Volume 4, Issue 1

Soccer fans have created their own sub-culture, which is even different from other spectators within a soccer stadium. According to Schütz’s term of the life-world, the fan-culture can be understood as a closed-in area of one’s mind with its own accent of reality and a special style of realization and experience. This article analyzes the elements of that specific life-world by using the community of Energie Cottbus fans as an example. There are rituals, symbolic representations, self-creation and collective expressions which create a collective design of reality. It is shown that despite constant player transfers and a progressing capitalism in the world of soccer, the fan culture is neither lacking great variety nor identity problems.

Since the 1980s assumptions have increased in the area of track and field that predict negative trends in the sport, for ex. With regard to the number of organized club members and specifically the young generation. The reason for this change in the organisations was implicidy as well as explicitiy referred to theories of social change. However, an empirical analysis regarding these trends has been missing. The longitudinal study of „organisations offering track and field“ (1996 to 2002) that is presented in this article closes this gap by specifically testing hypotheses referring to membership trends. Based on the data, a negative development or trend cannot be confirmed.

Public financing of sports in Germany is characterised by subsidies which are granted exclusively to the autonomous and self-governing sports organisations. Regarding distribution objectives the subsidisation is unerring to a limited extent only, and in an allocative perspective it leads to a distortion of competition. Therefore, direct transfer payments in terms of “Sportgeld” are considered alternatively. “Sportgeld” must be requested individually and increases income appropriated for active participation in sports. It allows to support socio-economically disadvantaged groups well directed and avoids negative side effects on the market process to a large extent. In addition it provides the presupposition in order to internalise positive external effects in the sports sector and promises overall economic advantages.