From individual groundbreaking work to established field of research: The development of humanities and social science engagement with the cultural phenomenon of sport in Sweden

Ansgar Molzberger
Institut für Sportgeschichte, Deutsche Sporthochschule Köln

The doctoral thesis Idrottens väg till folkrörelse. Studier i svensk idrottsrörelse till 1915 (The path of sport to a popular movement: Studies in the Swedish sport movement until 1915), completed in 1974 at Uppsala University in the field of history by the recently deceased Jan Lindroth (1940-2025), marked a turning point in the Swedish research landscape: not only was Lindroth’s dissertation the first historical research work on the cultural phenomenon of sport in Sweden – which had previously been primarily a subject of medical and scientific study in academic works. Despite resistance from academic circles at the time, Lindroth also pointed out that the Swedish sport movement played a social role and, alongside pioneers such as the temperance movement and the labour movement, deserved to be called a “popular movement” (Dagens Nyheter, 23 September 2025). Lindroth also made a significant contribution to the dissemination of the subject of sport history after he was appointed Sweden’s first professor of history, specialising in sport history, at Stockholm University in 1992, enabling him to train doctoral students at university level.

The 50th anniversary of Lindroth’s dissertation served as an occasion for Tomas Peterson, professor of sport science at Malmö University, to publish an anthology on the topic of “Sport in society and sporting society”.[1] Peterson found the inspiration for the book a few years ago when he wanted to not only summarise the results of the training of doctoral students in sport science under his supervision but also place them in the broader context of the field of research known as “sport and society”. Based on single existing lists from individual sport science disciplines, he then compiled a comprehensive overview and completed it, ultimately creating a list of 255 doctoral and licentiate theses – the latter a preliminary stage to a doctoral thesis – covering the period from 1974 to 2023. This laid the foundation for the anthology published in 2024.

The articles were intended to provide an analytical review of the content of the dissertations and other research findings made available to the authors from today’s academic perspective.

The authors involved in the book were not only provided with the list of 255 titles that had been researched. They also received a specific list of dissertations relevant to their planned chapter. In addition, they received a list of scholars who, although they did not write their dissertations on the subject of sport, had otherwise made relevant research contributions to the topic. Based on this source material, 38 authors, mainly from Sweden but also including Alain Bairner from Loughborough University as an “external” contributor, then wrote a total of 25 articles, each ranging from 15 to 20 pages in length. The articles were intended to provide an analytical review of the content of the dissertations and other research findings made available to the authors from today’s academic perspective.

The individual contributions were assigned to one of the four parts of the book (1. Topics, 2. Subject areas, 3. Critical reflections, 4. Framing). In addition to Tomas Petersen as editor-in-chief, the editorial team included Erwin Apitzsch (Svensk Förening för Beteende- och Samhällsvetenskaplig Idrottsforskning/Swedish Association for Behavioural and Social Research in Sport), Jens Ljunggren (Svenska Idrottshistoriska Föreningen/Swedish Association of Sport History), Joakim Karlsson (Svensk Idrottspsykologisk Förening/Swedish Sport Psychology Association), Lars Kristén (Svenskt Nätverk för Anpassad Fysisk Aktivitet/Swedish Network for Adapted Physical Activity), and publisher Kjell Eriksson (idrottsforum.org).

The book, published in 2024, presents the development of humanities-related and social science research on sport in Sweden in both a longitudinal and cross-sectional manner. To summarise at this point: The 25 articles in the 556-page book, which cover the academic spectrum of the research field, and the accompanying list of 255 dissertations as well as specific research papers completed since 1974, impressively demonstrate how much the research on the topic of “sport as a cultural phenomenon” in Sweden has expanded and diversified over the course of half a century. There are minor redundancies in the various articles. However, these are acceptable, as they are due to the uniform methodological approach of compiling the articles on the basis of the overview lists of research contributions made in Sweden since 1974 that were made available to the authors.

The anthology is structured as follows: Part 1 (Topics) includes the introduction by Tomas Peterson and a fundamental contribution to the book by Joakim Åkesson on the development of the Swedish higher education landscape since 1969  – when doctoral studies were reformed – and thus on the change or expansion of the institutional conditions for research in the humanities and social sciences in the field of sport. The first part also covers the topics of sport history (Jens Ljunggren), physical education (Claes Annerstedt & Göran Patriksson) and sport psychology (Joakim Karlsson). In addition, Kajsa Jerlinder and Lars Kristén examine the topic of “social participation” in the context of sport for children and young people with functional impairments, while Mats Franzén addresses the question “What is sport and what does sport do?” from a social science perspective.

