The Global Security Field of Sports and How the World Health Organization Shapes Mega-Events in a (Post-)Pandemic World
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: In a (post-)pandemic age, it is important to explore which actors and institutions that shape global sport. Sport can be viewed as made up by interrelationships between different social actors, including international organizations. By utilizing existing theoretical insights related to the notion of social fields, this article explores how what is approached as a “global security field of sport” was shaped by the World Health Organization (WHO) during the staging of sport mega-events during the pandemic time, where public health, security, and safety concerns were unprecedented. Adopting a digital qualitative research approach, this article frame analyses discourses in official communications and media interview statements to examine how the WHO is situated within global sport. It is argued that the WHO—following Covid-19—has been catapulted into football's security-related discourses and consolidated its power in the “global security field of sport.” More broadly, this is significant because it reflects wider trends and power struggles that emerge when international organizations become entangled in sport.
Author: Jan Andre Lee Ludvigsen
Institution: Liverpool John Moores University
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,650
OpenAlex ID: W4408818586