The History and Politics of Sport-for-Development

Abstract

The Global Culture and Sport series aims to contribute to and advance the debate about sport and globalization through engaging with various aspects of sport culture as a vehicle for critically excavating the tensions between the global and the local, transformation and tradition and sameness and difference. With studies ranging from snowboarding bodies, the globalization of rugby and the Olympics, to sport and migration, issues of racism and gender, and sport in the Arab world, this series showcases the range of exciting, pioneering research being developed in the field of sport sociology.More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15008

Sport for Development and Transformative Social Change: The Potential of Margaret Archer’s Morphogenetic Approach to Reconceptualize a Long-Standing Problem

“…It is therefore important not only to recognize that agents and structures have distinct characteristics but also that different agents in SFD, who occupy different social positions, can have varying powers to transform or reproduce aspects of the social world. As various authors such as Kidd (2008), Lindsey et al (2017), andDarnell, Field, andKidd (2019) have described, the SFD movement has emerged over recent decades as constituted by various policies, organizations, and programs. None of these social forms are reducible to any specific collection of individuals but it remains the case that all have emerged as a result of the actions of agents working individually and collectively.…”

“…Agents have done so in particular circumstances and through being reflective, perhaps to different extents, about the structural and cultural contexts to which their policies and programs relate. As a specific and welldescribed example, the creation of the Mathare Youth Sport Association in Kenya came through its founder, Bob Munro, reflecting on his encounters with material poverty in Nairobi's Mathare settlement as well as his reflections on his own experiences of youth sport in his native Canada (Darnell et al, 2019).…”

Bringing the Community to the Uni—Critical Reflections on Youth Recreation Partnerships in Toronto

“…In this model of sport-for-development (SfD), highlighted by the global Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) sector (see Collison et al, 2019 ), sport programs are organized and implemented in order to meet non-sport goals like health promotion, gender empowerment and peace building or conflict resolution. While the general idea of sport making a positive contribution to social development has a long history, dating back as far as the 19th century (see Darnell et al, 2019 ), SfD has grown, both as a popular idea and as a policy model, in the past few decades. Importantly, and in a manner similar to university/community partnerships overall, the novelty of sport-for-development is due, at least in part, to the retraction of the welfare state across much of the global North, which charged educators and community leaders with the task of finding innovative ways to meet the needs of their students or community members (see Hartmann and Kwauk, 2011 ).…”

Sport and Incarceration: Theoretical Considerations for Sport for Development Research

“…SfD, despite its similarities to historical 'sport-for-good' efforts, is a relatively recent phenomenon that focuses on leveraging sport to achieve a wide array of social, educational and health outcomes (Darnell, 2012;Darnell, Field, & Kidd, 2019). SfD interventions are typically implemented in Global South countries with funding and ideological support from governmental, nongovernmental and corporate donors based in the Global North (Darnell, 2012); however, the logic of SfD is increasingly being applied to programs targeting supposedly 'vulnerable' or 'at-risk' groups in Global North countries (e.g., Hayhurst & Giles, 2013;Nols, Haudenhuyse, & Theeboom, 2017;Scherer, Koch, & Holt, 2016).…”