Toward a Distinctive Sport Management Discipline

Abstract

The current malaise over sport management’s place and future as an academic discipline provides a useful basis for envisioning the needs and directions for the field’s growth and development. The field’s development requires two complementary streams of research: one that tests the relevance and application of theories derived from other disciplines, and one that is grounded in sport phenomena. The legitimations that sport advocates advance for sport’s place on public agendas are useful starting points for research that is sport focused. The fi ve most common current legitimations for sport are health, salubrious socialization, economic development, community development, and national pride. The value of sport in each case depends on the ways that sport is managed. Factors that facilitate and that inhibit optimization of sport’s contribution to each must be identified and probed. Identifying and probing those factors will be aided by research that confronts popular beliefs about sport, and by research that explores sport’s links to other economic sectors. The resulting research agenda will foster development of a distinctive sport management discipline.

Exploring sense of community among small-scale sport event volunteers

“…The findings also demonstrated the utility of the Sport and Sense of Community theory. Sound theory both explains a phenomenon and contributes to practice within a discipline (see Chalip, 2006, Doherty, 2013Fink, 2013;Van de Ven, 1989), consequently, this work revealed the primary factors in fostering a sense of ! community for athletes are also applicable to other constituents in the sport setting (i.e., smallscale sport event volunteers).…”

“…As discussed, O'Brien and Chalip (2006) noted the need for sustainable development within sport. Thus, it is imperative sport managers and researchers move beyond a strict focus on economic impact of large-scale sport events to investigate how social factors (e.g., sense of community, learned wisdom, knowledge-building,) associated with small-scale events can be harnessed to enhance a volunteers' desire to continue to contribute to sport events in her/his community.…”

“…Moreover, O'Brien and Chalip (2006) noted the need for sustainable development in regards to economic, social and environmental factors as an important paradigm shift in sport event management. These recommendations provide insight regarding how to build community capacity through sustained hosting of small-scale events that enhances long-term social benefits.…”

The benefits and limitations of using cricket as a sport for development tool in Samoa

“…Others have argued there is no blind faith or magic about such a process; community development needs to be driven by engagement with stakeholders, understanding the nuances of their needs, an appreciation of the complexity of program context, the provision of adequate staff, ongoing funding, and so on. For SFD programs to be effective there needs to be strategic development of policies and practices that align with needs of locals, together with plans to achieve community outcomes that have the support, skills and resources needed to provide sustainability (Vail 2007;Lawson 2005;Chalip 2006;Darnel 2012;Schulenkorf & Adair 2014).…”

If sport's the solution then what's the problem? The social significance of sport in the moral governing of ‘good’ and ‘healthy’ citizens in Sweden, 1922–1998

“…In the EU White Paper on Sport, sport is described as an important tool to enhance the health of the European citizens, strengthen Europe's human capital and the Union's external relations, develop social and civic competences, integrate immigrants, contribute to lifelong learning and not least prepare young people for an 'active citizenship' and help them 'steer away from delinquency' (Commission of the European Communities, 2007, p.3-7). With this in mind sport can be understood to be a policy area that is not independent but rather interconnected with political agendas regarding public health, education, social work, economy, citizenship, democracy and civil society, equality and integration, as well as foreign affairs (Chalip, 2006; Commission of the European Communities, 2007).…”