Imorgon, tisdagen den 5 maj 2015, spikas ånyo en idrottshistorisk avhandling, denna gång vid Örebro universitet. Det är Björn Horgby och Christer Ericsson, båda professorer med idrottshistorisk inriktning vid Örebro universitet, som ska ha äran för att ha lotsat Nils-Olof Zethrin in i det akademiska slutmålet, eller kanske snarare till en etappseger, nämligen doktorsexamen!
Avhandlingen heter Mellan masskonsumtion och folkrörelse. Idrottens kommersialisering under mellankrigstiden, och disputationen äger rum den 28 maj klockan 13:15 i Långhuset, HSL2. En annan forummedarbetare, Mats Greiff, Malmö högskola, har fått uppgiften att sätta disputanden/respondenten på prov inför offentligheten.
Avhandlingen finns att ladda ned i slutet av den här länken, men vi kan redan här bjuda på dess engelska abstract:
This dissertation deals with the commercialization that parts of Swedish sport underwent during the interwar period. It analyses agents both withinand outside of the sports movement, operating in a context con- sisting of organizers of high-profile competitions communicated through mass media.
The sub-studies examine the football club AIK, the athletics club IK Göta, and a number of figures involved in in professional boxing. Sports journals as well as sport in cinema, theatre, and music are also examined as a background for the commercialization of sport.
The focus is on sporting phenomena that developed in the tension be- tween mass consumption culture and the non-profit, popular movement sphere. The main question is: what were the consequences of commer- cialization for some major organizers of sports events within and outside of the sport movement, and for their sports activities? Two commerciali- zation processes are targeted: the commercialization of sport, that is, how agents within the market utilized sport; and sport’s commercializa- tion, meaning how sport was affected.
My studies show that, and how, sport was part of the consumption market by being sold through media products or as spectator events. The studies highlight and analyze the three processes of marketization, spor- tification, and identity processes. Each respective process is linked to a logic: market logic, competitive logic, and cultural logic.
The studies highlight the scientific problem that the logic of the mar- ket, the sportification logic of sport, and the cultural logics could partly represent both conflicting and partly collaborative forces.