Heroes, Conflicts and Reconciliations in Romanian-Hungarian Sport Confrontations

Romanians and Hungarians have a long history of rivalry in politics, culture and sport. Rarely history speaks about symbols of reconciliation, probably because these actors are episodic personalities and because the conflicts are longer and they have a cyclic manifestation. The battle for Transylvania was a permanent subject in the Romania-Hungary relation. Also, the high number of Hungarians ethnics in Romania provoked different attitudes in the last centuries. Sport was one of the newest ways to expose the conflict between the Romanians and the Hungarians. From interwar period until nowadays, sport activities which included these two national groups has generated debates, violence and few moments of reconciliation.  In fact, I will follow this last aspect, in the context of an image of permanent conflict, to analyse the importance of some symbols of reconciliation.&nbsp

Sport and Physical Education in Communist Factories: from the Soviet Union to Romania

After 1948, Romania followed the Soviet canon regarding the physical culture: before any sport performance, sport was designed to improve the general health and labour capabilities of the working people. Physical education was both a propaganda element of the new communist regime and also a slowly growing reality in the Romanian factories. As the economical framework and the overall well-being of the society improved, the physical education propaganda slowed down its pace, while sport infrastructure and its practice in factories were the seed not only for the “massification" of sport, but also for true performance in sport. In this article we explain the Soviet implications towards Romanian sport in general; we focus on recreating the framework around practicing of sport in factories with clear examples, statistics and a focus between the contrast of propaganda and the reality from factories

Ice hockey and discourse on the other in the Romanian press

In 2011 the world of ice hockey in Romania was hit by a scandal: during a match opposing Romania to Hungary, the players of the Romanian national team started singing the Hungarian national anthem and remained silent for the Romanian one. A few weeks later a player of the under-16 Romanian national team was beaten up by his young teammates because he, the sole Romanian ethnic of the team, asked his co-players, Hungarian ethnic Romanian citizens, to speak Romanian and not Hungarian. Some of the Romanian media in Bucharest rushed then on the scandal and the reactions were strong against what was considered an unacceptable evidence of Hungarian chauvinism. In this context the paper proposes a study of the reaction of the Romanian press to the events which launched the scandal. It shows how the inclusion and exclusion of the Hungarian minority is at stake in the discourse of the country's Romanian majority. Following a methodology inspired by Critical Discourse Analysis as proposed by Wodak (1999), the research takes into account articles in four Romanian daily newspapers dealing with the scandals. It demonstrates how an "other" is constructed in the press and how a latent exclusive discourse pervades into these newspapers

Qualitative Analysis of the Factors Associated with Whistleblowing Intentions among Athletes from Six European Countries

Although whistleblowing is thought to represent an effective mechanism for detecting and uncovering doping in sport, it has yet to become a widely adopted practice. Understanding the factors that encourage or discourage whistleblowing is of vital importance for the promotion of this practice and the development of pedagogical material to enhance the likelihood of whistleblowing. The current study employed a qualitative methodology to explore the personal and organisational factors that underpin intentions to blow the whistle or that may lead to engagement in whistleblowing behaviours in sport. Thirty-three competitive athletes across a range of sports took part in a semi-structured interview which sought to explore what they would do should they encounter a doping scenario. Content analysis revealed that whistleblowing is a dynamic process characterised by the interaction of a range of personal and organisational factors in determining the intention to report PED use. These factors included moral reasoning, a desire to keep the matter "in-house", perceived personal costs, institutional attitudes to doping, and social support. Analysis revealed a number of 'intervening events' (Ajzen, 1991), including a perceived lack of organisational protection (e.g., ethical leadership) within some sporting sub-cultures, which present an important obstacle to whistleblowing. The intention to report doping was underpinned by a "fairness loyalty trade-off" which involved athletes choosing to adhere to either fairness norms (which relate to a sense that all people and groups are treated equally) or loyalty norms (which reflect preferential treatment towards an in-group) when deciding whether they would blow the whistle. The promotion of fairness norms that emphasise a group's collective interests might encourage athletes to view whistleblowing as a means of increasing group cohesiveness and effectiveness and thereby increase the likelihood of this practice

