Local Korfball versus Global Basketball: A Study of the Relationship between Sports Rule-Making and Dissemination

This paper explores the question why korfball has become a local sport, subject to mockery and derision in its country of origin, while basketball has grown out into a global, glamorous sport with mass appeal, although both sports are closely related and highly comparable. In answering this question, this study intends to develop more insight into the relationship between the constitutive rules of sports and their differential dissemination and meaning. It is concluded that rules matter, but do not determine the diffusion of sport. People do. And the social context does. Thus, explanations for differences in the diffusion of sports must not be sought in static intrinsic properties, but in their dynamic social characteristics.