Band 3, Heft 2

This article investigates to what extent teaching physical education is considered a profession. For this purpose the analysis is based on the social systems theory and the theory of professions by Stichweh. The main topics are the reference to social problems, the processes that lead to inclusion and exclusion into the complementary role (Komplementärrollen-Karriere), the professional-amateur difference and furthermore the monopoly of the profession of the physical education teacher.

After continuous growth of the sporting goods industry in Germany the Market experiences a stagnation and even a slight slump in sales. Therefore the question can be asked, if this fact arises from the common reluctance to consume or is the result of the aging of the society. To answer this question, the aging dependency of the demand for sporting goods in Germany is analyzed by using a socioeconomic approach. Data base for this analysis is the “GfK-Universalpanel-NonFood” (up to N = 24 515 cases). It is the only data set providing reliable und systematic information about the demand for sporting goods in Germany. The results indicate only a poor aging dependency of the demand for sporting goods. Thus, the stagnation of sporting goods sales is rather the result of a common reluctance to consume than the effect of the aging of the society.

In today’s public view Muhammad Ali is regarded as one of the best known and most popular athletes of the 20th century. This article provides a retrospect on the American boxer, whose image in the 1960’s was quite the contrary. His change over the years focuses on two perspectives: a) the reconstruction of the public image of Muhammad Ali since the 1960’s which can be explained through analysis of the many statements and comments from correspondents and reporters, and b) the behavior and attitude of Muhammad Ali himself, which stand in close connection with the public reception of his person. In reference to this double perspective, it will be chronologically explained, how the image of this athlete changed from that of a traitor to that of a martyr in the eyes of the public.

This article presents, from the perspective of the theory of societal differentiation, empirical data about the German adult population's sport participation and its interest in spectator sports. The data are based on an own representative survey conducted in fall 2003 in which we investigated the overall inclusion of the adult population in all sub-systems of modern society. Inclusion in sports is analyzed with respect to two different roles: the role of the leisure sport athlete and the role of the sport spectator. Correlations between different kinds and degrees of inclusion in sports and socio-economic variables used by theories of social inequality are studied; furthermore, we examine correlations between different degrees of inclusion in sports and inclusion in other societal sub-systems.