Cities and the cultural politics of sterile sporting space

Pages: 270-286

ISBN: 9781405191609

DOI: 10.1002/9781118325261.ch16

Abstract:

This chapter is concerned with ongoing processes involved in the constitution of sporting experiences as they relate to the symbolic reconstitution of cityscapes. It addresses the "lean and mean" urban geographies in which cities engage in aggressive place management and marketing initiatives, often predicated on sporting experiences and consumption. The chapter begins by addressing the shift towards the material and discursive constitution of cityspace. The author then turns to Baltimore, as emblematic exemplar of the neoliberal forces that act to shape and are contested within the city. Conclusions center on the lessons that one might learn from Baltimore, in which the author offers tentative suggestions for, and scholarly directions in, addressing sterile cityspaces. To counter the repressive cultural politics of sterile neoliberal cityspace, and indeed to avoid representing sporting spaces purely as the apex of neoliberalism, we need multiple, pejorative, stories and actions..

Source: Scopus