Sport in modern Europe: creating a comparative history, c. 1880-1990

有没有可能像我们谈论英国或美国的模式一样，谈论一种‘欧洲模式’的体育？有没有一系列独特的活动、实践和价值观，我们可以称之为“欧洲”，或者欧洲只是太过多样化，无法拥有共同的体育文化？欧洲在经济、社会和政治方面都有良好的历史，但在体育或流行音乐等文化方面的历史要少得多。例如，欧洲没有任何语言的权威体育通史。然而，体育可以说是整个欧洲最重要的流行文化共享形式。我们的研究网络将解决欧洲文化和政治史上的这一惊人差距。令人惊讶的是，即使是欧洲体育非凡故事的基本框架也在很大程度上仍然不为人知。关于体育的严肃历史研究越来越多，但它仍然牢牢地固定在国家框架内。例如，斯堪的纳维亚、法国、德国和意大利的体育学术的共同主题和不同的研究议程并不明显。已经有了大量的研究，但尚未进行审查、评估和推进。欧洲的体育史很大程度上是一项特定运动在地方、地区或国家背景下的历史。对欧洲体育的研究在两个方面进一步分裂：(A)在途径和方法方面；这种划分主要是在历史和社会科学之间，特别是社会学和文化研究之间；(B)从机构的角度来看，在体育和体育专业系工作的人与那些在“体育研究”之外的人之间存在分歧。该网络将为不同国家、不同学科观点和传统以及不同机构之间的交流创造一个论坛。组织者已经确定了涵盖欧洲大部分地区(包括俄罗斯)的一流学科和领域专家，他们来自一系列学科背景，旨在探讨这一主题，并以电子和传统出版形式广泛传播他们的讨论。一个由网络成员组成的核心小组将定期举行会议，指导网络在其三个阶段的活动，并促进为每个阶段提供成果的专题讨论会。第一阶段的重点将是建立广泛的口译和史学传统，这是目前知识状况的基础。这将包括从历史、地理、政治和经济的角度考虑“欧洲”的范畴，并参照英国、美国和其他体育模式来确定其独特性。在第二阶段，该网络将考虑如何在十九世纪末和二十世纪初从英国扎根于有组织的体育运动在欧洲迅速传播。英国体育的文化传播既受到欧洲民族国家的补充(如自行车比赛、排球、手球)，也受到欧洲民族国家的侵占，特别是在两次世界大战期间，体育民主化与极权意识形态和左翼和右翼政权的出现交汇在一起。第二阶段及其相关专题讨论会将阐明欧洲体育中的这些传播模式和意识形态，特别是关于法西斯政权利用体育的问题。第三阶段从欧洲的政治分裂、西欧日益富裕的休闲消费和休闲消费模式、欧洲体育一体化的影响以及全球媒体和商业化的影响等方面考察战后欧洲体育。在这些背景下，它将探索保存独特的民族文化和趋同压力之间的紧张关系。在这三个阶段，该网络将为撰写一份关于欧洲体育的全面研究奠定基础。

Is it possible to speak of a 'European model' of sport in the way we can of a British or American one? Is there a distinctive cluster of activities, practices and values we can call 'European' or is Europe just too diverse to have a common sporting culture? There are good histories of the economy, society and politics of Europe but far less on cultural aspects such as sport or popular music. There is, for example, no authoritative general history of sport in Europe in any language. Yet sport is arguably the most important shared form of popular culture across Europe. Our research network will address this striking gap in the cultural and political history of Europe.Surprisingly, even the bare bones of the remarkable story of European sport remain largely untold. There is a growing body of serious historical research on sport, but it remains firmly fixed within national frameworks. The common themes as well as the different research agendas of Scandinavian, French, German and Italian sport scholarship, for example, are not apparent. There is a critical mass of research but it has not yet been reviewed, evaluated and advanced. Histories of sport in Europe are largely histories of a particular sport in a local, regional or national context. The study of European sport is further split in two ways: (a) in terms of approach and method; this division has been largely between history and social science, notably sociology and cultural studies; (b) from the institutional perspective between those working in specialised departments of sport and physical education and those outside 'sports studies'. The network will create a forum for exchanges between different nations, different disciplinary perspectives and traditions and different institutional affiliations. The organisers have identified leading subject and area specialists covering most of Europe (including Russia) from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, and aim to explore this topic and disseminate their discussions widely in electronic and conventional published forms. A core group of network members will meet regularly to steer the activities of the network throughout its three phases, and to facilitate the symposia that provide the culmination of each phase. The focus of the first phase will be to establish the broad traditions of interpretation and historiography which form the basis for the current state of knowledge. This will include considering the category of 'Europe' itself, in historical, geographical, political and economic terms, and establishing its distinctiveness with reference to the British, American and other models of sport.In its second phase, the network will consider how, from its roots in Britain, organised sport spread rapidly across Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The cultural transmission of British sport was subject to both supplementation (e.g. cycle racing, volleyball, handball) and to appropriation by the nation-states of Europe, especially in the interwar period where there was a conjuncture between the democratising of sport and the emergence of totalitarian ideologies and regimes of left and right. This second phase, and its accompanying symposium, will illuminate these patterns of diffusion and ideology in European sport, with special reference to the use of sport by Fascist regimes. The third phase examines post-war European sport in terms of the political division of Europe, the rising affluence and patterns of leisure consumption in Western Europe, the influence of European integration of sport, and the impact of global media and commercialization. In these contexts, it will explore the tension between the preservation of distinctive national cultures and pressures for convergence.In these three phases, the network will establish the foundations for the writing of a comprehensive study of sport in Europe.