Tag: Kristian Coates Ulrichsen

The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar was the first World Cup to be held in the Middle East, and thus a unique sporting mega‑event. The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar: Global and Local Perspectives, edited by Nikolay Kozhanov, Mahfoud Amara & Mahjoob Zweiri (Routledge) explores its wider significance across political, socio‑cultural, economic, organisational and historical dimensions. Our reviewer, renowned sport and football sociologist Arve Hjelseth is generally appreciative of the analyses offered in the various contributions, albeit not uncritical.

The Geopolitical Economy of Sport: Power, Politics, Money, and the State edited by Simon Chadwick, Paul Widdop & Michael M. Goldman (Routledge), is the first book to define and explore the geopolitical economy of sport where power, politics, money, and state intersect. Harald Dolles is our reviewer, and while lauding many aspects of the book and the editors’ efforts, he points to the dangers of obsolescence as well as finding several instances where the book not quite measures up to reasonable demands of scholarly astuteness.

Journal of Arabian Studies is the only journal focusing on the Arabian Peninsula, its surrounding waters, and their connections with the Western Indian Ocean (from West India to East Africa), from Antiquity to the present day. It covers a wide range of topics, in all disciplines in the social sciences and the humanities. The Forum editor’s pick from the current issue: Soft Power as “Beauty, Brilliance, Benignity”: The Case of the Aspire Zone Elite Sports Complex in Qatar by Paul Michael Brannagan & Seth Joseph Perkin.