Otmar Weiss

IDENTITY REINFORCEMENT IN SPORT Revisiting the Symbolic Interactionist Legacy

The mechanism of role adoption is a constituent of identity reinforcement or social recognition in sport. It enables actors to realize and confirm their identities. This can occur because sport is a culturally specific and clearly visible activity. As sport takes place unequivocally within the context of societys significant symbols, it can have an impact on the actors self-perception, self-esteem, and self-worth. In other words, sport has a vital social dimension since it ideally combines self-recognition with social recognition. Role analysis and symbolic interactionism are reviewed for their potential to inform these dimensions of sports place in modern societies.

SKI TOURISM AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS Ecological Awareness among Different Groups

In this article we analyze some connections between the ecological and the economic aspects of tourism by investigating ecological awareness among different groups. The article will outline reactions of tourists, residents of ski resorts and the Austrian and Belgian population to the ecological problems arising in winter tourism resorts. It is concluded that the Austrian winter tourism sector will have to take ecological considerations into account so that the economic situation can also be improved.

European Sport Index: the social significance of sport in 28 European countries

Abstract This study presents the results of a research project which aimed to operationalize and compare the social significance of sport in the 28 member states of the European Union. To this end, the European Sport Index was constructed. It contains seven indicators which depict the social significance of recreational sport, club sport, school sport, the populations’ access to sport, the socio-political and economic significance of sport, and the significance of professional sport within the observed countries. These indicators were ranked through the benchmarking method from the field of statistics. The resulting ranking of the EU member countries via the Sport Index puts Germany and France on top, while Bulgaria resides in the last place.

Sport Clubs in Austria

With regard to sport organisation in Austria, sport clubs have been playing an important role from the very beginning. Due to the lack of recognition of the significance of sport in Austrias education system sport had to be organised by different means, resulting in the sport clubs setup. This chapter concentrates on the peculiarities of the development and situation of the sport club system in the context of political and socio-historical conditions. Today sport clubs enrich the social and cultural heritage of every region. Especially in the rural municipalities they contribute towards the safekeeping of local identity.

University Sports: Major Development and New Perspectives

University Sports: Major Development and New Perspectives New technologies, scientific findings and new or refined kinds of sport as well as national and international contests determine the image of university sports. There is no doubt that university sports are a growing area and will play an important role in the future. Their significance will increase in particular with the increase of knowledge about the positive effects of sports. Looking at social development as a whole and in its parts makes it possible to identify university sports in their present state, their dynamics and development within a context. By way of example major trends and prospects of university sports in contemporary societies will be discussed. In addition some data from empirical studies will be presented in order to underline the argumentation.

Perspectives on the sociology of sport in Europe

Abstract The aim of this article is to outline the status quo and prospects of sociology of sport in the context of radical change in Europe. The roles which the International Sociology of Sport Association (ISSA) and the European Association for Sociology of Sport (EASS) are playing with regard to the development of this discipline in Europe are shown. The integration of East European states into the EASS from the very beginning has anticipated the European unification process and has proved to be an identity-creating potential within sociology of sport in Europe. In this context new perspectives in scientific orientation and research activities (e.g. cross-cultural studies) on the European scene have evolved.