Sport and Local Identity

The sixth annual ISHPES seminar was held in Kanazawa, Japan from July 9 to 12, 2002. The theme of the seminar was 'Local Identity and Sport'. A total of 150 people from 20 countries around the world participated in the discussions, which included research presentations, keynote speeches, and a roundtable discussion, as well as a few lively debates. Professor Guttmann and Professor Okubo gave the keynote speeches on the first day. From the second day, a total of 59 oral presentations were held in three rooms, with themes including 'The Development and Globalization of Sport', 'Traditional and Local Sports', and 'Gender and Physical Education Policy' among others. An additional 26 poster presentations were made in a fourth room. Amid the beautiful view and relaxed atmosphere, many meaningful exchanges took place. The final day saw a roundtable workshop with the main theme of 'Local Identity and Sport'. Through the theme of 'Local Identity and Sport' and the vast amount of research carried out by the many participants, it became apparent that sport plays an important role in local identity, the development of an area, the formation of community, and nationalism. The question of local identity is an important one, and should be touched upon again in the future. Local identity helps us to understand the true nature of sport and its relation to people's daily lives. This book contains 83 papers; among others from Ikuo Abe, Heiko Bittmann, Richard Cox, Gigliola Gori, Claudia Guedes, Allen Guttmann, Manuela Hasse, Keiko Ikeda, Hannu Itkonen, Istvan Kertesz, Hideaki Kinoshita, Yasunao Kojita, Jarmo Kortelainen, Kazuhiko Kusudo, Felix Lebed, Jin Soo Lee, Young-Il Na, Gertrud Pfister, Hideaki Okubo, Joachim Ruehl, Dave Russel, Shigeo Shimizu, Thiery Terret, Lee Thompson, Jen-Shung Tsai, Patricia Vertinski, Tôru Watanabe, Tokuro Yamamoto, and Xiaozheng Xiong.