Sport (History)

The volume includes 23 contributions dealing with the social, economic, political and gender aspects of the athletics. The periods in focus are the Classical Antiquity and the Modern Era.
For the fully uploaded contribution of Athanasios Sideris on "The Athletic Body: Image adn Power", see the section "Papers"

This article examines the social significance of Real Tennis among the Western European nobility during its heyday of the sixteenth century. Underpinned theoretically by Norbert Elias’s seminal empirical work The Civilising Process, this article seeks to identify the societal preconditions for the emergence of Real Tennis, and provide explanations for its diffusion across Western Europe and subsequent boom in popularity among the nobility. A critique is offered of the current body of literature written on Real Tennis, with an aim to address a general lack of focus on the game’s ‘social’ elements and how their development is linked with structural changes to the game over the centuries. The article then goes on to examine the ways in which Real Tennis became a symbol of prestige and a tool for social mobility among the increasingly status-competitive royal court nobility. Played during royal festivals, the game provided opportunities for nobles to engage in conspicuous consumption through architectural, clothing and gambling displays; having an entourage in accompaniment to the noble players; and, through the style of play and behavioural control, exhibiting self-restraint and foresight. Overall, an attempt is made to apply Elias’s theoretical framework to aid our understanding of the development of Real Tennis, a game that has never been characterised by overt ‘violence’ of the kind examined previously by other sociologists employing an Eliasian framework.

This study focuses on the issue of social exclusion in British tennis. It commences with a critique of current LTA policy, presenting exclusion as static, ahistorical and underpinned by false dichotomies of age and social class. Aspects of Norbert Elias’s theoretical approach are employed throughout as an analytical framework. Initially, the roots of exclusion in British tennis are sought through historical analysis. Aspects of the Civilising Process help direct attention towards wider social processes to explain the prevalence of exclusion, particularly in tennis clubs. Cost was a crucial factor in determining early access, but as tennis became more accessible to lower classes, codes of behavioural etiquette helped demarcate members along status lines. Into the mid-20th century, the globalisation, professionalisation and commercialisation of tennis pushed the LTA to adopt a more performance-oriented outlook, but this has come to oppose the more relaxed culture of tennis clubs. Thus, a power struggle emerged between these two institutions, and, underpinned by thirty interviews with leading figures in British tennis as well as extensive documentary analysis, the third section documents these developments from the 1980s. Crucially, tennis clubs remain largely amateur and voluntary-run organisations, yet are important locations for the implementation of the LTA’s demanding talent development objectives. These recent developments are understood with the help of Elias’s Game Models theory. The fourth section presents findings from a ten-month ethnographic study of social exclusion in a tennis club; a micro-analysis of club member relations underpinned by Elias’s Established-Outsider Relations theory. Overall findings suggest that social exclusion in British tennis is far more complex, multi-faceted and historically-rooted than what current LTA discourse presents. Differences in age and class are less central, and instead preconceived notions of social status based on longevity of membership, adherence to behavioural norms and playing standard are powerful determinants of inclusion.

Este artículo pretende aprovechar el treinta aniversario del Mundial de Fútbol de España, para analizar algunos aspectos fundamentales de la organización de este evento deportivo. En pleno proceso de transición política y bajo la influencia de una fuerte crisis económica, la sociedad española se enfrentará al reto de organizar el primer Mundial con la participación de 24 selecciones. A nivel internacional, los diferentes gobiernos y las instituciones políticas y deportivas trataron de utilizar el Mundial como símbolo de un nuevo país democrático y moderno. Este texto examina aspectos íntimamente relacionados con su organización, como las fuentes de financiación, la reforma de la infraestructura de RTVE, la elección de las sedes y la remodelación de los estadios, así como la explotación comercial y publicitaria de España-82.

Sport et culture physique en Union soviétique (1917 -1964) Sport et culture physique en Union soviétique (1917 -1964) 2 comparés à eux. C'est l'étude de ces structures internes et de leur composition qui permet de déterminer les rapports entre le sport et les autres institutions structurées. Les différences et points communs entre le sport (le système de modélisation) et les individus, la société (ce qui doit être modelé) donnent des indications sur ce qui est efficient et ce qui ne l'est pas, et sont ainsi des marqueurs d'adhésion 1 .

index. €60 £50. In this revised edition of the 1986 classic, Eric Dunning had the task of reintroducing Elias's seminal works on sport to which he originally collaborated. The majority of the original text is the same, with the addition of an extra chapter by Elias that was originally omitted ('The Genesis of Sport as a Sociological Problem, Part II'), an entirely rewritten chapter on football hooliganism by Dunning, a postscript to his essay on gender relations in sport, and an eightpage introductory note. These additions help to bring together all of Elias's main articles on sport, and set the book in the context of wider social and historical changes over the twentyplus years between the editions. The overall effect is to make this version more readable and relevant, still managing at times to sound new and ground-breaking, though at other times reading overtly moralistic and out-dated.

