seahawk10Compo's Hat Please tell me you didn't take a 'South African blow horn' home with you.
What exactly is the course teaching you then?
I did bring one home for the kids to play with, quickly bored with it and now it is a chew toy for the dog.
Here is the course syllabus, class is over I got a B+:
History and Political Economy of World Soccer
Spring 2010
Tuesday/Thursday 12-1:10pm
Pickford Auditorium
Professors Boyle and Wakefield
Nigel Boyle, Scott 213, Office Hours W 9-11,
Andre Wakefield, Scott 226, Office Hours TTh 1:15-2:30
Teaching Assistant Matt Herceg
Work-Study Assistant Mary Munoz
This course examines topics in the history and politics of world soccer. We will see how culture, politics, economics and history play themselves out upon the stage of stadium and field. And we will try to understand the game as others, in different times and places, have seen it: a game freighted with meaning and beauty.
The course has three main parts. In the first we will examine how soccer emerged to become the world’s hegemonic sports culture. In the second part of the course we will examine the political economy of modern soccer. The parallel, and sometimes contradictory, development of FIFA as the dominant international organization of world soccer (with the World Cup as its principal creature) and the major European professional clubs (with the European Champions League as their principal creature) will be a central focus of this second part of the course. In the third part of the course we will explore the relationship between soccer and major contemporary political issues such as racial and gender equality and globalization. This is a very large, lecture-based, survey course. Course organization and pedagogies reflect these realities.
Required Materials
We will be using one book as our core text. David Goldblatt’s The Ball is Round: a Global History of Soccer. Two other books you will need to purchase are Eduardo Galeano’s Soccer in Sun and Shadow and Kuper and Szymanski’s Soccernomics. All other required readings will be made available on Sakai. Material on two academic soccer blogs will be used in the class: From a Left Wing: the Cultural Politics of Soccer http://fromaleftwing.blogspot.com/ and Soccer Politics http://blogs-dev.oit.duke.edu/wcwp/.
Students are expected to follow news coverage of soccer through the semester, including coverage of the African Cup of Nations, Champions League and the World Cup. A subscription (initially free) to Soccer America (socceramerica.com) is not a bad place to start. Visual learners are also encouraged to purchase and view the 7-part DVD History of Soccer: The Beautiful Game.
Five sets of “enrichment” activities connected to the course are operating this semester.
1.Students will be encouraged to participate in Field Trips to see the US v. Honduras game in Carson on January 23 and the Mexico v. New Zealand game at the Rose Bowl on March 3. Students will also be encouraged to watch the final of the African Cup of Nations on January 31 and selected Champions League Games. Arrangements for collective viewing will be made where possible.
2. A “soccer film” series connected to the class will run through the semester, coordinated by Matt Herceg. A set of other movies and games will be made available via a download folder. Students will be required to attend at least three of the showings and also submit short responses to 2 games and 2 other films made available through a download folder.
3.Students will be encouraged to attend talks being given by visiting speakers connected to the class (or maybe in-class): Jennifer Doyle, Laurent Dubois, Bob Edelman, John McDermott, David Goldblatt and others.
4.Especially keen non-senior students will be invited to participate in the development of the Soccer Politics blog http://blogs-dev.oit.duke.edu/wcwp/. The terms for this participation will be negotiated with the Instructors.
5.Students with an interest in the EU as it relates to soccer/sports governance are encouraged to submit a proposal/paper to the April undergraduate research conference sponsored by The European Union Center of California: http://eucenter.scrippscollege.edu/conference.html
Grading
There will be two exams, a midterm and a final. Exams will cover the reading and lectures. We will also have occasional quizzes in class. The course grade will be determined as follows: midterm exam (30%); final exam (50%); quizzes (10%); and attendance (at class and at other events) 10%. Exams will entail short-answer identifications and essays. Students may opt to take the class Pass - No Credit (and switch to P/NC until March 11). Auditors will be allowed to attend the class & participate in related activities.
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Themes, Topics, Schedule and Required Reading
Week 1: Explaining the World Though the Soccer Prism
Tuesday, January 19: The Academic Study of Soccer: teachers, scholars and fans
READING: Kuper/Szymanski chaps. 1, 8, 10.
