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James Anderson James is a first year master of Human Kinetics student at the University of Windsor. His research interests include the social and economic impacts of sport. Originally from Vancouver, James completed his undergraduate degree at the University of British Columbia. James has travelled extensively throughout the developing world in regions such as Africa, Southeast Asia and the Caribbean. James hopes to pursue doctoral research focusing specifically on the impacts of sport events in Africa.
Dr. Taks' expertise is in the area of in socio-economic aspects of sport and recreation, with particular interests in consumer behaviour of various sport-oriented groups. She researches impacts, outcomes and leveraging of sport events, with a special focus on small and medium sized events and their meaning for host communities. Mass participation and the “Sport for All” philosophy, guide her research. She is past-editor of the European Sport Management Quarterly (2009-2011), editorial board member of the Journal of Sport Management, the European Sport Management Quarterly and guest reviewer for a wide variety of journals in the field of sport management, sport marketing and sport tourism.
Abstract Chinese Corporate Imperialism and the All Africa Games Competition has increased among nations to host sport mega events (SME) due to the perceived socio-economic benefits. The majority of SME (e.g., the Olympic Games or the FIFA World Cup are hosted by developed nations (Cornelissen, 2003; Black & Peacock, 2011). However recently, developing nations have come to the fore front hosting SME (e.g., FIFA 2010 in South Africa, FIFA 2014 and OG 2016 in Brazil) as well as hosting other large scale sport events (LSSE) (e.g., the 2010 Common Wealth Games in India; the 2007 Pan American Games in Brazil). With the exception of the 2010 FIFA South Africa World Cup (Cornelissen, 2012; Desai & Vahed, 2010) research on events in developing nations has been limited. For example, little is known about the All Africa Games (AAG) in general, let alone their socio-economic impact. Literature suggests that the motives of African nations’ to host SME and LSSE are to showcase modernity with the goal to attract foreign investment (Black & Peacock, 2011; Cornelissen, 2003; Mishra, 2013). We argue that African nations subjugate themselves to corporate imperialism by the desire to host SME and LSSE. To support the aforementioned argument, we provide background information on the socio-economic and the sport context in which these events take place. The sports context is illustrated by highlighting the features of SME and LSSE, as well as the historical significance of colonial sports in Africa. From a socio-economic perspective, we illustrate the influence of multinational corporations (MNCs) on the socio-political landscapes of Africa, and utilize the concepts of “soft power” and the “global politics” of sports to understand the underlying processes. Finally, we perform a comparative analysis of the 2010 FIFA South Africa World Cup, the 2011 Maputo AAG and the 2015 Brazzaville AAG to exemplify the political and socioeconomic similarities and discuss possible implications. The comparative analysis reveals the emergence of what Will (2011) described as ‘stadium diplomacy’. FIFA and Chinese corporations’ were able to influence the politics within South Africa and Mozambique to profit economically in the long term and the construction of their stadia parallels the construction of colonial monuments in Africa as a symbol of conquest. |
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Marijke Taks
