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.

The research committee is a contact and information network for social scientists interested in the social conditions and consequences of sport. Aiming at the promotion of sociological research on sports the committee organises conferences and informal meetings for its members and publishes a biannual newsletter. In addition, the committee maintains an index concerning the research interests of its members thus facilitating cooperative efforts and the flow of information between sports sociologists.

The membership in the research committee is free of charge. However, a simultaneous membership in the Swiss Sociological Association is requested.

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Apart from two coordinators – Markus Lamprecht for the German speaking part of Switzerland, and Moncia Aceti for the French and Italian speaking parts – the committee has no formal structure.

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).

Markus Lamprecht
L&S Sozialforschung und Beratung
Forchstrasse 212
8032 Zürich
Tel. 044-260 67 60
Fax 044-260 67 61

Monica Aceti
Université de Fribourg
Unité des sciences du mouvement et du sport
Bd de Pérolles 90
CH-1700 Fribourg
Tel. +41 78 751 39 31

sports@sgs-sss.ch