Bulgarian sport policy 1945-1989: A strategic relation perspective

The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games have stimulated discussions about the success of different sport systems and the Chinese model in particular. Revisiting explanations of sport in the former communist countries of Eastern Europe during the Cold War seems timely, as the current Chinese model of sport was largely designed after the Soviet example established in this period. This paper examines Bulgarian sport policy between 1945 and 1989. It employs a Strategic Relation approach (Jessop, 1990) to analyse sport policy making as a strategic relation closely linked to the dominant state project of building a new stateness. It goes beyond ideological interpretations and argues that the state represents a strategic terrain where these relations have to be established in struggles, the outcomes of which are always uncertain. Furthermore, past and present struggles and their outcomes create various socio-political environments that presuppose the forms of state selectivity and intervention in sport. The process of constructing sport policy was influenced by two main categories of strategic relations: intra-state, including political, organisational and personal relations between the Party, state apparatus and various sport and non-sport organisations and their managers, and transnational, concerning ideological, political, economic and organisational relations with both communist and western countries and international sport organisations

The political process of constructing a sustainable London Olympics sports development legacy

This study attempts to develop a research agenda for understanding the process of constructing a sustainable Olympic sports development legacy. The research uses a social constructivist perspective to examine the link between the 2012 London Olympic Games and sustainable sports development. The first part of the paper provides justification for the study of sport policy processes using a constructivist lens. This is followed by a section which critically unpacks sustainable sports development drawing on Mosse’s (1998) ideas of process-oriented research and Searle’s conceptualisation of the construction of social reality. Searle’s (1995) concepts of the assignment of function, collective intentionality, collective rules, and human capacity to cope with the environment are considered in relation to the events and discourses emerging from the legacy vision(s) associated with the 2012 London Olympic Games. The paper concludes by proposing a framework for engaging in process oriented research and highlights key elements, research questions, and methodological issues. The proposed constructivist approach can be used to inform policy, practice, and research on sustainable Olympic sports development legacy

Cultural Orientations of sport managers

Various interpretations of sport management are cultural constructs underpinned by core assumptions and values held by members of professional communities. Sport managers world wide share common problems, but differ in how they resolve them. These universal differences emerge from the relationships they form with other people, and their attitude to time, activities and the natural environment. This paper examines the role of sport managers’ cultural orientations in the interpretation and practice of sport management. Using a multiple dimension model (Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars, 2000) it sketches the cultural profiles of fifteen sport managers from seven countries. A combination of methods was employed including questionnaires, interviews and participant observation. It is contended that the culture of sport management concerns a social process by which managers get involved in reconciling seven fundamental cultural dilemmas in order to perform tasks and achieve certain ends. Thus, a knowledge of the cultural meaning of sport management in a particular country would equip sport managers with a valuable tool in managing both the cultural diversity of their own work forces and in developing appropriate cross-cultural skills needed for running international events, marketing campaigns, sponsorship deals and joint ventures

Doing military fitness: physical culture, civilian leisure, and militarism

Drawing explicitly upon the bodily techniques of military basic training and the corporeal competencies of ex-military personnel, military-themed fitness classes and physical challenges have become an increasingly popular civilian leisure pursuit in the UK over the last two decades. This paper explores the embodied regimes, experiences, and interactions between civilians and ex-military personnel that occur in these emergent hybrid leisure spaces. Drawing on ethnographic data, I argue that commercial military fitness involves a repurposing and rearticulation of collective military discipline within a late modern physical culture that emphasizes the individual body as a site of self-discovery and personal responsibility. Military fitness is thus a site of a particular biopolitics, of feeling alive in a very specific way. The intensities and feelings of physical achievement and togetherness that are generated emerge filtered through a particular military lens, circulating around and clinging to the totem of the repurposed ex-martial body. In the commercial logic of the fitness market, being ‘military’ and the ex-soldier’s body have thus become particularly trusted and affectively resonant brands

A review of combined advanced oxidation technologies for the removal of organic pollutants from water

