Sport as a factor of national identity formation in a mass society

Janez Štebe, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Sciences

E-mail:Janez.Stebe@fdv.uni-lj.siPaper presentation at

Research Question

What is a role of national pride in sport on national identity?

What follows is exploratory analysis of quantitative survey data comparing European countries with a special emphasis on East / West divide.

Data:

ISSP (International Social Survey Programm)1995 and 2003 National Identity I and II

High quality surveys on national random samples of adult population

Special emphasis on procedural equivalence of measurements (careful translation of questionnaire, pre-tests)

Data and documentation available form national data archives, e.g. Slovene Social Sciences Data Archives

http://www.adp.fdv.uni-lj.si/

Concepts definitions

National identity Civic Ethnic

Pride

Xenophobia

National citizens identity construct:

A measure of legitimacy of institutional and political order: in a long run at list some degree of identification and share of positive orientation to political system is needed for its democratic functioning

Identity through feeling of attachment, trust to others, political regime support as forms of social capital that members of society share with one another.

In a mass society social capital is often based on impersonal ties (mechanical solidarity), a contested terrain of symbolic construction, “imagined communities”

Identity is a relational concept:

How do we see ourselves through others by setting boundaries – rejecting and accepting others as members of social entities

Related problems: national identity and globalisation And patriotism vs. Nationalism And xenophobia

Operationalised thru indicator in ISSP95 and ISSP2003 Questionnaire:

Two dimensions of national identity (see Hjerm, Schulman, etc.) Ascribed Ethnic or cultural identity

Shared ethnicity, language, religion

Exploratory factor separate country analysis shows that item a) “to have been born in a [COUNTRY]” consistently loads on that dimension

Achieved Civic identity:

Equal political rights and obligations

Factor analysis shows that item f= “respect [COUNTRY] political institutions and laws” consistently loads that dimension

• Both items partialy represents separate dimensions in

a comparative setting, besides a common general national identity

• Possess fixed meaning granting face validity• Unknown reliability

National pride

“is the positive affect that the public feels towards their country, resulting from their national identity” (Smith&Kim 2006)

Related but not identical to national identity Multidimensional

Can be used as mean for comparative analysis of content of national identity components

Operationalised thru indicator in ISSP95 and ISSP2003 Questionnaire:

Exploratory factor separate country analysis shows two dimensions of pride consistently represented by the following sets of items:

Cultural G) Arts and literature I) History

Reliability coefficient Cronbach α ranges from 0.3 (Germany – East and Austria in 2003) to 0.7 (Russia and Slovakia in 1995) with an average in 0.5

Civic A) the way democracy

works C) [COUNTRY’s]

economic achievements D) its social security

system More stable Cronbach α -

ranges from 0.7 to 0.8

Where is pride in sports?

Pride in sport Complex of modern medialised sport – glorification of

human body and short attention spans – offer good material for national feelings based on mechanical solidarity (Evans&Kelley 2002)

Measured by additive index of pride in sport item (“achievements in sports”) and the following “makes me proud item”

Reliability coefficient Cronbach α ranges from 0.3 (Poland 2003) to 0.7 with an average in 0.6

Pride in sports (index [2:8]) by Country by Year (Source: ISSP)

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

DE-W

DE-E

PL GB ES SE CZ SK AT NO RU LV HU SI IE

Country

Mea

n 1995

2003

Correlations between pride in sports with cultural and civic components of national pride

SK03

SK95

LV03

LV95

ES03

ES95

IE03

IE95AT03

AT95

GB03

GB95

DE-E03

DE-E95

DE-W03

DE-W95

NO95

NO03SE95

SE03

CZ95

SI95

SI03

PL95

PL03

RU95RU03

0,10

0,15

0,20

0,25

0,30

0,35

0,40

0,45

0,50

0,55

0,60

0,10 0,20 0,30 0,40 0,50 0,60

National cultural pride

Na

tio

na

l civ

ic p

rid

e

E1995W

E2000W

E1995E

E2000E

0,10

0,15

0,20

0,25

0,30

0,35

0,40

0,45

0,50

0,55

0,60

0,10 0,20 0,30 0,40 0,50 0,60

National cultural pride

Na

tio

na

l civ

ic p

rid

e

Xenophobia

How are various aspects of national identity and pride related to xenophobia

Establishment of democratic regimes may lag behind by extreme nationalist and xenophobic feelings kin Eastern post communist Europe (Wallace 1999)

Sport and xenophobia, are they reinforcing one another and interplay in national identity formation

Measure of additive index with reliability α = 0.6 to 0.8 with an average in 0.7

Items:

Correlation of Pride in sports with Xenophobia by Country by Year (Source: ISSP)

-0,05

0

0,05

0,1

0,15

0,2

0,25

0,3

0,35

0,4

HU CZ IE SK RU ES LV PL SI NO GB AT SE DE-W

DE-E

EW EE

Country

r (P

ears

on

co

rrel

atio

n)

1995

2003

Results: Correlation of Pride in sports with Ethic and Civic identity by Country by Year (Source: ISSP)

RU03

RU95

PL03PL95

SI03

SI95

CZ03

CZ95SE03

SE95 NO03NO95

DE-W95

DE-W03

DE-E95

DE-E03

GB95GB03

AT95

AT03

HU95

HU03

IE95

IE03

ES95

ES03

LV95

LV03SK95

SK03

0,00

0,05

0,10

0,15

0,20

0,25

0,30

0,35

0,40

0,45

-0,05 0,05 0,15 0,25 0,35 0,45

Ethnic national identity: Born

Civ

ic n

at.

iden

tity

: R

esp

ect

Eastern Europe

Western Europe

Correlation of Pride in sports with other variables by East/West Europe by Year (Source: ISSP)

XE95E

ci95E

cu95E

sp95E

XE03W

ci03W

cu03Wsp03W

XE95W

ci95W

cu95W

sp95W

sp03E

cu03Eci03E

XE03E

-0,05

0

0,05

0,1

0,15

0,2

0,25

0,3

0,35

0,4

0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4

Ethnic national identity: Born

Civ

ic n

at.

id

en

tity

: R

es

pe

ct

West Europe

East Europe

Ethnic(Born)/Civic(Respect) national identity by Year by East/West Europe

-0,05

0

0,05

0,1

0,15

0,2

0,25

0,3

0,35

BO95W RE95W BO03W RE03W BO95E RE95E BO03E RE03E

tota

l e

ffe

ct

of

sp

ort

on

...

xenofoby

civic pride

culture pride

net sport

Legend: BO (Ethnic id – Born); RE (Civic id – Respect); W (Western Europe); E (Eastern Europe)

Conclusions

Pride in sports remains an important correlate of national identity

It is closer to cultural component of pride Important differences between East/ West

Europe on sport and Xenophobia related Ethnic identity

Further inquiry into contextual factors that shape national identity formation (changes in government, economic situation, globalisation etc.)