Jack Black is Associate Professor of Culture, Media and Sport
Jack's research examines the interrelationships between sociology, media and cultural studies, and psychoanalysis – publishing on topics relating to nationalism/national identity, gender, celebrity, journalism and terrorism; theoretically informed analyses of power and cultural representation; and ecological approaches to nature, culture and leisure/sport. Supervisors: Prof. Joseph Maguire Phone: 07999658012 Address: A213, Collegiate Hall, Collegiate Crescent, Sheffield, S10 2BP
Sport and Psychoanalysis: What Sport Reveals about Our Unconscious Desires, Fantasies, and Fears ... more Sport and Psychoanalysis: What Sport Reveals about Our Unconscious Desires, Fantasies, and Fears explores the intersection of sport and psychoanalysis, emphasizing the often-overlooked psycho-social dimensions underpinning the experience of sport. By challenging the idea that sport offers an “escape” from reality—a realm separate to the politics of everyday life—each chapter critically considers the unconscious desires, fantasies, and fears that underpin the sporting spectacle for both participants and spectators. Indeed, beyond simply applying psychoanalysis to sport, this book proposes how sport can be used to pose questions to psychoanalysis, thus using sport as a medium to elucidate key psychoanalytic ideas and concepts. This volume addresses a diverse range of theorists, including Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Lou Andreas-Salomé, Norman O. Brown, and Frantz Fanon, and applies them across a variety of topics and sports, including NFL coaching, Manny Pacquiao, play, football, basketball, baseball, poker, and the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, therefore providing a unique understanding of the cultural, social, and psychic significance of sports. A timely and relevant collection, this book will appeal to scholars and practitioners interested in understanding sport from both the cultural and clinical application of psychoanalytic theory as well as academics and practitioners in sport studies, psychology, sociology, education, and cultural studies.
The Psychosis of Race offers a unique and detailed account of the psychoanalytic significance of ... more The Psychosis of Race offers a unique and detailed account of the psychoanalytic significance of race, and the ongoing impact of racism in contemporary society.
Moving beyond the well-trodden assertion that race is a social construction, and working against demands that simply call for more representational equality, The Psychosis of Race explores how the delusions, anxieties, and paranoia that frame our race relations can afford new insights into how we see, think, and understand race's pervasive appeal. With examples drawn from politics and popular culture—such as Candyman, Get Out, and the music of Kendrick Lamar—critical attention is given to introducing, as well as explicating on, several key concepts from Lacanian psychoanalysis and the study of psychosis, including foreclosure, the phallus, Nameof-the-Father, sinthome, and the objet petit a. By elaborating a cultural mode to psychosis and its understanding, an original and critical exposition of the effects of racialization, as well as our ability to discern the very limits of our capacity to think through, or even beyond, the idea of race, is provided.
The Psychosis of Race speaks to an emerging area in the study of psychoanalysis and race, and will appeal to scholars and academics across the fields of psychology, sociology, cultural studies, media studies, and the arts and humanities.
This book considers the ability of individuals and communities to maintain healthy relationships ... more This book considers the ability of individuals and communities to maintain healthy relationships with their surroundings—before, during and after catastrophic events—through physical activity and sporting practices.
Broad and ambitious in scope, this book uses sport and physical activity as a lens through which to examine our catastrophic societies and spaces. Acknowledging that catastrophes are complex, overlapping phenomena in need of sophisticated, interdisciplinary solutions, this book explores the social, economic, ecological and moral injustices that determine the personal and emotional impact of catastrophe. Drawing from international case studies, this book uniquely explores the different landscapes and contexts of catastrophe as well as the affective qualities of sporting practices. This includes topics such as DIY skateparks in Jamaica; former child soldiers in Africa; the funding of sport, recreation and cultural activities by extractive industries in northern Canada; mountain biking in the UK; and urban exploration in New Zealand. Featuring the work of ex-professional athletes, artists, anthropologists, sociologists, political ecologists, community development workers and philosophers, this book offers new perspectives on capitalism, nature, sociality, morality and identity.
This is essential reading for academics and practitioners in sociology, disaster studies, sport-for-development and political ecology.
In what ways is comedy subversive? This vital new book critically considers the importance of com... more In what ways is comedy subversive? This vital new book critically considers the importance of comedy in challenging and redefining our relations to race and racism through the lens of political correctness.
By viewing comedy as both a constitutive feature of social interaction and as a necessary requirement in the appraisal of what is often deemed to be ‘politically correct’, this book provides an innovative and multidisciplinary approach to the study of comedy and popular culture. In doing so, it engages with the social and cultural tensions inherent to our understandings of political correctness, arguing that comedy can subversively redefine our approach to ‘PC Debates’, contestations surrounding free speech and the popular portrayal of political correctness in the media and society. Aided by the work of both Slavoj Žižek and Alenka Zupančič, this unique analysis adopts a psychoanalytic/philosophical framework to explore issues of race, racism and political correctness in the widely acclaimed BBC ‘mockumentary’, The Office (UK), as well as a variety of television comedies.
Drawing from psychoanalysis, social psychology and philosophy, this book will be highly relevant for postgraduate students and academic researchers studying comedy, race/racism, multiculturalism, political correctness and television/film.
This article poses a simple question: can AI lie? In response to this question, the article exami... more This article poses a simple question: can AI lie? In response to this question, the article examines, as its point of inquiry, popular AI chatbots, such as, ChatGPT. In doing so, an examination of the psychoanalytic, philosophical, and technological significance of AI and its complexities are located in relation to the dynamics of truth, falsity, and deception. That is, by critically exploring the chatbot’s capacity to engage in natural language conversations and deliver contextually relevant responses, it is argued that what distinguishes the AI chatbot from anthropocentric discussions, which suggest a form of conscious awareness in AI, is the importance of the lie—an importance which a psychoanalytic approach can reveal. Indeed, while AI technologies undoubtedly blur the line between lies and truth-speaking, in the case of the AI chatbot, it is detailed how such technology remains unable to lie authentically; or, in other words, is unable to lie like a human. For psychoanalysis, the capacity to lie bears witness to the unconscious, and, thus, plays an important role in determining the subject. It is for this reason that rather than uncritically accepting the chatbot’s authority—an authority that is easily reflected in its honest responses and frank admissions—a psychoanalytic (Lacanian) perspective can highlight the significance of the unconscious as a distorting factor in determining the subject. To help elucidate this argument, specific attention is given to introducing and applying Lacan’s subject of enunciation and subject of the enunciated. This is used to assert that what continues (for now) to set us apart from AI technology is not necessarily our ‘better knowledge’, but our capability to consciously engage in acts of falsehood that function to reveal the social nuances and significances of the lie.
Is it possible to remain a sports fan when prominent sports teams and events are utilized to “spo... more Is it possible to remain a sports fan when prominent sports teams and events are utilized to “sportswash” human rights abuses and other controversies? Indeed, while there is an abundance of analyses critiquing different instances of sportswashing, the exploration of the role of sportswashing and its connection to the “sports fan” presents an essential and necessary area of investigation and theoretical inquiry. To unpick this dilemma, this article proposes the concept of “fetishistic disavowal” to help theorize the impact of sportswashing, as well as its relation to the sports fan and critical sports academic. This argues that, as spectators and fans of sport—and, moreover, as critical academics—we often acknowledge and accept that sport is used to perpetuate and even maintain a variety of social, economic, and political inequalities. Yet, while we are aware of such knowledge, we nonetheless remain fully capable of disavowing this very knowledge as an accepted part of sport. Given this, it is argued that the fetishization of sport can provide a suitable conduit for the fetishistic disavowal that sportswashing requires, with the concept offering a unique way of approaching sport’s inherent contradictions, while also theorizing how subjects relate to these contradictions as part of their involvement in and with sport. Where sportswashing directly implicates the fan in its implementation—relying upon a level of fetishistic disavowal between the fan and their club and proffering a disavowed acknowledgement of the effects of sportswashing and its interpellation through sport—this article outlines how applications of fetishistic disavowal provide a unique theoretical lens through which analyses of sport, and its ethical significance, can be critiqued.
International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Jun 1, 2024
The term sportswashing has been discussed and analysed within academic circles, as well as the ma... more The term sportswashing has been discussed and analysed within academic circles, as well as the mainstream media. However, the majority of existing research has focused on one-off event-based sportswashing strategies (such as autocratic states hosting major international sports events) rather than longer term investment-based strategies (such as state actors purchasing sports clubs and teams). Furthermore, little has been written about the impact of this latter strategy on the existing fanbase of the purchased team and on their relationship with sportswashing and the discourses surrounding it. This paper addresses this lacuna through analysis of a popular Manchester City online fan forum, which illustrates the manner in which this community of dedicated City fans have legitimated the actions of the club’s ownership regime, the Abu Dhabi United Group – a private equity group operated by Abu Dhabi royalty and UAE politicians. The discursive strategies of the City fans are discussed, in addition to the wider significance of these strategies on the issue of sportswashing and its coverage by the media.
Sport poses a number of important and no less significant questions, which, on the face of it, ma... more Sport poses a number of important and no less significant questions, which, on the face of it, may not necessarily seem very important or significant to begin with – a peculiarity that we believe to be integral to sport itself. This article introduces, explores and outlines the psychoanalytic significance of this peculiarity. It explores how the emotions stirred by sport are intertwined with a realm of fiction and fantasy. Despite its lack of practical utility, sport carries an undeniable gravity, encapsulating the aspirations of communities, nations and continents. As a result, psychoanalysis can be used to critically reflect on the purpose and meaning of sport: that is, why do we need sport, and why, for large sections of the world’s population, do we rely on it? Ultimately, while psychoanalysis maintains a unique relation to a variety of unexpected fields of study – including art, culture and neuroscience – we seek to add to this expanding list of inquiry by including sport in this critical domain. By utilising sport as a platform to elucidate psychoanalytic concepts, it is recognised that sport can also prompt questions for psychoanalysis. In so doing, theoretical discussions on the social, cultural and political dimensions of sport through psychoanalytic theory are introduced and applied.
Narratives concerning “Cultural Marxism” – portrayed as a threat to Western society and its value... more Narratives concerning “Cultural Marxism” – portrayed as a threat to Western society and its values – have been gaining ground largely thanks to their ability to circulate rapidly through online platforms. In recent years, sport has also become a vehicle for spreading such conspiracy theories – with far-reaching consequences for society.
This essay explores the interrelationship between tragedy and comedy, with specific focus given t... more This essay explores the interrelationship between tragedy and comedy, with specific focus given to the potential that comedy can provide in transforming the most tragic of situations. In building this claim, the very dynamics and distinctions that divide the tragic from the comic are considered in view of the self-negation that the comic posits. That is, while tragedy requires a certain acceptance of the finite, from which destiny and circumstance come to certify the hero’s tragic predicament, in comedy, what succeeds is that which functions through an act of self-negation. This, it is argued, offers a subversive redefining of tragedy, one that proves constitutive of a comic fatalism that does not mourn one’s tragic predicament or fated end, but, instead, fully identifies with our comic predicament. Going beyond the pitfalls of political nicety and moral condemnation, which seek easy gratification or cynical distance, the conclusion examines the conceptual artist, Vanessa Place, and her performance of rape jokes.
Sport serves as a revealing backdrop for the manifestation of hate speech and discrimination. Cul... more Sport serves as a revealing backdrop for the manifestation of hate speech and discrimination. Culture clashes and global socio-economic power struggles often ignite within the sporting arena and continue to smoulder long afterward. As a result, incidences of hate speech in sport have spread across digital platforms, with social media and online forums being used to circulate hateful, offensive, or discriminatory content. Policymakers, sport governing bodies, and grassroots anti-hate organizations now find themselves struggling to keep up with a rapidly changing online-landscape. The importance of addressing and combating online hate speech in sport is now an essential problem in maintaining integrity, diversity, and respect within the sporting community. Recognizing the urgency of addressing this matter, the Tackling Online Hate in Football (TOHIF) team conducted a scoping review to provide an extensive overview of scholarship on this topic. The review served to provide a comprehensive compilation of previously employed research methodologies, case studies, and conclusions, identifying the breadth and depth of existing research, while also recognising key themes, gaps in knowledge, and areas for further research. In so doing, the review not only provided a concise overview of existing research in the field but also sheds light on areas and approaches in dire need of further examination.
Exploring the relationship between humans and AI chatbots, as well as the ethical concerns surrou... more Exploring the relationship between humans and AI chatbots, as well as the ethical concerns surrounding their use, this paper argues that our relations with chatbots are not solely based on their function as a source of knowledge, but, rather, on the desire for the subject not to know. It is argued that, outside of the very fears and anxieties that underscore our adoption of AI, the desire not to know reveals the potential to embrace the very loss AI avers. Consequently, rather than proposing a knowledge that seeks to disavow loss, we can instead recognize the potential in loss itself: an opportunity to assert and define the gap inherent to both the subject and AI we create.
