My name is Ilker Gündogan. I was born in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, in 1988. I am a PhD candidate at the Ruhr-University Bochum and ESSCA School of Management. My current research focuses on China’s football politics and market creation in the era of Xi Jinping. The overarching research question of my dissertation project relates to the understanding of current developments in Chinese football: what are, beyond official and popular narratives, the underlying motivations of the Chinese government to promote football in an unprecedented manner? Or, in a nutshell: why football? And: why now? And what does this case study of the big football reform programme tell us about policy-making in contemporary China, especially with regard to the complementarity of top-down and bottom-up impulses of policy initiation?

This is my first blog post. This blog is featuring both academic reflexions (including from guest contributors) and general information on Chinese football (both in historical and contemporary perspective). The objective of the online presence is to set up, beyond the dissertation project, a small standing group of industry experts, observers and scholars from various disciplines who are interested in working on football in Chinese society, politics and economics and who can bring together their different expertise and methodology in a loose network.

Welcome to China Football 8

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Ilker Gündogan

Ilker Gündogan is a PhD candidate at the Ruhr-University Bochum and the ESSCA School of Management. His research focuses on China’s football politics and market creation in the era of Xi Jinping.

Letzte Artikel von Ilker Gündogan (Alle anzeigen)

• What the NBA incident says about the expectations and strategies of Chinese politics - November 1, 2019
• Ambassadors against their will? Footballers in contact with politicians - Mai 29, 2018
• Botschafter wider Willen? Fußballer im Kontakt mit Politikern - Mai 29, 2018