The second volume of the proceedings of the ISHPES Congress in Berlin focuses mainly on different aspects of games and physical activities in contemporary history. Sport, games and dance are not analysed as isolated structures, but as integrated parts of the social, economical and political system.Special and critical consideration was given to the correlation between the increasing popularisation of modern sport on the one hand and a simultaneous 'desportification' of reaction on the other, to specific questions of the Olympic movement and to the changes of sport and physical activities in Eastern Europe. After the political changes the history of sport in Eastern Europe has to be reconstructed from a new perspective. Since movement cultures are always characterised and even defined by gender division, this volume deals explicitly with the opportunities and the problems of both girls and women, not only in the context of movement culture but also with reference to the sexual hierarchy prevailing in a given society.