Exploring online criticisms of the ‘take the knee’ protest during ‘Euro 2020’, this article exami... more Exploring online criticisms of the ‘take the knee’ protest during ‘Euro 2020’, this article examines how alt- and far-right conspiracies were both constructed and communicated via the social media platform, Twitter. By providing a novel exploration of alt-right conspiracies during an international football tournament, a qualitative thematic analysis of 1,388 original tweets relating to Euro 2020 was undertaken. The findings reveal how, in criticisms levelled at both ‘wokeism’ and the Black Lives Matter movement, antiwhite criticisms of the ‘take the knee’ protest were embroiled in alt-right conspiracies that exposed an assumed Cultural Marxist, ‘woke agenda’ in the tournament’s organization and mainstream media coverage. In conclusion, it is argued that conspiratorial discourses, associated with the alt-right, provided a framework through which the protest could be understood. This emphasises how the significance of conspiracy functions to promote the wider dissemination of alt-right ideology across popular cultural contexts, such as sport.
Critical Studies in Television Online, May 8, 2020
Alex Garland’s recent miniseries, Devs (20th Television, 2020), takes on many similar themes whic... more Alex Garland’s recent miniseries, Devs (20th Television, 2020), takes on many similar themes which have been explored in his previous directorial outputs, including Ex Machina (A24; Universal Pictures, 2015) and Annihilation (Paramount Pictures; Netflix, 2018). A science fiction thriller, Devs follows the computer engineer, Lily Chan (Sonoya Mizuno), whose boyfriend mysteriously commits suicide after his first day working for the ‘Devs’ project. The project is run by the quantum computing company, Amaya. Amaya’s CEO is Forest (Nick Offerman), a tech entrepreneur, whose wealth has allowed him to develop the unique quantum mechanics facility. Notable members of staff are subsequently promoted to join Devs, where, in the first episode, Lily’s boyfriend, Sergei (Karl Glusman) is invited to join. Upon joining the program, we realise that Sergei has attempted to steal the Devs code, revealing himself as a suspected Russian industrial spy. Unbeknownst to Lily, Sergei is murdered by Forest and his head of security at the end of episode one for attempting to steal the code. ... Read more - https://cstonline.net/devs-and-the-parallax-ending-by-jack-black/
Sport continues to be one of the primary means through which notions of Englishness and Britishne... more Sport continues to be one of the primary means through which notions of Englishness and Britishness are constructed, contested and resisted. The legacy of the role of sport in the colonial project of the British Empire, combined with more recent connections between sport and far right fascist/nationalist politics has made the association between Britishness, Englishness and ethnic identity(ies) particularly intriguing. In this paper, these intersections are explored through British media coverage of the Canadian-born, British tennis player, Greg Rusedski. This coverage is examined through the lens of ‘performativity’, as articulated by Judith Butler. Through a critical application of Butler’s ideas, the ways in which the media seek to recognise and normalise certain identities, while problematising and excluding others, can be more fully appreciated. Thus, it was within newspaper framings of Rusedski that hegemonic notions of White Englishness could be performed, maintained and embedded.
Critical Studies in Television Online, Apr 6, 2020
In this concluding post on Sam Esmail’s Mr. Robot, a critical evaluation of the series’ final sce... more In this concluding post on Sam Esmail’s Mr. Robot, a critical evaluation of the series’ final scenes as well as its wider cultural, political and ideological importance will be provided. In accordance with previous posts, this analysis will draw from the work of Todd McGowan in order to provide a final precis on the significance of the gaze as used in the series. Towards the end of this discussion, attention will be given to expanding upon the series’ conclusions in light of similar narrative formats, such as, Todd Phillips’s, Joker (2019). ... Read more – https://cstonline.net/mr-robot-part- three-the-voyeurs-who-think-they-arent-a-part-of-this-mr-robot-and-the-subject-by- jack-black/
Critical Studies in Television Online, Feb 28, 2020
In what follows, I wish to draw away from broader criticisms of Mr. Robot’s narrative consequence... more In what follows, I wish to draw away from broader criticisms of Mr. Robot’s narrative consequences, and focus on a particular scene from Series 4, Episode 10, ‘410 Gone’. Importantly, the following analysis will serve to elucidate upon a number of important significances related to the series and its conclusion (this will be discussed next week). Before reading the below, however, it is worth watching the scene in question: … Read more – https://cstonline.net/mr-robot-part-two-run-away-with-me-content-form-and-romantic-failure-an-ideological-critique-scene-analysis-by-jack-black/
International Journal of Žižek Studies, Feb 20, 2020
This article draws upon the work of Timothy Morton and Slavoj Žižek in order to critically examin... more This article draws upon the work of Timothy Morton and Slavoj Žižek in order to critically examine how mountain bike trail builders orientated themselves within nature relations. Beginning with a discussion of the key ontological differences between Morton’s object-oriented ontology and Žižek’s blend of Hegelian- Lacanianism, we explore how Morton’s dark ecology and Žižek’s account of the radical contingency of nature, can offer parallel paths to achieving an ecological awareness that neither idealises nor mythologises nature, but instead, acknowledges its strange (Morton) and contingent (Žižek) form. Empirically, we support this theoretical approach in interviews with twenty mountain bike trail builders. These interviews depicted an approach to trail building that was ambivalently formed in/with the contingency of nature. In doing so, the trail builders acted with a sense of temporal awareness that accepted the radical openness of nature, presenting a ‘symbolic framework’ that was amiable to nature’s ambivalent, strange and contingent form. In conclusion, we argue that we should not lose sight of the ambivalences and strange surprises that emanate from our collective and unpredictable attempts to symbolize nature and that such knowledge can coincide with Morton’s ‘dark ecology’ – an ecological awareness that remains radically open to our ecological existence.
Critical Studies in Television Online, Feb 21, 2020
It was noted in the previous post, that the underlying plotline structuring Sam Esmail’s Mr. Robo... more It was noted in the previous post, that the underlying plotline structuring Sam Esmail’s Mr. Robot bears a notable resemblance to David Fincher’s Fight Club (1999). Certainly, the comparison has been duly noted and even openly acknowledged by Esmail, with the film serving as inspiration for the series (Sullivan, 2015). In the case of seasons 1 and 2, this inspiration fuels Elliot and fsociety’s attempts to erase the commercial debt that has been accumulated by E Corp. Lines from the characters are riddled with references to the increasing divide between rich and poor, and to the declining significance of democracy in the face of a social and political climate steered by liberal capitalism’s unending and unequal pursuit of wealth. As noted, these ills are embodied in the conglomerate E Corp, or, as Elliot refers to it, ‘Evil Corp’. E Corp can be thought of as a reflection of Apple, with its technology, digital payment services and loan/credit portfolios always encroaching on the lives of the series’ characters. Accordingly, while The Narrator in Fight Club seeks to bring down capitalism, by exploding the headquarters of its leading companies, Elliot seeks to reset the balance by hacking E Corp’s computer database and eradicating the consumer debt it holds. … Read more – https://cstonline.net/mr-robot-part-one-our-democracy-has-been-hacked-critiquing-mr-robot-by-jack-black/
Critical Studies in Television Online, Feb 7, 2020
Premiering in May 2015, Sam Esmail’s Mr. Robot (USA Network), tells the story of a cybersecurity ... more Premiering in May 2015, Sam Esmail’s Mr. Robot (USA Network), tells the story of a cybersecurity engineer/computer hacker, who is recruited by a cyber-anarchist movement called ‘fsociety’. The movement’s mission: to eradicate all consumer debt through destroying the data records held by the fictional conglomerate, ‘E Corp’... Visit - https://cstonline.net/from-fight-club-to-gaze-making-sense-of-sam-esmails-mr-robot-an-introduction-by-jack-black/
Sport and Psychoanalysis: What Sport Reveals about Our Unconscious Desires, Fantasies, and Fears ... more Sport and Psychoanalysis: What Sport Reveals about Our Unconscious Desires, Fantasies, and Fears explores the intersection of sport and psychoanalysis, emphasizing the often-overlooked psycho-social dimensions underpinning the experience of sport. By challenging the idea that sport offers an “escape” from reality—a realm separate to the politics of everyday life—each chapter critically considers the unconscious desires, fantasies, and fears that underpin the sporting spectacle for both participants and spectators. Indeed, beyond simply applying psychoanalysis to sport, this book proposes how sport can be used to pose questions to psychoanalysis, thus using sport as a medium to elucidate key psychoanalytic ideas and concepts. This volume addresses a diverse range of theorists, including Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Lou Andreas-Salomé, Norman O. Brown, and Frantz Fanon, and applies them across a variety of topics and sports, including NFL coaching, Manny Pacquiao, play, football, basketball, baseball, poker, and the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, therefore providing a unique understanding of the cultural, social, and psychic significance of sports. A timely and relevant collection, this book will appeal to scholars and practitioners interested in understanding sport from both the cultural and clinical application of psychoanalytic theory as well as academics and practitioners in sport studies, psychology, sociology, education, and cultural studies.
The Psychosis of Race offers a unique and detailed account of the psychoanalytic significance of ... more The Psychosis of Race offers a unique and detailed account of the psychoanalytic significance of race, and the ongoing impact of racism in contemporary society.
Moving beyond the well-trodden assertion that race is a social construction, and working against demands that simply call for more representational equality, The Psychosis of Race explores how the delusions, anxieties, and paranoia that frame our race relations can afford new insights into how we see, think, and understand race's pervasive appeal. With examples drawn from politics and popular culture—such as Candyman, Get Out, and the music of Kendrick Lamar—critical attention is given to introducing, as well as explicating on, several key concepts from Lacanian psychoanalysis and the study of psychosis, including foreclosure, the phallus, Nameof-the-Father, sinthome, and the objet petit a. By elaborating a cultural mode to psychosis and its understanding, an original and critical exposition of the effects of racialization, as well as our ability to discern the very limits of our capacity to think through, or even beyond, the idea of race, is provided.
The Psychosis of Race speaks to an emerging area in the study of psychoanalysis and race, and will appeal to scholars and academics across the fields of psychology, sociology, cultural studies, media studies, and the arts and humanities.
This book considers the ability of individuals and communities to maintain healthy relationships ... more This book considers the ability of individuals and communities to maintain healthy relationships with their surroundings—before, during and after catastrophic events—through physical activity and sporting practices.
Broad and ambitious in scope, this book uses sport and physical activity as a lens through which to examine our catastrophic societies and spaces. Acknowledging that catastrophes are complex, overlapping phenomena in need of sophisticated, interdisciplinary solutions, this book explores the social, economic, ecological and moral injustices that determine the personal and emotional impact of catastrophe. Drawing from international case studies, this book uniquely explores the different landscapes and contexts of catastrophe as well as the affective qualities of sporting practices. This includes topics such as DIY skateparks in Jamaica; former child soldiers in Africa; the funding of sport, recreation and cultural activities by extractive industries in northern Canada; mountain biking in the UK; and urban exploration in New Zealand. Featuring the work of ex-professional athletes, artists, anthropologists, sociologists, political ecologists, community development workers and philosophers, this book offers new perspectives on capitalism, nature, sociality, morality and identity.
This is essential reading for academics and practitioners in sociology, disaster studies, sport-for-development and political ecology.
In what ways is comedy subversive? This vital new book critically considers the importance of com... more In what ways is comedy subversive? This vital new book critically considers the importance of comedy in challenging and redefining our relations to race and racism through the lens of political correctness.
By viewing comedy as both a constitutive feature of social interaction and as a necessary requirement in the appraisal of what is often deemed to be ‘politically correct’, this book provides an innovative and multidisciplinary approach to the study of comedy and popular culture. In doing so, it engages with the social and cultural tensions inherent to our understandings of political correctness, arguing that comedy can subversively redefine our approach to ‘PC Debates’, contestations surrounding free speech and the popular portrayal of political correctness in the media and society. Aided by the work of both Slavoj Žižek and Alenka Zupančič, this unique analysis adopts a psychoanalytic/philosophical framework to explore issues of race, racism and political correctness in the widely acclaimed BBC ‘mockumentary’, The Office (UK), as well as a variety of television comedies.
Drawing from psychoanalysis, social psychology and philosophy, this book will be highly relevant for postgraduate students and academic researchers studying comedy, race/racism, multiculturalism, political correctness and television/film.
This article poses a simple question: can AI lie? In response to this question, the article exami... more This article poses a simple question: can AI lie? In response to this question, the article examines, as its point of inquiry, popular AI chatbots, such as, ChatGPT. In doing so, an examination of the psychoanalytic, philosophical, and technological significance of AI and its complexities are located in relation to the dynamics of truth, falsity, and deception. That is, by critically exploring the chatbot’s capacity to engage in natural language conversations and deliver contextually relevant responses, it is argued that what distinguishes the AI chatbot from anthropocentric discussions, which suggest a form of conscious awareness in AI, is the importance of the lie—an importance which a psychoanalytic approach can reveal. Indeed, while AI technologies undoubtedly blur the line between lies and truth-speaking, in the case of the AI chatbot, it is detailed how such technology remains unable to lie authentically; or, in other words, is unable to lie like a human. For psychoanalysis, the capacity to lie bears witness to the unconscious, and, thus, plays an important role in determining the subject. It is for this reason that rather than uncritically accepting the chatbot’s authority—an authority that is easily reflected in its honest responses and frank admissions—a psychoanalytic (Lacanian) perspective can highlight the significance of the unconscious as a distorting factor in determining the subject. To help elucidate this argument, specific attention is given to introducing and applying Lacan’s subject of enunciation and subject of the enunciated. This is used to assert that what continues (for now) to set us apart from AI technology is not necessarily our ‘better knowledge’, but our capability to consciously engage in acts of falsehood that function to reveal the social nuances and significances of the lie.
