Beyond Sport for Development and Peace : Transnational Perspectives on Theory, Policy and Practice

Debates around the ‘sport for development and peace’ (SDP) movement have entered a new phase, moving on from simple questions surrounding the utility of sport as a tool of international development. Beyond Sport for Development and Peace argues that critical research and new perspectives and methodologies are necessary to balance the local aspects and global influences of sport and to better understand the power relations embedded in SDP on a transnational scale. As the era of the Millennium Development Goals gives way to a new agenda for sustainable development, this book considers the position of SDP.

The book brings together contributors from 15 different countries across the developed and developing worlds, including academic researchers and ‘on the ground’ experts, practitioners and policy-makers, to provide one of the most diverse set of perspectives assembled in SDP scholarship. Looking to the renewed development agenda, its authors explore theoretical, policy and practical dimensions that address the broadening geographical and cultural spread of SDP, the emergence of issues such as child protection within it, its increased capacity for critical reflection on practice, and its potential for new collaborative approaches to knowledge production. Through its combination of academically-led chapters paired with practice-oriented ‘responses’ it offers an important reconceptualization of SDP as a contributor to development policy, and opens up important new avenues for studying and ‘practising’ SDP. Beyond Sport for Development and Peace is therefore essential reading for all researchers, advanced students, policy-makers and practitioners working in sport development or international development.

Lyndsay M. C. Hayhurst is a Banting Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) postdoctoral fellow at the Liu Institute for Global Issues, University of British Columbia, Canada. Her research interests include sport for development and peace, cultural studies of girlhood, postcolonial feminist theory, global governance, international relations and corporate social responsibility. Her publications have appeared in Third World Quarterly, Sociology of Sport Journal, and Gender, Place and Culture. She has previously worked for the United Nations Development Programme and Right to Play

Tess Kay is Professor in Sport and Social Sciences at Brunel University, London, UK and since 2014 Leader for the Welfare, Health and Wellbeing cross-university multidisciplinary research group. She has conducted a wide range of research into sport, health and social justice. She is an author of Localizing global sport for development, a collaborative account with Iain Lindsey, Ruth Jeanes and Davies Banda, of nearly a decade of interconnected SPD research in Zambia (Bloomsbury, 2015)

Megan Chawansky is a senior lecturer in the School of Sport and Service Management at the University of Brighton, UK. Her research examines various facets of the SDP sector and seeks to offer both theoretical and applied knowledge. She began her work in the SDP realm as a programme director for PeacePlayers International Cyprus in 2008