Why did cycling become professional as early as the late nineteenth century, while other sports (such as rugby) and other sport events (such as the Olympic Games) remained amateur until the 1980s? Why are the organizers of the most important bicycle races private companies, while in other sports such as soccer the main event organizer is a nonprofit organization? To what extent have bicycle races changed since the late nineteenth century? And how does cycling reflect long-term economic changes? The history of professional road cycling helps answer these questions and understand many related phenomena. This chapter provides a long-term, historical perspective on (1) professional road cycling’s economic agents, i.e., the public, race organizers, team sponsors and riders, and the relationships amongst them; (2) cycling’s governing body, the International Cycling Union; and (3) professional cycling’s final product, i.e., the show of bicycle races. More precisely, the chapter mostly focuses on the history of male professional road cycling in Western Europe since the late nineteenth century. It is founded on both an analysis of quantitative time series on the Grand Tours (and, to some extent, the classics) and a review of the existing literature on the history of professional cycling, whether economic history, institutional history, cultural history, or sport history.

The Olympic Movement underwent a period of profound change in the interwar years. A generational shift occurred as Pierre de Coubertin’s reign came to an end, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) under the presidency of Comte Henri de Baillet-Latour, embarked on a renewed mission to create a more standardized amateur definition. The IOC also took a tougher stance on the involvement of, and the authority it afforded to, its affiliated international sports federations (ISFs) for Olympic event preparations. Relations between the IOC and the ISFs inevitably grew strained. The case of Olympic lawn tennis presents an interesting lens through which to view shifting organizational relations. Frustrated by the dogmatic approach of Baillet-Latour and the IOC, the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF) sought to reassert its authority over Olympic tennis. In the years leading up to the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam, the ILTF demanded representation on the IOC, and also imposed a definition of an amateur that directly contravened the more stringent amateur standards imposed by Olympic officials in Lausanne. Both sides refused to concede ground, culminating in the eventual removal of lawn tennis from the 1928 Amsterdam Olympic program and thereafter for over sixty years.

The sports film has become one of commercial cinema's most recognizable genres. From classic boxing films such as Raging Bull (1980) to soccer-themed box-office successes like Bend it Like Beckham (2002), the sports film stands at the interface of two of our most important cultural forms. This book examines the social, historical and ideological significance of representations of sport in film internationally, an essential guide for all students and enthusiasts of sport, film, media and culture.

Sport and Film traces the history of the sports film, from the beginnings of cinema in the 1890s, its consolidation as a distinct fiction genre in the mid 1920s in Hollywood films such as Harold Lloyd’s The Freshman (1925), to its contemporary manifestation in Oscar-winning films such as Million Dollar Baby (2004) and The Fighter (2010). Drawing on an extensive range of films as source material, the book explores key issues in the study of sport, film and wider society, including race, social class, gender and the legacy of 9/11. It also offers an invaluable guide to 'reading' the sports film as well as an analysis of the place of the genre within national cinemas, including case studies of the British, Australian and Indian sports film.

The appearance of sports reporting was among the major developments of nineteenth-century journalism. While sports were only very exceptionally covered in the newspapers during the first half of the century, by the end of the Victorian era a diverse array of sports stories provided staple content for the pages of both broadsheet and popular papers. Dealing with the phenomenon of football match reports in The Times, this article documents the early specimens of the novel genre from the 1860s and the 1870s, tracing some of the linguistic forms and structural features that characterise the early search for the discursive conventions of the new genre. By focusing on a popular topic in a serious newspaper, the analysis illustrates that the emergence of the popular topic of football in a serious daily newspaper was not only very gradual and tentative, but was also marked with substantial uncertainty about the macrostructural and microstructural composition of the reports.

Rugby and South Africa are inextricably linked. This paper explores the role of the sport in unifying the two republics (Transvaal and Orange Free State) and the two Colonies (The Cape and Natal), who had just come out of a harrowing war with Britain, with bitterness between English-speakers and Afrikaners seemingly irreconcilable.  However, it was the sport of rugby, in particular under the leadership of Paul Roos, that united South Africans and paved the way for unification in 1910.

