The unmarking of soccer: Making a brand new subject

Miller, T. (2020) The unmarking of soccer: Making a brand new subject. In: Bennett, T., Buckridge, P., Carter, D. and Mercer, C., (eds.) Celebrating the Nation: A critical study of Australia's bicentenary. Routledge, pp. 104-120.

Abstract

This chapter argues that attempt to 'unmark' soccer from its perceived condition as a non-Anglo-Saxon sport is an exemplary instance of the will to form a single national subjectivity. After the Cup, Brisbane's Sunday Mail announced that the 'sleeping giant of Australian soccer had finally stirred'. In particular, the National Soccer League relationship with the sport's ruling body, the Australian Soccer Federation, has often been poor. And the Australian Soccer Weekly was arguing that the standard of professionalism at all levels-play, administration and promotion-was not commensurate with a century of history. Before exploring sport and ethnicity, it is as well to establish precisely how people configure such questions of identity, via a consideration of ethnicity and multiculturalism and their relationship to Australian public policy and the Bicentenary. In Philip Schlesinger's terms: "cultural identity", "audiovisual space", "national culture" function as so many useful handles; they offer respectability and brand identification for a variety of contending politico-economic projects in the cultural domain'.

Item Type:	Book Chapter
Murdoch Affiliation(s):	Creative Media, Arts and Design
Publisher:	Routledge
URI:	http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/58702

Item Control Page