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