The UEFA European Football Championship 2012 and pop nationalism in Poland: between confirmation and contestation

Representations of race/ethnicity and the nation: A content analysis of televised Polish international football

“…This is also illustrated by the use of emotionally charged statements such as “38 million hearts, transcending the divisions, beating in the same one rhythm today like the 11 who are on the pitch in white and red [colors of the Polish national team's jersey]”. Since the Polish team is popularly perceived as an embodiment of the nation (Jaskułowski and Majewski, 2016; Maguire et al, 2009) this representational pattern might also reflect current dominant meanings given to the Polish men's football team and to Polishness.…”

“…When considering the symbolic function of the Polish national team – which is popularly seen as “an incarnation of national identity and a visible and physical representation of ‘Polishness’, its virtues and, at times, its vices” (Jaskułowski and Majewski, 2016: 560) - the distinctive discourses that were drawn upon to praise the character of Polish players might also signal how the commentators give meaning to ‘Polishness’. Taking into account the attachment to Whiteness in Polish national identity constructions, it might also shed light on how Whiteness is given meaning in the Polish context.…”

“…It is important to briefly reflect on the role of the Polish national football team in wider Polish society. EURO 2012, jointly organized by Poland and Ukraine, is generally recognized as the consolidation of a process in which the national football team has become associated with more celebratory, seemingly apolitical, and ‘banal’ expressions of nationalism (Jaskułowski and Majewski, 2016; Kossakowski et al, 2020). This came after years of poor results and the gradual phasing out of hooligan elements surrounding the national team.…”

A Game of Whac-A-Mole

“…The symbolic impact of FIFA as an international institution governing sports relates to wider literature on soft power and the role of sports and culture in international politics. This literature addresses the impact of sports on foreign policy (Reiche 2015), their symbolic importance to national identity construction (Ismer 2011;Scheve et al 2014), and the political significance of cultural megaevents for the host country, including the host's vulnerability to naming and shaming campaigns (Alekseyeva 2014;Black 2007;Bowersox 2016;Cornelissen 2008;Giulianotti et al 2015;Gorokhov 2015;Jaskulowski and Majewski 2016;Press-Barnathan and Lutz 2020).…”

Politics of memory in Upper Silesian schools: Between Polish homogeneous nationalism and its Silesian discontents

“…Thus, nationalism in our article is understood as a way of constructing a meaningful social reality (Hall, 1996). Nationalist practices organise social reality around the category of the nation which is imagined as a community united by a common language or set of other cultural markers, the bearer of political sovereignty, the central object of individual loyalty and the source of collective identity (Jaskulowski and Majewski, 2016).…”