Sport and the Analysis of Symbolic Regimes: A Case Study of the City of Sheffield

The authors evaluate the role of sport in the construction of a symbolic project for the city of Sheffield. They seek to illustrate that although in regime analyses, the ideological dimensions of the activities of regimes in urban governance are often neglected, regime approaches can provide appropriate frameworks through which to analyze the mobilizing of interests behind the development of a symbolic project, a new image for the city (as a city of sport). The authors conclude that the nature of postmodern politics is such that analysis of symbolic projects is key to understanding regime activity in deindustrializing urban contexts.