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Sport and nationalism in the Republic of North Macedonia
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Abstract
Using the Republic of North Macedonia as a case study, this article analyzes the processes through which national sports teams’ losing performance acquires a broad social and political significance. I explore claims to sporting victory as a direct product of political forces in countries located at the bottom of the global hierarchy that participate in a wider system of coercive rule, frequently referred to as empire. I also analyze how public celebrations of claimed sporting victories are intertwined with nation-building efforts, especially toward the global legitimization of a particular version of national history and heritage. The North Macedonia case provides a fruitful lens through which we can better understand unfolding sociopolitical developments, whereby imaginings of the global interlock with local interests and needs, in the Balkans and beyond.
Contributor Notes
Vasiliki Neofotistos holds a PhD in Anthropology from Harvard University and is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She is the author of The Risk of War: Everyday Sociality in the Republic of Macedonia (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012) and numerous journal articles on nationalism and identity politics in the Balkans. neofotis@buffalo.edu