CROSSROADS IN CULTURAL STUDIES
Fourth International Conference
June 29 - July 2, 2002, Tampere, Finland
Sport, Globalisation & Corporate Nationalisms
Organiser: Steven J. Jackson
Giardina, Michael D. (University of Illinois, USA) THE STYLISH NIHILISM OF
POSTMODERN BLACKNESS, OR, WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ALLEN IVERSON PLAYS ONE-ON-ONE WITH
HUEY FREEMAN WHILE LISTENING TO CORNEL WEST'S "SKETCHES OF MY
CULTURE"?
My paper elucidates the dynamic tensions currently circulating
within black popular culture as articulated to its growing entrenchment,
acceptance, and stylized exploitation within mainstream America. Building on the
work of Denzin, hooks, and Gilroy, I take as my example three separate yet
ultimately interrelated sites of representation and contestation: the
celebrity subjectivity of NBA star Allen Iverson; the subversive social and
political character of Huey Freeman and through his recently released rap CD
the public intellectuality of Cornel West. It is my argument that the
commercial commodification of hip-hop culture in the late 1990s and the
"neo-nationalistic, essentializing, [and] masculinist" (Denzin, 2001)
identity politics such a move facilitated has divorced from any political
connotations the inherent cultural meanings within black culture (cf,
Carrington, 2001). Specifically, these three examples represent the growing
complexity inherent in the war(s) being waged over what gets to
"count" as "acceptable" [read: profitable] black culture in
mainstream discourses about commodified) American identity.
Desmarais, Fabrice (University of Waikato, New Zealand) SIGNS OF NEW
ZEALANDNESS IN SPORT IMAGERY TELEVISION ADVERTISING
This paper's argument is
based on analysis of a corpus of New Zealand television commercials that used
sport imagery. The analyses show how New Zealand advertising professionals often
placed products or brands within a national sporting framework. Messages were
articulated around national signs related to sport such as national sport
endorsers, national sport situations, and other sport related objects and
viewers/consumers were encouraged to think about these products in terms of how
they fit into their socio-national universe. Sporting signs were linked to the
development of culturally determined ideal characters. Particularly, national
celebrity sport endorsers were given to viewers/consumers as models of
dedication to country and consumption. The way most national sport endorsers
were presented taught viewers that the search for success should be done through
the nation's values and that viewers, as consumers, could participate in these
values by consuming the right products.
Jackson, Steven J. (University of Otago, New Zealand) SPORT, ADVERTISING
& CORPORATE NATIONALISM: THE NEW ZEALAND ALL BLACKS, ADIDAS & RESISTING
THE APPROPRIATION OF INDIGENOUS CULTURE
The culture industries, including
contemporary advertising and marketing corporations have created a "new
culture of enterprise that enlists the enterprise of culture" (Harvey,
1987). As a consequence no meaning or sign system remains sacred. This paper
explores how one global company, Adidas, appropriated aspects of indigenous
(Maori) culture in New Zealand within its advertising campaigns. Specifically,
the paper examines the commodification of the Maori haka within Adidas' global
advertising campaign. In turn, the paper examines the subsequent forms of
resistance that emerged via cultural and legal battles by particular Maori
tribes. Through a critical analysis of the commercial exploitation of the haka I
hope to illustrate politics and complexity of globalization and the new
corporate nationalism.
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