Thursday, January 21: Origins of Soccer & Soccer’s Strange Historiography
READING: Goldblatt, fwd, intro, chaps. 1-2 (pp. ix-xviii, 3-49); Galeano, pp. 1-38.
Week 2: The Social and Geographic Diffusion of Soccer 1863-1925
Tuesday, January 26: Industrial Soccer: the English Working Class and Model of Development 1863-1914
READING: Goldblatt, chap. 3 (pp. 50-82), Kuper/Szymanski chap. 7.
Thursday, January 28: Pax Britannica’s Parting Gift: The English Game Played by Foreigners 1880-1925
READING: Goldblatt, chap. 4-5 (pp. 83-170). Szymanski and Zimbalist “How soccer spread around the world when baseball didn’t”
Week 3: Soccer as Commercialized Sports Culture
Tuesday, February 2: Professionalization, and developmental thresholds
READING: Goldblatt, chap. 6 (pp. 171-226). Kuper/Szymanski chap. 4.
Thursday, February 4: Four Rivers Run Through It: a history of soccer tactics
READING: Goldblatt, chap. 7 (pp. 227-262); John Wilson Inverting the Pyramid: the history of football tactics (excerpts). A. Sack “When Yale Spirit Vanquished Harvard Indifference”. Reisman and Denney, “Football in America: A study in Cultural Diffusion”
Week 4: The Slippery Tool: Fascists, Nazis, Communists & Soccer
Tuesday, February 9: Dictators & Soccer: Mussolini and Franco
READING: Goldblatt, chap. 9 (pp. 297-356).
Thursday, February 11: Communists, The Death Match & Soviet Soccer
READING: Galeano, pp. 38-85. R. Edelman Spartak Moscow: a history of the people’s team in the workers state (excerpts)
Week 5: The Eye of the Beholder: Latin American Futbol
Tuesday, February 16: Brazil and Joga Bonito
READING: Goldblatt, chaps. 8, 10, 15 (pp. 263-296, 357-395, 606-648).
Thursday, February 18: Galeano on Latin American Futbol: cultural determinism?
READING: Galeano, pp. 85-142.
Week 6: German and American Exceptionalisms: Bowling Together?
Tuesday, February 23: Germans, Austrians, Jews & Bavarians: 20th Century Fußball
READING: Ulrich Hesse-Lichtenberg Tor! The Story of German Football (excerpts)
Thursday, February 25: American Games & Freezing Hypotheses: AYSO, Title XI, MLS
READING: A. Markovits and S. Hellerman Offside: Soccer and American Exceptionalism (excerpts)
Week 7: The Orange Geometry of Modern Soccer
Tuesday, March 2: Totaalvoetbal: Holland’s Dream/Nightmare
READING: Goldblatt, chap. 11 (pp. 396-478); David Winner Brilliant Orange: the neurotic genius of Dutch soccer (excerpts)
Thursday, March 4: MIDTERM EXAM (March 11 final day for Pass/NC)
Week 8: African Soccer in Africa (and in Europe)
Tuesday, March 9: Racism, Multiculturalism and Francophone Soccer
READING: Dubois Soccer Empire: The World Cup and the Future of France (forthcoming, excerpts)
Thursday, March 11: Soccer in Africa and Africans in (European) Soccer
READING: Goldblatt, chap. 12, 16 (pp. 479-510, 649-678).
Week 9: SPRING BREAK
Week 10: FIFA & the Globalization of Men’s and Women’s Soccer
Tuesday, March 23: Havelange & The Telecracy
READING: Goldblatt, chap. 13, 18 (pp. 513-541; 774-829), Galeano, pp. 143-170.
Thursday, March 25: Collegiate & Professional Women’s Soccer: Panel Discussion
READING: The Cultural Politics of Soccer http://fromaleftwing.blogspot.com/
Week 11: The Real “Ever Closer Union”: European Club Soccer 1955-2010
Tuesday, March 30: Fan Cultures and the Glory Game
READING: Goldblatt, chap. 14 (pp. 543-605), Kuper/Szymanski chaps. 9, 11.
Thursday, April 1: Champions League and the Money Game
READING: Goldblatt, chap. 17 (pp. 681-729), Galeano pp. 170-222.
