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- Svensson, Daniel, 1983-
(author)
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Scientizing performance in endurance sports : The emergence of ‘rational training’ in cross-country skiing, 1930-1980
- 2016
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Elite athletes of today use specialized, scientific training methods and the increasing role of science in sports is undeniable. Scientific methods and equipment has even found its way into the practice of everyday exercisers, a testament to the impact of sport science. From the experiential, personal training regimes of the first half of the 20th century to the scientific training theories of the 1970s, the ideas about training and the athletic body shifted.The rationalization process started in endurance sports in the 1940s. It was part of a struggle between two models of training; natural training and rational training. Physiologists wanted to rid training of individual and local variations and create a universal model of rational, scientific training. The rationalization of training and training landscapes is here understood as an aspect of sportification, a theory commonly used to describe similar developments in sports where increasing regimentation, specialization and rationalization are among the main criteria. This dissertation adds the concept of technologies of sportification to explain the role that micro-technologies and practices (such as training logs, training camps and scientific tests) have in the scientization of training.This thesis thus sets out to analyze the role that science has played in training during the 20th century. It is a history about the rationalization of training, but also about larger issues regarding the role of personal, experiential knowledge and scientific knowledge. The main conclusions are that the process of scientization never managed to rid training of components from natural, experiential training, and that the effort by Swedish physiologists to introduce rational training was part of the larger rationalization movement at the time. In the end, training knowledge was a co-production between practitioners and theoreticians, skiers and scientists.
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| 2. |
- Pargman, Daniel, et al.
(author)
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Play as work : On the Sportification of Computer Games
- 2019
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In: Digital Culture & Society. - Bielefeld : Transcript Verlag. - 2364-2114 .- 2364-2122. ; 5:2, s. 15-40
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Contemporary images of desirable work (for example at gaming companies or at one of the tech giants) foregrounds creativity and incorporates and idealises elements of play. Simultaneously, becoming one of the best in some particular leisure activity can require many long hours of hard, demanding work. Between on the one hand work and on the other hand leisure and play, we enter the domain of games and sports. Most classical sports originally developed from physical practices of moving the human body and these practices were, through standardization, organization and rationalization, turned into sports. Many sport researchers, (sport) historians and (sport) sociologists have pointed out that sports have gone through a process of “sportification”. Cross-country skiing is an example of an activity that has gone through a historical process of sportification, over time becoming progressively more managed and regulated. Computer games are today following a similar trajectory and have gone from being a leisure activity to becoming a competitive activity, “e-sports”, with professional players, international competitions, and live streams that are watched by tens of millions of viewers. In this paper we look at similarities between the sportification of cross-country skiing and e-sports. While there are many similarities, one important difference is that where classical sports (e.g. cross-country skiing) often originated in work-related practices (in this case forestry), the formation of new and emerging sports (for example e-sports) instead often originates in playful leisure activities. We will in this text show how sports and sportification processes can function as a lens with which to better understand the intersection of work and play, and well as their overlapping and hybrid albeit non-mutually exclusive combinations; laborious play and playful work.
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| 4. |
- Svensson, Daniel, 1983, et al.
(author)
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Walking on the Shoulders of Giants: Historical Mountain Trails as Management Tools?
- 2017
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In: The Routledge International Handbook of Walking Studies. - 9781138195349 ; , s. 330-339
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Book chapter (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Walking in mountains is a way of transport in varied terrain and a means to enhance nature experiences and deepen landscape relations. It is also one of the most popular activities in Swedish outdoor life as well as among international tourists. Mobility has over time and for multiple reasons resulted in a network of trails and pathways – a ‘mobility heritage’. However, this heritage is not static but continuously transformed through new needs and uses, and as such it is a vital component in any reform towards a more sustainable landscape management by and for governing bodies, NGOs, and other interest groups. Despite multiple users and uses, trails are often discrete, small-scale and with marginal direct effects on local ecology and landscape, although exceptions also exist. However, the long history of multiple actor use of trails and landscapes alongside them, and the reasons and interests behind their location and maintenance, has profoundly affected landscape perceptions over time.We argue that trails can be used as a tool to engage different interests and to minimize conflicts between different users, while aiming to enhance landscape values for all users. This is highly relevant to various forms of nature conservation, Sami reindeer herding, recreation and tourism. We aim to provide deeper knowledge about trails, conceptually and about their roles, functions, and how this may relate to future management. Against a background of theoretical, historical and empirical approaches to pathways and walking we present our topic through the lens of Swedish mountain trails, with a special focus on Jämtland County. Can the interests of visiting hikers and multiple local and regional interests come to co-exist in a sustainable way by using trails as one main tool?
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| 5. |
- Svensson, Daniel, 1983, et al.
(author)
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An even colder war? Specialization and scientization in the training methods of cross-country skiing from the 1940s in Sweden and the Soviet Union.
