Swedish Proselytism and Exportation of Orienteering in Europe. Incitation, Normalization and Diffusion. 1930-1967

Résumé En

Orientering as a competitive activity clearly distinct from traditions appeared in the Northern countries in late XIXth Century. Just before WWI, the institutionalisation of orientering underwent an important step in Sweden, with the foundation of an autonomous body, the so-called Svenska Orienteringsförbundets. New structures were also soon to follow in Norway, Finland and Denmark. A co-operation between these later bodies was finally made possible in 1946 when the Nordisk Orienterings Råd was created. The aim of this international organisation was to make the conditions of the sport more homogenous, and to look for new countries to diffuse it worldwide. Such an ambition resulted in the foundation of the International Orienteering Federation by ten European countries in 1961: in addition to the four Scandinavian countries, this first body included Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, West Germany, Hungary and Switzerland. This paper’s aim consists in highlighting the Swedish’s strategy to diffuse internationally a sport whose norms were largely defined by them. We will focus on the constitution of the Nordisk Orienterings Råd and, within this structure, on the creation of the International Orienteering Federation itself. Two case studies will be taken, Czechoslovakia and France, to analyze the various ways of the Swedish proselytism outside the Scandinavian borders. We will argue that coherent politics of incitation, normalization and diffusion are all tools to promote and affirm a Scandinavian model of orienteering.