Is it possible to remain a sports fan when prominent sports teams and events are utilized to “spo... more Is it possible to remain a sports fan when prominent sports teams and events are utilized to “sportswash” human rights abuses and other controversies? Indeed, while there is an abundance of analyses critiquing different instances of sportswashing, the exploration of the role of sportswashing and its connection to the “sports fan” presents an essential and necessary area of investigation and theoretical inquiry. To unpick this dilemma, this article proposes the concept of “fetishistic disavowal” to help theorize the impact of sportswashing, as well as its relation to the sports fan and critical sports academic. This argues that, as spectators and fans of sport—and, moreover, as critical academics—we often acknowledge and accept that sport is used to perpetuate and even maintain a variety of social, economic, and political inequalities. Yet, while we are aware of such knowledge, we nonetheless remain fully capable of disavowing this very knowledge as an accepted part of sport. Given this, it is argued that the fetishization of sport can provide a suitable conduit for the fetishistic disavowal that sportswashing requires, with the concept offering a unique way of approaching sport’s inherent contradictions, while also theorizing how subjects relate to these contradictions as part of their involvement in and with sport. Where sportswashing directly implicates the fan in its implementation—relying upon a level of fetishistic disavowal between the fan and their club and proffering a disavowed acknowledgement of the effects of sportswashing and its interpellation through sport—this article outlines how applications of fetishistic disavowal provide a unique theoretical lens through which analyses of sport, and its ethical significance, can be critiqued.
International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Jun 1, 2024
The term sportswashing has been discussed and analysed within academic circles, as well as the ma... more The term sportswashing has been discussed and analysed within academic circles, as well as the mainstream media. However, the majority of existing research has focused on one-off event-based sportswashing strategies (such as autocratic states hosting major international sports events) rather than longer term investment-based strategies (such as state actors purchasing sports clubs and teams). Furthermore, little has been written about the impact of this latter strategy on the existing fanbase of the purchased team and on their relationship with sportswashing and the discourses surrounding it. This paper addresses this lacuna through analysis of a popular Manchester City online fan forum, which illustrates the manner in which this community of dedicated City fans have legitimated the actions of the club’s ownership regime, the Abu Dhabi United Group – a private equity group operated by Abu Dhabi royalty and UAE politicians. The discursive strategies of the City fans are discussed, in addition to the wider significance of these strategies on the issue of sportswashing and its coverage by the media.
Sport poses a number of important and no less significant questions, which, on the face of it, ma... more Sport poses a number of important and no less significant questions, which, on the face of it, may not necessarily seem very important or significant to begin with – a peculiarity that we believe to be integral to sport itself. This article introduces, explores and outlines the psychoanalytic significance of this peculiarity. It explores how the emotions stirred by sport are intertwined with a realm of fiction and fantasy. Despite its lack of practical utility, sport carries an undeniable gravity, encapsulating the aspirations of communities, nations and continents. As a result, psychoanalysis can be used to critically reflect on the purpose and meaning of sport: that is, why do we need sport, and why, for large sections of the world’s population, do we rely on it? Ultimately, while psychoanalysis maintains a unique relation to a variety of unexpected fields of study – including art, culture and neuroscience – we seek to add to this expanding list of inquiry by including sport in this critical domain. By utilising sport as a platform to elucidate psychoanalytic concepts, it is recognised that sport can also prompt questions for psychoanalysis. In so doing, theoretical discussions on the social, cultural and political dimensions of sport through psychoanalytic theory are introduced and applied.
Narratives concerning “Cultural Marxism” – portrayed as a threat to Western society and its value... more Narratives concerning “Cultural Marxism” – portrayed as a threat to Western society and its values – have been gaining ground largely thanks to their ability to circulate rapidly through online platforms. In recent years, sport has also become a vehicle for spreading such conspiracy theories – with far-reaching consequences for society.
This essay explores the interrelationship between tragedy and comedy, with specific focus given t... more This essay explores the interrelationship between tragedy and comedy, with specific focus given to the potential that comedy can provide in transforming the most tragic of situations. In building this claim, the very dynamics and distinctions that divide the tragic from the comic are considered in view of the self-negation that the comic posits. That is, while tragedy requires a certain acceptance of the finite, from which destiny and circumstance come to certify the hero’s tragic predicament, in comedy, what succeeds is that which functions through an act of self-negation. This, it is argued, offers a subversive redefining of tragedy, one that proves constitutive of a comic fatalism that does not mourn one’s tragic predicament or fated end, but, instead, fully identifies with our comic predicament. Going beyond the pitfalls of political nicety and moral condemnation, which seek easy gratification or cynical distance, the conclusion examines the conceptual artist, Vanessa Place, and her performance of rape jokes.
Sport serves as a revealing backdrop for the manifestation of hate speech and discrimination. Cul... more Sport serves as a revealing backdrop for the manifestation of hate speech and discrimination. Culture clashes and global socio-economic power struggles often ignite within the sporting arena and continue to smoulder long afterward. As a result, incidences of hate speech in sport have spread across digital platforms, with social media and online forums being used to circulate hateful, offensive, or discriminatory content. Policymakers, sport governing bodies, and grassroots anti-hate organizations now find themselves struggling to keep up with a rapidly changing online-landscape. The importance of addressing and combating online hate speech in sport is now an essential problem in maintaining integrity, diversity, and respect within the sporting community. Recognizing the urgency of addressing this matter, the Tackling Online Hate in Football (TOHIF) team conducted a scoping review to provide an extensive overview of scholarship on this topic. The review served to provide a comprehensive compilation of previously employed research methodologies, case studies, and conclusions, identifying the breadth and depth of existing research, while also recognising key themes, gaps in knowledge, and areas for further research. In so doing, the review not only provided a concise overview of existing research in the field but also sheds light on areas and approaches in dire need of further examination.
Exploring the relationship between humans and AI chatbots, as well as the ethical concerns surrou... more Exploring the relationship between humans and AI chatbots, as well as the ethical concerns surrounding their use, this paper argues that our relations with chatbots are not solely based on their function as a source of knowledge, but, rather, on the desire for the subject not to know. It is argued that, outside of the very fears and anxieties that underscore our adoption of AI, the desire not to know reveals the potential to embrace the very loss AI avers. Consequently, rather than proposing a knowledge that seeks to disavow loss, we can instead recognize the potential in loss itself: an opportunity to assert and define the gap inherent to both the subject and AI we create.
Exploring online criticisms of the ‘take the knee’ protest during ‘Euro 2020’, this article exami... more Exploring online criticisms of the ‘take the knee’ protest during ‘Euro 2020’, this article examines how alt- and far-right conspiracies were both constructed and communicated via the social media platform, Twitter. By providing a novel exploration of alt-right conspiracies during an international football tournament, a qualitative thematic analysis of 1,388 original tweets relating to Euro 2020 was undertaken. The findings reveal how, in criticisms levelled at both ‘wokeism’ and the Black Lives Matter movement, antiwhite criticisms of the ‘take the knee’ protest were embroiled in alt-right conspiracies that exposed an assumed Cultural Marxist, ‘woke agenda’ in the tournament’s organization and mainstream media coverage. In conclusion, it is argued that conspiratorial discourses, associated with the alt-right, provided a framework through which the protest could be understood. This emphasises how the significance of conspiracy functions to promote the wider dissemination of alt-right ideology across popular cultural contexts, such as sport.
Critical Studies in Television Online, May 8, 2020
Alex Garland’s recent miniseries, Devs (20th Television, 2020), takes on many similar themes whic... more Alex Garland’s recent miniseries, Devs (20th Television, 2020), takes on many similar themes which have been explored in his previous directorial outputs, including Ex Machina (A24; Universal Pictures, 2015) and Annihilation (Paramount Pictures; Netflix, 2018). A science fiction thriller, Devs follows the computer engineer, Lily Chan (Sonoya Mizuno), whose boyfriend mysteriously commits suicide after his first day working for the ‘Devs’ project. The project is run by the quantum computing company, Amaya. Amaya’s CEO is Forest (Nick Offerman), a tech entrepreneur, whose wealth has allowed him to develop the unique quantum mechanics facility. Notable members of staff are subsequently promoted to join Devs, where, in the first episode, Lily’s boyfriend, Sergei (Karl Glusman) is invited to join. Upon joining the program, we realise that Sergei has attempted to steal the Devs code, revealing himself as a suspected Russian industrial spy. Unbeknownst to Lily, Sergei is murdered by Forest and his head of security at the end of episode one for attempting to steal the code. ... Read more - https://cstonline.net/devs-and-the-parallax-ending-by-jack-black/
Sport continues to be one of the primary means through which notions of Englishness and Britishne... more Sport continues to be one of the primary means through which notions of Englishness and Britishness are constructed, contested and resisted. The legacy of the role of sport in the colonial project of the British Empire, combined with more recent connections between sport and far right fascist/nationalist politics has made the association between Britishness, Englishness and ethnic identity(ies) particularly intriguing. In this paper, these intersections are explored through British media coverage of the Canadian-born, British tennis player, Greg Rusedski. This coverage is examined through the lens of ‘performativity’, as articulated by Judith Butler. Through a critical application of Butler’s ideas, the ways in which the media seek to recognise and normalise certain identities, while problematising and excluding others, can be more fully appreciated. Thus, it was within newspaper framings of Rusedski that hegemonic notions of White Englishness could be performed, maintained and embedded.
Critical Studies in Television Online, Apr 6, 2020
In this concluding post on Sam Esmail’s Mr. Robot, a critical evaluation of the series’ final sce... more In this concluding post on Sam Esmail’s Mr. Robot, a critical evaluation of the series’ final scenes as well as its wider cultural, political and ideological importance will be provided. In accordance with previous posts, this analysis will draw from the work of Todd McGowan in order to provide a final precis on the significance of the gaze as used in the series. Towards the end of this discussion, attention will be given to expanding upon the series’ conclusions in light of similar narrative formats, such as, Todd Phillips’s, Joker (2019). ... Read more – https://cstonline.net/mr-robot-part- three-the-voyeurs-who-think-they-arent-a-part-of-this-mr-robot-and-the-subject-by- jack-black/
Critical Studies in Television Online, Feb 28, 2020
In what follows, I wish to draw away from broader criticisms of Mr. Robot’s narrative consequence... more In what follows, I wish to draw away from broader criticisms of Mr. Robot’s narrative consequences, and focus on a particular scene from Series 4, Episode 10, ‘410 Gone’. Importantly, the following analysis will serve to elucidate upon a number of important significances related to the series and its conclusion (this will be discussed next week). Before reading the below, however, it is worth watching the scene in question: … Read more – https://cstonline.net/mr-robot-part-two-run-away-with-me-content-form-and-romantic-failure-an-ideological-critique-scene-analysis-by-jack-black/
International Journal of Žižek Studies, Feb 20, 2020
This article draws upon the work of Timothy Morton and Slavoj Žižek in order to critically examin... more This article draws upon the work of Timothy Morton and Slavoj Žižek in order to critically examine how mountain bike trail builders orientated themselves within nature relations. Beginning with a discussion of the key ontological differences between Morton’s object-oriented ontology and Žižek’s blend of Hegelian- Lacanianism, we explore how Morton’s dark ecology and Žižek’s account of the radical contingency of nature, can offer parallel paths to achieving an ecological awareness that neither idealises nor mythologises nature, but instead, acknowledges its strange (Morton) and contingent (Žižek) form. Empirically, we support this theoretical approach in interviews with twenty mountain bike trail builders. These interviews depicted an approach to trail building that was ambivalently formed in/with the contingency of nature. In doing so, the trail builders acted with a sense of temporal awareness that accepted the radical openness of nature, presenting a ‘symbolic framework’ that was amiable to nature’s ambivalent, strange and contingent form. In conclusion, we argue that we should not lose sight of the ambivalences and strange surprises that emanate from our collective and unpredictable attempts to symbolize nature and that such knowledge can coincide with Morton’s ‘dark ecology’ – an ecological awareness that remains radically open to our ecological existence.
