Beyond Soccer

This textbook examines the relationships between soccer, politics, and international relations. It uses soccer players and other individuals connected to the game in order to teach political science concepts—such as geopolitics, ideology, and sovereignty—and IR theories—including realism, postcolonialism, and feminism.

Tamir Bar-On is a researcher and professor in the School of Social Sciences and Government, Tec de Monterrey. He is the author of Where Have All the Fascists Gone? (2007), Rethinking the French New Right: Alternatives to Modernity (2013), and The World through Soccer: The Cultural Impact of a Global Sport (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014).

Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1: Theory and International Relations Theories in Brief Chapter 2: Realism, Liberalism, and Marxism Chapter 3: Constructing Identities: Straddling the Local, National, and Global Chapter 4: Learning about Postcolonialism through Soccer Chapter 5: "You Just Don't Understand": A Feminist Reading of the "Beautiful Game" Chapter 6: FIFA, Realism, and Emancipatory IR Theory Chapter 7: Three Competing Soccer Discourses Chapter 8: The Geopolitics of Soccer Chapter 9: Soccer, Sovereignty, and the State of Exception Conclusion Selected Bibliography Index About the Author