Glocalization and Sports in Asia

Abstract

Asia’s sports-mediascapes are increasingly globalized and regionalized, as are the roles played specifically by global sports in the processes of reconstituting national imaginaries among local populations as they undergo the larger experience of globalization. As such, the thesis of “glocalization” developed by Roland Robertson informs the essays in this special issue that tackle recent trends in sports culture in Asian localities, engaged in a global arena. As Asian locales host mega sporting events and new mediscapes for the glocal sports industry, glocal sports fan, and the glocal athlete, the essays in this special issue propose crucial concerns for the discipline of sports studies.