1st Edition
Sport, Statehood and Transition in Europe Comparative perspectives from post-Soviet and post-socialist societies
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.
1 Interpreting sport and transition in post-socialist and post-Soviet Europe: States, nations and markets
ÁLVARO RODRÍGUEZ-DÍAZ, JOEL ROOKWOOD AND EKAIN ROJO-LABAIEN
PART 1: Neoliberal sport in the post-socialist countries of Eastern Europe
2 The transformation of sport in post-communist Hungary: A transitology-informed approach
GYOZO MOLNAR AND TAMÁS DÓCZI
3 The politics of sport in Poland after 1945: From socialist mass sports to market-oriented elite sports?
JACEK DROZDA, KRZYSZTOF JASKULOWSKI AND PIOTR MAJEWSKI
4 Sport as a mirror of society: The case of Croatia
SUNCICA BARTOLUCI
5 Capacities for change: Insights into the Lithuanian sports system
VILMA CINGIENE AND RENATAS MIZERAS
PART 2 Sport transition from the socialist state to the open market
6 The Romanian sport system: Paths to commercialisation
LÁSZLÓ PÉTER
7 Playing in long shadows: Bosnian sport after Yugoslavia, socialism and war
RICHARD MILLS
8 Sport and physical activity in post-communist Albania
PHILIPPA VELIJA
9 Sport in post-socialist Ukraine
MARYNA KRUGLIAK AND OLEKSANDR KRUGLIAK
10 Statehood, nationalism and separatism: The role and meaning of sport in Georgia and its breakaway republics
JOEL ROOKWOOD
PART 3 Post-Soviet presidentialism and sport mega events
11 Sport in the political and economic transition in Belarus: State nationalism and mega events
ÁLVARO RODRÍGUEZ-DÍAZ
12 Seeking out a nation?: Sport policy changes in post-Soviet Russia
VITALII GOROKHOV
13 Russia and the politics of extraverted urbanism in the 2014 Winter Olympics and the 2018 World Cup
OLEG GOLUBCHIKOVAND SVEN DANIELWOLFE
14 Oil-funded sports events as the embodiment of the evolution of post-Soviet Azerbaijan
EKAIN ROJO-LABAIEN
15 Sports politics in authoritarian regimes: The synergies of sport, ideology and personality cult in Turkmenistan
SLAVOMÍR HORÁK
16 Sport, transition and nation-state building: Evidence from post- Soviet and post-socialist states
JOEL ROOKWOOD, EKAIN ROJO-LABAIEN AND ÁLVARO RODRÍGUEZ-DÍAZ
Index
Biography
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.
Álvaro Rodríguez-Díaz 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 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.
