The research analyses stability and change in the English/British elite sport policy landscape in the period 2005 to early 2014. In the context of a recession and change of government, the policy environment could be described as turbulent and cuts to public funding and commitment to deregulation have been key features of the overarching policy landscape. There was an assumption that elite sport would not be immune from the policy turbulence. The policy landscape is described as consisting of three elements: organisations, public funding and political salience. The original contribution of the thesis is threefold: first, in relation to the empirical study of the relative impact of the political and economic turbulence on the elite sport system; second, in the application of institutional theory and punctuated equilibrium theory to the analysis of elite sport policy; and third, the application of theory to explain the extent of stability uncovered through the empirical research. The research used a case study approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 senior officials from sport in England/the UK from both sport-specific NGBs and organisations with wider, national remits for elite sport and incorporating both government and non-government organisations. Due to the sample of interviewees, the nuances of elite interviewing were an important consideration for the researcher. A document analysis study was also carried out. Through the existing literature and the data gathered, three cases emerged and were examined in depth: youth talent search and development; nurturing and transferring talent; and sustaining world class athletes. Thematic analysis was used to examine the data. The data revealed that the policy landscape was, for the most part, stable in the period studied. There were changes to the intensity of financial and political support and refinements of policy objectives, especially due to the hosting of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, but the overall policy aims remained consistent. The reasons identified for this stability were as follows: the absence of an alternative, critical lobby; strong leadership in the sector; and the hosting of the London 2012 Games. The long-term impact of Labour s Modernisation agenda was found to have contributed to the stable governance of elite sport, which includes a structure for decision-making and accountability around funding of NGBs by UK Sport. Historical Institutionalism was found to offer the most useful meso-level framework for analysis of the data and clear critical junctures and path formation phases could be identified.

Ancestor worship is often assumed by contemporary European audiences to be an outdated, distant and primitive tradition with little relevance to our societies, past and present. This study questions that assumption and seeks to determine whether ancestor ideology was an integral part of religion in Viking age and early medieval Scandinavia. The concept is examined from a broad socio-anthropological perspective, which is then used to generate an overarching 'lens' for a set of case studies which analyse the cults of specific individuals in the Old Norse literary tradition. The thesis argues that the views of social anthropologists have been ignored in Old Norse scholarship for too long and that they have great potential to contribute to our understanding of the religious diversity present in typical folk-religious societies worldwide, including those of pre-Christian Scandinavia. Of particular importance in this context is the concept of 'god', which in most traditional cultures is intimately related to the idea of family ancestors. The situation of gods in Old Norse religion has been almost exclusively addressed in isolation from these socio-anthropological perspectives. The public gravemound cults of deceased rulers are discussed conventionally as cases of sacral kingship, and more recently, religious ruler ideology; both are seen as having divine associations in Old Norse scholarship. Building on the anthropological framework, this study suggests that the gods in pagan Scandinavia and Iceland, too, were perceived as human ancestors belonging to elite families. This thesis also discusses the euhemerism found in the Old Norse sources and suggests that even if medieval authors were influenced by classical writings, the 'euhemerisations' are based on real perceptions. It does not reject the existence of ruler ideology, but argues that the ideology was based on conventional and widely recognised religious practices revolving around kinship and ancestors. It introduces the concept of 'superior ancestors', used in social anthropology to denote a form of political ancestor worship used to deliberately regulate social structure. It is argued that the communal worship of deceased rulers derived from their doubly important role as social leaders and as ancestors.

Although DuBois has been the subject of considerable scholarly work, little of that scholarship has concentrated on his political thought. This dissertation addresses that lacuna in the literature on DuBois by analyzing his writings from the standpoint of a concern with their political and philosophical dimensions and their relation to the social and intellectual contexts within which DuBois wrote and acted. Most significant in this research among the contexts within which DuBois' work was constituted are those aspects related to: (1) rise of the corporation as a central organizing force in United States political economy; (2) development of intellectuals as a self-conscious, discernibly interested stratum in twentieth-century American society; and (3) the continuing efforts of elites within the Afro-American population to congeal a social and political agenda for themselves and hegemony over the organization of the race. This study identifies collectivism as a useful critical concept in interpretation of the intellectual and institutional thrusts of those three elements of the environment of DuBois' theoretical development and points of similarity and confluence among them. Collectivism is seen as a meta-theoretical outlook that values specialized expertise in social decision-making, rational organization and planning and asserts the primacy of the economy in society. To that extent collectivism provides a rubric subsuming the principal ideological stances common among intellectuals during the early decades of this century-i.e., socialism, progressivism, and the varieties of managerialism--and their derivatives. DuBois' thought is found to demonstrate sharp continuities at the philosophical or meta-theoretical level. These continuities are most significant in his attitudes concerning the nature and purposes of knowledge and the proper organization of society in general and of the Afro-American population in particular, and they resonate with the attitudes of his collectivist contemporaries. Notwithstanding DuBois' movements into and out of the university and "activism," the Socialist Party, the NAACP, Pan-Africanism and finally the CPUSA, he is found to have maintained throughout his career commitment to: (1) a positivist-pragmatist view of knowledge; (2) a rationalistic, collectivist view of proper social organization, including a preference for meritocracy; and (3) a belief that the elite of "ability" or the "Talented Tenth" should have primacy in and over the Afro-American population.