These introductory chapters are followed in Part 2 (Subject areas) by contributions on research developments in the fields of “Sport for children and young people” (Karin Redelius), “Sport and health” (Håkan Larsson), “Sports-oriented education/Sport schools” (Marie Larneby & Magnus Ferry), “Sport and gender studies” (Karin S. Lindelöf), “Sport management” (Karin Book, Åsa Bäckström & H. Thomas R. Persson), “Safe sport” (Inger Eliasson & Susanne Johansson), “Sport and media” (Aage Radmann & Anna Sätre), “Sport and the environment” (Susanna Hedenborg & Daniel Svensson), “Physical activity and health throughout life” (Erwin Apitzsch), “Friluftsliv as an educational and social phenomenon” (Jonas Mikaels, Erik Backmann & Lena Larsson) and “Sport and politics” (Hans Bolling). The contributions not only cover a wide range of topics in the humanities and social sciences dealing with the cultural phenomenon of sport, they also reflect key areas of content in today’s sport science degree programmes and physical education teacher training, as a glance at the current range of courses offered by Swedish universities and colleges shows.

Part 3 (Critical reflections) addresses controversies surrounding sport. Kutte Jönsson describes how the nationalistic and collectivist sentiments among Swedish fans during the 1994 World Cup, in which the Swedish football team won the bronze medal, were taken as an opportunity to critically examine the mass phenomenon of sport from a philosophical perspective and asks how a philosophy of sport can be incorporated into research. In the following chapter, which departs from the methodological approach of discussing research developments with the help of the available overview list of all doctoral dissertations and licentiate theses, Katarina Schenker presents the challenge of developing comprehensively accepted sports didactics – in her words, a Sisyphean task. The third part concludes with an analysis by Jonny Hjelm, who examines the long-standing humanities-based debate in Sweden on Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of aristocratic sport ideology and the criticism of competitive sports.

However, those outside the field may find it more difficult to gain easy access to this comprehensive field of research due to the wealth of information it contains – the book is also very factual in its design.

The concluding Part 4 (Framing) features a contribution on the international perspective on the Swedish research landscape in sport (Alan Bairner); followed by a presentation by Christine Dartsch Nilsson, Johan R. Norberg and Lina Wahlgren on the work of the Swedish Research Council for Sport Science (Centrum för idrottsforskning), which was tasked by the Swedish government in 2009, on the basis of a parliamentary decision, with monitoring state funding for sport. The presentation raises the question of what impact the Centre’s work has on sport policy in Sweden. The concluding contributions deal with the history and development of doctoral training in sport science and closely related fields (Alexander Jansson, Daniel Bjärsholm & Karin Andersson) and the development of the field of sport science research in Sweden (Tomas Peterson). With the aid of graphics, Peterson also addresses the specifics of this development (University locations, subject areas, etc.) – thereby emphasising that Sweden does indeed have such a distinctive, specific area of research. Information about the authors of the book, the complete list of all doctoral and licentiate theses covering the period from 1974 to 2023, and documentation of the titles in the “Malmö Studies in Sport Sciences” series conclude the anthology.

With their comprehensive anthology on the topic of “sport in society and the society of sports”, the editorial team led by Tomas Peterson and the authors have not only succeeded in presenting the development of this specific field of research in Sweden in a detailed, differentiated and highly informative manner. For “internal” readers in particular, i.e. sport scholars from Sweden and other countries who are involved in this field of research, the book is also a great source of inspiration for new research ideas – and opportunities for international cooperation. However, those outside the field may find it more difficult to gain easy access to this comprehensive field of research due to the wealth of information it contains – the book is also very factual in its design.

The anthology is certainly aimed primarily at a specialist audience. The book clearly illustrates how much the humanities and social sciences-oriented sports science community has grown since 1974: while in the first ten years of the study period, subject-specific dissertations and research papers were produced exclusively at the universities of Uppsala, Stockholm and Gothenburg, by 2023, 20 university locations could already be named. Furthermore, only about one-fifth of the 255 titles on the complete list date from the period between 1974 and 1999, while more than four-fifths date from the 21st century. Against the backdrop of this impressive development, Peterson rightly raises the question in his outlook at the end of the book (p. 525): What will the Swedish research landscape on the topic of “Sport in society and sporting society” look like in another fifty years? A volume covering 100 years of research history is likely to be even more comprehensive and complex in terms of content.

Copyright © Ansgar Molzberger 2025

[1]  The book is in Swedish; however, there’s work in progress to translate all chapters into English and publish them as articles on the idrottsforum.org website (editor’s note).