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In this study, we analyze sport as a cultural product of a particular place. We use the concept of “tradition” to highlight the collective (as opposed to individual) aspects of sport, emphasizing the importance of temporality, emergence, and novelty in social processes. We conducted a case study of internationally successful Icelandic men’s team handball that provides an interesting topic in this respect. Our findings challenge decades of research on sport that has stressed innate talent, individual qualities or physiological processes rather than the sociocultural processes. They support the interactionist approach to culture showing how local culture, rooted in specific interaction settings, influences the formation and development of a successful sport tradition. It is the way that cultural elements interact and combine in various networks that is crucial for national variations in playing sport. The social processes involved are best captured by Mead’s concepts of emergence, novelty, and the principle of sociality. These concepts help us to explain how unique national styles of playing sports derive from general cultural and social mechanism that interact to produce emergent and novel national variations. Our findings also support and extend earlier work on craftsmanship indicating that crafts-work, which is a part of an organized community resembling the old “workshop,” explains in part how innovations originate in sport-specific and other local networks. These theories offer a sociological extension of pragmatic theories of learning, emphasizing the group in the tradition of Mead.

In 2008, Paul De Knop (Vrije Universiteit Brussels) stated that “in spite of the social value of sport and its role as a policy tool, human sport sciences still lack a fulfilling position in the academic world.” In Belgium and in Flanders (the northern and Dutch-speaking part of the country), the sociology of sport is still a small field of research among the sport sciences. The discipline is institutionalized within the institutes of physical education of the three universities (University of Ghent; Katholieke Universiteit Leuven; Vrije Universiteit Brussels). The scarcity of academic funding streams resulted in a focus on more applied, policy-based research in Flanders. Additionally, all institutes emphasize increasingly an interdisciplinary cooperation to connect with stronger research fields (e.g., health sciences, social studies, or international studies on sport participation). Even though each university has its own research tradition, the universities and the government cooperate in a longitudinal study on sport participation in Flanders. De Knop, who became rector of the Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB) in 2008, was the first lecturer of the course sociology of sport at his university. He graduated in 1975 as licentiate in physical education and his career at the university converged with the development of the discipline. Together with Roland Renson and Bart Vanreusel (KU Leuven), he was one of the academic pioneers for the sociology of sport in Flanders.

This chapter explores the role of informal sport in the development of top-level Icelandic athletes. The approach is explorative and intended to develop an empirically grounded theory. We conducted semistructured interviews with 10 Icelandic elite athletes. Our analysis suggests that the development of free play may be of central importance to the development of elite athletes. Free play offers the opportunity to foster intrinsic motivation, mastery of skills, flow, craftsmanship, and aesthetic experience. We suggest that these qualities are important in the development of top athletes, especially in their early sport career. Our analysis also highlights the importance of unsupervised informal peer interaction. A pool of unsupervised peer networks can serve as a prerequisite for the development of informal sport that may promote qualities that are desirable for the development of top-level athletes. Our analysis further suggests that the contribution of informal sport depends on how it interacts with other elements in the social context and its relationship to formal sport.

The history of Hungarian sociology of sport can be divided to two periods, which are different in terms of conditions but show similarities in many other ways. In the period between the mid-1960s and 1989, the intensive development of the discipline was hindered by the repression of sociology and the lack of interest in sport on the part of social scientists. However, the unique social functions of (elite) sport still created a demand for scientific inquiry. In the second period, from 1989 to the present day, the conditions of research freedom were established; yet, sport as an area for research failed to attract the attention of social scientists. In this respect, today’s scholars of sociology of sport face similar problems as the founders of the discipline, although the changing economic conditions in terms of research funding and institutionalization provide a more favorable environment for the scientific investigation of sport-related social issues. As a result, the number of sport sociological publications has steadily increased in the past decade and Hungarian scholars have the opportunity to participate in international conferences and research projects. This chapter reviews sociology of sport in Hungary, with a focus on historical heritage, institutionalization, the current situation, and barriers to development.

Sport leagues are subject to the potential market entry of new leagues playing essentially the same sport. The economic analysis of market entry and exit is used to interpret two Australian cases of new league entry. These new entrants were World Series Cricket (cricket) and Super League (rugby league). The role of the media in the creation of both new leagues was crucial, providing commercial rationale, seed-funding and organizational capabilities. In addition, strategic input competition for venues and players helped weaken the incumbent league. The two cases analyzed provide a template for intending sport league entrants.

Purpose – In this chapter, I explore and argue for a theoretical shift in research about Aboriginal physical activity practices in Canada, from a deficit perspective to a strengths perspective that incorporates practices of hope.

Design/methodology/approach – After briefly describing my concerns about analysing Aboriginal physical activity practices from a deficit perspective, I outline, apply and argue for the benefits of a research approach that begins with a strengths perspective and incorporates practices of hope.

Findings – I argue that all individuals have strengths and places where they can exercise power. An adoption of complementary power relations framed within the practices of hope, which include availability and listening with an openness to co-transformation, further clarifies how to adopt a strengths perspective analysis of Aboriginal physical activity practices.

Originality/value – In adopting a strengths perspective, I am committed to actively identifying existing strengths as a starting point, along with resources that can be used to further those strengths. Strengths are then used to address identified barriers to physical activity. The practices of hope outline how non-Aboriginal allies can work alongside Aboriginal individuals to co-transform physical activity in a manner that enhances physical activity practices for all those involved.

The aim of this study was (1) to investigate the relationship between destination image (DI), destination personality (DP) and behavioral intention (BI) in the context of ski tourism and (2) especially the role of DP in the relationship between DI and BI among ski tourists.

We collected data using WJX.CN (N = 400) to test the hypothesized model. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to examine the psychometric properties of the measurement model and partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the hypotheses.

The results show that DI directly affects DP and partially affects BI, while DP directly affects ski tourists' BI. In addition, the indirect effect of DP between affective image and BI was significant, showing full mediation, and the indirect effect of DP between cognitive image and BI was significant, showing a partial mediation effect.

The findings enrich the ski tourism literature, contribute to the development of ski tourism in destination cities and the strategic marketing of ski resorts and provide recommendations for ski tourism researchers and marketers.