Critical Studies in Television Online, Feb 21, 2020
It was noted in the previous post, that the underlying plotline structuring Sam Esmail’s Mr. Robo... more It was noted in the previous post, that the underlying plotline structuring Sam Esmail’s Mr. Robot bears a notable resemblance to David Fincher’s Fight Club (1999). Certainly, the comparison has been duly noted and even openly acknowledged by Esmail, with the film serving as inspiration for the series (Sullivan, 2015). In the case of seasons 1 and 2, this inspiration fuels Elliot and fsociety’s attempts to erase the commercial debt that has been accumulated by E Corp. Lines from the characters are riddled with references to the increasing divide between rich and poor, and to the declining significance of democracy in the face of a social and political climate steered by liberal capitalism’s unending and unequal pursuit of wealth. As noted, these ills are embodied in the conglomerate E Corp, or, as Elliot refers to it, ‘Evil Corp’. E Corp can be thought of as a reflection of Apple, with its technology, digital payment services and loan/credit portfolios always encroaching on the lives of the series’ characters. Accordingly, while The Narrator in Fight Club seeks to bring down capitalism, by exploding the headquarters of its leading companies, Elliot seeks to reset the balance by hacking E Corp’s computer database and eradicating the consumer debt it holds. … Read more – https://cstonline.net/mr-robot-part-one-our-democracy-has-been-hacked-critiquing-mr-robot-by-jack-black/
Critical Studies in Television Online, Feb 7, 2020
Premiering in May 2015, Sam Esmail’s Mr. Robot (USA Network), tells the story of a cybersecurity ... more Premiering in May 2015, Sam Esmail’s Mr. Robot (USA Network), tells the story of a cybersecurity engineer/computer hacker, who is recruited by a cyber-anarchist movement called ‘fsociety’. The movement’s mission: to eradicate all consumer debt through destroying the data records held by the fictional conglomerate, ‘E Corp’... Visit - https://cstonline.net/from-fight-club-to-gaze-making-sense-of-sam-esmails-mr-robot-an-introduction-by-jack-black/
The HBO drama, Watchmen, is part of an ever-growing canon of comic books adapted for TV. Taking p... more The HBO drama, Watchmen, is part of an ever-growing canon of comic books adapted for TV. Taking place 34 years after its print publication, the TV series refocuses the comic’s deconstruction of Cold War anxieties by exploring ongoing racial tensions in Tulsa, Oklahoma... - visit: https://cstonline.net/watchmens-parallax-view-handling-past-traumas-and-present-tensions-by-jack-black/
World Futures: The Journal of New Paradigm Research, Dec 17, 2019
Dirt is evoked to signify many important facets of mountain bike culture including its emergence,... more Dirt is evoked to signify many important facets of mountain bike culture including its emergence, history and everyday forms of practice and affect. These significations are also drawn upon to frame the sport's (sub)cultural and counter-ideological affiliations. In this article we examine how both the practice of mountain biking and, specifically, mountain bike trail building, raises questions over the object and latent function of dirt, hinting at the way that abjection can, under certain circumstances, be a source of intrigue and pleasure. In doing so, we suggest a re-symbolization of our relationship with dirt via a consideration of the terrestrial.
International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure, Oct 26, 2020
Through research that was conducted with mountain bike trail builders, this article explores the ... more Through research that was conducted with mountain bike trail builders, this article explores the processes by which socio-natures or ‘emergent ecologies’ are formed through the assemblage of trail building, mountain bike riding and matter. In moving conversations about ‘Nature’ beyond essentialist readings and dualistic thinking, we consider how ecological sensibilities are reflected in the complex, lived realities of the trail building community. Specifically, we draw on Morton’s (2017) notion of the ‘symbiotic real’ to examine how participants connect with a range of objects and non-humans, revealing a ‘spectral’ existence in which they take pleasure in building material features that are only partially of their creation. Such ‘tuning’ to the symbiotic real was manifest in the ongoing battle that the trail builders maintained with water. This battle not only emphasized the fragility of their trail construction but also the temporal significance of the environments that these creations were rendered in/with. In conclusion, we argue that these findings present an ecological awareness that views nature as neither static, inert or fixed, but instead, as a temporal ‘nowness’, formed from the ambiguity of being in and with nature. Ecologically, this provides a unique form of orientation that re-establishes the ambiguity between humans and nature, without privileging the former. It is set against this ecological (un)awareness that we believe a re-orientation can be made to our understandings of leisure, the Anthropocene and the nature-culture dyad.
European Journal of Cultural Studies, May 16, 2019
Through examining the BBC television series, Black and British: A Forgotten History, written and ... more Through examining the BBC television series, Black and British: A Forgotten History, written and presented by the historian David Olusoga, and in extending Paul Gilroy’s assertion that the everyday, banality of living with difference is now an ordinary part of British life, this article considers how Olusoga’s historicization of the black British experience reflects a convivial rendering of UK multiculture. In particular, when used alongside Žižek’s notion of parallax, it is argued that understandings of convivial culture can be supported by a historical importance that deliberately ‘shocks’ and, subsequently dislodges, popular interpretations of the UK’s ‘white past’. Notably, it is parallax which puts antagonism, strangeness and ambivalence at the heart of contemporary depictions of convivial Britain, with the UK’s cultural differences located in the ‘gaps’ and tensions which characterize both its past and present. These differences should not be feared but, as a characteristic part of our convivial culture, should be supplemented with historical analyses that highlight but, also, undermine, the significance of cultural differences in the present. Consequently, it is suggested that if the spontaneity of conviviality is to encourage openness, then, understandings of multiculturalism need to go beyond reification in order to challenge our understandings of the past. Here, examples of ‘alterity’ are neither ‘new’ nor ‘contemporary’ but, instead, constitute a fundamental part of the nation’s history: of the ‘gap’ made visible in transiting past and present.
Sport and Psychoanalysis: What Sport Reveals about Our Unconscious Desires, Fantasies, and Fears, Jul 15, 2024
The underlying contention guiding this collection is that psychoanalysis can provide a novel appr... more The underlying contention guiding this collection is that psychoanalysis can provide a novel approach to theorising our investments in sport. When exploring, examining, discussing, and debating the fascination and frustrations that characterizes sport, what this collection will consider are the very ways in which we become “stuck” in sport. For us, getting “stuck” helpfully describes the degree to which one can both be interested in sport, following a particular team or training regularly, while also being frustrated, angered, and undermined by sport (grievances, which, in most cases, in no way discount or prevent one’s very love of sport). What compounds this contradiction is that a psychoanalytic approach to sport does not necessarily provide or outline any answers to the problems of sport. Rather, we double-down on the fact there is no rational explanation as to why millions of people choose to partake in strenuous forms of physical exclusion for years on end, with the only reward being a medal or personal best for the lucky few—not to mention the multitudes who choose to watch these athletic spectacles. Certainly, this is not to say that sport does not have its explanations. We are all too familiar with the cliched responses and tired explanations: “it makes me feel good”, “it keeps me busy”, “it releases endorphins”, “I enjoy the social-side”, “my Dad followed this team, so, in a way, I’m continuing the tradition”. What goes amiss in such routine responses is why this specific activity—sport, in whatever form—is chosen? When so much of sport requires one to partake in choices that fundamentally affect one’s life, then we require a theoretical space in which we can begin to ask important questions of both sport and ourselves. On this basis, sport is not necessarily detached from our lives, a mere weekend past-time, separate from the world of work (although it can be described as such); instead, as this collection will assert, a psychoanalytic account of sport can allow us to question and explore what it is that makes us human and what is it about our inherent sociality that makes sport such an important part of so many lives. To do so, requires an investigation into the desires, fears, and fantasises that underscore the subject—the very phenomena that psychoanalysis seeks to examine.
Sport and Psychoanalysis: What Sport Reveals about Our Unconscious Desires, Fantasies, and Fears, Jul 15, 2024
Understandings of play are frequently tied to a sense of instinctual gratification—a something th... more Understandings of play are frequently tied to a sense of instinctual gratification—a something that must be completed, that all humans, young or old, should or need to partake in. Indeed, for many, play is characterised as a unique activity that stands apart from the ordinary and every day. While such assessments prefigure a clear demarcation between the fun of play and the more laborious, boring aspects of profane life, what this distinction alludes to is a greater sense of the creativity that underlies play. Drawing from a Lacanian perspective, the following chapter will determine that an essential aspect of play and sport is the creativity it provides, namely, by considering how the act of creativity is intricately tied to the very lack that constitutes the Lacanian subject. To do so, the concept of sublimation is used to consider how the codified rules and regulations that sport both asserts and requires renders apparent the importance of the limit. Rather than conceiving of this limit as a barrier to creativity, what is revealed in sublimation is how this limit proves constitutive of our very creativity. That is, the ability to sublimate—to creatively perform unique displays of physical or artistic expression— lies in the mundanity and utter importance of the playful and sporting activity and, more importantly, the inherent restrictions and constraints these activities impose. It is in accordance with the limit that one’s creativity can expose an emancipatory potential in the context of play and sport.
Critical Issues in Football: A Sociological Analysis of the Beautiful Game, Feb 8, 2023
In 2021, the men’s English national football team reached their first final at a major internatio... more In 2021, the men’s English national football team reached their first final at a major international tournament since winning the World Cup in 1966. This success followed their previous achievement of reaching the semi-finals (knocked-out by Croatia) at the 2018 World Cup. True to form, the defeats proved unfalteringly English; with the 2021 final echoing previous tournament defeats, as England lost to Italy on penalties. However, what resonated with the predictability of an English defeat, was the accompanying chant, ‘it’s coming home’. A ubiquitous presence throughout the course of both tournaments—while chanted at England football matches, it was also repeated across social media, the press and commercial advertising—the chant originates from the 1996 single, Three Lions (Football’s Coming Home), performed by David Baddiel, Frank Skinner and The Lightning Seeds. In what follows critical attention will be given to examining how the song offers what will be argued is a melancholic outlook. By re-approaching examples of English nostalgia and hubris, this chapter will expose how illustrations of English melancholy offer the potential for promoting collective forms of expression, which, when contextualized alongside England’s lack of footballing success (for the men’s team, at least), can be offset against a melancholic mediation that is cognizant of the centrality of loss—both for the subject and our collective sporting endeavours.
Sport and Physical Activity in Catastrophic Environments, Nov 8, 2022
In challenging orthodox notions of space, place, and identity, as well as examining how new ideas... more In challenging orthodox notions of space, place, and identity, as well as examining how new ideas, communities and ways of living might emerge from the ruins of catastrophe, this Introduction Chapter outlines the importance of the collection. We introduce Mark Fisher’s weird and eerie distinctions, emphasising how both terms, when applied to catastrophe, demand new ways of thinking that go beyond what we know about disasters in order to recalibrate our bodies and minds to thrive in an era without precedent. Finally, from their varying perspectives, each chapter is given a brief summary, with new insights on the significance of sport and physical activity in catastrophic environments highlighted.
Leisure in the Time of Coronavirus: A Rapid Response, Mar 28, 2022
In his book, On the Pleasure Principle in Culture (2014), Robert Pfaller argued that our relation... more In his book, On the Pleasure Principle in Culture (2014), Robert Pfaller argued that our relationship to sport is one grounded in “illusion”. Simply put, our interest in and enjoyment of sport occurs through a process of “knowing better”. Here, one’s knowledge of the unimportance of sport is achieved by associating the illusion of sport with a naïve observer – i.e. someone who does believe in sport’s importance. In the wake of the global pandemic, COVID-19, it would seem that Pfaller’s remarks have taken on an added significance. With major sporting events and domestic competitions being indefinitely postponed or canceled, Liverpool manager, Jurgen Klopp, commented that football was “the most important of the least important things”. In light of these remarks, this paper will critically locate sport’s sudden unimportance in relation to Pfaller’s contention that sport reflects an “illusion without owner”.
Digital Wellness, Health and Fitness Influencers: Critical Perspectives on Digital Guru Media, Oct 7, 2022
Alongside the increasing popularity of digital, ‘social’ media platforms, has been the emergence ... more Alongside the increasing popularity of digital, ‘social’ media platforms, has been the emergence of self-styled digital life-coaches, many of whom seek to propagate their knowledge of and interests in a variety of topics through online social networks (such as, Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, etc.). With many of these ‘social influencers’ garnering a large online following, their popularity, social significance and cultural impact offers important insights into the place and purpose of the subject in our digital media environment. Accordingly, this chapter will examine the proliferation of digital media technologies, which, on the one hand, propose the dissolution of the subject (wearable technology, technological singularity, etc.), while on the other, provide new opportunities for discovering, ‘sharing’ and/or improving one’s ‘inner-Self’ (digital media gurus, online health and fitness regimes, etc.). It is in considering how the effects of this ‘digital subject’ redefines traditional (Cartesian) conceptions, that the relative significance of ‘Digital Guru Media’ (DGM) can be drawn. In particular, explicit attention is given to examining how our engagements with social media can be considered in relation to Lacan’s (2002) notion of the big Other and its relevance in introducing, examining and, possibly, subverting, the digital media guru.
Leisure and its Communities: Rethinking Mutuality, Collective Expression, and Belonging in the New Century, Sep 9, 2021
Although communities can be distinct and defined, helping to locate and orientate a particular id... more Although communities can be distinct and defined, helping to locate and orientate a particular identity, they can also be expansive, neither beginning nor ending in any particular temporal moment. Here, our relation to community is one that embodies us in both physical but also ‘spectral’ forms (Morton 2017). They exist in our pasts, yet communities can also be drawn around specific geographical co-ordinates. In short, as an analytical tool – in fact, as an understanding of reality – community remains a decidedly slippery and frustratingly paradoxical term (Blackshaw 2010). In view of such paradoxes, we seek to examine the relationship between community and leisure. Here we turn towards an understanding of community as ‘hyperobject’.
