20th USIAS Fellows Seminar - Informal Europeanization of sport

William Gasparini, Fellow 2013, Université de Strasbourg

For sports as well as other domains, europeanisation refers to the elaboration, diffusion and institutionalisation of formal and informal rules, defined first at the European Union level and then incorporated into practices, political speeches and structures and sport organisations at the national level. In addition to the Europeanization by law, the “social” Europeanization of sport enables the EU to spread new norms without explicitly imposing them, by recommending or encouraging “best practices”. Although mentioned in literature, the Europeanisation of sport has never been the focus of a thorough sociological study.

William Gasparini is working on a project aiming at exploring the processes through which the actors create an informal Europeanization of sport thanks to a sociological analysis of the various players that constitute what can be called “the Europe of Sport”. During the seminar, Dr. Gasparini will present the progress of his work