Sport and Social Movements

Abstract

Sport and Social Movements: From the Local to the Global is the first book-length treatment of the way social movements have intersected and continue to intersect with sport. It traces the history of various social movements associated with labour, women, rights (civil, racial, disability and sexual), peace and the environment and their relationship to sport and sports mega-events such as the Olympic Games. Based on research conducted by a multinational team of authors, the book includes a valuable chronology of social movements, illustrations of key episodes in the development of the relationships between sport and different social movements and an agenda for future research and scholarship. Written in a clear and comprehensive style it is suitable for all levels of higher education, researchers and the general reader who want to know more about the role that sport has played in the development of social movements and campaigns for social justice.

Exploring the influence of Black liberatory theory on collegiate sport reform initiatives

“…Still, activism based on the tenets of Marxism has been present in sporting history. Examples include the development of workers' sport leagues in the early 1900s to develop working-class solidarity (Harvey et al, 2014;Wheeler, 1978); the attempts in multiple sports to create playerrun leagues (Ross, 2016); and the famous labor dispute cases such as Curt Flood's challenge of the Major League Baseball's Reserve Clause in 1969 (Briley, 2014). More recently, this perspective implicitly underpinned the attempts by the Northwestern University football team to unionize (Strauss, 2015).…”

A few Weeks in Dirt City: Sport-Related Gentrification, Mobilizing Resistance, and the Art of Failure in Edmonton, Alberta

“…Scholars have recently explored the successes and failures of various sport-related social movements that have opposed sport mega-events like the Olympic Games (Boykoff, 2013; 2020; Dempsey & Zimbalist, 2017; Giulianotti, Armstrong, Hales & Hobbs, 2015; Harvey, Horne, Safai, Darnell & Courchense-O’Neill, 2013; Lenskyj, 2008), and, to a lesser extent, the successes and failures of grassroots groups that have formed to oppose the use of public funds to build facilities for major-league sport franchises (Scherer, 2016; Silver, 1996; Saito, 2012). Most of this research focuses on temporally defined political issues and on measurable outcomes (both positive and negative) akin to the ones the ECBC was seeking (e.g., institutional impact at City Hall).…”

Global sport and the challenges of political life

“…And as many industrial/post-industrial nations experience growing levels of income inequality and inflation, and witness the ongoing growth of the precarious classes and the gig economy (7) the questions of what is to be pursued through public sport policy and whose interests are being served, take on even further significance. Add to the mix that such policies and policy makers are now also tasked with responding to crises of abuse in sport, 8 and addressing the relationship between sport and the climate crisis, 9 and it is clear that sport policy makers and scholars are navigating a new context. These latter policy issues in sport lead into the emerging field of sports and the law.…”

“…These are big issues, but the complexity and richness of this field of sport Politics, Policy and Law extends even further, given that sport also has long been a site in and through various actors have engaged in political activism and dissent. It is here that the question about social movements in and through sport is still germane [see (8)]. Even though the media attention afforded Colin Kaepernick's kneeling protest before National Football League games has somewhat faded, there are still important relationships between sport and social movements currently in play.…”