Background. Handball is a fast paced sport, with high velocity movements performed in a predominantly unilateral plane. In order to make training as specific as possible to on court movements, resistance training programmes should involve exercises that reflect the speed and stance of how they will be performed during gameplay however, working velocities are rarely prescribed due to the lack of research in the area. Aim. The aim of this study was (1) to determine the effect of three different training modes; unilateral high velocity (UHV), bilateral high velocity (BHV) and bilateral slow velocity (BSV) on vertical loaded and unloaded jumps, sprint, agility and balance. (2) To determine if any of these interventions had more of an effect when compared to each other. Methods. 29 women from four teams in the Swedish Elitserien participated in a 16-week intervention study. Teams were assigned to either UHV, who performed unilateral exercises with a high intended movement velocity, BHV, bilateral exercises at a high intended movement velocity, or BSV, who continued their regular bilateral slow velocity training. Power was assessed pre- and post-intervention by loaded vertical squat jump and countermovement jump (CMJ) both unilaterally and bilaterally. Performance assessments were conducted through 20m Sprints, agility T-test and Y-balance test. Effect sizes were calculated to determine the magnitude of differences from pre- to post-intervention in three training modes. One-way ANOVA determined if the group interactions were significant. Results. All three training modes increased their power output to varying levels and effect sizes. The UHV group demonstrated large effect sizes for all improvements in power output, whilst the BHV and BSV groups ranged from trivial to large. UHV got significantly faster at reaching time to peak velocity in unilateral and bilateral measures compared to both BHV and BSV (p=<0.05). Conclusion. The results suggest that a 16-week resistance training intervention regardless of stance improves power however to varying magnitudes. The high velocity groups showed greater improvements in measures of power and performance. This study suggests that resistance training at a high intended movement velocity may be beneficial for improving power and performance in elite women’s handball players.

published_or_final_version / Management Studies / Master / Master of Business Administration

Millions of children participate in sport and through their participation come into contact with coaches who are there to guide and support them. However, it has been observed that not all children’s relationships with their coaches have been positive ones, and concerns have been raised about the nature of the child-athlete relationship within the sports context. This research sought to use theory from child maltreatment research and apply it within a sports context to investigate perceived child athlete experiences. The research used both qualitative and quantitative methodologies to investigate retrospectively athletes’ perceptions of, and emotional responses to their coach’s behaviour. The initial study used qualitative method to establish if key theoretical frameworks from outside sport had a resonance and relevance within a sports context. Twelve elite athletes, all of whom had been identified as ‘elite’ when children reported that they had experienced negative coaching behaviour on a frequent basis they also reported negative emotional responses to this behaviour, and emotional problems as a consequence of how they were coached when they were children. Study Two (n=229), focused on broadening the research to access a larger population of athletes in order to examine their perceptions and experiences of being coached. In order to achieve this aim a new questionnaire, the Sport Emotional Response Questionnaire (SER-Q), was developed. The SER-Q was grounded in the real-life experiences of those athletes in Study One, and as such represented their expert opinions of their coaches’ behaviour. Through factor analysis, a 22-item questionnaire was established which measured frequency of negative (i.e. emotionally abusive) coach behaviour, athletes’ emotional response and perceived effect on performance. Results from this study showed that frequency of negative coach behaviour and emotional response were significantly and negatively correlated such that, as the frequency increased so did the negative emotional response. Study Three (n=314), was a confirmatory study, and found similar results to Study Two. Study Four (n=543), sought to investigate, through the SER-Q, specific questions in relation to: competitive level, athlete gender, and type of sport (either team or individual) and gender of the coach. Results revealed that there were no significant differences between athlete gender, type of sport and coach gender. However, significant results were found in relation to competitive level. Elite athletes (international-level and national-level) reported experiencing significantly more frequent negative coach behaviour: they also reported a greater negative emotional response to it than any of the non-elite (recreational-level, club-level and regional-level) groups. Finally, Study Five examined the perceived performance effect, and found a significant negative relationship with frequency, such that has the frequency increased so did the perceived negative performance effect; and a significant positive relationship with emotional response. Further results from this Study Five also found that there were only significant differences in relation to competitive level. Again elite athletes reported significantly greater detriments to their perceived performance resulting from their coach’s behaviour than did non-elite athletes. A consistent finding across all the studies was that when athletes reported ‘never’ having experienced emotionally abusive behaviour from their coach, they always reported ‘no emotional response’, and no effect on their performance. Therefore, the SER-Q was able to discriminate between these two populations of athletes. Overall, the findings from these studies have contributed to the development of a theoretical model that describes the process of emotional abuse from a child athlete perspective. Secondly, the findings reveal that elite athletes report different experiences of being coached when children than non-elite athletes. Furthermore, these studies found that theories anchored in family settings can be used to explore issues within a sports setting, and thus the child maltreatment perspective has relevance in developing sports specific theory in relation to the coach-child athlete relationship. A consistent finding across all the studies was that when athletes reported ‘never’ having experienced emotionally abusive behaviour from their coach, they always reported ‘no emotional response’, and no effect on their performance. Therefore, the SER-Q was able to discriminate between these two populations of athletes. Overall, the findings from these studies have contributed to the development of a theoretical model that describes the process of emotional abuse from a child athlete perspective. Secondly, the findings reveal that elite athletes report different experiences of being coached when children than non-elite athletes. Furthermore, these studies found that theories anchored in family settings can be used to explore issues within a sports setting, and thus the child maltreatment perspective has relevance in developing sports specific theory in relation to the coach-child athlete relationship.

