Esportisation: The Inclusion of Esports in the Hangzhou Asian Games

Abstract

The inclusion of esports as an official event in the Hangzhou Asian Games is an important step towards the institutionalisation of esports. The significance of this event marks that Asia once again takes a lead in the global esportisation. This chapter investigates a series of history events in the inclusion process of esports into the comprehensive Games in Asia using process sociology and actor network theory (ANT). This study will analyse the type characteristics of esports events in Hangzhou Asian Games, whilst examining how key stakeholders' interact and balance in the network composed of international sports organisations, host of the event, emerging esports organisations and esports game companies. The chapter also examines the functions of global game industrial economic geography, local cultural politics, esports geopolitics and Olympic values in esports sportization, aiming to reveal the implications of esports inclusion in the Asian Games on the debate of whether esports meets the criteria to be classified as a ‘sport’ and its enlightenment of digital strategy to the inclusion esports in the Olympics.

Citation

Hong, J. and Yi, J. (2024), "Esportisation: The Inclusion of Esports in the Hangzhou Asian Games", Tian, E. and Wise, N. (Ed.) The Mediating Power of Sport (Research in the Sociology of Sport, Vol. 21), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 143-162. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1476-285420240000021009