COURSE STRUCTURE
Module 1 Topic B: Discussion Questions
Following the lecture, and having read the assigned readings and watch relevant video clips, you are expected to prepare answers for TWO (those questions in green) of the following discussion questions. Your prepared answers will form the basis of your verbal contributions within discussion sections
These answers should:
1. Be a minimum of 150 words for each answer (not including the question or reference list).
2. Be typed and double-spaced.
3. Have the complete question immediately prior to the answer.
4. Cite appropriately any sources used in your answer (use appropriate Style and Format Guidelines).
5. Include a complete reference list (use appropriate Style and Format Guidelines).
6. Hand in a hard copy of answers during discussion section
The aim of these answers is to get you to engage and extend the information covered within each theme, in order to generate a better understanding of core concepts, knowledge, and issues.
These questions are intended as preparation for both the discussion section and exam related to this topic.
PLEASE NOTE: Within the multiple choice section of the module exam, you should expect to be asked questions on the information related to any of these questions.
However, the ONE thematic essay question for the module exam will be selected from those questions in green.
Following the review session for this module the selected question will be designated in red.
Theme 1: Sport and Politics
1. What is the difference between the sportization of politics, and the politicization of sport? Think of recent examples of both.
2. Politics has been described as the practice and art of government. What does this mean? Describe the contrasting practices and processes of government associated with differing macro-political systems.
3. Provide examples of sporting micro-politics, through which individual lives become governed within, and through, involvement with sport.
Theme 2: Politics, Ideology, and Hegemony
1. Hegemony is a core concept within this course, do you know what it means? What role does ideology play in the establishing of a hegemonic political formation?
2. Why are the processes of popularization and normalization central to the establishment of a hegemonic order.
3. Outline sport’s role as part of the ideological state apparatus in securing popular consent to the system of governance/political order. Can you think of any examples of sport working as an ISA within the U.S. context?
Theme 3: The USA and Neoliberalism
1. If the American political system is a constitutional democracy within which differing political traditions and ideologies dominate at any given time, what are the main examples of these contrast political traditions and ideologies from 1930 onwards? And, what are the main differences between these political viewpoints?
2. What are government retrenchment, corporate rationalities, the free market, trickle down economics, and competitive individualism and how are they linked to the neoliberal political agenda?
3. Why is the idealized neoliberal citizen-subject an "entrepreur of the self" (Foucault, 2010)? Outline the individual responsibility at the core of neoliberal bio-politics.
Theme 4: Neoliberal Capitalism and Sport
1. If contemporary U.S. sport is not overtly political, how, and in what ways, is it implicitly politicized by the dominant neoliberal political agenda?
2. Discuss the merits, or otherwise, of neoliberal sport stadium (or event) development? Would you support a bid from your "home city" for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games?.
3. Describe some sporting experiences and observations of neoliberalism (government retrenchment, corporate rationalities, the free market, trickle down economics, privatization, and competitive individualism) you have witnessed within your own lives.
Theme 5: Sporting Bodies and Neoliberal Bio-Politics
1. What is neoliberal sporting bio-politics, and how does it act as a form of public pedagogy?
2. Is it possible for celebrated and successful athletes to be framed as being anything other than the embodiments of neoliberal rugged individualism? If not, why not? If so, provide examples.
3. Which do you feel is the best way of funding Olympic athletes and teams. Provide a solid, politically-based, rationale for your response.
