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International Review for the Sociology of Sport
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Globalized Fitness in the Norwegian Context

The Perfect Meets the Popular

Kari Steen-Johnsen

Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Norway, kari.steen-johnsen{at}nih.no

This article analyses the corporatization of a national sports culture, Norwegian keep-fit exercise, by commercial fitness organizations. The introduction of commercial fitness in Norway from the 1980s is examined based on advertisements from the major Norwegian commercial fitness chains, media texts and qualitative interviews with commercial fitness entrepreneurs. The neo-institutional concept of translation is used to identify how this new, global fitness culture was transformed by commercial chains to fit the Norwegian context, by drawing on ideas and values within traditional Norwegian keep-fit exercise. The conditions determining actors' possibilities for performing such a translation successfully are then discussed. In addition to adequate financial and administrative resources, the ability of actors to understand and interact with different societal sectors is pointed out as crucial to their ability to translate global, commercial concepts into local contexts. The article contributes to the existing literature on global corporatization processes of sport by using a case taken from keep-fit exercise and not from competitive and elite sport. The case involves other sets of institutions and actors, and sheds light on how aspects of sport that are not related to performance may still be used to constitute globalized sporting cultures.

Key Words: corporatization • fitness • globalization • neo-institutionalism • translation

International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Vol. 42, No. 3, 343-362 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1012690207088112
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