SOCIOLOGY OF SPORTS
Overview
Over the past few decades, sport has become an important part of modern society. Roughly three quarters of the Swiss population participate in sports; about 80 percent follow sports events in the media. Yet, sport is more than just physical activity, fun, sociability and entertainment. Sport also refers to lifestyle, rituals, mega events, market transactions and business opportunities. Currently, Swiss sports generate an annual turnover of about 15 billion Swiss francs and a gross value added of about 8 billion Swiss francs. To the extent that sport has become an important feature of society it has also sparked sociology’s interest.
Research Committee Sociology of Sport
The Research Committee for the Sociology of Sport (Forschungskomitee Sportsoziologie) sees itself as a contact and information network for social scientists interested in the societal conditions and effects of sport and physical activity, and seeks to promote sociological research in Switzerland on physical and sporting activity. To this end, the committee organises conferences and informal meetings among its members and distributes a newsletter with current information twice a year. It also maintains a directory of its members’ fields of interest and research, in order to facilitate the exchange of experience and research cooperation.
Membership
The membership in the research committee is free of charge. However, a simultaneous membership in the Swiss Sociological Association is requested.
Foundation date
January 10, 1992
Members
44 (as of September 2026)
Formal structure
Apart from two coordinators – Angela Gebert for the German speaking part of Switzerland, and Laurent Paccaud for the French and Italian speaking parts – the committee has no formal structure.
Cooperation with other research organisations
There are close personal ties with the Swiss Society for Sports Science (SGS), the International Sociology of Sport Association (ISSA) und the European Association for Sociology of Sport (EASS).
Contacts
Laurent Paccaud
Université de Lausanne
Institut des sciences du Sport (ISSUL)
1015 Lausanne
Tel. +41 79 732 53 50
Angela Gebert
L&S Sozialforschung und Beratung
Forchstrasse 212
8032 Zürich
Tel. +41 44 260 67 60