Informe de Seminario para optar al grado de Licenciado en Historia. / Este trabajo abarca cronológicamente el período que va desde 1800 a 1830, momento que marca la transición histórica desde el período colonial hasta los procesos de conformación del Estado nacional en Chile, y el consiguiente tránsito, no mecánico, del súbdito al ciudadano. En este marco, lo local se desenvuelve para mostrar las particularidades de un proceso no lineal ni mecánico de las nuevas conformaciones políticas. Este marco cronológico acoge las expresiones generales antes vistas, pero se justifica en la conformación interna de San Antonio del Mar en Barraza; por un lado, con anterioridad a 1800, consignamos la conformación de un empresariado minero medio y la crisis de las antiguas familias; por otro lado, delimitamos en 1830, ya que con la fundación de Ovalle, San Antonio del Mar en Barraza decae, perdiendo su condición hegemónica en el Valle del Limarí.

Informe de Seminario para optar al grado de Licenciado en Historia. / Este trabajo colectivo, conclusión del Seminario de grado: Elites, Estado y Ciudadanía en Chile 1750-1850, se analiza el desarrollo de la ciudadanía y su relación con la construcción del Estado del siglo XIX. Cronológicamente se sitúa en el periodo de tránsito que va desde la segunda mitad del siglo XVIII en adelante. Es a través de un estudio de larga duración donde se pueden observar cambios y continuidades del proceso político de la conformación de la ciudadanía, de las elites oligárquicas que dominarán en el siglo siguiente y en la forma que asumió el Estado en su fase de construcción por parte de esos grupos. Riqueza, prestigio y honor, condiciones propias del mundo político español de los siglos coloniales para participar en política, fueron rasgos y requisitos que se mantuvieron en el tiempo y le dieron forma a una ciudadanía cargada de privilegios y a la vez excluyente para los otros sectores de la sociedad. En otras palabras, marcó la ubicación política del individuo dentro de la sociedad.

The name of work: Tactic analysis of elite tennis players at grass court The aim: The aim of this work was to find what is the conception of tennis tactic by elite players on grass surface by quantitative analysis of tactical ways of selected players during tournament Wimbledon 2014. Method: The analysis was based on indirect monitoring of video records from Wimbledon 2014. It was used a quantitative investigation using line method in folios. Own analysis was made through a descriptive method. Results: It underlines the tactical methods of elite players on grass surface. Key words: tactic, tennis, grass, elite players

Title: Doping and management in elite sport Objectives: The main aim of this diploma thesis is to find the opinions of the cardinal representatives from professional sport, i.e. top sports officials and elite sportsmans, to doping, who may have the different attitudes to this issue from their position and roles. Methods: In this diploma thesis were used two methods for collection of data. Specifically, the method of questionnaires and semi-structured interview method. Mixed type of research was selected due to deeper into the issue. In the diploma thesis was also used the method of analysis or comparison, mostly to gather sufficient information for the development of theoretical foundations of work. Results: Results of mixed research are interpreted in the research of this diploma thesis. The results of this study found the opinion of the cardinal representatives from professional sport, sports managers and the elite sportsmans, to doping. The results can serve as a basis for future research in this area, for example, when comparing the sports company to the general public, as to whether individuals who show more willingness in the use of doping, they have a different attitude to their body and health than individuals who do not want to show this willingness. Keywords: doping, management, sports...