Week 12: The Dismal Science Meets the Beautiful Game
Tuesday, April 6: Training and Paying Premiership Players
READING: Kuper/Szymanski chaps. 3, 5; Roberto Pedace “Earnings, Performance, and Nationality Discrimination in a Highly Competitive Labor market as an analysis of the English Professional Soccer League” Journal of Sports Economics 2008
Thursday, April 8: The Genius of Franck Ribery:
READING: Kuper/Szymanski chap. 6.
Week 13: Soccer’s Final Frontiers: the Middle East, Asia-Pacific & Women,
Tuesday, April 13: The Middle East, the New Leagues, and the 2002 World Cup
READING: Goldblatt, chap. 19 (pp. 830-873).
Thursday, April 15: The Women’s World Cup: FIFA, 1999 and 2011
READING: Jere Longman Girls of Summer: the US Soccer Team and How it Changed the World (excerpts)
Week 14: On to South Africa: Kuper/Szymanski versus Pele
Tuesday, April 20: The Political Economy of Winning World Cups
READING: Kuper/Szymanski chaps. 2, 13, 14, 15.
Thursday, April 22: Pele’s Prediction and the 2010 World Cup
READING: Goldblatt, chap. 20 (pp.874-899)
Week 15: Soccer’s Globalized and Globalizing Future
Tuesday, April 27: The Champions League Final (SFs April 27/28) and the Plutocratic Future of Club Soccer
READING/VIEWING: Champions League Finals 2002-9.
Thursday, April 29: 2010 & 2011 World Cups: the Future of International Soccer
READING: Goldblatt, Conclusion (pp. 900-907). Kuper/Szymanski chap. 12.
Week 16: Injury Time
Tuesday May 4th Senior Final
Thursday May 6th Reading day
Final Exam: Tuesday May 11, 7pm.
Monday(?) Screening Series (Provisional):
Week 3: The Damned United (2009) English Soccer’s Working Class Milieux
Week 4: Victory (1981) Awful Hollywood version of the Death Match
Week 5: Maradona by Kusturica (2008) Argentinian Deity/Addict/Revolutionary
Week 6: The Miracle of Bern (2003) 1954 German Rebirth Through Soccer
Week 7: The Other Final (2003) Bhutan v Montserrat
Week 8: Le Ballon D’or (1994) European Soccer Dreams of African Kids
Week 10: Die Besten Frauen der Welt (2008) German Women’s WC Team 2007
Week 11: FC Barcelona Confidential (2004) Més que un club?
Week 12: Keeper’s Anxiety at Penalty (1971) Psychology/Game Theory of the Elfmeter
Week 13: The Game of Their Lives (2002) 1966 North Korean Soccer Team
Week 14: Team That Never Played (2010) South African Soccer and Apartheid
Week 15: Fahrenheit 2010 (2010) Political Economy of WC in S. Africa
Recommended Viewing Internet Series
Movies:
Week 3: The World Cup: A Captain’s Tale (1982)
Week 4: Football and Fascism (2009)
Week 5: Gods of Football Pele + Garrincha (2002)
Week 6: In the Hands of the Gods (2007)
Week 7: Ladybugs/The Big Green
Week 8: Zidane: 21st Century Portrait (2007)
Week 10: The Interior Life of the Substitute (Dhorasoo) (2008)
Week 11: Six Days to Saturday (1963)
Week 12: Football as Never Before (1971)
Week 13: Offside (2006)
Week 14 Do I Not Like That (1994) /
Week 15: Once in a Lifetime: Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos (2006)
Games:
Week 3: 1930 World Cup Highlights
Week 4: Spartak Moscow v. Dynamo Kyev 1989
Week 5: Brazil v. Italy 1970
Week 6: USA v. Colombia 1994
Week 7: Holland v. Germany 1974
Week 8: Cameroon v. England 1990
Week 10: USA v. China 1999
Week 11: Glasgow Celtic v. Inter Milan 1967
Week 12: Glasgow Rangers v. Dynamo Kiev 1972
Week 13: South Korea v. Italy 2002
Week 14: Iraq v. Saudi Arabia 2007
Week 15: Real Madrid v. Dortmund 2002
Got to heare and was bored "This course examines topics in the history and politics"
