Mega-Sporting events and the politics of nation-building: a comparison of the 2010 South African and the 2014 and 2016 Brazilian cases

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that mega-sporting events play a powerful role in nationbuilding in their host countries, and many scholars have empirically demonstrated this relationship. The 2010 South Africa FIFA World Cup provided a potent vehicle through which national unity and integration could be successfully promoted. However, more recent Brazilian experiences in the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympics proved that an identical outcome is not always the case. This study examines how the hosting of mega-sporting events in South Africa and Brazil yielded contrasting effects on nation-building. Events in these two countries are compared to explore how two analogous societies that hosted mega-sporting events at a similar time ultimately experienced completely different outcomes. It is argued that differences in the cost of these mega-events, different economic circumstances and, differences in the characteristics and impact of social movements in the two countries were major contributing factors to the divergence.