Sport and Sustainable Development

An Introduction

Stavros Triantafyllidis, Cheryl Mallen, Stavros Triantafyllidis, Cheryl Mallen

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9780367653347
• eBook ISBN: 9781000532821
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Environment & Energy Policy
• Index: Business

Sport has the potential to be a powerful platform for positive change. This is the first textbook to introduce the fundamentals of sport and sustainable development, examining how sport can be made more sustainable in terms of its social and environmental impact, and how sport can achieve more comprehensive social and ecological objectives.

Introducing key theory, and looking at how sustainability has been embedded in real-world organizations, projects, and developments, the book draws on a range of multidisciplinary perspectives including sport business and management, development studies, environmental studies, sociology, psychology, and political science. Every chapter includes international viewpoints from the voices of professionals who have been successful in achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs) in and through their work. As pressure grows on sport, business, and wider society to put sustainability and social and environmental responsibility at the center of their operations, the themes and topics examined in this book become ever more important.

This is essential reading for any course on sport and sustainable development, and important background reading for any course in sport management, sport development, event studies, environment and society, business and the environment, or social responsibility.

PART I The foundation of sport and sustainable development

1 Introduction to sport and sustainable development

Stavros Triantafyllidis and Cheryl Mallen

DOI: 10.4324/9781003128953-1

Learning objectives

Upon completion of this chapter, learners should be able to successfully:

1. Define the concept of sport and sustainable development (S&SD)
2. Identify theories and practical mechanisms associated with S&SD
3. Apply the analytical and normative concepts of sustainable development to S&SD and explain how it can be used to build robust systems in sport and society through the incorporation of the six perspectives: Personal, social, economic, ecological, technological, and political
4. Recognize the two stages when building S&SD – stage I: Sustainable development of sport (SDoS) and stage II: Sport for sustainable development (S4SD)
5. Contemplate and develop effective strategic plans for S&SD and its six perspectives
6. Conceptually create antifragility and global sustainability through S&SD

Overview

The world faces a range of contemporary issues impacting the sustainability of our societies today and into the future. Examples of such issues encompass social inclusion and justice, establishing environmental safeguards, and ensuring our cities’ economic viability. An approach used in this text to advance our understandings of sustainability involves positioning sport as a tool to highlight the contemporary problems and potential strategies for moving forward into the future. This approach helps to advance our understandings of both sport and society – as the study of sport can represent a microcosm of society.

This chapter begins by outlining the learning objectives and glossary of terms. Next, sustainability and sustainable development (SD) concepts are defined, followed by a presentation on the conceptual foundations of a relatively new field of study called sport and sustainable development (S&SD) and the two key stages for successfully implementing sustainability. The first stage is the sustainable development of sport (SDoS) that focuses on sustainability adaptions within sport, and the second stage is sport for sustainable development (S4SD), that focuses on how sport can be used as a vehicle to transition society to achieve sustainability. It is essential to emphasize that for S&SD to become an effective strategy for global sustainability, sport works to become sustainable. Throughtout this process sport can advocate for sustainability which allows society to learn from the experience of sport. Each stage can be examined via an application of six shared perspectives or levels in S&SD, including the personal, social, economic, ecological, technological, and political.

Additionally, examinations of sport are promoted through the use of two theoretical concepts. The first is the analytical concept used to describe sport, outline the issues, generate predictions, and determine prescriptive ways to address our contemporary global problems. Insights can be derived by breaking sport down based on the six perspectives outlined above and examining each to generate understandings of our modern sporting society, including its benefits, flaws, and the interlinkages between the six perspectives. Second, the normative concept involves using examinations of sport to develop a universal vision of a well-functioning society and applying learning from sport to show society successful strategies on how to move forward. Notably, the concept of antifragility (or creating a capacity to adapt to avoid failure) underscores the topic of sustainability.

A call is made for leadership in S&SD to guide those in sport on the journey to identify, define, analyze, provide constructive criticism, along with advancing critical thinking to explain, evaluate, and resolve some of sport and the world’s current issues concerning sustainability. Further, debates are encouraged related to how S&SD, including SDoS and S4SD, can effectively build robust and sustainable systems within sport and society. Debates are encouraged for applying the two analytical concepts, including how to utilize the various visions of a good society, including a good sporting society, and how to transition collectively moving forward.

