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The focus of this article is on the organization of children's sport in Norway. More specifically, the paper sets out to examine (i) the changing pattern of relationships, and in particular the changing balance of conflict and cooperation, between the several organizations with responsibility for children's sport, and (ii) how sport for children is regulated in order to protect children against the dangers associated with competitive pressures, overspecialization and burnout. These questions are answered by tracing the key policy changes and initiatives in relation to children's sport. With reference to the organization of children's sport, the ideological struggles between schools and sport organizations over the nature and objectives of sport and physical activity are traced from the 1950s through to recent attempts to promote an Active Sports policy, which represent possible partnerships between several governmental ministries (culture, health and education), schools, and sport clubs. With reference to protecting children against competitive pressures and early overspecialization, the article traces the development from the first advisory guidelines for children's sporting participation through to mandatory regulations and finally to the recognition of children's rights in sport. (Contains 3 notes.)

Drawing upon historical studies of the development of sports medicine in several countries and recent sociological studies of the practice of sports medicine, this paper focuses on the development of the concept of the physician-athlete, that is the idea that sports physicians should themselves be (or have been) athletes. It is suggested that this played an important part in the early development of sports medicine in integrating into a fledgling profession what was a highly diverse group of practitioners who had nothing in common other than a love for sport. It is further suggested that the expectation that sports physicians should themselves be, or have been, athletes – or that they will at the very least have a passion for sport – has become an important part of the occupational culture of sports medicine and that this provides an important clue to understanding medicine as a 'very peculiar practice' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the "alternative" sport and physical activities provided by the Sports City Programme (SCP) in Norway, which are designed to attract more young people (especially inactive young people) to take part in physical activities. In particular, it examines whether these "alternative" sports have been more successful than conventional sports in breaking down class and gender-based barriers to participation. The data indicate that the SCP has proved more attractive to working class young people than conventional sport and there is also some evidence that the SCP has had some success in breaking down gender barriers, especially among working class girls. However, one aspect of the SCP--the open sport hall--has generated a pattern of male dominance and female exclusion which is even more unequal than that which characterizes conventional sport. Within the open sport hall, young people are left largely to organize their own activities and it is argued that the relative absence of adult control in the open sport hall has facilitated the development of a distinctively masculine culture which is dominated by the older, stronger males and which marginalizes young females. (Contains 3 tables and 6 notes.)

Association football is a lucrative sport with high financial rewards for top players. However, there has been little empirical work on the lifestyles of professional footballers. Based on interviews with 29 current and former male professional footballers, this paper examines the relationship between money, status and image management within and outside the changing room. The concept of conspicuous consumption is used to help explain players' attitudes to money, their relationships with others within the football environment and how they advertise their earnings in an environment where open discussion of wages is seen as taboo. Our findings suggest that professional footballers are expected to display a particular image of the professional footballer and this constrains players, even those on lower incomes, to buy expensive clothes and accessories in order to be accepted by others. Players who do not conform to the expected image may be subject to sanctions by their teammates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is argued that the anthropological approach, as used by Armstrong and Harris, has not generated any breakthrough in the study of soccer hooliganism. In particular, it is suggested that their use of a commonsense rather than a sociological concept of violence vitiates their analysis in several ways, contributing above all to substantial inconsistencies between some of their own empirical data and their general conclusions concerning levels of soccer-related violence. It is also contended that their critique of the 'figurational' or 'process-sociological' approach followed by the Leicester researchers is based on a confused misrepresentation of that approach. Specifically it is argued (i) that Armstrong and Harris fail to recognize the wide range of methods, including extensive participant observation, used by the Leicester group, (ii) that their attempt to cast doubt on the Leicester group's contention that the core football hooligans come predominantly from the 'rougher' sections of the working class is based on nothing more than a priori speculation. In this connection, Armstrong and Harris themselves provide no reliable data on the social class of soccer hooligans in Sheffield, and they seem unaware of the fact that several different sources of data appear to confirm the finding of the Leicester group, (iii) they have misunderstood both the terminology and the reasoning of the Leicester group concerning the 'rougher' sections of the working class and their relationship to football hooliganism.

This paper examines one of the major ethical challenges in the practice of sports medicine, confidentiality. Drawing on interview and questionnaire data with doctors and physiotherapists working in English professional football clubs, it explores the degree to which ethical compliance has improved since the publication of, and publicity surrounding, an earlier study of medical practice in professional football conducted by Waddington and Roderick. Thus, it provides an updated empirical examination of the management of medical ethics in sport. The data illustrate how the physical and social environmental constraints of sports medicine practice impinge upon the protection of athlete-patient confidentiality, how ethical codes and conflicting obligations converge to shape clinician behaviour in relation to lifestyle and injury issues, and the ethically problematic contractual constraints under which clinicians and athletes operate. It demonstrates that medical ethical practice continues to be very variable and draws on Freidson's work on medical 'work settings' to argue that there is a need to augment existing confidentiality policies with more structurally oriented approaches to ensure both professional autonomy and medical ethical compliance in sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of sports medicine can be understood in terms of a conjuncture involving processes of medicalization and the increasing competitiveness of modern sport. It is also suggested that the growing involvement of sports physicians in the search for championship winning performances has led them not only to develop improved mechanical and psychological techniques, hut also to play an active part in the development of performance enhancing drugs and techniques. The argument is developed via three case studies. The relationship between sports medicine and drug use in some of the former communist countries of Eastern Europe, the early development of anabolic steroids in the United States, and the development of "blood doping". One important implication of this analysis is that, if we wish to understand the processes involved in what is almost certainly an increase in recent years in the illicit use by athletes of performance enhancing drugs, then we need to shift our focus away from what has hitherto been an almost exclusive concentration on the athletes, and examine more closely the networks of relationships in which athletes are involved.

In recent years there has been growing concern about concussion in sport in general and rugby union in particular. The qualitative study reported here draws on interviews (n=20) with adult players in non-elite club rugby union in Ireland in order to explore the frames of reference within which they perceive, give meaning to and manage concussion. Within a sporting subculture which emphasizes lay sporting values – particularly the value of ‘playing hurt’ – and which reflects a functional view of injury, non-elite players tend to display an irreverent attitude towards concussion which encourages risky behaviours and underplays, ignores or denies the significance of concussion. We analogously describe these beliefs and actions as being ‘head strong’. The paper concludes by identifying the contextual contingencies which make the regulation of injuries in rugby union so difficult and by establishing some core principles of public health education campaigns that might be deployed to militate against the high incidence of concussive injury in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]