The London Olympics and Urban Development: The Mega-Event City
This chapter examines how representations of Britain’s ‘imperial’ history continue to form an imp... more This chapter examines how representations of Britain’s ‘imperial’ history continue to form an important part of contemporary mediated constructions of Britain. Specifically, this is explored in English national newspaper coverage of the 2012 London Olympic Ceremonies. Accordingly, while the English press served to frame Britain in relation to its imperial decline, the subsequent success of the Games revealed discourses that reflected, reinvented and reimagined Britain’s past within the present. Indeed, such findings are particularly relevant for exploring how historical significances are embedded in mediated constructions and (re)constructions of the nation during sporting mega-events.
It is this very contention that sits at the heart of Matthew Flisfeder’s, Algorithmic Desire: Tow... more It is this very contention that sits at the heart of Matthew Flisfeder’s, Algorithmic Desire: Towards a New Structuralist Theory of Social Media (2021). In spite of the accusation that, today, our social media is in fact hampering democracy and subjecting us to increasing forms of online and offline surveillance, for Flisfeder (2021: 3), ‘[s]ocial media remains the correct concept for reconciling ourselves with the structural contradictions of our media, our culture, and our society’. With almost every aspect of our contemporary lives now mediated through the digital, the significance of the algorithm maintains a pertinent importance in making sense of the social and psychic investments that our interactions on social media, as well as other forms of digital media, rely upon and encourage. The socio-political tensions and contradictions that such interaction prescribes remains a reoccurring theme throughout Algorithmic Desire, with Flisfeder masterfully navigating the problems and pitfalls of a burgeoning digital infrastructure that is redefining our lives as social beings. What becomes apparent from Flisfeder’s account is how debates and discussions regarding the algorithm can be couched in a number of pressing concerns, including the proliferation of online misinformation and the contradictions inherent to our freedom and security. While these debates are drawn together through the prism of the algorithm, it is mostly with regards to the medium of social media that Flisfeder examines how our desire and enjoyment are algorithmically organized. This focus is expertly followed throughout the book’s eight chapters, producing a critically engaging inquiry that continually considers the socio-political tensions and ambiguities that frame and sustain our digital media interactions. Ultimately, it is this contention that lends further support to Flisfeder’s assertion that algorithms play a key role in reading our desire. In the discussion that follows, this reading will be critically considered by tracing and outlining a number of key significances underpinning Flisfeder’s approach. Most notably, this will require a discussion of the Lacanian conception of desire; the effects of disavowal and cynical perversion; the importance of ‘maintaining appearances’; and, finally, the significance of the social media metaphor.
This review considers Stuart Jeffries’s Grand Hotel Abyss: The Lives of the Frankfurt School. Pro... more This review considers Stuart Jeffries’s Grand Hotel Abyss: The Lives of the Frankfurt School. Providing a detailed account of the work and lives of the Frankfurt School, Jeffries is commended for his ability to present an illustrative biography of the school’s members and associates, as well as the variety of topics that their work engaged with. Consequently, while Jeffries manages to merge biography and academic theory in a readable and, at times, detailed and engaging narrative, such work is undermined by a tendency to focus on the salacious gossip of a group of men whose real-life complications can overcome the significance of their argument. Nevertheless, in view of the school’s work, it is suggested that the book’s paradoxes can serve as an important opening to contemporary topics and, more importantly, to theorizing these topics in light of the Frankfurt School.
Aesthetical Ethics: Moral, Race, and Storied Imagination, Jul 14, 2024
As noted by Kalpana Seshadri-Crooks, race maintains a ‘distinctive ... belief structure and evoke... more As noted by Kalpana Seshadri-Crooks, race maintains a ‘distinctive ... belief structure and evokes powerful and very particular investments in its subjects’ (Desiring Whiteness, 4). Echoing such sentiments, Karen and Barbara Fields highlight how examples of racecraft reveal a ‘pervasive belief’ in race (Racecraft 18). Their identification of racecraft exposes the extent to which race serves as the justification for racist beliefs as well as for the exploitation, marginalization, and violent discrimination of large proportions of the earth’s population. While accounts of race remain dependent on one’s cultural, historical, and geographical location, and whereas many remain fully cognizant of the fact that race is better conceived as a myth, such arguments tend to make little headway in undermining or combating racist perceptions. This is not simply an ignorance on behalf of those who openly and candidly acknowledge examples of racism, but, rather, speaks to a more fundamental concern in how race occupies a reified form in our social world that frames both its perpetuation and critique. On this basis, it can be said that it is not only the racial-realist who believes in race but also the racial equality advocate: for both assume a certain belief in race that functions to maintain its significance. In this paper, critical attention will be afforded to exploring the role of belief in upholding as well as fixing our reliance on race and the ongoing perpetuation of forms of racism. Specifically, it will draw from Jacques Lacan’s psychotic structure in order to locate these effects in view of what will be referred to as the psychosis of race (Black, Psychosis of Race). Indeed, it will be highlighted how psychosis presents a lack of belief in the Other. Due to the effects of foreclosure, the Other fails to offer any guarantee to the psychotic’s existence and to their own investment in language and signification. Accordingly, for the psychotic, their lack of belief is grounded in certainty: while they are able to acknowledge a sense of disbelief in the Other, which, for them, holds no value or credibility, they nonetheless concede its influence. It is in critiquing the Other’s credibility, however, that the psychotic inadvertently proposes that there is such an Other who could be conceived as credible. It is in this sense that the psychotic’s disbelief serves as a form of defence; ultimately, for the psychotic, their disbelief is directly subjectivized—there remains the belief in one’s disbelief. With links made to Lacan’s les non-dupes errant, it will be argued that it is through the psychosis of race that a belief in race can be conferred. By way of elaborating on this conference, insights will be drawn from the 1992 Bernard Rose film, Candyman, which, it will be argued, offers a unique insight into the effects of belief and its role within the psychosis of race.
Learning or not learning from experience: Psychosocial approaches to researching and experiential learnings, Association for Psychosocial Studies and Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society, Jun 17, 2024
The dynamic between individuals and an expanding array of artificially intelligent (AI) chatbots ... more The dynamic between individuals and an expanding array of artificially intelligent (AI) chatbots has become a distinctive focal point in psychoanalytic discussions. Alongside this, prevalent concerns often yield to a paranoid belief that AI could attain ‘total knowledge’, thus transforming into an entity devoid of limitations. While these debates offer insights into our interaction with AI and its applications, my argument in this paper asserts that our connections with chatbots extend beyond their role as mere sources of knowledge. Rather, they are rooted in the subject’s desire not to know. To support this claim, I explore Lacan’s psychotic and perverse perspectives in order to critically examine the impact of such technology on the subject’s ethical responsibility. In doing so, I couch this discussion in a consideration of the extent to which the AI chatbot serves to expose the relation between two forms of subjectivity: the subject of knowledge and the subject of desire. It is argued that, outside of the very fears and anxieties that underscore our adoption of AI, the desire not to know reveals the potential to embrace the very loss AI avers as well as the opportunity to render a transformation in our digital lives. In this sense, the desire not to know reveals the opportunity to assert and define the gap inherent to both the subject and the AI we create. Through a Lacanian account of desire, the desire not know will help ground the discussion in a psychosocial approach to digital culture.
Orphans of the Real: Emerging from the Echo Chambers – Psychosocial Perspectives, Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture & Society Annual Conference, Sep 27, 2023
Typically, post-racial assertions rely on the consideration that our societies are, today, ‘post-... more Typically, post-racial assertions rely on the consideration that our societies are, today, ‘post-racism’—i.e., that the effects of racism no longer obtain the significance that they once held or that the history of racism is ‘in the past’, and, thus, should now be ignored (approaches that clearly maintain forms of racism and racial inequality). However, in the ‘planetary humanism’ that he seeks to establish, Paul Gilroy adopts a unique relation to the articulation of a post-race future (Gilroy 2000). Though Gilroy’s project does not propose a post-racial outlook, it nonetheless seeks an approach that moves beyond the idea of race by taking (the human) race seriously. Following Gilroy, this paper argues that in order to criticise race, a consideration of the temporality that the ‘post’ prefix provides is required. That is, it is not simply the case that our racism should be challenged, but that our efforts towards forging our very anti-racism must look towards the ‘yet-to-come’: a ‘post-race’ position where one’s relation to the present and the past can be forged. Insofar as it is through introducing a relation to lack that our ties to race can be doubted (and challenged), this paper offers a psychoanalytically inspired account of the effects of time and temporality in the music of Kendrick Lamar. In lyrics that proffer a temporal experimentation of the ‘post-’, it is argued that Lamar develops a space through which the temporal ambiguity of the ‘post-’ can be confronted via the doubt it avails. This is achieved not from some external position of understanding or higher knowledge (an anti-racism driven by ensuring that one can be educated out of the racism they expel), but through encountering the Real. It is here that a restructuring of one’s relation to language and new forms of mediation can be achieved.
Representations of Race in Sports Journalism and Media, Sport Media Identity Network, Jun 30, 2023
In examples of anti-white racism, conspiracy theories are frequently employed to ‘explain’ the ve... more In examples of anti-white racism, conspiracy theories are frequently employed to ‘explain’ the very ways in which the values and beliefs of ‘White society’ are assumed to be undermined or undervalued. In this regard, the resort to conspiracy has remained a prominent characteristic of white nationalist movements, most notably, the ‘alternative right’ (alt-right). Increasingly these conspiracies have infiltrated popular and political discourses, serving as both a point of criticism and debate amongst mainstream media outlets. By critically analysing the significance of conspiracy, this paper will explore the formal importance of conspiracy theories in aiding and perpetuating the dissemination of alt-right politics in sport. Paying particular attention to the development of alt-right conspiracies—from fringe online communities to popular social media spaces, such as, Twitter—we examine how online criticisms of the ‘take the knee’ protest, during the 2020 European Football Championship, sought to deride the tournament for being subject to a cultural Marxist, ‘woke agenda’. Detailing the extent to which alt- and far-right discourses have become mainstreamed, we first address how the decision to take the knee before the start of England’s games became linked to criticisms of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, and second, we reflect upon the modality of conspiracy and its role in perpetuating examples of anti-white racism through fear, paranoia, and racial hate. Together, these conclusions are used to reflect upon the role of sports journalists as well as the reporting—or, rather, laundering (Klein 2017)—of online hate in public news coverage. For this reason, our conclusions speak to the growing importance of conspiracy in media coverage of sport and the conceptual and analytical significances it provides for examining online hate.
The Impact of Professional Sport on Community, Fourteenth International Conference on Sport & Society, Jun 7, 2023
In examples of anti-white racism, conspiracy theories are frequently employed to ‘explain’ the ve... more In examples of anti-white racism, conspiracy theories are frequently employed to ‘explain’ the very ways in which the values and beliefs of ‘White society’ are assumed to be undermined or undervalued. To this extent, the resort to conspiracy has remained a prominent characteristic of white nationalist movements, most notably, the ‘alternative right’ (alt-right). Increasingly, these conspiracies have infiltrated popular and political discourses, serving as both a point of criticism and debate amongst mainstream media outlets. By critically analysing the significance of conspiracy, this paper will explore the formal importance of conspiracy theories in aiding and perpetuating the dissemination of alt-right politics in sport.
Paying particular attention to the development of alt-right conspiracies—from fringe online communities to popular social media spaces, such as Twitter—we examine how online criticisms of the ‘take the knee’ protest, during the 2020 European Football Championship, sought to deride the tournament for being subject to a cultural Marxist, ‘woke agenda’. Detailing the extent to which alt- and far-right discourses have become mainstreamed, we first address how the decision to take the knee before the start of England’s games became linked to criticisms of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, and second, we reflect upon the modality of conspiracy and its role in perpetuating examples of anti-white racism through fear, paranoia, and racial hate. For this reason, our conclusions speak to the conceptual and analytical importance of conspiracy across sport and society.
The psychotic subject “has the object a in his pocket” (Lacan, “Petit discours aux psychiatres de... more The psychotic subject “has the object a in his pocket” (Lacan, “Petit discours aux psychiatres de Sainte-Anne”)
“The work of theorizing the role of race in the constitution of the subject has only just begun” (Seshadri, “Afterword”, 303)
It is widely asserted that race bears no epistemological significance, especially when seeking to delineate “racial” differences in the human population. Indeed, while such assertions serve to dismiss race as a false distinction, nothing more than a “social construction”, they nonetheless uphold an ontologization of race that just as easily reifies racial differences as much as it seeks their critique. In fact, despite the untenability of race, it is in its very resilience that its significance to Lacanian psychoanalysis can be found. By way of exploring this significance, this paper will draw from a Lacanian conception of psychosis in order to introduce what it will define as “the psychosis of race”. Specifically, Lacan’s account of psychosis will lend a new perspective to the central importance of lack and alienation in processes of racialization, perceived as an ‘illusion of being’ (George, “From alienation to cynicism” 361), while also exploring the effects of race in both masking and accentuating examples of racial visibility. It will be discussed how Lacan’s structure of psychosis, and the difficulties in articulating one’s subjective position, can become reproduced as part of a racial logic that pursues its very certainty in the racialization of both the subject and the other. This paper will make sense of such racialization by locating race as structurally grounded in the foreclosure of the Name of the Father, the jouissance of the Other and in the subject’s relation to the objet a. It is in accordance with the Lacanian objet a—the objet a of race—that its presence in psychosis exhibits the advertence of a racial anxiety, which works to fix the subject to a delusional ‘racial essence’. Here, assumed racial differences can be conceived as returns in the Real, expressed in examples of racial paranoia and fantasy.
