Abstracts Vol. 1 (No.1 / 2004)
Otmar Weiss
Perspectives on the sociology of sport in Europe
The aim of this article is to outline the status quo and prospects of sociology of sport in the context of radical change in Europe. The roles which the International Sociology of Sport Association (ISSA) and the European Association for Sociology of Sport (EASS) are playing with regard to the development of this discipline in Europe are shown. The integration of East European states into the EASS from the very beginning has anticipated the European unification process and has proved to be an identity-creating potential within sociology of sport in Europe. In this context new perspectives in scientific orientation and research activities (e.g. cross-cultural studies) on the European scene have evolved.
Keywords: Sociology of Sport, Contemporary Europe, European Integration.
Karen Petry, Dirk Steinbach and Walter Tokarski
Sport systems in the countries of the European Union:
similarities and differences
This study provides an overview of the similarities and differences in the sport systems in the European countries. It shows that different reasons are important for carrying out comparative studies of international sport structures. The description of the sport systems consists of the governmental and non-governmental side. The role of the different levels of responsibility of the state as well as the role of the National Olympic Committees are discussed. The EU-member states show a broad spectrum ranging from the embodiment in different constitutions and a strong responsibility on the part of the state to a complete autonomy of the sport movement. Furthermore, the different aspects of the financial support in various countries are analysed. Finally the common principle of European Sport, which is the pyramid-like organizational structure, is discussed.
Keywords: Sport structures, Europe, comparative research, sport and state.
David Head
Europeanization through football. The cross-cultural impact of
Jürgen Klinsmann and Sven-Göran Eriksson in England
It has been argued that the globalization of football, and particularly its growing cost, is causing the game to neglect its local roots. According to this point of view, football should never forget to think local and act local. However, if football does this to an extreme degree, xenophobia, racism and bigotry can find expression. The internationalization of the game and specifically its Europeanization in England show that such developments can act as an antidote to the unacceptable aspects of football’s local dimension. In one season as a player for Tottenham Hotspur, a club with strong Jewish connections, German football star Jürgen Klinsmann succeeded in calling into question outdated stereotypes of Germany and the Germans by means of his sense of humour and his gentlemanly conduct. As manager of England’s national football team at the beginning of the new millennium, the urbane Swede Sven-Göran Eriksson, who was also identified as possessing the gentlemanly qualities that had apparently become rare in English sport, showed that not being “one of us” was an asset. His management style was refreshingly non-English and attracted widespread interest in the Swedish way of running things as an attractive alternative to English management methods.
Keywords: Klinsmann, Eriksson, football, Europeanization.
Maarten Moens and Jeroen Scheerder
Social determinants of sports participation revisited.
The role of socialization and symbolic trajectories
This paper discusses the sociological debate of detraditionalization in the case of sports participation in Flanders. Sports participation remains to a great extent predictable by means of social characteristics. Traditional position-bound stratification mechanisms, based on age and gender identities, remain important determinants of sports participation behaviour. But more intentional socialization mechanisms such as the educational level, the formal social participation as well as the respondents’ media preferences and TV viewing habits, appear to be important in explaining sports participation.
Keywords: Leisure-time sports, participation, social stratification, detraditionalization.
Ludmila Fialová
The impact of physical activity on health and personal satisfaction
The article provides information on the sources of knowledge about health in the Czech adult population. At the same time, it ascertains differences in health states and in interest in health among sporting and non-sporting individuals. For that comparison, a questionnaire was employed including mostly closed questions with possibilities to present answers on the five-point Lickert type scale. The sample was composed of 200 men and 200 women in the age group 30-50 years. They were selected randomly. 68% of them do sport in their leisure time. It was found that the sporting members of the population were more satisfied with their own health and in comparison with others they evaluated their health and body as better, they experienced fewer psychosomatic difficulties and had a more mature orientation to health. This article provides evidence that sport and physical activity are unquestionably very good methods for the improvement of one’s body and psychological state of mind.
Keywords: Health troubles, illness, evaluation of health, sport.
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