This paper examines recent developments in etiquette in contemporary mixed-doubles tennis (MDT), to position different behavioural expectations for men/women in the broader context of shifting gender relations. Content analysis of coaching guides published from the 1960s-80s revealed that historically-rooted gender distinctions in terms of court positioning, tactics, and playing roles/expectations were reaffirmed, continuing to undermine and marginalize females yet privilege males based on assumed innate differences in physical attributes. Etiquette norms in this era were compared to those found in the early 21 st century (2000-10s), through content analysis of online forums/blogs for recreational and elite-level MDT. It was found that while gendered tactics related to court positioning and playing roles were sustained, an important shift in etiquette norms related to chivalry occurred, but was not comprehensively accepted among all players. This development was attributed to third-wave feminist challenges to male chivalry, alongside the burgeoning " crisis of masculinity " that increasingly pushed men toward adopting a " hybridized masculinity " to assuage public critiques of hegemonic/orthodox masculinity in sport.

Using the career of a leading modern rider as a focal point, this article
examines the changes and continuities in the labour market for
professional jockeys over the past century and a half. It looks at the
rigours of the job via travel load, risk of injury and, above all, weight
watching; at the rewards both monetary and psychic; at human capital
formation; at drug and alcohol issues; and at power relations and
disciplinary procedures

Over the course of the last 125 years the sport of Gaelic football in Ireland has undergone a sportization and civilizing process as the rules governing the sport became stricter and players developed greater levels of self-control. However, the civilizing of Gaelic football was a particularly fragile and uneven process. The growing social desire to diminish displays of violence was moderated by ambivalence towards violence. Gradually the external social controls on players increased and, greater and more stable levels of internalization occurred reflected by more advanced levels of player self-restraint in the control of violence. At the same time the threshold of shame toward displays of violence advanced. This transformation was shaped by lengthening chains of social interdependencies in Ireland.

Wimbledon and the AELTC have long occupied an important social position as a quintessentially English sporting institution of cultural importance, but underscored with unashamed English nationalism. The club markets The Championships as “tennis in an English garden party”, and the historical connections to Victorian south-east (London-based) English upper-middle-class elitism are transparent in the opulent ivy-clad surroundings of Centre Court, the exclusive blazer-and-tie membership, the players in all-whites, and the strawberries-and-cream type refreshments on sale. Somewhat in contradiction, however, Wimbledon’s fans almost always sport the union flag over the St. Georges cross, and support British players with equal and consummate gusto. Moreover, unlike other sports, tennis is managed by one British (rather than separate English, Scottish or Welsh) association, the LTA, the activities of which are funded almost entirely by Wimbledon’s profits. It is argued that Wimbledon, as expressed in the “banal nationalism” shown by tennis fans and its media and the clubs’ efforts to create an “imagined community” of British fans loyal to the club and home-grown players, represents nostalgia for a now outdated English-dominated form of “Britishness”. This chapter aims to analyse the often contradictory picture of English/British nationalism in tennis, particularly focused on Wimbledon and the AELTC.

“Mixed doubles” was regarded as the most popular type of lawn tennis game for those preferring the ‘social’ aspects to competition. An analysis of behavioural etiquette in mixed doubles from 1870 to 1939 reveals a considerable amount about shifting gender relations in wider British society. Findings are presented from over fifty text books and instructional guides on mixed doubles play published throughout this period in order to answer the following questions: What differences are evident in the ways that men and women were instructed to play mixed doubles? How was the often uneasy balance between male competitiveness and chivalry dealt with in the context of play? What can an analysis of changing fashions of female tennis players and associated behavioural etiquette in mixed doubles tell us about shifting gender relations in wider British society, and what role did these developments play within broader feminist movements?

Tennis from the mid-1970s onwards until the mid-1990s witnessed a global downturn in on-court manners. This was exemplified by players such as Ilie Năstase, Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe, who built reputations on their "bad-boy" images, by exhibiting lower levels of sportsmanship, honesty, courtesy to officials and behavioural restraint, and concomitant higher levels of ostensible petulance, aggressive posturing and disrespect toward opponents, umpires and spectators than had been customary in the past. The aims of this paper are to examine the extent that this phenomenon was the result of wider shifts in class and gender relations during this period, alongside the rise of consumerist, neo-liberal, free-market philosophies in American and British societies. In short, the overall objective is to offer a partial explanation of this phenomenon by locating it in the broader social context of marked changes in society and tennis more specifically.

