finally proposes the perspective to capture the resisting moments in which alternative collectivity and alternative public sphere connected to sport culture could emerge through symbolic creativity of the people in the midst of, and through the circuit of, the modern imperialism or capitalism(?).

    Download PDF (919K)
  • Hiroki OGASAWARA
    2016 Volume 24 Issue 1 Pages 35-50
    Published: March 25, 2016
    Released on J-STAGE: March 24, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

      What were the terms and conditions by which cultural studies of football emerged in Britain? And what is the current state of cultural studies that critically understands football? It is my aim here to provide a roughsketch of the reciprocal relationship between football and cultural studies by answering these questions.
     Apart from the historical interest in football as a topic of leisure studies, a serious sociological attempt to consider football began as sociology of the crowd, rather than as a genuine concern with football itself. The main concerns were with ‘deviancy’ and ‘moral panic’. At the same time that football was rediscovered as a heavily localised working class male culture, there was also the ‘hooligan’ discourse that was linked to a criminological focus. In the 1980s, a group of young male academics came to see football as a form of expressive culture. This enlightening moment occurred at a time when football was becoming much more globalized in terms of both the scale and scope of its marketing capacity. The Japanese environment and the establishment of its professional J-League have to be considered in the same way.
     This means that football in this country cannot be free from racism, which has become a negative symptom of world football and also a major target of cultural studies. Football is a genre in which popular cultural pleasure is enjoyed by those who play and those who watch alike, while it contains an unpleasant and inconvenient truth also. When examining these two fronts at the same time, cultural studies of football is required to comprehend the ongoing process of transformation by searching for ways of using novel vocabularies.

    Download PDF (894K)
  • From the Perspective of “Third Wave Feminism”
    Toko TANAKA
    2016 Volume 24 Issue 1 Pages 51-61
    Published: March 25, 2016
    Released on J-STAGE: March 24, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

     In this paper, we examine the relationship between the theory of feminism and sports culture, and the meaning of the image of female athletes today by referring to the various theories of Third Wave Feminism that emerged in the 1990s. First, we focus on the changes in the sports environment in the United States and explain that these changes were the result of the feminist movement. However, along with progress in the participation of women in sports culture, the image of female athletes and young women playing sports was reduced to that of a commercialized “premium” icon that ensured the purchase of products. Therefore, taking advertisements featuring female athletes and young women who play sports as case studies, we present how women have become victims of commercialism and commodification stirring the desire for beauty, health, and consumption. We also show that the relationship between sports culture and women today has become a complex one. Finally, although the relationship has become complex, we explain through the example of street sports that even today sports culture is an important site for the expression of Stealth Feminism.

    Download PDF (899K)
  • A case study of Hitachi as a shrinking society
    Ryosuke KAMON
    Article type: orijinal
    2016 Volume 24 Issue 1 Pages 63-78
    Published: March 25, 2016
    Released on J-STAGE: April 25, 2016
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
     Japan’s main sports policy is the “Comprehensive Community Sports Club”. The government advocates this sports policy with the aim that sports clubs play a pivotal role for the “new public” in the community. The sports policy promotes support for the development and application of sports in local communities. Issues arise between community sports clubs and local community organizations nationwide because of their differing ideas and interests. Local community organizations’ focus is on maintaining the orderliness and welfare of the local community.Sports clubs create conflict with local community organizations because of their sole focus on promoting sports.
     The aim of this paper is to describe the situation in local community organizations and community sports clubs in the Namekawa District of Hitachi City. Hitachi is known for pioneering the electronics industry. A great decline in Hitachi City’s population and in its economic growth is occurring at the moment. The “comprehensive community sports club” in Namekawa is adapting to resolve the issues of the community. The club has shifted its focus and lessened its support for sports promotion in the city. The local community organization in Namekawa modified the “comprehensive community sports club” as an extension of its community organization.
     The modification of the function of “comprehensive community sports clubs” is happening in different cities. Local community organizations are utilizing sports clubs for different contexts which is an improper implementation of the said policy.
    Download PDF (730K)
  • An analysis of TV news coverage of Tokyo’s winning the bid
    Koki MIZUIDE
    2016 Volume 24 Issue 1 Pages 79-92
    Published: March 25, 2016
    Released on J-STAGE: April 25, 2016
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
     This paper examines television coverage on the decision to choose Tokyo as the host venue for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Firstly, the bias of the television coverage is clarified by comparing the coverage with polls conducted at the same time. Secondly, the bias is considered by using the concept of “Others” which has been discussed since Edward Said defined the term in his book, “Orientalism”.
     In this paper, “Others” were divided into two categories ― foreign and domestic. The foreign category includes China and Korea, the domestic category consists of the "Disaster area of Fukushima". In the television coverage, “Others” were represented as having a negative attitude towards the decision to grant the Olympics to Tokyo. The term “Us”, which contrasts with “Others”, mainly refers to Japanese people who showed positive attitudes towards the news, but it also refers to foreigners who were delighted with the decision.
     These two contrasting attitudes of “Others” and “Us” both created their own stereotypes. People in the “Disaster area of Fukushima” have typically been thought to be against hosting the Olympics in Tokyo. People in Tokyo have been thought to be positive about the event. Accordingly, these stereotypes which were created by television coverage concealed negative attitudes and problems in Tokyo.
    Download PDF (656K)
feedback
Top