Department of Social and Cultural Studies

Even though voluntary sport organizations make up the largest part of the voluntary sector in many western countries, few studies have been carried out focusing on sport as part of civil society. Against this background, the aim of the article is to study how voluntary sport organizations operate and what social and political effects they might have through the concept of social capital. The theoretical part of the article identifies the most useful dimensions of the social-capital concept for this topic, lists hypotheses and suggests three relevant social mechanisms. Empirical studies show how social capital related to participation in voluntary sport organizations is distributed and the consequences this has for various forms of social capital: generalized trust and political commitments. Analyses are based on Norwegian data. The results show that being a member of a voluntary sport organization involves social capital which is conducive to generalized trust and political commitment. Yet, the effect of sport organizations is weaker than for voluntary organizations in general, stronger when membership in sport organizations goes together with other memberships (more weak ties) and stronger the less politicized the social effect in question.

... DOI: 10.1177/1012690204043465 2004 39: 223 International Review for the Sociology of SportØrnulf Seippel Economy and Facilities The World According to Voluntary Sport Organizations : Voluntarism, Published by: ... Ørnulf Seippel Institute for Social Research, Oslo, Norway ...

Voluntary sport organizations make up the largest part of voluntary sector in many countries. Yet, in light of the renewed social and political interest in civil society, we do not know very much about how sport organizations operate and function. Accordingly, this article addresses the question of how voluntary sport organizations contribute to social integration through differences in community structures.

It is well known that sport and physical activity is important for medical health and subjective well-being and thereby functions as a kind of social good. How sport also operates as a social good in light of the meaning athletes attach to their activity is a much less analysed topic. Accordingly, this essay sets out with a theoretical analysis of

Even though most people seem to be correct in assuming that modern sport is somehow about to professionalize, approaches to this process are often rather superficial and one-sided in their focus on professionalization as implying more athletes with higher wages. A proper ...

ABSTRACT A widespread view contends that, in due course, political mobilization gives way to institutionalization; that is, vibrant movements turn into rigid hierarchic organizations. In the aftermath of the political radicalization of the 1960s and 1970s, the literature on social ...

... DOI: 10.1177/1012690204043465 2004 39: 223 International Review for the Sociology of SportØrnulf Seippel Economy and Facilities The World According to Voluntary Sport Organizations : Voluntarism, Published by: ... Ørnulf Seippel Institute for Social Research, Oslo, Norway ...

ABSTRACT In September 2010, a Nature Index giving information on status and trends in biodiversity in nine larger ecosystems in Norway was presented. In the article, the authors ask how Norwegian youth politicians framed, i.e. articulated, the topic of biodiversity after being introduced to this new information. To answer this question, focus group interviews were conducted with leading youth politicians in the six largest political parties in Norway. A first finding was that knowledge of and interest in biodiversity at the outset was relatively low. In general, the interviews were structured along three dimensions. First, there was a general discussion about nature and biodiversity. Second, biodiversity was discussed in a political context in terms of state versus market, and local versus national and international politics. Finally, the role of science was discussed. In general terms, the study found that biodiversity as an issue is only to a limited extent able to influence established political opinions (no resonance), but is itself adapted to fit established ideologies (master frames).

ABSTRACT Loss of biological diversity is among the most pressing environmental problems facing modern societies. Whereas today much is known about peoples' opinions on climate change, there is still a lack of knowledge regarding how people asses the issue of biological diversity. The article represents a step towards a better understanding of public opinions on the issue of biodiversity, and hence also of the prerequisites and possibilities for a more or less vigorous or legitimate policy on this issue. The analyses show that social background matters for concern about biodiversity, but only to a certain extent: women are less negative towards biodiversity protection than men, the older segments of the population, at least in Norway, are less concerned with biodiversity, and education has only a marginal effect. Hence, to a large extent, political attitudes matter and indicate that concern for biodiversity seems to work by various types of available heuristics whereby a given case is linked to political understandings of other and similar and/or familiar issues. The inclusion of other political variables (local decision-making) and what the authors label ‘cultural variables’ (e.g. view of nature and trust in science) seem also to matter decisively for attitudes towards biodiversity.

... In short; the orientations prevalent in late modern society 'lack the degree of 'closure" (Bartolini and Mair, 1990, p. 93). ... it will be necessary to construct a new grand narrative, a grand narrative formulated in terms of the cosmology based on a philosophy of process (Gare, 1995, p ...