- 2017
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In: Beyond Boycotts. Sport During the Cold War in Europe. Eds. Phillippe Vonnard, Nicola Sbetti and Grégory Quin. - : De Gruyter. - 9783110529098 ; , s. 33-54
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Book chapter (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This work analyzes the official training advice given to prospective elite skiers in Sweden and the Soviet Union from the late 1940s until the 1970s. How was training scientized in relation to the Cold War context? In what ways did neutral Sweden differ from the Soviet Union? What type of organizations took an interest in the rationalization of training and why? The sportification process accelerated during the Cold War period in both the Soviet Union and Sweden, despite their many differences in political system, international relations, tradition and economy. It is also clear that the scientific contribution to sport, not least skiing, was vital in both countries. As the knowledge about Soviet sport science and training development increases, this also sheds new light on the Cold War era and its impact on sport. For the developments in cross-country skiing as well as sport science, the conscious effort by the Soviet Union to be the avant-garde of scientized training directly affected other countries such as Sweden into accelerating their own efforts. The Cold War was therefore not only fought in space or by military means, but also in labs and skiing tracks. What is particularly interesting is that similar research on athletes was motivated in radically different ways. In Soviet, sports and thus also sport science was highly political. In Sweden, it was framed as neutral, relating more to rationality and scientific ideals than to sport performance.
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| 6. |
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Pathways : Exploring the Routes of a Movement Heritage
- 2022
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Editorial collection (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This anthology explores possibilities to acknowledge human motion, and traces thereof, as heritage. Today, with the increasing interest in local and sustainable connections, and in bodily and spiritual enhancement, we see a growing use of walking tracks both in landscapes within reach from urban centres and in more remotely located or ‘wild’ areas. The corona pandemic has further propelled these trends. Of course, landscapes that are commonly understood as wilderness or ‘nature’ are in most cases clearly influenced by human actions and movements. While walking trails tend to be regarded as pathways to experience nature and as tools to promote public health, they could also be seen and used as routes to culture and history, indeed as pathways to the past. Based on a Swedish research project with the aim to explore the multiple dimensions of walking, paths and movement, this volume engages and discusses the potential effects of such an expansion of the heritage register.
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| 7. |
- Svensson, Daniel, 1983
(author)
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Skiing through Time: Articulating a Landscape Heritage of Swedish Cross-Country Skiing
- 2018
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In: Leisure Cultures and the Making of Modern Ski Resorts. - Cham : Springer International Publishing. - 9783319920245 ; , s. 93-115
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Book chapter (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The history of tourism in Sweden is closely linked to skiing. Cross-country skiing has also been important for many iconic ski resorts, which have built a reputation as genuine landscapes for skiing. Through the analysis of three examples, Hindås, Vålådalen and Vasaloppet, this contribution investigates the history of ski-related tourism in Sweden and how history and landscape is used to articulate certain landscapes as ski heritage. The article concludes that technological change and scientific ideas about training have been important in the construction and articulation of ski tourism. These landscapes of skiing are deeply embedded in, and representations of, classic Nordic ideas about nature while also increasingly depending on modern technologies.
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| 8. |
- Svensson, Daniel, 1983-, et al.
(author)
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Pathways to the trail – landscape, walking and heritage in a Scandinavian border region
- 2021
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In: Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0029-1951 .- 1502-5292. ; 75:5, s. 243-255
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Can walking trails be understood not only as routes to history and heritage, but also as heritage in and of themselves? The paper explores the articulation of trails as a distinct landscape and mobility heritage, bridging the nature-culture divide and building on physical and intellectual movements over time. The authors aim to contribute to a better understanding of the geography of trails and trailscapes by analysing the emergence of the Swedish-Norwegian trail Finnskogleden. The trail is situated in the border region spanning the former county of Hedmark in present-day Innlandet County, south-eastern Norway, and Värmland County in mid-western Sweden, a forested area where Finnish-speaking immigrants settled from the 16th century to the early 20th century. Archives, literature, interviews, and field visits were used to analyse the emergence and governance of the trail. The main finding is the importance of continuous articulation work by local and regional stakeholders, through texts, maps, maintenance, and mobility. In conclusion, the Finn forest trailscape and its mobility heritage can be seen as an articulation of territory over time, a multilayered process drawing on various environing technologies, making the trail a transformative part of a trans-border political geography.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Svensson, Daniel, et al.
(author)
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Introduction : Balancing performance and environmental sustainability
- 2023
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In: Sport, Performance and Sustainability. - Abingdon, Oxon & New York : Routledge. - 9781003283324 ; , s. 1-18
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Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The growth of sports and the increasing levels of participation, performance, and international competition are undeniable. This development has undoubtedly contributed to the tremendous growth of the sports economy during the last 100 years, as well as an impressive increase in results and performance levels in most sports. It is in turn linked to the comprehensive competition logic that drives sportification of performance and practice in predominantly Western sport, rooted in the cultivation of able bodies, and maximum performance. However, as sports have developed in tandem with the global industrial economy it is also facing similar problems. Over the last decade, sport organisations, supporters, athletes, scholars, and others have begun to problematise the consequences of an ever-growing sports economy and the constant strive for increasing performance levels, growing events, and intensified travel. This introduction will present an overview of how the logics of practice guided by performance, and the sportification model, are linked to potentially problematic aspects of sports in relation to the environment. We pose questions about whether sportification and a strong focus on increasing performance can go hand in hand with a sustainable development.
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