Dear all,
Last week the following items were published on idrottsforum.org (see below; language and publication dates, YYMMDD, in brackets). Click on the red headings to go to content. Utilize the Google Translate service to turn Scandinavian language pages into (some sort of) English.
Have a great week,
Kjell Eriksson
Editor
Research Article
Sport Management Higher Education in Scandinavia
In this article by Skirstad, Gammelsæter, Fahlström and Wagner, sport management higher education in Scandinavia is shown not to be a standardized package. Despite commonalities in sporting cultures across Scandinavia, there are differences. Whilst there are strong similarities between Norway and Sweden, Denmark diverges in several respects. The Danes never established a national sports university; also, in contrast to their Scandinavian neighbors, in Denmark sport management HE suffers from a clear differentiation in HE level between university colleges and universities. (Published in English 250402.
Feature Article
Regression, Not Progress: A Response to World Athletics’ Return to Sex Testing
World Athletics (WA) recently announced that it will reinstitute mandatory sex testing in women’s track and field and require competitors to submit to a cheek swab or dry blood spot analysis for genetic testing to verify their sex. In this article, Lindsay Parks Pieper, Jaime Schultz and Jörg Krieger analyse this move by WA in light of almost one hundred years of highly questionable and ultimately failed attempts of different kinds to determine athletes’ sex. Using the SRY gene as determinator is doomed to fail for exactly the same reason, it being scientifically and ethically unsound. (Published in English 250403.
Book Reviews
Power, Pain and Professional Cycling: A Historical-Sociological Study, by John Connolly
John Connolly is a Professor at Dublin City University Business School with a special interest in figurational sociology, which he applies to the history of professional cycling in his latest book, Power, Pain and Professional Cycling: A Historical-Sociological Study (Edward Elgar). According to our reviewer Christoph Wagner, the book gets off to a slow start, but picks up the pace from chapter three onwards, highlighting the forces within professional cycling over the course of a century to present how things got to where they are today. (Review in English, published 250401.)
The World Walk: 7 Years. 28,000 Miles. 6 Continents. A Grand Meditation, One Step at a Time, by Tom Turcich
Tom Turcich wanted to engage with the world and its inhabitants in an up close and personal fashion. Believing this meant traveling in the simplest fashion possible, he chose to walk – 27.000 miles (43,450 km). He tells the story of his magnificent feat in The World Walk: 7 Years. 28,000 Miles. 6 Continents. A Grand Meditation, One Step at a Time. (Skyhorse Publishing). Duncan Jamieson is duly impressed with Turcich’s story of his pedestrian adventure in this highly readable review. (Review in English, published 250404.)
New Issues of Scholarly Journals
(We’re currently reviewing this service, since it’s a rather time-consuming undertaking. In the meanwhile we’re presenting some of the journals in line with the Forum’s core mission.)
Journal of Sport Management, Volume 39, 2025, Issue 2 (250331)- Sport, Education and Society, Volume 30, 2025 Issue 3 (250401)
- Managing Sport and Leisure, Volume 30, 2025, Issue 2 (250402)
- Sports Coaching Review, Volume 14, 2025, Issue 1 (250404)
- Journal of Sport & Tourism, Volume 28, 2024, Issue 4 (250406)
News items (calls for papers, vacancies, etc.)
- Call for Participants | Theresa Walton-Fisette: “Collegiate Athletics: What Does the Data Show? And, Does it Matter to Decision Makers?” | Iowa Colloquium on Sport and Culture, 2025 Birrell-Parratt Lecture. Webinar on Zoom, Friday April 11, 2025 (250331)
- An Invitation to Dialogue: More-Than-Human Approaches to Sport and Movement Cultures | April 3, 2025 (250401)
- Call for Papers | “Playing the Field VI: Video Games and Labour”, International Conference | University of Bucharest, Romania, March 19–21, 2026. Call ends September 10, 2025 (240402)
- Call for Participation | “Menstruation in Sport: Unpacking menstrual knowledges and stigma”, CCSE Talk | Free online seminar, April 30, 2025, 4:30pm CEST (250404)
- Open Call of Submissions | “Sport and Psychoanalysis”, a new section of the Cogent Social Sciences journal (Routledge) dedicated to exploring the intersections between sport and psychoanalysis (250406)
