Spatialising Sport Management

Abstract

Sport and geography may be considered allied and complementary disciplines. They share, variously, interests in ideological and physical spaces, political and socio-cultural processes of space-and place-making, historical dis-/continuities, individual and collective identity formation, demography and topographies and representational practices therein. Additionally, sports geography has also emerged as a distinct field of study. Notwithstanding the diversity and strength of activities undertaken within sports geography, and substantive research foundations, the subject still sits uneasily within Higher Education degree programmes. Sports geography modules may, for example, be taught independently within Geography, Sport Management/Studies/Science, Urban Studies, Development or Liberal Arts programmes, or form a bridge across shared degree/honours courses as a way of attracting an interdisciplinary audience of students. Regardless of institutional 'home', sports geography, we believe, affords a rich context for engaging students with critical contemporary issues, global-local analysis, and socio-cultural complexities and social justice concerns, guided by spatial theorists. We argue in this paper for a more pronounced place for sports geography -specifically, critical spatial studies -within Sports Management. In doing so, we draw on our professional and personal experiences teaching sport and geography related courses in the United Kingdom and wider Europe, USA, New Zealand, Australia and Taiwan. First, we contextualise the teaching of sports geography against wider Higher Education forces. Second, we provide pedagogical illustrations of the benefits of a sports geography focus. Finally, we offer some recommendations and reflections. Ultimately, we advocate for improved collaboration between Sports Management and Geography fields, and call for continued scholarly and pedagogical symbiosis and play that might produce new and creative interdisciplinary inquiry.