Now, let’s get started with the learning objectives, followed by the glossary of terms. Then we can delve into the topic of sport and sustainability.

Glossary

Antifragility

The pursuit of robust systems that help increase the capability of individuals and organizations to thrive despite stressors, shocks, volatility, noise, mistakes, faults, attacks, or failures (Taleb, 2012).

Endosustainability

The term is derived from the endo- (within) (Dictionary.com, 2021) and sustainable (able to maintain the use of the resource at a certain level that the resource is not depleted) (Mirriam-Webster.com, 2021). Endosustainability in, the SDoS involves the actions within sport to advance the sustainability of all aspects, such as the sport organizations, operations, manufacturing, and events.

Sport

“Sport means all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organized participation, aim at expressing or improving physical fitness and well-being, forming social relationships or obtaining results in competition at all levels” (Szathmári & Kocsis, 2020, p. 4).

Sport and sustainable development (S&SD)

S&SD is the process that includes two stages: SDoS and S4SD that, together, enhance the development that meets the needs of current generations without compromising future generations’ ability to meet their own needs at the personal, social, economic, ecological, technological, and political levels (Millington et al., 2021; Szathmári & Kocsis, 2020; Triantafyllidis & Darvin, 2021).

Sport for sustainable development (S4SD)

S4SD refers to the contribution of sport to our global societies’ viability by encouraging sustainability across the six perspectives of personal, social, economic, ecological, technological, and political worldwide (Macovei et al., 2014; Millington et al., 2021; Schulenkorf, 2012).

Sustainability

The term refers to “the integration of environmental health, social equity, and economic vitality to create thriving, healthy, diverse and resilient communities for this generation and generations to come” (University of California, Los Angeles, 2021, para. 2).

The term encompasses the initiatives and progress in pursuit of sustainability. According to the Brundtland Commission (2001), sustainable development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (p. 82). This includes “the narrow notion of physical sustainability [that] implies a concern for social equity between generations, a concern that must logically be extended to equity within each generation” (p. 82).

Sustainable development of sport (SDoS)

SDoS refers to the sustainable practices taken by sport regarding the management of sport products, services, events, and sport consumer behaviors to achieve sustainability within the world of sport that encompasses six perspectives including the personal, social, economic, ecological, technological, and political (McCullough et al., 2020; Szathmári & Kocsis, 2020; Triantafyllidis & Darvin, 2021)

The analytical concept applied to sport and sustainable development (S&SD)

A theoretical approach for analyzing sport as a platform to understand the world as a complex interaction of personal, social, economic, ecological, technological, and political systems. Understandings from the individual parts can be combined to determine S&SD that can be applied as a microcosm of society (Millington et al., 2021; Szathmári & Kocsis, 2020; Triantafyllidis & Darvin, 2021).

The normative concept applied to sport and sustainable development (S&SD)

Examinations are completed using sport as a platform to view the world by defining the objectives of a well-functioning society that delivers well-being for its global citizens today and for future generations. The normative concept urges us to have a universal vision of a good society. These examinations lead to understandings of where we are currently and the gaps that need to be addressed moving into the future based on the six perspectives of S&SD (Millington et al., 2021; Szathmári & Kocsis, 2020; Triantafyllidis & Darvin, 2021).

Synopsis: Sustainability, sustainable development (SD), sport and sustainable development (S&SD)

Sport can be a powerful and effective vehicle for demonstrating and advancing sustainability and sustainable development (Yélamos et al., 2019). The term sustainability refers to “the integration of environmental health, social equity, and economic vitality to create thriving, healthy, diverse, and resilient communities for this generation and generations to come” (University of California, Los Angeles, 2021, para. 2). Sustainable development encompasses the initiatives and progress in pursuit of sustainability. According to the McCarthy Brundtland Commission 2001, sustainable development is defined as the “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (p. 82). This includes narrow notion of physical sustainability [that] implies a concern for social equity between generations, a concern that must logically be extended to equity within each generation” (p. 82).

An application of sustainable development gives rise to a sub-division within sport management called S&SD. The newly developed area of S&SD has grown due to sport’s power to influence those within sport and society – in this case, the influence is for advancing sustainability in both sport and the culture withi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Lists of figures
• List of tables
• List of contributors
• Experts of the field
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• PART I: The foundation of sport and sustainable development
• PART II: Sport and sustainable development perspectives
• PART III: The future of sport and sustainable development
• Index