Research and Science Today No.3

Research and Science Today Journal is a publication founded in 2011 and it is dedicated to the students of all levels (license, master and doctoral) of faculties in the country and abroad. We want to offer the participants the opportunity to present their scientific works in the following areas: Social Sciences, Economic Sciences, Legal Sciences, Humanities, Education Sciences, Engineering, Medicine and Sport. This journal provides students the opportunity to create and / or to improve their abilities to write scientific papers. So each appearance (two appearances per year at which we can add supplements) contains a number of papers written by students, masters and doctoral from the faculties from the country or / and abroad. The journal promotes original studies contributing to the progress of knowledge and it is motivated by the need to address issues of theory and practice in the areas mentioned above. The Journal is a training means of the factors involved in the conceptualization, development, implementation and evaluation , aiming the formation of creative personalities who could be able to adapt through the changing conditions of life. Journal wants to be a forum for debates disciplinaries and interdisciplinaries theoretical topics, to become a research support, to leverage this work at regional, national and international levels. We believe that this gathering will enjoy the support from both parts of the researchers and of the practitioners, and will provide appropriate training sources held professional through the current problems

Research and Science Today No.3

Research and Science Today Journal is a publication founded in 2011 and it is dedicated to the students of all levels (license, master and doctoral) of faculties in the country and abroad. We want to offer the participants the opportunity to present their scientific works in the following areas: Social Sciences, Economic Sciences, Legal Sciences, Humanities, Education Sciences, Engineering, Medicine and Sport. This journal provides students the opportunity to create and / or to improve their abilities to write scientific papers. So each appearance (two appearances per year at which we can add supplements) contains a number of papers written by students, masters and doctoral from the faculties from the country or / and abroad. The journal promotes original studies contributing to the progress of knowledge and it is motivated by the need to address issues of theory and practice in the areas mentioned above. The Journal is a training means of the factors involved in the conceptualization, development, implementation and evaluation , aiming the formation of creative personalities who could be able to adapt through the changing conditions of life. Journal wants to be a forum for debates disciplinaries and interdisciplinaries theoretical topics, to become a research support, to leverage this work at regional, national and international levels. We believe that this gathering will enjoy the support from both parts of the researchers and of the practitioners, and will provide appropriate training sources held professional through the current problems

Identité, altérité et sport dans la Roumanie communiste: la star minoritaire comme héros national

Le régime communiste a redéfini le sport, imposant la pratique de cette activité pour la masse. Après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, la politique du régime communiste roumain s’inspire du modèle soviétique. La these evidence la relation entre l’Etat roumain et les stars sportives issues des minorités nationales. On analyse un processus dynamique de transformation identitaire, qui dans un contexte socio-politique communiste favorise l’instrumentalisation du sport. Dans ce sens, le national-communisme cherche à intégrer les sportifs dans un système bien hiérarchisé. En dépit de la massification du sport et de l’implication importante des Roumains, les sportifs issus des minorités obtiennent de bons résultats et ils sont sélectionnés dans les équipes nationales. De cette perspective, le sport ne représente pas seulement un loisir, mais il devient un domaine plus influent du point de vue idéologique. La thèse regarde comment les stars sportives issues des minorités ont une influence dans la société roumaine, mais que l’Etat contrôle la médiatisation et la participation des sportifs dans les compétitions internationales, leurs contrats, et jusqu’à leurs noms. Nous parvenons par cet intermédiaire à expliquer la manière avec laquelle la société réagit aux performances de ces sportifs et avec laquelle le Parti Communiste impose l’image des héros nationaux pour de telles vedettes. Approfondir un tel sujet aide à la reconstruction d’un aspect important de la vie des minorités. This PhD thesis makes a radiography of a new problem for a society where the presence of minorities is a reality. Before the communism, Romania had an important number of minorities, and their athletes contributed to the development of sport, having a strong identity and local pride. In communism, the stars coming from the minorities (national or ethnical) had another statute. I propose an interdisciplinary study and I utilize concepts from history, sociology, human geography or anthropology. One of the important aspects in my PhD research is to propose a concept built by me, identity doping (fr. Dopage identitaire, rom. Dopaj identitar), represented by a series of actions designed to transform one or more athletes from an ethnic or national minority into a national hero, which means a complex process of identity change. The origin of this joint of words is very simple and means joining the notion of doping, particularly used first by totalitarian systems among athletes, to the term of identity. My methods cover analyses from mass-media, archives, polls and oral history, toidentify problems and images of national heroes who come from national minorities. For example, we assist to a politic of changing names, more than other countries from communist area. The ”name-nationalization” is an essential step for a new identity, more measurable andprominent than interior feelings. The footballer Laszlo Boloni, with a Hungarian origin, is known like Ladislau Boloni, Katalin Szabo is named in communism Ecaterina Szabo or Hans Moser, a handballer with a German origin, is known like Ioan Moser. The internal realities of many countries with a nationalism-communist regime influenced the life of sport stars. In a state like Romania, where the groups of minorities had an important role in sport development, sport stars from this communisties are promoted like national heroes utilizing the mechanism of “identity doping”.Doctorat en Sciences politiques et socialesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublishe

