Lyndsay M.C. Hayhurst

The power to shape policy: charting sport for development and peace policy discourses

This paper discusses findings from a development policy discourse analysis that was conducted using six key sport for development and peace (SDP) policy documents. The research was guided by a theoretical framework combining postcolonial theory and actor-oriented sociology in order to critically analyse SDP policies. Based on this analysis, three theses are proposed: (1) SDP policies are unclear, circuitous and are underpinned by political rationalities; (2) coordinated and coherent SDP policy approaches between the One-Third World and Two-Thirds World suggest that ‘partnership’ is possibly akin to ‘developmental assimilation’; and (3) SDP policy models are wedded to the increasingly neoliberal character of international development interventions. Proposals for future research on SDP include an increase in the use of: (1) anthropological perspectives to uncover how those on the ‘receiving end’ of SDP policies are influenced and challenged by taking up the solutions and techniques prescribed for them; and (2) postcolonial perspectives that re-orient questions and concerns towards the Eurocentric standpoints couched in development policies, and asks scholars to uncover how power relations, authority and influence are embedded in the social processes of policy-making. The article concludes by arguing that SDP policies are messy, unpredictable, ambiguous and, at times, contradictory.

Sport for decolonization Exploring a new praxis of sport for development

Sport is now mobilized as a novel and effective means of achieving international development goals, leading to an increasingly institutionalized relationship between sport and development. While there is recent evidence of the effectiveness of Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) programmes and policies, research has also drawn attention to the relations of power that underpin the movement and, in particular, to colonizing tendencies in SDP initiatives. This article explores this critical research and considers it against the insights and importance of a development praxis concerned with decolonization. We argue that SDP scholars and activists would be well served to consider the main tenets of a decolonizing framework and we put forth some theoretical and methodological imperatives for decolonizing sport for development.

Corporatising Sport, Gender and Development: postcolonial IR feminisms, transnational private governance and global corporate social engagement

Abstract The ‘Girl Effect’ is a growing but understudied movement that assumes girls are catalysts capable of bringing social and economic change for their families, communities and countries. The evolving discourse associated with this movement holds profound implications for development programmes that focus on girls and use sport and physical activity to promote gender equality, challenge gender norms, and teach confidence and leadership skills. Increasingly sport, gender and development (sgd) interventions are funded and implemented by multinational corporations (mncs) as part of the mounting portfolio of corporate social responsibility (csr) initiatives in international development. Drawing on postcolonial feminist ir theory and recent literature on transnational private governance, this article considers how an mnc headquartered in the global North that funds a sgd programme informed by the ‘Girl Eeffect’ movement in the Two-Thirds World is implicated in the postcolonial contexts in which it operates. Qualitative research methods were used, including interviews with mnc csr staff members. The findings reveal three themes that speak to the colonial residue within corporate-funded sgd interventions: the power of brand authority; the importance of ‘authentic’ subaltern stories; and the politics of the ‘global’ sisterhood enmeshed in saving ‘distant’ others. The implications of these findings for sgd are discussed in terms of postcolonial feminist approaches to studying sport for development and peace more broadly.

Inevitable Tensions: Swiss and Canadian Sport for Development NGO Perspectives on Partnerships with High Performance Sport

ABSTRACT Over 400 sport for development non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have formed in recent years, operating projects in more than 125 countries globally. These NGOs typically focus on sport participation in countries in the Two-Thirds World, and usually have partnerships with their more established national sports organizations in their home country. Drawing on partnership theory, the purpose of this study was to analyse tensions underpinning partnerships with high performance sport from the perspectives of staff in Swiss and Canadian sport for development NGOs. Qualitative research methods were used, including a content analysis of the two NGO websites along with various organizational documents. Key staff from each NGO were also interviewed. The findings reveal three major tensions that both NGOs encounter. The first is competing values and this was tied to different approaches to sport programme delivery and concerns that NGO programmes are seen as a feeder system for their high performance sport partners. The second tension related to gaining legitimacy. While there were benefits in being associated with the established histories of high performance sport partners, the NGOs wanted to move the sport for development agenda forward independently but found it difficult to do so. Resource dependency was a third tension identified by both NGOs that shaped and were shaped by power imbalances between sport partners. The implications of the findings for sport for development NGOs and ideas for future research are discussed.

Hegemony, postcolonialism and sport-for-development: a response to Lindsey and Grattan

In their article in this volume, entitled ‘An “international movement”? Decentering sport for development within Zambian communities”, Iain Lindsey and Alan Grattan (2012) highlight important issues of agency, locality, diversity and culture within the current mobilization of sport to meet international development goals. Drawing on valuable fieldwork in Zambia, the authors suggest that prior research may have overstated the solidity and boundaries of an ‘international’ movement towards sport-for-development and exaggerated the influence of northern initiatives in the Global South and the hegemony of neoliberal development policy. As two of the authors whose work is evaluated, we offer a rejoinder in which we suggest that Lindsey and Grattans analyses are important and insightful but best viewed as complementary to the critical analyses of northern-led development and neoliberalism. Drawing on Gramscian hegemony and postcolonial theory, we make the case for a renewed commitment to the issues of power and resistance in the mobilization of sport to meet international development goals.

