Professionals and volunteers: on the future of a Scandinavian sport model

Abstract

Even though most people seem to be correct in assuming that modern sport is somehow about to professionalize, approaches to this process are often rather superficial and one-sided in their focus on professionalization as implying more athletes with higher wages. A proper understanding of how a process of professionalization might affect the Scandinavian way to organize sport in voluntary organizations requires answers to three questions: (1) What is in fact happening to Scandinavian sport when it comes to professionalization? (2) What characteristics of voluntary organizations matter when holding forth voluntary organizations as something defensible? (3) What does a sociological concept of professionalization actually imply within this context of sport and the voluntary sector? Bringing the answers to these three questions together helps understanding of how a process of professionalization might influence voluntary organizations, their way of functioning and thereby their ability to fulfil the visions associated with them.