Water pollution through natural and anthropogenic activities has become a global problem causing short-and long-term impact on human and ecosystems. Substantial quantity of individual or mixtures of organic pollutants enter the surface water via point and nonpoint sources and thus affect the quality of freshwater. These pollutants are known to be toxic and difficult to remove by mere biological treatment. To date, most researches on the removal of organic pollutants from wastewater were based on the exploitation of individual treatment process. This single-treatment technology has inherent challenges and shortcomings with respect to efficiency and economics. Thus, application of two advanced treatment technologies characterized with high efficiency with respect to removal of primary and disinfection by-products in wastewater is desirable. This review article focuses on the application of integrated technologies such as electrohydraulic discharge with heterogeneous photocatalysts or sonophotocatalysis to remove target pollutants. The information gathered from more than 100 published articles, mostly laboratories studies, shows that process integration effectively remove and degrade recalcitrant toxic contaminants in wastewater better than single-technology processing. This review recommends an improvement on this technology (integrated electrohydraulic discharge with heterogeneous photocatalysts) viz-a-vis cost reduction in order to make it accessible and available in the rural and semi-urban settlement. Further recommendation includes development of an economic model to establish the cost implications of the combined technology. Proper monitoring, enforcement of the existing environmental regulations, and upgrading of current wastewater treatment plants with additional treatment steps such as photocatalysis and ozonation will greatly assist in the removal of environmental toxicants

What do they do? Competency and managing in Brazilian Olympic Sport Federations

This study explores the link between management competencies of 15 presidents of Brazilian Olympic Sport Federations (OSF) from the state of Minas Gerais and how they actually manage. Overemphasizing the conceptual importance of managers’ competencies at the expense of what they actually do can lead to the creation of an illusory image of the model manager whereas in reality such a person hardly exists. A mixed research sequential transformative design was employed where two theoretical frameworks guided the study and the initial quantitative phase of the research was followed by a qualitative phase of observations and interviews. Qualitative and quantitative data were analysed with QSR NVivo 10 and SPSS. Presidents of OSFs perceived themselves as facilitators, visionary leaders and innovators, who are expected to develop the organization into a more professional entity. They have been working mainly on the people and information plane of management and were less concerned with conceptual issues, instant results and specific deadlines. OSF presidents’ competencies were intended to deliver greater organizational effectiveness but this was difficult to achieve due to the lack of strategic skills and resources. Presidents’ competencies were also not necessarily doing the right things and were only partly delivering the desired results. Understanding sport managers’ competencies and how they relate to their daily activities is important not just for the purposes of staff selection and appraisal and for development and learning, but also for the constant realignment of management as a science, intuition and practical activity.This work was supported by the CAPES, scholarship (13262/13-0); and the State Department of Tourism and Sport through the State Act of Incentive to Sports

London 2012: 'Race' matters and the East End

This article examines legacy claims made by a range of agencies and organizations involved in the London 2012 Olympic Development Programme, and specifically the notion that this will inevitably lead to the regeneration of communities. We advocate the application of critical race theory (CRT) to provide an article that argues that ‘race’ matters in Olympic legacy discourses. We identify the shortcomings of the rhetoric of legacy Olympic-speak and its dissonance with the micro-detail of accumulated historical factors, experiences and day-to-day routines for these communities. It is argued here that single-mega-event policies cannot be the answer to entrenched racial inequalities in sport though they can contribute to alleviating many issues. In shifting ‘race’ from the periphery to the centre, CRT ensures that at the very least these issues are considered alongside others. The notion of ‘community’ is critiqued to the point that slippery legacy discourses become transparent. Ideologies are neither value-free and neutral nor ahistorical as the use of interest convergence here reasonably outlines more than altruism in the agendas underpinning the bid for the London 2012 Games. If lasting legacy is to be achieved, then broader social, cultural and historical factors need to be fully considered by policymakers or policy gaps will be further perpetuated

A People’s History of Leisure Studies : Old Knowledge, New Knowledge and The Philadelphia Negro as a Foundational Text

There is a great realization that a professor teaching an introductory or philosophical foundations course in the field of leisure studies comes to, if that professor may not be from the dominant culture of most Western societies. This realization is as stark as their numerical presence in their respective departments. Why are the philosophical foundations of the field devoid of the experiences, voices, and perspectives populations of color, or even more broadly, the populations of the global majority? And, why is there an absence of historical discussions on the field’s role in perpetrating or condoning activities that hindered or constrained populations of color full access, enjoyment, and articulation of leisure? As we move forward in the field more globally, thinking and discussing the new and progressive ways that we can conceive the sociology of leisure, it is imperative that we rethink our philosophical foundations in reconciliation of the potential harm it may have caused (and may continue to harm) and the actual good it can invoke in assisting the myriad of scholars who are pushing more progressive efforts for a critical leisure paradigm (Spracklen, Lashua, Sharpe and Swain, 2017). The objectives of this manuscript are: 1) to briefly categorize the research in the field on Race and ethnicity; 2) to outline the key canonical texts of the field; 3) to consider and reconceptualize a racially and ethnically inclusive foundation for the field utilizing The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study as an example; and, 4) to identify some of the specific areas that this change and inclusion would impact or realign the field’s history