Holly Collison

Processes of development concerning reconciliation, rehabilitation and peace-building have become a central theme for global organizations tasked with intervening in broken and divided societies after violent conflicts. What can reunite populations divided by war and violence whilst attempting to build a peaceful civil society? This book considers the impact and value of sport, notably football, towards achieving this goal. Using extensive fieldwork from Liberia, Collison highlights the multiple and diverse stakeholders and actors aligning themselves with ‘Sport for Development and Peace’ interventions. By unpacking and conceptualising the ambiguous terminology, complex social effects and the lived experience of SDP, this book draw upon participant voices and the author’s own lived experience within SDP to gain symbolic understandings of culture, identity and the formal and informal social structures in which participants and interventions operate. Collison identifies that SDP has become fashionable within development agendas but it remains an aspirational image, a notion of seduction, rather than a tested method of reintegration and youth development in post-conflict environments. Youth and Sport for Development questions the assumptions of SDP rhetoric and programs, and traces the effects of football - the favoured vehicle of SDP- on youth in post-conflict Liberia. Examining three core themes: post-conflict development, youth and community, this book centralises the narratives of young football players in Liberia and will appeal to scholars across Anthropology, Sociology, Sports Studies, Politics and Development.

The Seduction of Football in Liberia

Youth and Sport for Development

Richard Giulianotti

Simon C. Darnell

P. David Howe

Sport and physical activity are now regularly used to promote social and economic development, peacebuilding and conflict resolution, on an international scale. The emergence of the ‘Sport for Development and Peace’ (SDP) sector, comprised of governments, NGOs, sport organizations and others, reveals a high level of institutionalization of this activity, while SDP now constitutes an important element of the scholarly analysis of sport. This volume analyses and critically discusses the central elements of, and research issues within, the field of SDP and also provides a series of case studies (substantive and geographic) of key research. It is the most holistic and far-reaching text published on this topic to date. Featuring multidisciplinary perspectives from world-leading researchers and practitioners from around the world, the book covers a wide range of topics, including SDP structures, policies and funding streams, how SDP relates to human rights, social exclusion and corporate social responsibility, SDP and gender, SDP and disability, SDP and health, SDP and homelessness, and SDP and the environment. The Handbook of Sport for Development and Peace is a vital resource for researchers, students and educators in the fields of sports studies, physical education, sport for development and peace, sport-based youth development, sport and politics, sociology of sport, and sport policy.

Routledge Handbook of Sport for Development and Peace

Geoffery Z. Kohe

Using an interdisciplinary approach, Sport, Education and Corporatisation offers an important critique of the intersection between sport organisations, commercial agendas and educational development. It reveals a discomforting interplay between sector stakeholders that has been normalised via discourses of civic ‘good’, social responsibility and community welfare. The book employs stakeholder theory, corporate social responsibility ideals, and holistic constructions of space to provide a framework to understand some of the latent and explicit complexities of sport sector connectivity. Interrogating the key contexts, issues and challenges that emerge from the Sport-Education-Corporate nexus and drawing upon evidence from international, national and local sport organisations, it argues for sustained and rigorous examination of the commercialisation of educational agendas and new directions for education-based corporate social responsibility within the sport industry. This is an invaluable resource for researchers working in the areas of sport management; sport development; sociology of sport; sport policy and politics; physical education; and the wider economics, organisational politics and business ethics fields. It is also a fascinating read for students within sport business management, sports studies, sport politics and physical education programmes.

Holly Collison

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