Sport and Nation Building: A Comparison of the United States and South Africa

Abstract

The relevance of the research. This paper analyses the case of the USA and South Africa and its experiences in the sports sector since the period of apartheid, in an effort to explore the processes necessary to understand the potential sports may hold for peace building. By identifying initiatives of the USA in South Africa at the national, community and individual level of analysis, the paper outlines the possible effects of sports on reconciliation in divided states. Using a comparative historical approach, the connection between race as a cultural and political category rooted in the history of slavery and colonialism, and the development of the nation states was analyzed. It was characterized how each country's differing efforts to establish national unity and other institutional impediments have served, through the nation-building process and into their present systems of state power, to shape and often crystallize categories and divisions of race. The purpose of the research is to experimentally verify the effectiveness of sports as an integral part of the country, influencing culture. Methods of the research. The research methods used in the process of writing the paper involve the use of general scientific and empirical techniques of physical culture and educational sciences based on a systematic approach. In addition, in the process such general research methods as generalization and comparison analyses were used. The results of the research. As a result of the analysis, we have identified the main range of problems arising from globalization processes and a number of measures aimed at raising the level of sports and cultural image of the developed countries in the World society.

Keywords

• sport, physical education, polity, national game, racial segregation, blacks and whites, soccer, rugby, united states, south africa