University of Helsinki
Routledge published a new book edited by Natalie Koch “Critical Geographies of Sport : Space, Power and Sport in Global Perspective”. The volume contains a chapter by Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen, titled “Sports fields and corporate governmentality: Gazprom’s all-Russian gas program as energopower”.
The chapter scrutinizes Russia’s state controlled gas company Gazprom’s relationship with the population by looking at the construction of sports facilities tied to the all-Russian gas program. Discursive and coercive governmentality come together in the energopower practiced by Gazprom: via amalgamation of energy and sports the “presence” of the state is made concrete through both gas pipelines and spatially-extensive sport facilities. Gazprom’s program advances the Great Power ambitions of Putin’s regime in the name of social “responsibility”, yet the sports-orientated social program aims ultimately to responsibilization of individuals to take care of both the wellbeing of the self and the nation, its economy and military might. Its unique form of corporate governmentality is the matrimony of the energy superpower ideal and military Great Power identity that are constructed with the help of sports metaphors, values, and infrastructures.
Get the chapter here.