Social Entrepreneurship and Sport in Romania: How Can Former Athletes Contribute to Sustainable Social Change?

Social entrepreneurship is an underrated subject in the field of sports. For Romanian society, the fall of communism opened up new opportunities in the entrepreneurial domain. At the same time, entrepreneurship began to intersect with sports, and the results were often productive. Sport is seen as a domain that could inspire entrepreneurship through its principles. The similarities between these two fields have created the perspective of common action in sport and entrepreneurship, and this coexistence has improved during times of social change. After 1989, Romania was confronted with many challenges at the societal level, and sport offered a way to address and to tackle social problems. Through sport, some athletes decided to contribute to issues of individuals or communities. They assumed the status of a social entrepreneur, and developed activities that could inspire others. This paper intends to gather examples of such social entrepreneurship from Romania, and to identify the elements that lead to success. The research takes into consideration case studies from various domains, and this diversity helps us to better understand the challenges of Romanian sport when it interacts with social entrepreneurship

How to Develop Moral Skills in Sport by Using the Corruption Heritage?

This paper examines how the corruption heritage of South-Eastern European sport can be used as content for educational strategies designed to improve the ethics and integrity in today’s sport. Hidden or dark history is useful when considering an education for a sustainable development approach to improving athletes’ moral skills. In education, examining mistakes can be a useful tool for preventing their recurrence as they provide examples for study and content for evidence-based learning. At the same time, it is a useful process, aiming to develop critical thinking and the decision-making skills in the area of sports. This paper provides examples on how narratives can be used in the field of sport moral education and what patterns reflecting the lack of integrity in sport can be identified. Because it has perpetuated and altered the image and principles of sports competition, diminishing trust in sport sustainability, it is important to identify how this effect can be approached from the perspective of the education for sustainable development (ESD), as applied to the area of sports. However, it is essential that sports integrity be valued by society and that all sports actors (athletes, coaches, officials) promote ethics and fair play

How to Develop Moral Skills in Sport by Using the Corruption Heritage?

This paper examines how the corruption heritage of South-Eastern European sport can be used as content for educational strategies designed to improve the ethics and integrity in today’s sport. Hidden or dark history is useful when considering an education for a sustainable development approach to improving athletes’ moral skills. In education, examining mistakes can be a useful tool for preventing their recurrence as they provide examples for study and content for evidence-based learning. At the same time, it is a useful process, aiming to develop critical thinking and the decision-making skills in the area of sports. This paper provides examples on how narratives can be used in the field of sport moral education and what patterns reflecting the lack of integrity in sport can be identified. Because it has perpetuated and altered the image and principles of sports competition, diminishing trust in sport sustainability, it is important to identify how this effect can be approached from the perspective of the education for sustainable development (ESD), as applied to the area of sports. However, it is essential that sports integrity be valued by society and that all sports actors (athletes, coaches, officials) promote ethics and fair play