Artificial Ice: Hockey, Culture, and Commerce

Ted D. Naylor is a provisional Ph.D. candidate (Alberta) and project
manager of the Equity & Technology Research Project at Mt. Saint Vincent
University.

This co-edited collection of papers written by some of Canada’s top
hockey scholars provides an excellent overview of many key issues facing
hockey, the business of hockey, and Canadian hockey culture today.

The book is divided into two main sections. Part 1 (“Hockey in
Contemporary Canadian Culture”) examines some of the hotly debated
issues in Canadian hockey circles, including gender, race, identity, and
physical violence. This section is particularly strong in considering
the relationships between global, national, and local cultures through
the lens of hockey. Robidoux and Trudel, for example, trace the issue of
body-checking in minor hockey to larger cultural issues around Canadian
identity, whereby Canadians use hockey violence to define themselves as
sportsmen.

Part 2 (“The Political Economy of Hockey”) tackles the business of
hockey and the changing parameters of the hockey market in an era of
globalization and international labour. This section provides an
excellent overview of the developments in the marketization of
professional hockey, with comparative analysis to other professional
sports leagues and trends, both domestically and abroad. The authors
explore the often latent tensions that arise when a “national”
product goes global, highlighting the consequences for the local
identities left behind as hockey and its players become commodified
entertainment products.

Refreshingly free of academic jargon, Artificial Ice should appeal to
academics, policy-makers, and others interested in Canadian culture and
political economy, as well as to hockey administrators and officials and
those involved in the “business” of hockey, at both the amateur and
professional levels.