What's Scandinavian about Scandinavian sport?

Abstract

This essay consists of a set of personal reflections and observations. It discusses the social significance of sport in Nordic counties and comments on the academic study of Nordic sport, noting differing emphases from one country to another, for example in relation to sport and national self recognition. More generally, however, the essay argues that there is evidence of a specifically Nordic and/or Scandinavian approach to sport, associated above all with social solidarity. Furthermore, even if Nordic sport is less distinctive today than it once was, it continues to offer salutary lessons about how to play and organize sport and, in particular, about how to maintain a balance between mass participation and elite performance.

Notes

¹ I did not realize until many years later that Örgryte had been known as ‘the Scottish team’ in its formative period. For an explanation of this, see Bairner, ‘Örgryte's Scots’.

² Meinander, ‘Prologue’, 1.

³ I have sought to explain this elsewhere by reference to the Swedish social democratic ideal of folkhemmet (‘the people's home’) which encapsulated the political thinking of former prime minister, Per Albin Hansson. See Bairner, ‘Sweden and the World Cup’; Bairner, Sport, Nationalism, and Globalization. For a full explanation and analysis of the concept, see Tilton, The Political Theory of Swedish Social Democracy.

⁴ Here the appropriate Nordic reference point may well be the originally Norwegian concept, Jantelagen (or ‘Jante's Law’), according to which it is frowned upon to appear to elevate oneself or claim to be better or cleverer than others. For an example of its influence on Nordic sport, see Bairner, ‘Sweden and the World Cup’.

⁵ Neilsen, Body, Sport and Society, 9.

⁶ Meinander, ‘Prologue’, 6.

⁷ Beardsley, Country on Ice, 31–2.

⁸ Sörlin, ‘Nature, Skiing’, 149.

⁹ Goksøyr, ‘Phases and Functions’.

¹⁰ See Trangbaek, ‘Denmark’; Bonde, Sport.

¹¹ Eichberg, ‘Body Culture and Democratic Nationalism’, 119.

¹² See Giulianotti, Football.

¹³ Meinander, ‘Prologue’, 5.

¹⁴ See Bairner, Sport, Nationalism, and Globalization.

¹⁵ Hansen, ‘Politics and Gymnastics’, 25.

¹⁶ Meinander, ‘Prologue’, 6.

¹⁷ Fasting and Sisjord, ‘Nordic Countries’.

¹⁸ See inter alia Lindroth, Idrottens Väg till Folkrörelse; Lindroth, Idrott Mellan Krigen; Lindroth, Ling. See also Norberg, Studier i idrott, historia och samhälle, a collection of essays written in celebration of Professor Lindroth's sixtieth birthday.

¹⁹ Meinander, ‘Prologue’, 6.

²⁰ Norberg, ‘A Mutual Dependency’, 132.

²¹ Norberg, ‘A Mutual Dependency’, 132

²² See for example, Trangbaek, ‘Gender in Modern Society’; Olofsson, Har kvinnorna en sportslig chans?

²³ Goksøyr, ‘Phases and Functions’. See also Goksøyr, ‘The Popular Sounding Board’. On the concept of ‘banal nationalism’, see Billig, Banal Nationalism.

²⁴ See, for example, Wikberg, Amatör eller professionist?

²⁵ Meinander, ‘Prologue’, 1.

²⁶ For insights into this debate, see Milner, Sweden.