Editorial preliminary notes
After a successful cooperation with Waxmann-Publishing house for several years, we have decided to start working together with new publisher. Even though our journal’s cover might have changed a little, the contentual profile will remain the same. We still want to publish a wide range of current sport sociological research, and we also still want to be open for research results of neighbouring disciplines such as sport management, sociology of the body, and social psychology for instance.
The first issue with the new publisher deals with a classic topic of sport sociology: The organization of sports. Sport organizations are the object of many analyses, especially in the European sport sociological community. This is especially the case because the variety of the different forms of organization of sports is nowhere as great as in Europe. In this special issue, different aspects of the organizational development will be discussed. The special issue will be edited by our guest editors Siegfried Nagel, Bjarne Ibsen and Jeroen Scheeder on behalf of the research network SORN.
We wish you a pleasant reading.
Ansgar Thiel, Anna Vilanova, Lone Friis Thing, Martin Toms and Paddy Dolan
Guest editorial
The landscape for sport organizations in Europe is shifting dramatically due to transformations in society and in the world of sport. The supposedly unifying European model of sport – based mainly upon sport clubs and federations and principles of democracy and solidarity – is still very strong, but is increasingly challenged by conflicting interests and other organizational forms. Today, sport clubs, and sport federations in particular, tend to be more professional, with state support increasingly connected to higher expectations. Traditional target groups are now significantly engaging in new and so-called light forms of sport, as well as health-enhancing physical activities. As a consequence, traditional sport organizations are in a growing competition with other organizational forms of sport, e.g. commercial fitness centres and self-organized sport. Yet, sport clubs and federations still play a major role for most European countries in Sport for All policies, talent development and top-level sport. Based on these developments, the present Special Issue is dedicated to current questions of sport organization research. Under the topic ‘Sport organizations in Europe – changes and challenges’ a broad range of topics is discussed in relation to sport organizations that stand at the crossroad of tradition and modernization.
This Special Issue was initiated by the Sport Organization Research Network (SORN) as a follow up to the SORN sessions during the 12th EASS conference in Dublin 2015. Based on the independent recommendations of external reviewers, the guest editors have selected five articles, which deal with different issues of both, the development of sport clubs and federations and their mutual relationship.
The article of Jan-Willem van der Roest, Janine van Kalmthout and Lucas Meijs contributes to the discussion of the consumerist turn of voluntary sport organizations. The authors investigate Dutch sport organizations and show that there is no significant increase in more flexible and service-oriented membership arrangements.
Bennike and Ottesen explore how a traditional national sport federation – in this case the Danish Football Association – has tried to implement a health-related activity, Football Fitness, in Danish football clubs. The analysis is based upon document analysis, individual interviews and focus group interviews, and the theoretical framework is rooted in policy implementation. The study shows that one of the barriers for a successful implementation of the top-down initiated Football Fitness was the interorganizational relations between three organizational levels in the Danish Football Association.
Maikel Waardenburg investigates which social roles local governments ascribe to voluntary sport clubs. Based on institutional theory, the author performs a systematic document analysis of local sport policy programs. Four different social roles are identified, which together form a normative institutional framework for voluntary sport clubs.
Next, Kaisa Ruoranen and her colleagues explore practitioners’ perceptions of the concept of professionalization. For this, expert interviews have been conducted resulting in a framework that could be used to analyze professionalization in national sport federations.
Finally, Jo Lucassen and Sarah de Bakker analyse in their paper – by using concepts of Third Sector research – the hybridization of Dutch sport organizations. They show that not all sport federations become hybrid in their goals, the use of resources, the governance model and the identity, however, some of them are already fully hybrid organizations.
Guest Editors
Siegfried Nagel, Bjarne Ibsen, Jeroen Scheerder