2023 International Comparative Seminar on Olympic Studies and Research

International Comparative Seminar on Olympic Studies and Research:
East meets West: Enhancing Intercultural Dialogue

Shanghai University of Sport

10-11 November 2023

Olympic sport and the modern Olympic movement have been intended from the outset of the modern Games, to be global and inclusive phenomena, bringing together nations and individuals of diverse cultural origins, and politico-economic persuasions to engage in friendly competition. Such engagement should be intended to reflect the Olympic values, of friendship, excellence and respect, in sporting competition, but is also in cultural initiatives, such as Olympic education programmes, the Olympic Truce, or the establishing of the IOC Olympic Refugee Team. However, while the Olympic movement has sought to embrace togetherness and to celebrate cultural diversity there have been cultural fractures evident in the movement, manifested in formal terms on occasions, for example, of Olympic boycotts, and in the decreasing (but still evident) over-representation of Western nations in the membership of international sporting bodies. Indeed, while the IOC has adopted French and English languages as Olympic languages, and the language of the host nation for the duration of an Olympiad, this arrangement underlines a history of western-centric governance of the Olympic system.

This event focuses on the identification and evaluation of opportunities and barriers in Olympic sport and Olympic studies, to developing inter-cultural communication and understanding between cultures, in particular between Europe and Asia. The event brings together ten leading scholars from the West and twenty from China, in a two-day’s event which is structured around the presentation and debate of ten invited papers. The papers are intended to be brief (20 minute), provocative introductions of topics and issues, designed to generate discussion, and to foster, East-West dialogue, concerning the development and dissemination of ideas relating to the contemporary Olympic movement.

The primary objective of the event is to identify actions which will foster dialogue between scholars and sports politicians and increase inter-cultural debate and exchange.