Posthuman Bodies and Embodied Posthumanisms – An Interdisciplinary Conference, Sep 12, 2022
By allowing users to observe, manage and record their exercise, food consumption and sleep patter... more By allowing users to observe, manage and record their exercise, food consumption and sleep patterns, the increasing success of mobile technologies has seen the development of a plethora of health, fitness and lifestyle applications. These applications comprise a growing field of mHealth technologies, which seek to support and, in some cases, deliver medical practice. While, for the moment, many of these technologies remain ‘outside’ the body, technological advancements are undoubtedly steering a path towards their ‘integration’ in the human body (most notably, on a bio-molecular level). These changes posit a relocation of ‘the body’ into a wider technological assemblage and algorithmic logic that controls, positions and manages the body’s materiality. By critically examining the interlinkages between posthumanism and assemblage theory, this paper will consider how the significance of emerging technological assemblages lies in their capacity to highlight the antagonisms and contradictions that inherently affirm the importance of the subject. Drawing from a psychoanalytic reading of the subject, it will be argued that it is through an ‘inhuman’ perspective that the ethical importance of our mHealth technologies can help to (re)imagine health and wellness for the contemporary (digital) subject, whilst also warning us of their role in the continued reinforcement of neoliberal, biomedical and individualized discourses. Indeed, it is only by recognizing the role of the subject that we can position users as undergoing a certain orientation to both themselves and their wider health assemblages. It will be argued that this can allow us to realise the capacities of such platforms, whilst mitigating against the potential to ‘fully’ concede to the embodied encroachment of internalized technologies.
Candyman and the Whole Damn Swarm – A 30th Anniversary Conference, Oct 8, 2022
Drawing from psychoanalytic theory, this paper will explore how the importance of the gaze in fil... more Drawing from psychoanalytic theory, this paper will explore how the importance of the gaze in film studies occupies both an auditorial and visual significance for the horror genre. This significance can be identified in the genre’s unique relation to the cinematic object—the impossible Lacanian objet petit a—which is apparent in its employment of the gaze and voice. While working to dissolve the apparent separation of the spectator from the cinematic image—thus, laying bear our subjective desire and unconscious involvement—depictions of the gaze and voice offer a disturbing presence within film. This is apparent in ‘horror classics’, such as Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) and The Birds (1963), as well as a number of recently released franchise sequels. Indeed, while this paper will draw from various horror examples (past and present), specific attention will be given to examining the effects of the gaze and voice in Bernard Rose (1992) and Nia DaCosta’s (2021) Candyman films. In Rose’s Candyman (1992), examples of the voice occupy a key role in building the Candyman’s absent presence on-screen; yet it is only through comparing Rose’s original with DaCosta’s (2021) cinematic revival that examples of the voice are noticeably absent within DaCosta’s film. Although uncanny encounters with mirrored reflections pave the way for the Candyman’s deadly resurrection, DaCosta’s take on the horror classic relies entirely upon its adoption of the gaze. This allows us to question: What impact does this move from voice to gaze present for Candyman and its ‘legacy sequel’; and what does this change reveal about recent horror revivals, remakes, and sequels? By affording further reflection on the contemporary horror genre, the relation between gaze and voice will offer important conclusions regarding the Candyman legacy as well as the theoretical changes that this legacy brings to the genre.
Digital Mediation and Working Through in Times of Denial, Disavowal and Splitting: On the Un/Representable, Sep 15, 2022
It seems as if our very addiction to ‘social media’ has, today, become encapsulated in the tensio... more It seems as if our very addiction to ‘social media’ has, today, become encapsulated in the tensions between its facilitation as a mode of interpersonal communication and as an insidious conduit for machine learning, surveillance capitalism and manipulation. What is more, we remain fully aware of the problems and unethical practices perpetuated by digital media companies that we frequently use and require. While we realize and accept that not everything that we see online can be taken at ‘face value’, our relations to/with digital media continue to be characterized by a ‘fetishistic disavowal’ (Žižek, 2008). Though ‘we know very well that the media and our current cultural climate are influencing our behaviour and our choices as consumers to an extremely problematic extent, we still like to pretend that we are free to make our own choices’ (Mangold, 2014, 4). Such a pretense is grounded in a level of interactivity that, while affording the opportunity to engage with a ‘world wide web’, remains enveloped in a passive engagement with the content onscreen. It is this passive engagement which is paradoxically founded upon our own active involvement in digital environments. In this paper, attention will be given to exploring how our digital media relations can be read as a form of interpassive exchange, whereby the hysterical question, ‘what am I for the Other?’, can work to re-align our approach to digital media platforms. Specifically, I will draw from the position of the hysteric (Clemens and Grigg, 2006) in accordance with Robert Pfaller’s (2017) notion of interpassivity. Together, these concepts will be used to provide a psychoanalytic account of how our subjectivization through digital media renders an unconscious endorsement that both frames our awareness of the dilemmas encompassing social media, while also positing an inherent limitation that may offer a possible path out of its impeding affects. This subjective ambivalence – delegated yet reluctantly disavowed – offers an opportunity to realign discussions on the lost object of desire (objet a) and its reproduction in the algorithm.
Since its release in May 1996, the song ‘Three Lions’, performed by the Lightning Seeds and featu... more Since its release in May 1996, the song ‘Three Lions’, performed by the Lightning Seeds and featuring popular comedians, David Baddiel and Frank Skinner, has become an unofficial anthem of the English national football team. While originally coinciding with England’s hosting of the 1996 European Championships, the song has subsequently achieved both national and international renown (most notably, in Germany).
Alongside the song’s success, the line, ‘It’s coming home’, continues to hold a popular resonance across social media, as well as being sung and chanted at football grounds, pubs and fan parks. What is more, the song is not without its controversies, with its lyrics and themes serving as a notable example of English arrogance, which remains unperturbed by a lack of footballing success.
In this paper, critical attention will be given to examining the song’s ‘comic’ significance during the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Set alongside a broader critique of irony and satire as comic forms, this paper will argue that it’s lyrics and themes offer a unique insight into the relationship between contemporary English nationalism and football.
Notably, this insight will be supported by Slavoj Zizek’s account of melancholy as well as Robert Pfaller’s work on interpassivity. Together, this will be used to highlight how the song’s national sporting themes remain tied to a certain form of English melancholy, which, at its heart, can be re-approached through a critical analysis of the comic form. By re-approaching accounts of English nostalgia and hubris, it will be argued that examples of English melancholy offer the potential for promoting collective forms of comic expression. Indeed, when contextualized alongside England’s lack of footballing success (both male and female), both the song, and its cultural significance, will be used to expose how hubristic forms of national assertion can be interpassively refracted through a sporting nationalism that is decidedly comic and reassuringly benign.
‘Psychosocial Bodies’, Association of Psychoanalysis Studies Conference, Jul 7, 2021
This paper will critically examine how psychosocial thinking can help to support interdisciplinar... more This paper will critically examine how psychosocial thinking can help to support interdisciplinary analyses of the other, and, specifically, media portrayals of the other’s body. Though it is widely accepted that media coverage plays a pivotal role in framing and positioning outsider individuals/groups, this analysis will explicitly consider how media discourses can be used to extend our understanding of the body and national identity via psychoanalytic interpretations of the other. By exploring this relationship under the theme of “Psychosocial Bodies”, this paper will identify the various ways in which the other, and their body, are framed in relation to hegemonic conceptions of what constitutes “the nation”.
These aims will be demonstrated in newspaper coverage of the Canadian-born, British tennis player, Greg Rusedski. It will be noted how media framings of Rusedski centered on a particular feature of his body – his “smile”. In order to elucidate on the significance of Rusedski’s “smile”, Lacan’s (1997) notion of the “fragmented body” will be used to critically examine how the other’s body can prove effective in helping to elucidate wider anxieties, confusions and contradictions regarding English nationalism/national identity. Specifically, analyses of Rusedski’s “post-imperial” Otherness (an Otherness which centered on his “smile”) will serve as a demonstration of the splits, voids and contradictions which underscore a coherent and constituted (national) “us”. Through their elicitation in English national newspapers, these examples will emphasise how it is through “the body” that the nation’s inherent limitations are enacted via forms of obfuscation that work to both separate and delineate the ‘other’.
It will be argued that this “limit” can be brought to bear via Lacan’s notion of the “extimate” (extimité), defined by Alenka Zupančič as “an excluded interiority or an included exteriority” (Zupančič, 2019: 90). In particular, understandings of the extimate – and its relation to a psychosocial understanding of the other, the body and the nation – will reveal how Rusedski’s “smile” provided an uncanny disturbance for the English national press; one in which wider anxieties and tensions regarding English nationalism were constructed, framed and represented.
In this seminar, I critically examine how the use of comedy – drawing specifically from the Briti... more In this seminar, I critically examine how the use of comedy – drawing specifically from the British sitcom, The Office – can help to reframe discussions on, but also, interpretations of, British multiculturalism. Through examining UK media coverage of the ‘Team GB’ athlete, Mo Farah, it is highlighted that newspaper discourses served to frame Farah as a celebrated symbol of Britain’s multicultural inclusivity and cultural diversity.
In contrast to this framing, and with specific critique being given to the notion of ‘inclusivity’, it is argued that Farah reflected a multicultural subject whose ‘otherness’ was minimalized or ignored, instead being used to promote some idealized form of harmonious British multiculturalism. Accordingly, by exploring the ‘antagonisms’ which remain integral to multiculturalism, diversity and cultural difference, this seminar proposes new ways of approaching ‘difference’, as reflected in cultural formations. For this, two terms are drawn upon: ‘parallax’ and ‘parapraxis’.
Notably, through the practice of comedy, Zizek’s ‘parallax view’ and Elsaesser’s ‘parapraxis’, are used to highlight how the ‘working through’ of cultural differences as well as their associated tensions, can help draw attention to those moments of cultural miscommunication, where such tensions are revealed as faux pas or performed failures.
With regard to the various criticisms which have been leveled at the profession of sports journal... more With regard to the various criticisms which have been leveled at the profession of sports journalism (Rowe, 2007), over the past decade little improvement has been made with regards to the gender disparities that continue to exist within the profession, with fewer women reporting on, and writing about sport, compared to men. In fact, while there are numerous opportunities for women to gain employment as political, business, crime or health reporters, sports journalism continues to be dominated by male journalists (Fraysse and Mennesson, 2016; Strong and Hannis, 2007). This disparity bears a semblance with the lack of coverage that is often afforded to female athletes (Black and Fielding-Lloyd, 2016).
Indeed, while there is a wealth of work exploring how gender is framed within the media, this paper will seek to examine the media careers of six professional women working within the sports journalism industry. Drawing upon interviews conducted with women working for local (Yorkshire, UK) and international (Sky Sports) media organizations, interviewee responses revealed the gender dynamics and power relations that structured working environments as well as the prescribed roles that women performed when working in these environments. This included discussions of the challenges that the women faced as well as apparent improvements which had been made for women in the sports media industry.
From these responses, specific attention is afforded to exploring how each woman responded to questions relating to their career development, career ambitions and the opportunities available to them to progress within the industry. In doing so, Elias and Scotson’s (1994) ‘established-outsider’ relations and Matthews’s (2014) ‘pastiche hegemony’ will be used to examine the power relations that frame working environments as well as the potential opportunities which are available to challenge working environments within the media industry.
Whether examining interpretations of the 'past' in Hollywood blockbusters or when critiquing the ... more Whether examining interpretations of the 'past' in Hollywood blockbusters or when critiquing the ways in which mediated representations can undermine 'historical truth', it is apparent that 'the media' occupies a unique position in how explanations of the past are (re)presented, interpreted and disseminated. At the heart of this dissemination is how the 'past' is routinely used and re-used in making sense of the 'present'. One notable example of this is in media coverage of national and international sporting mega-/media events. Here, the interrelationship between sport and the media offers a unique opportunity to examine how 'mediated memories' form a constitutive feature in the reporting of sport. Accordingly, by way of exploring the intersections between media, memory and sport, this paper will examine recent debates on the mediatization of memory. Drawing upon examples from the 2012 London Olympic Games and the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, it will examine how the media and, in particular, national newspapers provided a pivotal role in employing collective memories of the past in order to make sense of contemporary social and political debates. This included accounts of the former British Empire, its relation to the contemporary Commonwealth of Nations and its impact on the UK and its constitutive 'home nations'. More importantly, attempts will be made to build a theoretical interpretation that examines the ways in which mediated memories center on a past-present alignment which, in this instance, served to influence the ways in which 'history' was mediated.
