Mens & Maatschappij - Volume 87, Issue 2, 2012

Does elite sporting success have a lasting impact on national pride? .

Like many other countries, the Dutch government increased investments in elite sports in the last decennium, partly driven by the ambition to organize the Olympic Games in 2028 in the Netherlands. One of the most important legitimations for this ambition is that elite sports events and national performances should foster national pride, social cohesion and international prestige.

In this article we present and discuss the results of a study on the relation between Dutch international sport performances and the development of national pride. The outcome is based on 27 longitudinal measurements among the adult Dutch population in the years 2008-2010 in which European and world Championships men’s soccer and a summer and winter Olympic Games took place.

The results support the common belief that international sporting success of Dutch athletes contribute to the testimony and expression of national pride and belonging. But the extent to which national pride can be increased by national sporting success seems to be rather limited. The data show that national performances in international sport events may lead to small, short term eruptions in feelings of national sporting pride and wellbeing, especially among athletes, men and non-immigrants. The results especially indicate, however, that national pride is a rather stable characteristic of national identification that cannot easily be increased by improving national sporting success and winning more Olympic medals.

In this article, we raised the question as to what extent members from higher status groups effectuated social resources, more specifically voluntary association membership, as a possible new compensating strategy to guarantee a successful intergenerational transmission of their occupational status. For that purpose, we investigated whether voluntary association membership (of parents and their child) mediate the positive effect of parental occupational status on that of their child and whether it has become more important over time as an explanation of the intergenerational transmission of occupational status. In the empirical analysis, we incorporated voluntary association membership into the classic status attainment model and estimated path models using retrospective life course data from the Family Survey Dutch Population 2000. The empirical results showed that voluntary association membership does not play a mediating role in the intergenerational transmission of occupational status for the 1916-1947 birth cohort. However, it does so for the 1948-1960 birth cohort, thereby becoming an effective compensating strategy in the intergenerational transmission of occupation status.

This study examines determinants of vote switching behaviour in the Netherlands in the period 1994-2006. Hypotheses about the influence of social integration and television watching behaviour are tested. By using the Dutch Parliamentary Electoral Studies, we examine whether these factors have an influence on the chance to switch party between two consecutive national parliamentary elections. We find support for some of the hypotheses derived from social integration theory. People living in more urbanized areas and people who have another religious affiliation than their parents switch more often, while it does not matter whether a person differs from his/her parents with respect to occupational class. Our hypothesis about the influence of television watching behaviour is supported: people who watch newscasts more often have a higher chance of switching.

Rede uitgesproken bij de openbare aanvaarding van het ambt van hoogleraar Empirische Sociologie aan de Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam op 27 januari 2012