Call for papers: Sport and Identity

Special issue on ‘Sport and Identity’ of the journal Transylvanian Society (Erdélyi Társadalom) (https://erdelyitarsadalom.ro/en/about-the-journal.html)

Editors: Dr. Zsombor Csata (Babeș-Bolyai University, email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), Dr. László Péter (Babeș-Bolyai University, email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), and Prof. Dr László Marácz (University of Amsterdam, email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Sports is taking an ever more important place in global socio-political and financial-economic affairs. Global sports media events, like the Olympic Games, and the different World and European Championship attract a lot of media coverage, spectators and public debate. In modern times, sports have been organized mostly on a national basis. States and their citizens were the most prominent stakeholders of major sports competitions and events. Due to globalization, Europeanization and transnational and mobility processes the international sports structure is changing in a rapid tempo. Sports was a symbol of national identity in the first place, sports events and its international representative bodies in modern times tie in with the multi-layered global governance structure that has arisen recently in postmodern time when mediated spectator sport become a commodified and commercialised product and mass consumer good. As a consequence – although the connection between national identity and sports is still prominent – the structure and representative bodies of the sports world have to coop with a number of new phenomena and cases against the backdrop of these socio-economic and cultural phenomena.

The editors of the special issue of the journal of Transylvanian Society invite authors to elaborate on questions related to the changing reality and identity of the global sports world. Relevant topics of the special issue include, among others:

• National identity promoting specific sports related to national self-images and stereotypes;
• universal rules, regulations and codes for the steering of imnternational and national sports federations
• dual nationality, national representation and bonding in international sports events       
• the role of sports in identity formation of national, ethnic and other minorities
• the role of regional competition in building new identities, like European identity, Asian identity, but also other types of identity, like Gaelic and nomadic identity
• foreign policy and rivalry in sports
• the interaction of decolonization and sports
• the commercialization of sports, including the branding of teams and individual sports icons and celebrities as a marketing object
• communication and language in international sports

A title, an abstract of 250 words maximally, and 5 key words should be send to the editors before October 15, 2018. The editors will invite 7 authors to submit their paper of circa 7000 words before March 15, 2019. After peer reviewing the special issue will be published in the second half of 2019. Apart from the innovative papers, the editors plan to publish several book reviews.