Transcending sport, politics and culture, the American boxer, Muhammad Ali, occupies a prominent ... more Transcending sport, politics and culture, the American boxer, Muhammad Ali, occupies a prominent place in discussions on sport, identity, politics and ‘race’. Images of Ali’s sporting career, his numerous remarks, phrases and assertions – captured and available for prosperity via the media – and his appearances at global sporting mega-events; such as, the 1996 Atlanta and 2012 London Olympic Games, are all interspersedly used and reused by media companies, advertising agencies and global development projects. In sum, it is evident that Ali’s ‘authenticity’ as a sporting star, and, more significantly, as a global ‘cultural icon’, is predicated upon a plethora of interpretations, cultural readings and media representations. By way of exploring ‘Ali’, this presentation will critically consider the notion of authenticity, and, will draw upon, the work of György Lukács and his conception of reification, in order to examine how media coverage of Ali’s death discursively (re)produced ‘Ali’ via media reports and public responses that interdependently aimed to know and reflect upon his celebrity image. In particular, it will expose how a set of competing, and, often, contradictory, appraisals of Ali’s life and career, served to present ‘Ali’ as an observable, reified form. Through a façade of mediation, interpretation and representation, these debates formed a constitutive part of Ali’s legacy. Echoing other celebrity deaths, Ali’s significance and his prominent location within the memories of audiences and fans resulted in a transcendent and polysemous portrayal.
This paper examines English national newspaper coverage of the 2015 Women’s FIFA World Cup held i... more This paper examines English national newspaper coverage of the 2015 Women’s FIFA World Cup held in Canada. Specifically, attention is given to exploring how the press constructed, framed and represented the English women’s team as they unexpectedly finished third in the competition.
Certainly, the women’s success provides a striking contrast to the men’s team who, in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, failed to win a match for the first time since 1958 and did not proceed past the group stages. To this end, 2015 offers a unique opportunity to examine shifting press narratives of sporting achievement, gendered expectations and the female apologetic.
Given the infancy of the domestic professional league in England (the Football Association Women’s Super League began in 2011) and their history of only qualifying for 50% of previous World Cup tournaments, England women’s success was largely unanticipated by both the English media and sport fans in general (Taylor, 2015). Indeed, the success of the women’s team coincides with work that has highlighted the problematic coverage of women’s sport in the printed press (Christopherson et al, 2002; Vincent et al, 2007), the discursive management of soccer as a privileged site for maleness and masculinity (Williams, 2014) and that exceptional performances are necessary for women's sport to attract significant media attention (Ravel and Gareau, 2014). Newspapers play a key role in representing gender norms in sport (Pfister, 2015) as the discursive construction of gender boundaries serves to frame both male and female athletes in particular ways.
Consequently, this study employs a qualitative investigation of the press’ coverage in order to identify how framings of the women’s team were reconfigured in accordance with their on- field performances. Newspaper articles were chronologically examined via open coding.
To date, this study has found that coverage of the team increased as they progressed through the tournament and, by positioning the women as heroes, was almost uniformly positive. However, their success was simultaneously patronised with infantilising discourses that reinforced their hegemonic femininity. In particular, audiences were reassured of the players’ status as mothers and partners. The extent to which this reflects a revised version of the female apologetic, given that several of the team are openly gay, will be debated.
Our analysis identifies that the women’s success was frequently used as a tool to unpick the England men’s failure at recent World Cups and to deride the culture of English soccer more generally. This highlighted that the male version of the game was commonly brought to the forefront as the familiar frame of reference. Lastly, the women’s unanticipated success was reconfigured from a tentative position of ‘hope’ to a self-congratulatory, neo-liberal assumption of ‘legacy’ for women's soccer in England.
Given the timing of the Scottish independence referendum in September 2014, the hosting of both t... more Given the timing of the Scottish independence referendum in September 2014, the hosting of both the London 2012 Olympic Games and the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games coincided with a period of considerable political turmoil and reflection within the United Kingdom. The extensive levels of public, political and media scrutiny of both of these major sporting events can therefore be framed within a wider consideration of the contemporary dynamics of the political union between the constituent nations of the UK, as well as the multifarious forms of national identities expressed within the various regions of the ‘nation-state’. Despite the growing influence of social media forms within contemporary society, politics and sport within the UK, the ‘traditional’ print media retain a central (although arguably diminishing) role in the dissemination of information relating to major societal, political and sporting issues to the British public. This paper will therefore critically reflect upon the nature of print media representations of ‘Britishness’, ‘Englishness’ and ‘Scottishness’ at London 2012 and Glasgow 2014 from both London-based and Scotland-based publications, drawing upon empirical data from completed and ongoing doctoral theses from the respective authors. In particular, the implications of the contrasting competitive structures of each event will be considered, given the symbolic differences between the unitary ‘Team GB’ at the London 2012 Olympics and the separated representative teams for Scotland and England at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.
The 2012 London Olympic Games provided Britain a unique opportunity to celebrate its national ide... more The 2012 London Olympic Games provided Britain a unique opportunity to celebrate its national identity, character and culture. However, despite the success of ‘Team GB’, references to English nationalism, amongst the English press, were largely absent. Indeed, this stood in contrast to examinations of newspaper coverage in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, where constructions of national identity were vividly represented.
Certainly, whereas depictions of English culture may be widely known, the distinct lack of cultural expression in areas such as the media, reveal a notable polarity between England and the other home nations. In the face of a possible Scottish exit from the Act of Union and in light of recent comments by English footballer, Jack Wiltshire, the desire for England to have its own ‘constitutive story’ within Britain, presents an opportunity to discuss and debate English identity, post 2012 (Colley & Lodge, 2013).
Accordingly, this paper will present a selection of the English press’ coverage on both the Diamond Jubilee and London Olympic Ceremonies in order to reveal how both tabloid and broadsheet publications reflected notions of anxiety, self-deprecation and national malaise. Here, it will be argued that while such notions suggest a lingering attachment to the former British Empire, when placed in the context of Britain’s post-imperial decline, these findings can help to elucidate upon discussions pertaining to English national identity, the post-imperial decline of Britain and the possibility of an independent Scotland.
How are nostalgia and melancholia connected to football? And are they 'political'? In this episod... more How are nostalgia and melancholia connected to football? And are they 'political'? In this episode, co-hosts Guy and Francesco talk to Sheffield Hallam University's Jack Black about the meaning of the popular English football song, "It's Coming Home" and how melancholy and nostalgia are part and parcel of football culture in England and beyond. That sets up a wider discussion about nostalgia in football and its connection to politics, especially those on the far right.
Centre for Sport, Physical Activity and Health Equality (SPHERE) Podcast Series, 2024
In this episode, we talk with Dr Jack Black from Sheffield Hallam University. We begin with an ex... more In this episode, we talk with Dr Jack Black from Sheffield Hallam University. We begin with an exploration of what Psychoanalysis might offer Sport. We then discuss Jack’s recent research on tackling online hate in football.
Dr Jack Black, an Associate Professor of Culture, Media, and Sport at Sheffield Hallam University. We discuss Jack’s latest book 'The Psychosis of Race: A Lacanian Approach to Racism and Racialization' (Routledge, 2023) and explore what psychoanalysis might offer sport. We also discuss his UKRI/AHRC funded project, 'Tackling Online Hate in Football', which analyses examples of online hate across digital media platforms.
This week, we're joined again by Jack Black, Associate Professor of Culture, Media, and Sport at ... more This week, we're joined again by Jack Black, Associate Professor of Culture, Media, and Sport at Sheffield Hallam University. We're talking football, melancholy, and English football anthems. How does football, or 'soccer', serve as an emblematic example of Freudian/Zizekian concept of drive? Give a listen!
Dr Jim Cherrington and Dr Jack Black from Sheffield Hallam University in the UK connect our every... more Dr Jim Cherrington and Dr Jack Black from Sheffield Hallam University in the UK connect our everyday experiences of sport and activity with living in an age of catastrophe. Drawing on 13 case studies from their new edited book, they explore the consequences of this age, and what individuals and communities can do in the face of omnipresent catastrophes.
Jim Cherrington and Jack Black from Sheffield Hallam University in the UK join the Series to disc... more Jim Cherrington and Jack Black from Sheffield Hallam University in the UK join the Series to discuss their new edited collection, 'Sport and Physical Activity in Catastrophic Environments'. We discuss the role of sport around the world in rebuilding after catastrophe, the relationship between nature and technology, and mountain biking. The weird and eerie also feature.
This week, the fellas are joined by Jack Black, Senior Lecturer at Centre for Culture, Media and ... more This week, the fellas are joined by Jack Black, Senior Lecturer at Centre for Culture, Media and Society, Sheffield Hallam University. Oriented around Jack's new book, 'Race, Racism and Political Correctness in Comedy' (Routledge), we talk 'true' and 'false' comedy, the concrete universal, the Office, and racist jokes. Thanks Jack!
PlasticPills: Philosophy & Critical Theory Podcast, Sep 3, 2021
Jack Black (no, the Other Jack Black) joins the Pill Pod to discuss his new book "Race, Racism an... more Jack Black (no, the Other Jack Black) joins the Pill Pod to discuss his new book "Race, Racism and Political Correctness in Comedy: A Psychoanalytic Exploration." We cover all the hits from Hegel to Monty Python, and up to Žižek, Zupančič and Sacha Baron Cohen.
Jack Black, Race, Racism and Political Correctness in Comedy (Routledge 2021). In what ways is co... more Jack Black, Race, Racism and Political Correctness in Comedy (Routledge 2021). In what ways is comedy subversive? This vital new book critically considers the importance of comedy in challenging and redefining our relations to race and racism through the lens of political correctness.
On this episode of New Books Network, your host Lee M. Pierce (they) interviews author Jack Black (he) about psychoanalysis, PC culture, The Office, and the subversive potential of comedy to change our collective experience. Race, Racism and Political Correctness in Comedy engages with the social and cultural tensions inherent to our understandings of political correctness, arguing that comedy can subversively redefine our approach to ‘PC debates’, contestations surrounding free speech and the popular portrayal of political correctness in the media and society. Aided by the work of both Slavoj Žižek and Alenka Zupančič, this unique analysis adopts a psychoanalytic/philosophical framework to explore issues of race, racism and political correctness in the widely acclaimed BBC ‘mockumentary’, The Office (UK), as well as a variety of television comedies. Jack Black is a Senior Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University. After completing his postgraduate studies at Loughborough University, his research has continued to explore the interrelationships between sociology, media and communications and cultural studies.
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Moving beyond the well-trodden assertion that race is a social construction, and working against demands that simply call for more representational equality, The Psychosis of Race explores how the delusions, anxieties, and paranoia that frame our race relations can afford new insights into how we see, think, and understand race's pervasive appeal. With examples drawn from politics and popular culture—such as Candyman, Get Out, and the music of Kendrick Lamar—critical attention is given to introducing, as well as explicating on, several key concepts from Lacanian psychoanalysis and the study of psychosis, including foreclosure, the phallus, Nameof-the-Father, sinthome, and the objet petit a. By elaborating a cultural mode to psychosis and its understanding, an original and critical exposition of the effects of racialization, as well as our ability to discern the very limits of our capacity to think through, or even beyond, the idea of race, is provided.
The Psychosis of Race speaks to an emerging area in the study of psychoanalysis and race, and will appeal to scholars and academics across the fields of psychology, sociology, cultural studies, media studies, and the arts and humanities.
Broad and ambitious in scope, this book uses sport and physical activity as a lens through which to examine our catastrophic societies and spaces. Acknowledging that catastrophes are complex, overlapping phenomena in need of sophisticated, interdisciplinary solutions, this book explores the social, economic, ecological and moral injustices that determine the personal and emotional impact of catastrophe. Drawing from international case studies, this book uniquely explores the different landscapes and contexts of catastrophe as well as the affective qualities of sporting practices. This includes topics such as DIY skateparks in Jamaica; former child soldiers in Africa; the funding of sport, recreation and cultural activities by extractive industries in northern Canada; mountain biking in the UK; and urban exploration in New Zealand. Featuring the work of ex-professional athletes, artists, anthropologists, sociologists, political ecologists, community development workers and philosophers, this book offers new perspectives on capitalism, nature, sociality, morality and identity.
This is essential reading for academics and practitioners in sociology, disaster studies, sport-for-development and political ecology.
By viewing comedy as both a constitutive feature of social interaction and as a necessary requirement in the appraisal of what is often deemed to be ‘politically correct’, this book provides an innovative and multidisciplinary approach to the study of comedy and popular culture. In doing so, it engages with the social and cultural tensions inherent to our understandings of political correctness, arguing that comedy can subversively redefine our approach to ‘PC Debates’, contestations surrounding free speech and the popular portrayal of political correctness in the media and society. Aided by the work of both Slavoj Žižek and Alenka Zupančič, this unique analysis adopts a psychoanalytic/philosophical framework to explore issues of race, racism and political correctness in the widely acclaimed BBC ‘mockumentary’, The Office (UK), as well as a variety of television comedies.
Drawing from psychoanalysis, social psychology and philosophy, this book will be highly relevant for postgraduate students and academic researchers studying comedy, race/racism, multiculturalism, political correctness and television/film.
