Institutional Change in an Age of Internationalization: Globalization and the Soccer Club

This dissertation contributes to the growing literature about globalization's impact on local institutions with a focus on the interaction between global and local forces. Specifically, the dissertation examines the two theories of glocalization and grobalization that offer contrasting explanations about the impact of globalization on local institutions. While the theory of glocalization stresses the interpenetration of the global and the local resulting in increasing hybridization, grobalization predicts that globalization overwhelms local institutions resulting in increasing homogeneity.;The research reveals that while both theories tested capture to some degree institutional dynamics, they ultimately overlook the enduring power of the local. Put differently, the study finds that globalization's effects are not pre-determined and impact local institutions differently based on the local-societal setting and the local institutional capacity to withstand unifying pressures. As a corrective, my study introduces a third conceptual frame for understanding the global-local relationship that I term 'localism anew', which holds that local entities can be the driving force in transforming globalization by leveraging the local in order to succeed globally---something which grobalization cannot conceive and which glocalization overlooks.;The dissertation reaches this conclusion by taking a unique case study approach that examines the globally ubiquitous and significant local institution of the football club. This distinct case study bridges a gap by bringing political science into a conversation with sociology, peace studies, anthropology, gender studies and economics that have all written extensively about the connections between sports teams and processes of globalization and localism.;The reason for choosing the football club as a core proxy for a local institution is because football globally constitutes more than simple entertainment. It not only moves most of the world emotionally but also provides millions globally with a strong sense of local, regional and national identity. Football clubs are important global socio-cultural, political and economic agents while also the source of intense local identity. Thus, they are firmly placed at the nexus of globalization and localism. This effort questions how these forces interact by measuring globalization's impact on football clubs through an in-depth heuristic case study of Liverpool Football Club in England.