Playing the post-Fordist game in/to the Far East: the footballisation of China, Japan and South Korea

Abstract

This paper explores the global dimensions, national aspirations, and local preconditions of the rise of football in China, Japan and Korea. The burgeoning popularity of football in the world's most vital growth region (in terms of production and consumption power) indicates both the successful integration of the «football periphery» into global commodity markets as well as changing relations of consumption in areas where football previously was close to non-existent. Local conditions are deeply tainted by the traditional arrangement of sport and entertainment, the way these are linked to local identity and inter-city competition. While national ambitions seem to be more to the front throughout East Asia, football as national project stands out in modernizing China and Korea.