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Soft Power, Sports Mega Events and Emerging States: The Lure of the Politics of Attraction.
Lee, Donna Grix, J.
Lee, Donna
Grix, J.
Publication Date
2013
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© 2013 Taylor & Francis. Reproduced in accordance with
the publisher's self-archiving policy. This is an Author's Original Manuscript of an
article published by Taylor & Francis in Global Society, 2013, available online at
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13600826.2013.827632
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Abstract
This article highlights and analyses a hitherto largely neglected dimension to the growing agency of large developing countries in global affairs: their hosting of international sports mega-events. Why are large developing countries hosting sports mega-events and what does this contemporary phenomenon tell us about the significance of, for example, the Olympics and the World Cup in global affairs? We explore these questions through brief examination of the cases of the three most active sports mega-event hosting states in recent times: Brazil, China and South Africa. The 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and the upcoming 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil provide interesting examples with which to explore developing country agency in the international system and in particular the discursive basis of that agency. We see the hosting of sports mega-events as the practice of public diplomacy by states to both demonstrate existing soft power capability as well as pursue its further enhancement.
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final draft paper
Citation
Grix, J. and Lee, D (2013) Soft Power, Sports Mega Events and Emerging States: The Lure of the Politics of Attraction. Global Society, 27 (4): 521-536.
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