Papers by Jack Black
Moving beyond the well-trodden assertion that race is a social construction, and working against demands that simply call for more representational equality, The Psychosis of Race explores how the delusions, anxieties, and paranoia that frame our race relations can afford new insights into how we see, think, and understand race's pervasive appeal. With examples drawn from politics and popular culture—such as Candyman, Get Out, and the music of Kendrick Lamar—critical attention is given to introducing, as well as explicating on, several key concepts from Lacanian psychoanalysis and the study of psychosis, including foreclosure, the phallus, Nameof-the-Father, sinthome, and the objet petit a. By elaborating a cultural mode to psychosis and its understanding, an original and critical exposition of the effects of racialization, as well as our ability to discern the very limits of our capacity to think through, or even beyond, the idea of race, is provided.
The Psychosis of Race speaks to an emerging area in the study of psychoanalysis and race, and will appeal to scholars and academics across the fields of psychology, sociology, cultural studies, media studies, and the arts and humanities.
Broad and ambitious in scope, this book uses sport and physical activity as a lens through which to examine our catastrophic societies and spaces. Acknowledging that catastrophes are complex, overlapping phenomena in need of sophisticated, interdisciplinary solutions, this book explores the social, economic, ecological and moral injustices that determine the personal and emotional impact of catastrophe. Drawing from international case studies, this book uniquely explores the different landscapes and contexts of catastrophe as well as the affective qualities of sporting practices. This includes topics such as DIY skateparks in Jamaica; former child soldiers in Africa; the funding of sport, recreation and cultural activities by extractive industries in northern Canada; mountain biking in the UK; and urban exploration in New Zealand. Featuring the work of ex-professional athletes, artists, anthropologists, sociologists, political ecologists, community development workers and philosophers, this book offers new perspectives on capitalism, nature, sociality, morality and identity.
This is essential reading for academics and practitioners in sociology, disaster studies, sport-for-development and political ecology.
By viewing comedy as both a constitutive feature of social interaction and as a necessary requirement in the appraisal of what is often deemed to be ‘politically correct’, this book provides an innovative and multidisciplinary approach to the study of comedy and popular culture. In doing so, it engages with the social and cultural tensions inherent to our understandings of political correctness, arguing that comedy can subversively redefine our approach to ‘PC Debates’, contestations surrounding free speech and the popular portrayal of political correctness in the media and society. Aided by the work of both Slavoj Žižek and Alenka Zupančič, this unique analysis adopts a psychoanalytic/philosophical framework to explore issues of race, racism and political correctness in the widely acclaimed BBC ‘mockumentary’, The Office (UK), as well as a variety of television comedies.
Drawing from psychoanalysis, social psychology and philosophy, this book will be highly relevant for postgraduate students and academic researchers studying comedy, race/racism, multiculturalism, political correctness and television/film.
Paying particular attention to the development of alt-right conspiracies—from fringe online communities to popular social media spaces, such as Twitter—we examine how online criticisms of the ‘take the knee’ protest, during the 2020 European Football Championship, sought to deride the tournament for being subject to a cultural Marxist, ‘woke agenda’. Detailing the extent to which alt- and far-right discourses have become mainstreamed, we first address how the decision to take the knee before the start of England’s games became linked to criticisms of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, and second, we reflect upon the modality of conspiracy and its role in perpetuating examples of anti-white racism through fear, paranoia, and racial hate. For this reason, our conclusions speak to the conceptual and analytical importance of conspiracy across sport and society.
“The work of theorizing the role of race in the constitution of the subject has only just begun” (Seshadri, “Afterword”, 303)
It is widely asserted that race bears no epistemological significance, especially when seeking to delineate “racial” differences in the human population. Indeed, while such assertions serve to dismiss race as a false distinction, nothing more than a “social construction”, they nonetheless uphold an ontologization of race that just as easily reifies racial differences as much as it seeks their critique. In fact, despite the untenability of race, it is in its very resilience that its significance to Lacanian psychoanalysis can be found. By way of exploring this significance, this paper will draw from a Lacanian conception of psychosis in order to introduce what it will define as “the psychosis of race”. Specifically, Lacan’s account of psychosis will lend a new perspective to the central importance of lack and alienation in processes of racialization, perceived as an ‘illusion of being’ (George, “From alienation to cynicism” 361), while also exploring the effects of race in both masking and accentuating examples of racial visibility. It will be discussed how Lacan’s structure of psychosis, and the difficulties in articulating one’s subjective position, can become reproduced as part of a racial logic that pursues its very certainty in the racialization of both the subject and the other. This paper will make sense of such racialization by locating race as structurally grounded in the foreclosure of the Name of the Father, the jouissance of the Other and in the subject’s relation to the objet a. It is in accordance with the Lacanian objet a—the objet a of race—that its presence in psychosis exhibits the advertence of a racial anxiety, which works to fix the subject to a delusional ‘racial essence’. Here, assumed racial differences can be conceived as returns in the Real, expressed in examples of racial paranoia and fantasy.
Alongside the song’s success, the line, ‘It’s coming home’, continues to hold a popular resonance across social media, as well as being sung and chanted at football grounds, pubs and fan parks. What is more, the song is not without its controversies, with its lyrics and themes serving as a notable example of English arrogance, which remains unperturbed by a lack of footballing success.
In this paper, critical attention will be given to examining the song’s ‘comic’ significance during the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Set alongside a broader critique of irony and satire as comic forms, this paper will argue that it’s lyrics and themes offer a unique insight into the relationship between contemporary English nationalism and football.
Notably, this insight will be supported by Slavoj Zizek’s account of melancholy as well as Robert Pfaller’s work on interpassivity. Together, this will be used to highlight how the song’s national sporting themes remain tied to a certain form of English melancholy, which, at its heart, can be re-approached through a critical analysis of the comic form. By re-approaching accounts of English nostalgia and hubris, it will be argued that examples of English melancholy offer the potential for promoting collective forms of comic expression. Indeed, when contextualized alongside England’s lack of footballing success (both male and female), both the song, and its cultural significance, will be used to expose how hubristic forms of national assertion can be interpassively refracted through a sporting nationalism that is decidedly comic and reassuringly benign.
These aims will be demonstrated in newspaper coverage of the Canadian-born, British tennis player, Greg Rusedski. It will be noted how media framings of Rusedski centered on a particular feature of his body – his “smile”. In order to elucidate on the significance of Rusedski’s “smile”, Lacan’s (1997) notion of the “fragmented body” will be used to critically examine how the other’s body can prove effective in helping to elucidate wider anxieties, confusions and contradictions regarding English nationalism/national identity. Specifically, analyses of Rusedski’s “post-imperial” Otherness (an Otherness which centered on his “smile”) will serve as a demonstration of the splits, voids and contradictions which underscore a coherent and constituted (national) “us”. Through their elicitation in English national newspapers, these examples will emphasise how it is through “the body” that the nation’s inherent limitations are enacted via forms of obfuscation that work to both separate and delineate the ‘other’.
It will be argued that this “limit” can be brought to bear via Lacan’s notion of the “extimate” (extimité), defined by Alenka Zupančič as “an excluded interiority or an included exteriority” (Zupančič, 2019: 90). In particular, understandings of the extimate – and its relation to a psychosocial understanding of the other, the body and the nation – will reveal how Rusedski’s “smile” provided an uncanny disturbance for the English national press; one in which wider anxieties and tensions regarding English nationalism were constructed, framed and represented.
In contrast to this framing, and with specific critique being given to the notion of ‘inclusivity’, it is argued that Farah reflected a multicultural subject whose ‘otherness’ was minimalized or ignored, instead being used to promote some idealized form of harmonious British multiculturalism. Accordingly, by exploring the ‘antagonisms’ which remain integral to multiculturalism, diversity and cultural difference, this seminar proposes new ways of approaching ‘difference’, as reflected in cultural formations. For this, two terms are drawn upon: ‘parallax’ and ‘parapraxis’.
Notably, through the practice of comedy, Zizek’s ‘parallax view’ and Elsaesser’s ‘parapraxis’, are used to highlight how the ‘working through’ of cultural differences as well as their associated tensions, can help draw attention to those moments of cultural miscommunication, where such tensions are revealed as faux pas or performed failures.
Indeed, while there is a wealth of work exploring how gender is framed within the media, this paper will seek to examine the media careers of six professional women working within the sports journalism industry. Drawing upon interviews conducted with women working for local (Yorkshire, UK) and international (Sky Sports) media organizations, interviewee responses revealed the gender dynamics and power relations that structured working environments as well as the prescribed roles that women performed when working in these environments. This included discussions of the challenges that the women faced as well as apparent improvements which had been made for women in the sports media industry.
From these responses, specific attention is afforded to exploring how each woman responded to questions relating to their career development, career ambitions and the opportunities available to them to progress within the industry. In doing so, Elias and Scotson’s (1994) ‘established-outsider’ relations and Matthews’s (2014) ‘pastiche hegemony’ will be used to examine the power relations that frame working environments as well as the potential opportunities which are available to challenge working environments within the media industry.
Certainly, the women’s success provides a striking contrast to the men’s team who, in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, failed to win a match for the first time since 1958 and did not proceed past the group stages. To this end, 2015 offers a unique opportunity to examine shifting press narratives of sporting achievement, gendered expectations and the female apologetic.
Given the infancy of the domestic professional league in England (the Football Association Women’s Super League began in 2011) and their history of only qualifying for 50% of previous World Cup tournaments, England women’s success was largely unanticipated by both the English media and sport fans in general (Taylor, 2015). Indeed, the success of the women’s team coincides with work that has highlighted the problematic coverage of women’s sport in the printed press (Christopherson et al, 2002; Vincent et al, 2007), the discursive management of soccer as a privileged site for maleness and masculinity (Williams, 2014) and that exceptional performances are necessary for women's sport to attract significant media attention (Ravel and Gareau, 2014). Newspapers play a key role in representing gender norms in sport (Pfister, 2015) as the discursive construction of gender boundaries serves to frame both male and female athletes in particular ways.
Consequently, this study employs a qualitative investigation of the press’ coverage in order to identify how framings of the women’s team were reconfigured in accordance with their on- field performances. Newspaper articles were chronologically examined via open coding.
To date, this study has found that coverage of the team increased as they progressed through the tournament and, by positioning the women as heroes, was almost uniformly positive. However, their success was simultaneously patronised with infantilising discourses that reinforced their hegemonic femininity. In particular, audiences were reassured of the players’ status as mothers and partners. The extent to which this reflects a revised version of the female apologetic, given that several of the team are openly gay, will be debated.
Our analysis identifies that the women’s success was frequently used as a tool to unpick the England men’s failure at recent World Cups and to deride the culture of English soccer more generally. This highlighted that the male version of the game was commonly brought to the forefront as the familiar frame of reference. Lastly, the women’s unanticipated success was reconfigured from a tentative position of ‘hope’ to a self-congratulatory, neo-liberal assumption of ‘legacy’ for women's soccer in England.
Certainly, whereas depictions of English culture may be widely known, the distinct lack of cultural expression in areas such as the media, reveal a notable polarity between England and the other home nations. In the face of a possible Scottish exit from the Act of Union and in light of recent comments by English footballer, Jack Wiltshire, the desire for England to have its own ‘constitutive story’ within Britain, presents an opportunity to discuss and debate English identity, post 2012 (Colley & Lodge, 2013).
Accordingly, this paper will present a selection of the English press’ coverage on both the Diamond Jubilee and London Olympic Ceremonies in order to reveal how both tabloid and broadsheet publications reflected notions of anxiety, self-deprecation and national malaise. Here, it will be argued that while such notions suggest a lingering attachment to the former British Empire, when placed in the context of Britain’s post-imperial decline, these findings can help to elucidate upon discussions pertaining to English national identity, the post-imperial decline of Britain and the possibility of an independent Scotland.
Dr Jack Black, an Associate Professor of Culture, Media, and Sport at Sheffield Hallam University. We discuss Jack’s latest book 'The Psychosis of Race: A Lacanian Approach to Racism and Racialization' (Routledge, 2023) and explore what psychoanalysis might offer sport. We also discuss his UKRI/AHRC funded project, 'Tackling Online Hate in Football', which analyses examples of online hate across digital media platforms.
On this episode of New Books Network, your host Lee M. Pierce (they) interviews author Jack Black (he) about psychoanalysis, PC culture, The Office, and the subversive potential of comedy to change our collective experience. Race, Racism and Political Correctness in Comedy engages with the social and cultural tensions inherent to our understandings of political correctness, arguing that comedy can subversively redefine our approach to ‘PC debates’, contestations surrounding free speech and the popular portrayal of political correctness in the media and society. Aided by the work of both Slavoj Žižek and Alenka Zupančič, this unique analysis adopts a psychoanalytic/philosophical framework to explore issues of race, racism and political correctness in the widely acclaimed BBC ‘mockumentary’, The Office (UK), as well as a variety of television comedies. Jack Black is a Senior Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University. After completing his postgraduate studies at Loughborough University, his research has continued to explore the interrelationships between sociology, media and communications and cultural studies.