Sport, Statehood and Transition in Europe
This book examines the political significance of sport and its importance for nation-state building and political and economic transition across thirteen post-Soviet and post-socialist countries, primarily located in Eastern Europe.
Adopting a critical case-study approach, building on historical and comparative frameworks, the book uses sport as a symbolic lens through which to examine the transition of Eastern European countries to the Western capitalist system. Covering a wide geographical area, from Poland to the Caucuses and Turkmenistan, it explores key themes such as nationalism, governance, power relations, political ideology, separatism, commercialisation and economic development, and the symbolic value of mega-events.
Sport, Statehood and Transition in Europe is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in sport policy, the politics of sport or political science.
Ekain Rojo-Labaien teaches at the University of Basque Country UPV/EHU, Spain, and he is a member of the Nor Research Group. He completed ten months of fieldwork in 2015 and 2016 in Baku funded by the Erasmus Mundus Backis European Commission programme.
lvaro Rodrguez-Daz is Professor of sociology of sport at the University of Seville, Spain, and Visiting Professor at the universities of Amsterdam, Belarusian State, Napier and Brasilia. He is a member of the Extended Board of the European Association for Sociology of Sports.
Joel Rookwood is a Senior Lecturer in sport business management at the University of Central Lancashire, UK. He has travelled to 170 countries including every post-Soviet and post-Socialist state. His main research interests are mega events, sport management, football fandom and sport-for-development.
Routledge Research in Sport Politics and Policy
Series Editors:
Jonathan Grix
Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
Laurence Chalip
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Barrie Houlihan
Loughborough University, UK
The Routledge Research in Sport Politics and Policy series aims to give shape to, and showcase, the burgeoning academic field of sport politics and policy. Highlighting the political nature of sport, the series shows how sport can illuminate our understanding of wider political themes such as, issues around governance; sport, foreign policy and soft power; gender politics, or the use of sport as a development tool. The series embraces all areas of sport politics and policy, including domestic, international and comparative studies, and includes work by world-leading and emerging scholars.
Available in this series:
Sport Policy in China
Jinming Zheng, Shushu Chen, Tien-Chin Tan and Barrie Houlihan
Sport, Statehood and Transition in Europe
Comparative Perspectives From Post-Soviet and Post-Socialist Societies
Edited by Ekain Rojo-Labaien, lvaro Rodrguez-Daz and Joel Rookwood
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2020 selection and editorial matter, Ekain Rojo-Labaien, lvaro Rodrguez-Daz and Joel Rookwood; individual chapters, the contributors
The rights of Ekain Rojo-Labaien, lvaro Rodrguez-Daz and Joel Rookwood to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-0-367-34440-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-32584-7 (ebk)
Gyozo Molnar is Principal Lecturer in the School of Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Worcester, UK. His current research revolves around migration, globalisation, identity and empowering marginalised populations. He is also Founder and Coordinator for the Gender, Identity and the Body research group at the University of Worcester, UK.
Tams Dczi is Associate Professor at the University of Physical Education, Budapest, Hungary and is Guest Lecturer at the National Taiwan Sport University, Taiwan. He is co-author of the first Hungarian sport sociology course book, and a member of the Advisory Board of the International Sociology of Sport Association.
Jacek Drozda is Senior Specialist at the Polish Ministry of Culture, Poland. His research interests include, among others, resistance studies, political philosophy, political economy, ideologies and anthropology of sports.
Krzysztof Jaskulowski is a historian and sociologist at the SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw, Poland. He has been a post-doctoral fellow at the Kluge Center in the Library of Congress and at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh, UK.
Piotr Majewski is Assistant Professor at SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw, Poland. His academic interests include urban anthropology, anthropology of sport, sociology of popular music and nationalism.
Sunica Bartoluci is a sociologist working as Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Zagreb, Croatia. Her main research interests include relationship between national identity, nationalism and sports. She is one of the founders of the Section for the Sociology of Sport in the Croatian Sociological Association.
Vilma ingien is a lecturer at the Institute of Leadership and Strategic Management within the Faculty of Public Governance at the Mykolas Romeris University in Vilnius, Lithuania. She is a board member of the European Observatoire of Sport and Employment (EOSE).
Renatas Mizeras is Chief Specialist of Physical Education and Sports Strategy Division at the Department of Physical Education and Sports under the Government of the Republic of Lithuania. He is also Editor-in-chief of the Lithuanian Sports Encyclopedia.
Lszl Pter is a sociologist working as Associate Professor at the Babe-Bolyai University, in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. He has also worked for Yale University, USA as research scholar at the Center for Comparative Research.
Richard Mills is Senior Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of East Anglia, UK. Mills is a regular guest lecturer for CIES's esteemed FIFA Master programme.
Philippa Velija is Associate Professor in Sociology of Sport at Solent University, Southampton, UK. She has recently co-edited a book entitled