The 'Girl Effect' and martial arts: social entrepreneurship and sport, gender and development in Uganda.

In recent years, three notable trends have emerged in the gender and development landscape: the increasing use of sport as a tool to achieve gender and development objectives (SGD); the expanding involvement of transnational corporations (TNCs) in creating, funding and implementing development programs; and the ‘girling’ of development. The last trend has largely been facilitated by the proliferation of the global ‘Girl Effect’ campaign, or ‘the unique potential of 600 million adolescent girls to end poverty for themselves and the world’ (Girl Effect 2011). This article reports on findings from a global ethnography – involving semi-structured interviews, participant observation and document analysis – that considered how sport-oriented Girl Effect interventions impact the lives of girls they target. Using a Girl Effect-focused partnership among a TNC (based in Western Europe), an international nongovernmental organization (NGO) (based in Western Europe) and a Southern NGO (based in Uganda) as a case study, this article examines how SGD programs for Ugandan girls encourage them to become ‘entrepreneurs of themselves’ (Rose 1999) equipped to survive in the current global neoliberal climate using social entrepreneurial tactics such as training to be martial arts instructors combined with activities such as cultivating nuts. Results show how Girl Effect-oriented SGD programs that focus on social entrepreneurship tend to overlook the broader structural inequalities and gender relations that marginalize girls in the first place. I conclude by suggesting that future studies must further explore the socio-economic, cultural and political implications and consequences that social entrepreneurship and ‘economic forms’ of SGD interventions hold for girls.

Navigating neoliberal networks: Transnational Internet platforms in sport for development and peace

Internet platforms are increasingly becoming strategic tools for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) involved in international development to collaborate, share information, and gain legitimacy. Drawing on the literature on neoliberalism, sport for development, globalization and networking through communication technologies, this article examines the interpretations of staff working in Canadian and Swiss sport for development and peace (SDP) NGOs on the role of the Platform, while also exploring the challenges and benefits of the Platform for each NGO. Qualitative research methods were utilized, including a content analysis of documents on the Platform and the two NGO websites, along with interviews with staff from both NGOs. The findings revealed, on one hand, that staff for both NGOs were concerned about the Platform’s potential to support collaboration amongst organizations that: a) are frequently in competition with one another – a feature of NGO culture in a neoliberal political environment; and b) commonly adopt divergent approaches to SDP work. On the other hand, both NGOs acknowledged that the Platform and the UN-endorsed International Year of Sport and Physical Education were at times useful for disseminating and legitimizing SDP globally, although the potential of new media technologies has not been realized because of inequalities within and around the NGO community. Implications of the findings along with ideas for future research are discussed.

The State of Play: Critical sociological insights into recent 'Sport for Development and Peace research

The maturation of the field of ‘Sport for Development and Peace’ (SDP) is reflected in the growing number of research publications on the topic. This article focuses on a recent review of English-language research publications on SDP from 2000–2014 conducted by Schulenkorf et al. (2016. Sport for development: an integrated literature review. Journal of Sport Management 30: 22–39). We attempt to extend the analysis of current SDP research offered by Schulenkorf et al. through an exploration of the sociological implications of their key findings. In particular, we offer critical sociological commentary on key insights regarding the conceptualization of SDP; the dominant theoretical perspectives used in SDP research; the methodology and dissemination of SDP research and the demographics of researchers and research teams. In so doing, we seek to encourage critical reflection and practical considerations for scholars interested in the critical sociological analysis of SDP.

Sport for development and peace: a call for transnational, multi-sited, postcolonial feminist research

In this paper, I reflect upon and discuss findings from an empirical study that employed a postcolonial feminist approach to a multi-sited global ethnography of a sport for development and peace (SDP) initiative. Building on postcolonial feminist perspectives pertaining the importance of creating cross-border feminist solidarities anchored in struggles in the specificities of ‘the local’, in combination with recent work on research on transnational global activist research that explores issues of NGOization, I investigate two key methodological challenges and tensions that emerged in my research, including: (1) the politics and perils of translation in cross-cultural research; and (2) the technologies of aid evaluation and ethics of representation. I conclude by critically considering struggles of power, knowledge and social relations in local and transnational SDP, and discuss possibilities for mutual accountability and ethical responsibility in future SDP research, policy and practice.

De-Colonising the Politics and Practice of Sport-for-Development: Critical Insights from Post-Colonial Feminist Theory and Methods

There is now significant global recognition of, and support for, the role of sport in helping to achieve international development goals and peaceful co-existence. This can be seen in the institutionalisation and professionalisation of the ‘Sport for Development and Peace’ (SDP) sector, and the work of numerous non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that now plan and implement SDP programmes around the world.1 The establishment of the SDP sector is also evident through the work of the United Nations Office on Sport for Development and Peace (UNOSDP), which acts as an advocate and organiser. In its recent report (2011), the UNOSDP described its mandate as working: to promote sport as an innovative and efficient tool in advancing the United Nations’ goals, missions and values. Through advocacy, partnership facilitation, policy work, project support and diplomacy, UNOSDP strives to maximize the contribution of sport and physical activity to help create a safer, more secure, more sustainable, more equitable future.