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South African Nation Branding and the World Cup: Promoting Nationalism, Nation Branding, and the Miracle Nation Discourse

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Commercial Nationalism

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Communication for Social Change ((PSCSC))

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Abstract

In 2010 South Africa hosted the FIFA soccer World Cup. The South African government invested enormous energy and resources in bidding for the World Cup and then hosting it. As an exercise in nation branding and nation building it revealed much about the assumptions which underpinned African National Congress/ANC policies. The way the ANC used the World Cup to construct a particular (external) nation brand, and the way in which the World Cup neatly intermeshed with (internal) economic development policies served to illustrate the particular brand of nationalism that was being promoted by President Thabo Mbeki — a nationalism that encodes some of the elements of commercial nationalism that have emerged in Eastern Europe.

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Authors
  1. P. Eric Louw
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Pomona College, USA

    Zala Volcic  & Mark Andrejevic  & 

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© 2016 P. Eric Louw

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Louw, P.E. (2016). South African Nation Branding and the World Cup: Promoting Nationalism, Nation Branding, and the Miracle Nation Discourse. In: Volcic, Z., Andrejevic, M. (eds) Commercial Nationalism. Palgrave Studies in Communication for Social Change. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137500991_9

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