ISHPES Seminar 2010

"Sport and the State: A Controversial Relationship"

National and international sports institutions and organisations see themselves today as a largely "non-governmental" sector, and so take great care in maintaining their autonomy vis-à-vis policymakers, business and industry.

Conversely, sport also calls on governments to provide political, financial and legislative support so that it can fulfil its own, self-defined tasks and responsibilities.

On the one hand, this leads to a wide and diverse variety of fields and forms of collaboration developing between sport and the state, while on the other, it also results in conflicts of interest and disputes. In some countries, sport continues, to this very day, to be under total government control, thereby being instrumentalised in the pursuit of overriding goals.

The ISHPES Seminar 2010 will focus above all on this "controversial relationship". Not only historians, but also sociologists, political scientists, and representatives of related disciplines are expressly invited to come and contribute their thoughts from their own specific perspective.