This article argues that the question of national perspectives is a fundamental problem in the writing of European sports history. It does so by demonstrating that France has an equal pedigree, in terms of diffusion and exceptionalism, as Britain, and pleads for a less skewed approach to the history of the subject in general. The article shows, first, that France contributed significantly to the internationalization of sport in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with French networks facilitating the spread of sports across the globe. It considers the impact of French universalism on the institutional structures of world sport and assesses the importance of sport to governmental diplomacy. Second, it proposes that France occupies a special place in the history of European sport, halfway between that of the British on the one hand and other continental sporting cultures on the other. It discusses the role of central and regional administrations in the creation of a sports space that is distinctly marked by a lack of football hegemony. French sport, the article concludes, is characterized by a peculiar mix of anglomanie, invented traditions, internationalism, state interventionism and eclecticism.

Despite being almost wiped out after the French Revolution, the ancient sport of real tennis is enjoying something of a revival of late in France, Great Britain, Australia and the United States, played by perhaps as many as 10,000 enthusiasts worldwide. In what must surely be the most detailed and comprehensive account of the sport's complete history, John Shneerson explains the sport's perpetually shifting popularity over the centuries, which has seen it fall out of favour, and then recover multiple times.

The relationship between 'race' and sport is, and has been for some time, the subject of a quite staggering volume of academic output, chiefly in the spheres of sport-specific sociology and cultural studies. It is perhaps surprising, thus, that prior to the publication of Ben Carrington's splendid volume, there had been no book-length study focused entirely upon the task of clearly elucidating the reflexive relationships between sport, social theory, colonial legacy, culture and racial identity. Hitherto, the academic community has instead been treated to a range of (often excellent) papers focusing in great detail on narrow aspects of a wide argument. Alternately, and particularly from an undergraduate perspective, the bulk of domain-relevant information has been provided by the obligatory broad, and necessarily general, 'race and sport' chapter in overview sport sociology books. As such, before one even opens the front cover of Race, Sport and Politics, the author should be applauded for the very project undertaken here. Carrington, centrally, works to provide a sustained and historicallygrounded look into a broad phenomenon that has previously only really been captured in high-definition partial snapshots, or in sweeping gazes from afar.

Contemporary broader government policy surrounding social exclusion has tended to characterise it in largely negative terms. Contemporary sport policy in British tennis is no different" Every player excluded from grass-roots participation represents a wasted opportunity to develop talent" Thus, "inclusion" and "accessibility" feature today, and have for some time, at the core of contemporary policy from the Lawn Tennis Association, which as an organisation has come to judge itself based on broad participation figures and elite level success, which are often considered incompatible. Such measurements of an association's  performance reflect broader political concerns and objectives, and also ignore the sport's elitist past, which actually celebrated the exclusion of particular societal groups as a major  positive factor in its rapidly growing popularity among the socially-aspirational British middle-classes. This paper takes a historical perspective with regard to discourses of social exclusion in British tennis, and considers the ways in which exclusive features of the sport have been both celebrated as a means of enhancing its prestige and criticised for contributing to declining British performances. Such discourses are positioned within broader historical contexts of shifting class relations, Empire decline, burgeoning commercialism in sport and the increasing accountability among sport governing bodies.

This paper critically examines the life and career of Daniel “Dan” Maskell OBE CBE (1908-92), the much-loved British professional coach and BBC commentator for Wimbledon, and position his social ascendancy during the inter-war and post-war periods within the contexts of shifting class relations in British society, and the professionalisation of tennis and growing performance orientation of amateur tennis authorities in Britain. Given his working-class origins, Maskell’s gradual acceptance into the British lawn tennis fraternity and rise to become “the voice of Wimbledon” and, for some, the personification of traditional British sporting amateur values, was something of an enigma, and reflected key contradictions in what amateurism constituted in the twentieth century. Despite enduring systematic discrimination in clubs and exclusion from amateur competitions, as a consequence of him being a “professional”, he remained a chief proponent of the amateur ideology throughout his lifetime and exhibited numerous personal qualities that endeared him to the upper-middle-class establishment: modesty, loyalty, integrity, conservative views on player behaviour, deference to authority, strong work-ethic, and good-humoured nature. Once tennis went “open” in 1968, and throughout a period when professionalism and commercialism threatened to undermine the sports’ core ideals, Maskell continued to represent and promote amateur ideals through his broadcasting ethics and values.

From the 1870s, lawn tennis developed a code of behavioural etiquette demanding on-court self-restraint, which notably influenced the development of particular playing strokes and styles. This paper explores the sport’s historical development in Britain from 1870-1939, with its main aims: to document the changes in behavioural etiquette and playing style; to consider these interdependent developments in the context of shifting class relations in wider British society; and, to examine the social and practical functions etiquette served for players. Evidence suggests that prohibitions against certain playing strokes up until World War I were indicative of class anxiety among the socially-aspirational upper-middle classes that controlled lawn tennis, as certain playing styles conveyed seemingly an abhorrent ‘working-class’ competitiveness. Greater inclusion for lower-middle-class players during the inter-war years signalled a trend toward adopting a more ‘professional’ mentality, helping to relax behavioural controls in playing style around the world.

