How Soccer Explains the World
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| Author | Franklin Foer |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Soccer, globalization |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
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Publication date
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June 29, 2004 |
| Media type | Hardback & paperback |
| Pages | 272 pp (hardback edition) |
| ISBN | (hardback) |
| OCLC | 55756745 |
| 796.334 22 | |
| LC Class | GV943.9.S64 F64 2004 |
How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization (also published as How Football Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization) is a book written by American journalist Franklin Foer. It is an analysis of the interchange between soccer and the new global economy.
The author takes readers on a journey from stadium to stadium around the globe in an attempt to shed new insights on today’s world events, both from political and economic standpoints. Soccer is here the globalized medium that seems to lend itself to explaining the effects globalization has on society as a whole.
In the first part of the book, Foer tries to explain "the failure of globalization to erode ancient hatreds in the game’s great rivalries," commonly referred to as football hooliganism. His case studies include sectarian conflicts between supporters of Celtic F.C. and Rangers F.C. (the Old Firm) in Scotland and the tendency of supporters of Tottenham Hotspur F.C. and AFC Ajax to appropriate Jewish symbols and terminology (such as yid), causing some opposing supporters to employ antisemitic chants and taunts.
In the second part of the text, the author uses soccer "to address economics: the consequences of migration, the persistence of corruption, and the rise of powerful new oligarchs like Silvio Berlusconi, the President of [both] Italy and the AC Milan club".
In the final part, Foer uses soccer "to defend the virtues of old-fashioned nationalism", as "a way to blunt the return of tribalism". The book thus challenges theories that a universal, globalist philosophy will subsume local nationalisms. Overarching structures such as the European Union and the United Nations may attain structural prominence, but underneath the veneer of these structures, vibrant sub-cultures and tribal loyalties remain, and may even be strengthened by modern communications like the Internet. They may thus foreshadow not the hope for unity sought by globalized bureaucratic and political elites and corporate oligarchs, but increasing fragmentation and national/ethnic conflict within outward facades of globalized unity.
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