Africa’s World Cup: Critical Reflections on Play, Patriotism, Spectatorship and Space

Africa’s World Cup: Critical Reflections on Play, Patriotism, Spectatorship and Space focuses on a remarkable month in the modern history of Africa and in the global history of football. The editors, Peter Alegi and Chris Bolsmann, are well-known scholars on South African football, and they have assembled an impressive team of local and international journalists, academics, and football experts to reflect on the 2010 World Cup and its broader significance, meanings, complexities, and contradictions. The volume is richly illustrated by the authors’ photographs, and the essays feature chronicles of match day experiences; travelogues; ethnographies of fan cultures; analyses of print, broadcast, and electronic media coverage of the tournament; reflections on the World Cup’s private and public spaces; discussions of fandom and the football exhibits in South African museums; and critiques of the World Cup’s processes of inclusion and exclusion, as well as its political and economic legacies. The collection will appeal to students, scholars, journalists, and fans.