Programme full

STREAM PLENARIES AND SPECIAL
SESSIONS
WEDNESDAY 15 APRIL 2015 17:45 - 18:45
Culture, Media, Sport and Consumption
W110, HAMISH WOOD BUILDING
SPORT AND NATIONAL IDENTITY IN A TRANSITIONING SCOTLAND
The theme of the 2015 conference presented an opportunity to take stock of two major events occurring in Scotland in
2014 – the hosting of the XX Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in July and August 2014, one of the largest sports
mega-events for any city in the world to host, and the outcome of the referendum on Scottish independence held in
September, which is leading to changes in the relationship between Scotland and the rest of the UK despite the
outcome. It is important to demonstrate and showcase the way that sociological insights can contribute to
understanding the wider significance of sport and especially sports mega-events for society and the social and cultural
processes within which they are embedded.
This stream plenary will focus on such concerns as national identity, media representation and urban branding in
contemporary Scotland, as well as sport and the largest sports mega-event in the UK since London 2012.
Sport, Nationalism and Scotland after 2014
Bairner, A.
(Loughborough University)
Bairner, an expert on sport, globalisation and identity and sport and politics in divided nations, will reflect on the
implications for sport, nationalism and Scottish identity after the two big events in 2014
Alan Bairner is Professor of Sport and Social Theory at Loughborough University. He has written extensively on the
relationship between sport and national identity. He is co-author of Sport, Sectarianism and Society in a Divided
Ireland (1993) and author of Sport, Nationalism and Globalization: European and North American Perspectives
(2001). He also edited Sport and the Irish: Histories, Identities, Issues (2005) and co-edited Sport in Divided Societies
(1999), The Bountiful Game? Football Identities and Finances (2005) and The Politics of the Olympics: a survey
(2010). He serves on the editorial boards of the International Review for the Sociology of Sport, the International
Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, and Soccer and Society and is the founding editor of the Asia Pacific Journal of
Sport and Social Science.
Media Coverage of the 2014 Commonwealth Games and Glasgow as a Sports Host City
Boyle, R.
(University of Glasgow)
Boyle’s talk will draw on preliminary findings from research examining how Glasgow is represented in the Scottish, UK
and international media through its hosting of sporting events such as the 2014 Commonwealth Games. What are the
dominant discourses that are mobilized? Which particular events play differently in differing national and international
media markets? What are the central narratives constructed about the city in various media markets? How do they
connect with those being promoted by the organizing committee or those that the city are hoping and expecting to be
realized?
Raymond Boyle is a Professor of Communications at the Centre for Cultural Policy Research at the University of
Glasgow. He has published widely on media, sport and identity and is author of Sports Journalism: Context and
Issues (2006: Sage) and co-author of Football in the New Media Age (2004) and Power Play: Sport the Media and
Popular Culture (2009:EUP). His most recent book The Television Entrepreneurs was published in 2012 and coauthored
with Lisa Kelly. He also teaches on the UEFA Certificate in Football Management CFM programme in the
area of communications, media and public relations. He sits on the editorial board of Media, Culture and Society.
Chair: John Horne (University of Central Lancashire and convenor of the BSA Sport Study Group)
27 BSA Annual Conference 2015
Glasgow Caledonian University