C.A. Bayle, in his innovative approach to History writing, discusses in his book The Birth of the Modern World (2004) the gradual stardardization of global culture, political systems and economical structures, shaping the face of the world in a way that 21st century citizens might feel pretty much in the same place in Frankfurt, New York and Shanghai, even though we're talking about cities who belong to different countries and traditions.
Following a similar line, Edward Said, the famous author of Orientalism, states in Culture and Imperialism (1994) how the expansion of Western culture was possible due to the broad extent of its empires: if by 1800 European powers claimed for themselves 55% of Earth's territory, by 1914 almost 85% of the globe was under the rule of Great Britain, France, the United States or Russia.
It was imperialism that allowed the rise of a communication network that is still available in the present day--even in a larger extent and in a more penetrant way than it was 30 years ago. It surprises me how, in this sense, some objects and sounds, words and music, hobbies and symbols, foods and drinks have become a global commodity and an integral part of every day life for many people around the world. From pizza to pasta, the most recent hit single of Daft Punkt or the insult "fuck you". But I'd like to concentrate on sport.
Take the example of (American) football. Even though it is probably the most American of American sports --only rivaled in its americaness by baseball-- last Sunday the Super Bowl was seen by ca. 100 million spectators around the globe. Football isn't as present in contemporary Germany as it is, for example, in Britain, but still there was an echo in the press while some of my German Facebook contacts commented the game on their statuses.
On the other hand, (European) football or soccer --as it is called in America-- is probably the most widely expanded British cultural export after The Beatles (or even more than them, because The Beatles, despite their canonized musical eternity, are in my opinion a more generational thing in contrast to football, a transgenerational phenomena that includes men and women of all ages, nationalities and social classes.
Football or Fussball came to Germany via Hamburg at the end of the 19th century. It was brought by English sailors who founded a small club in the harbor city. The sport expanded quickly in the German speaking world, so last year was celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Bundesliga. German teams stand for cities or entire regions, but also for multinational companies (Hoffenheim = SAP, Leverkusen = Bayer) and political orientations (St Pauli is for example associated with Hamburg's leftwing scene)
But sports, as superficial and anti-intellectual as they might seem at the glance of highly educated snobs, an in particular football, are in my opinion one of the most powerful tools of globalization: It has not only become a commodity and a business of millions of euros --from sports equipment to stadium tickets--, it has also become a way to articulate a sense of a global community. Or, as Benedict Anderson called, an Imagined Community of individuals who have neither seen each other, nor have any conscience of each other's concrete existence, yet they are aware of their belonging to a common (comm)unity (See: Imagined Communities, 1983)
Why, then, should be for example the Manchester United so interested in buying a Mexican young player, Chicharito? It is of course a matter of money --it's a about creating a new market and lock potential fans / clients / consumers in a developing country like Mexico, highly addicted to football. Chicharito, as any other player, is a commodity. But also a link between two countries that apparently have nothing to do with each other. Could be, in this sense, the Manchester United the most global of all teams, since it has had among its most famous players so many international figures, such as the Frenchman Eric Cantona? Just imagine this: How crazy were British fans for a Frenchman player, an ambassador of that imaginary "enemy" / rival, that country of "wine-and-cheese-freaks" across the Channel! Take a glance at the film Looking for Eric (2009), which pictures the illusions of a hardcore, middle aged Cantona's fan from Northern England:
We also have examples of this sport's globality in Germany. The team Borussia Dortmund (BVB), for example, offers updates in Japanese on its Facebook page: after Shinji Kagawa (now by the way in ManU) came to the Ruhr, a community of fans was born thousands of kilometers away. Such a paradox: a very traditional, deeply regional team, that is an unbeatable element of Ruhrpott popular culture along with other rival teams, like FC Schalke --hated by the way by Dortmund fans--, has become at the same time a part of Japanese sport's life --and popular culture.
As globalization involves migration at the same time, to finish this post I'd like to throw a last question: have you noticed the very international face of British, French and German National teams? This makes me think of football also as a political message and as an historical narrative. In the case of Germany, it is for me clear that soccer is also a matter of international affairs: it is about showing the world how ethnically diverse (or as I'd say in German, bunt) German contemporary society has become, and at the same time, it is about sending a message to the interior of the Republic: a clear message that cultural integration is / should be possible. Sami Khedira, Mario Gomez and Mesut Özil --current or former National team members-- are not only football stars, they are also a picture of the cultural history --the history of migrations-- of our Federal Republic.
Feel free to post any comments or send us some other examples you can think of.
Cologne, 06.02.14
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