Nation at Play is a well-researched, balanced and interesting account of the history of sport in India. The author's aims are to address two key questions: why cricket has become so deeply rooted within Indian culture, and why India, despite its huge population, does so poorly in international sporting competitions like the Olympic Games.

Tras la Segunda Guerra Mundial se produjo un gran cambio en la geopolítica y diplomacia internacional. La profunda confrontación político-ideológica, la intolerancia, la radicalización y las continuas amenazas entre las dos superpotencias determinaron un nuevo modus operandi. Estas nuevas formas ya no se iban a limitar a la escena política, económica o militar, como hasta entonces había sucedido, sino que iban a comenzar a involucrar a nuevas áreas culturales y sociales. Entre estas nuevas áreas, el deporte por su popularidad en todo el mundo comenzó a jugar un papel destacado, convirtiéndose en un importante escenario donde ideológicamente se enfrentaron las dos superpotencias durante más de cuarenta años. En este sentido, los Juegos Olímpicos constituyen el mayor evento deportivo y ejemplifican a la perfección la relación entre deporte y política. A día de hoy, el mayor boicot en la historia del deporte fue el que promovió los Estados Unidos contra la Unión Soviética en los Juegos Olímpicos de 1980, produciendo un profundo impacto en las estructuras del Movimiento Olímpico. El objetivo de esta investigación es analizar el contexto diplomático, geopolítico y geoestratégico que rodeó al boicot de Moscú’80.

Following World War II there was a great change in geopolitics and international diplomacy. The deep political and ideological confrontation, intolerance, radicalization and continued threats between the two superpowers determined a new modus operandi. These new forms would no longer be limited to the political, economic or military scene, as had previously occurred, but would begin to involve new cultural and social areas. Among these new areas, sport, thanks to its worldwide popularity, began to play a prominent role, becoming an important stage where the two superpowers fought ideologically for over forty years. In this sense, the Olympic Games are the biggest sporting event and perfectly exemplify the relationship between sport and politics. Today, the biggest boycott in sports history was the one which the United States promoted against the Soviet Union at the Olympics in 1980, producing a profound impact on the structures of the Olympic Movement. The aim of this research is to analyze the diplomatic, geopolitical and geostrategic context surrounding the boycott of Moscow'80.

Anhand von Dokumenten aus der Stiftung Archiv der Parteien und Massenorganisationen der DDR im Bundesarchiv (SAPMO) sowie Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zeigen Verf. die Rolle Nordkoreas innerhalb der Sportpolitik der sozialistischen Staaten auf. Dabei gehen sie auch auf das Verhältnis zwischen Nord- und Südkorea ein. So versuchte Nordkorea stets die Vergabe internationaler Sportereignisse an Südkorea zu verhindern, erhielt aber von den "sozialistischen Bruderstaaten" oftmals nicht mehr als Lippenbekenntnisse, da vor allem die Sowjetunion ihre starke sportpolitische Position im Internationalen Olympischen Komitee (IOC) nicht zwingend für Nordkorea nutzte. (Aus der Datenbank SPOLIT des Bundesinstituts für Sportwissenschaft)

In this study, we aim to shed light on the field of sports professionalism in the world, showing the difference between amateur sport and professionalism. The question was: Is sports professionalism a choice or a necessity? This is due to the transformation of sport from the activity of amateur and enjoyed by the masses of spectators to industry based on scientific foundations specialized in the promotion of media and professionalism, which generates hundreds of billions of dollars. Professional club, has become one of the most attractive areas of capital and the attention of economic forces, Represents a driving force for developing players' skills and improving the status of clubs and players.

The article examines the Hungarian film Children of Glory (Krisztina Goda, 2006), which portrays two historical events that took place in 1956: The first was the Hungarian popular revolt against the pro-Soviet Regime following the Soviet military oppression and the restitution of the communist rule. The second event, that in the film happens parallel to the political turmoil in Hungary, was a sport match between the Hungarian and Soviet national Water-Polo teams in the pool of the Olympic Summer Games in Melbourne, which escalated and turned into a political battle. The article focuses on the use of specific narration and images by the Hungarian filmmakers in order to create an identification of the audience with the Hungarian protagonists, and to see them as Hungarian national role models.