MASARYK UNIVERSITY Faculty of Social Studies Department of Sociology
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MASARYK UNIVERSITY Faculty of Social Studies Department of Sociology Mgr. Zuzana Botiková ‘In search of a national sport?’: Analysing the creation of Slovakia’s new sports policy Doctoral Thesis Thesis Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Ing. Radim Marada, Ph.D. Brno 2019 “Like Olympic medals and tennis trophies, all they signified was that the owner had done something of no benefit to anyone more capably than everyone else.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and Secondary sources listed in the bibliography. In Brno, April 23rd 2019 Zuzana Botiková Table of Contents Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................... 6 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 7 “Small country with great potential” ........................................................................................... 11 Institutionalising sporting success in national policies ............................................................... 14 Slovak Sport 2020 – translating national success into policy ...................................................... 15 State sporting representation ................................................................................................... 18 The financing of sports policy .................................................................................................. 20 Public voice in the proposition of sporting politics ................................................................. 22 Pragmatic sociology and sports policies ....................................................................................... 25 Six worlds of justification model ................................................................................................. 26 Pragmatism in sport sociology? ................................................................................................... 28 On the analytical method – following the “making of law” ....................................................... 30 Law and Sport .............................................................................................................................. 31 Homo Ludens: playful law? ..................................................................................................... 33 Analysis of the parliamentary debate regarding the “New” Act on Sport ............................... 36 First reading ................................................................................................................................. 37 Historical references ................................................................................................................ 40 Financial aspects...................................................................................................................... 41 Social justice through sport? .................................................................................................... 43 Second reading ............................................................................................................................. 46 Private financing of sport – sponsoring ................................................................................... 47 International structures ............................................................................................................ 48 Sport for all .............................................................................................................................. 48 Reform model for the whole society? ....................................................................................... 50 Analytical conclusions of the parliamentary discussions ............................................................. 52 Reality test: “Small country coming to terms with sports migration” ...................................... 56 Short overview of the “Žampa case” ............................................................................................ 57 The threat of leaving .................................................................................................................... 58 Sports migrations in the past .................................................................................................... 63 Sport politics/policies within international scholarship .............................................................. 56 Sport and identity ......................................................................................................................... 66 From identity politics to sports policy .......................................................................................... 67 Sport in “small states” .................................................................................................................. 71 New Zealand’s vulnerability and resilience ............................................................................. 75 Austria – the case of sport space and national identity ........................................................... 77 The anthropology of Slovenia’s national sport – alpine skiing ................................................ 79 4 Sport policy in post-communist countries .................................................................................... 80 Some historical aspects of sport and sports policy in Slovakia .................................................. 83 Early stages .................................................................................................................................. 83 Sokol and the growth of sport participation ................................................................................. 85 Other sport movements in Czechoslovakia .............................................................................. 87 Sports policy after World War II. ................................................................................................. 88 Spartakiády – the mass gymnastic events .................................................................................... 90 Ideological significance of Spartakiádas ................................................................................. 91 Continuing the Sokol tradition in compatriot communities abroad ......................................... 93 Sport in Slovakia after 1989 ......................................................................................................... 93 Summary of the historical overview ............................................................................................ 95 Conclusion - Should we save sport, or will sport save us? .......................................................... 96 Epilogue ......................................................................................................................................... 100 References ..................................................................................................................................... 102 Online sources ............................................................................................................................... 108 List of Tables ................................................................................................................................ 109 List of Legal Acts referred to in the text .................................................................................... 109 List of Members of Parliament taking part in the discussions ................................................. 110 Appendix ....................................................................................................................................... 111 Author Index ................................................................................................................................. 112 5 Acknowledgements I would like to thank all people who have accompanied me throughout my PhD studies and motivated me in conducting my research - be it my dear friends and colleagues from Brno, as well also those from Bratislava, Toronto, Vienna and Mainz. I am very grateful for the constructive feedback I have received from my supervisor, doc. Radim Marada, as well as for our entertaining football discussions. My thanks also extends to Lenka Kissová, who kindly and patiently answered all my last-minute questions and concerns. I am thankful to my sister Daniela, for feeding me and accommodating me during my study related visits to Brno. And last but not least, I need to thank my parents, who kept pushing me forward in pursuing this academic endeavour. 6 Introduction “Today we can improve the situation, set new rules, as well as fix the faults of the past, when sport stood on the margin of interest from both state institutions as well as politicians themselves.” (Member of the parliament D.G., 23rd Sept. 2015) *** “The sports movement in Slovakia has always been and will always be big, despite the size of the country. Athletes from our small Slovakia manage to achieve nice results on the world stage, so I believe we deserve to be there, among the big ones.” (Ján Zachara, former Olympic boxer, 22nd Sept. 2018) *** From its inception, modern sport has been a highly politized social phenomenon. Nevertheless, many still regard it as a non-problematic free-time activity. An activity which should not be placed on the same level as other important and