Suchergebnisse

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of the History of Sport on 1st March 2013, available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09523367.2013.765721 ; The issue of athlete 'dual careers' in elite sport and education or work has received increasing attention over recent years from a whole range of stakeholders. In particular the European Commission has engaged in research and dialogue with a range of stakeholders over the past decade, fuelled in part by the development of a 'soft' competence in sport in Article 165 of the Treaty of Lisbon which came into effect in December 2009. This paper traces the nature of the European Union's interest in this policy issue and in particular the rationale for, and the manner of, EU involvement. Two principal rationales exist for the protection of athletes' access to education and vocational training, namely (a) a rights-based discourse in which athletes are seen to be denied access to education and vocational training which are protected for other workers or citizens; and (b) a performance-based discourse in which the athlete's ability to perform in athletic terms is enhanced by virtue of their access to educational opportunities. The paper reviews the relevance of these two rationales, and argues that although the EU engagement with dual careers might rest not on a sports competence but on prior competences relating to workers' rights and the protection of minors, the identifying of a performance rationale for supporting dual careers may be important in terms of engaging coaches and administrators.

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of the History of Sport on 28/05/2015, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09523367.2015.1040223. ; One of the key features of the Olympic movement is its universalistic appeal, particularly in the sense that it has sought to establish itself as a platform for universal interaction and promotion of universal values. In this paper, we consider the nature, feasibility, and implications of the IOC's promotion of its universalist position in terms of the ethical standards it promotes in relation to universal principles of good governance. A major problem in this respect is the culturally diverse set of constituencies that are incorporated within the Olympic movement, such that the imposition of 'one size fits all' policies may be impractical and in many instances undesirable. The authors of this paper therefore argue that although universal agreement is often impractical, general agreement may often be established. The paper therefore presents an approach to balancing centrally promoted principles of good governance with local preferences in terms of the weighting to be given to particular values within the operationalization of good governance. This approach, based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process technique, developed by Thomas Saaty and widely employed in decision-making with regard to evaluating and weighting alternatives, is introduced here in the context of the evaluation of National Sport Federations in Iran. The paper highlights ways in which this technique allows for the expression of local priorities within the general framework of good governance principles in ways which satisfied both global and local priorities. In effect, it is a practical example of what Robertson has termed glocalization. The paper concludes by applying this framework to an evaluation of the National Federation (NF) of Football in Iran as an example of how this technique will be used for the purposes of ranking NFs in terms of performance with respect to elements of good governance which will inform both self-assessment by the NF and the decision-making process for allocation of funds by government to NFs in Iran in the future.