Member's News
No.40
January 2004
 
    

International Association for the Philosophy of Sport
Prof. Sigmund Loland
President, IAPS
 


The International Association for the Philosophy of Sport (IAPS) was founded in 1972. It publishes a biannual journal and organises annual meetings. Below are some comments on our activities in 2003.
  • The 2003 annual meeting was hosted by the University of Gloucestershire, UK. It was the largest meeting ever with 100 submitted abstracts of which approximately 60 papers were selected for presentation, in three parallel sessions. In addition, the conference included two key note addresses and a Presidential address.
  • The membership has this year approved constitutional amendments valid from 2003 in which the Presidency is defined as a two year-position as opposed to the previous one-year position. As a constitutional amendment this process has taken two annual meetings to execute (from proposal at the Annual Meeting, then on to a vote of the full membership). The rationale for this move is to provide greater continuity than the previous one-year President-Elect, President, and Past President roles. It is hoped that it will also lead to more effective leadership of the Association particularly on the international stage.
  • From 2001, the Association’s Journal: The Journal of Philosophy of Sport (JPS), published by Human Kinetics, became a biannual journal. The journal is of a high quality and the rejection rate has, despite doubling its production, been held at approximately 70-80%. Its current editor, Prof. Nick Dixon, reports of increasing interest in the journal. There is an increasing number of quality submissions from authors who have not published in the field before, whether as researchers in sports and Physical Education departments, or indeed from mainstream philosophy departments.
  • During the last years, the IAPS has developed a web page, found at www.iaps.net, which includes information about the organisation, information about relevant actitivities, and a link to the IAPS Newsletter which is published electronically three times a year. With the introduction of a web master position in 2003, the web page is updated regularly and has increased significantly in quality.
  • There were considerable regret among the membership at not being able to organise the annual 2004 conference in conjunction with the pre-Olympic conference in Thessaloniki, Greece. As part of our constitution we are bound to hold our Annual Meeting at the same time as the conference. Unfortunately we were unable to secure absolute agreement that this would be possible in a timely fashion. IAPS members will contribute to the conference in terms of invited symposium, a keynote (Prof Bill Morgan, Ohio State University, USA) and by papers to the call. Prof Kretchmar of Penn State university, USA has agreed to act in a review capacity for the Scientific Committee.
  • The 2004 conference will be organised in Fort Worth, Texas. More information about deadlines for submission of abstracts and the conference can be found on the home pages of the IAPS.
In summary, with the high number of conference papers and submissions to the JPS as my basis, and with a series of local conferences on sport philosophy being arranged in various parts of the world (of which the latest one took place in Ljubljana, Slovenia at the end of November), the IAPS appears as a flourishing academic society with considerable potential for further growth.


Prof. Sigmund Loland
President, IAPS
Norwegian University for Sport and Physical Education



http://www.icsspe.org/portal/bulletin-january2004.htm