Ninth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

The number of Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) initiatives around the world has grown significantly over the past fifteen years, increasingly positioning sport as a panacea to a wide range of social, economic and health problems. This has led to ineffective (often counter-intuitive) programming, Northern-imposed definitions of “development,” and a focus on individualism. As a result, numerous calls to refine sport from its citizenship-building goals pervade recent sport for development literature, while scholars from a variety of non-sport disciplines have increasingly called for a consideration of play as worthwhile for its own sake. Heeding these appeals, presentation proposes a sport-for-enjoyment (SFE) model. This framework promotes the enjoyment of sport as worthwhile for its own intrinsic value and considers children’s enjoyment of these activities as worthwhile societal and political objectives. An SFE model moves sport away from its mythic qualities as a panacea; escapes normative definitions of development; and emphasizes participatory methodologies of implementation. It may take a variety of forms, depending on the needs of the participants and communities, and is promoted through proper provisions of resources, policies, and participatory input. Fundamentally, however, it asks SDP scholars to re-examine development.