THE EMERGENCE OF PROFESSIONALIZATION IN SPORT: COMPLEMENTARY PERSPECTIVES

摘要

This case-based paper explores the emergence of professionalization and professionalism in elite and amateur sport. Using a case study, and the systems representational tools of qualitative systems dynamics, it complements a systems perspective of the interdependent dynamic processes and relationships existing between dimensions of commercialism, commercialization, professionalization and professionalism within elite sport, with perspectives derived from within the frame of institutional theory. In doing so, the paper provides insights about how such relationships, and the institutional context within which they exist, have impacted on the development of professionalism within the amateur code of a major sport whose elite level has been subject to professionalization.