Models of sport for development and peace
NSSS Master student and one of the organisors of the Discussion forum on Sport for Development and Peace, Peter Legat, give his thoughts and reflections on the September 2005 session.
Legat believes different assumptions about society can influence our planning and implementation of sport for development and peace activities.
- We can either view society as a structure which is based on consensus or conflict, he says.
- If we assume that the social order of a society is based on consensus, we view different parts of the society to be linked in a functional way. That is, different individuals and groups depend on each other and the maintenance of this harmonious structure is to the benefit of all. From a consensus based perspective, however, the role of sport in society is seen as a system-supporting one, maintaining the existing structure of society.
- In conflict-based social theoretical thinking, those who have power will try to create and maintain a social order which is beneficial to their interests. From that perspective, sport is rather seen as a way of maintaining the interests of the power elite - an ’opiate for the people‘, Legat says.
Practical consequences
An organisation with a consensus perspective, could design activities according to what are accepted social roles for men and women in that society. In practice, this could mean that competitive football programmes are designed for male participants only in order to foster discipline and leadership qualities to enable them to economically secure their families.
For females, physically less involving activities are designed in order to develop their abilities to manage their households and care for their families in a better way.
An organisation with a conflict perspective would use sports activities to actively attack social norms considered to be a means of maintaining unjust structures created by those in power.
- This could mean that sports programmes for female participants are designed in a way that consciously challenge existing social gender norms. For example, boxing programmes for girls could be designed and the activities be performed in the public with the performing female participants wearing sporting attire that exposes their legs, Legat says.
Defining fundamental concepts
- There is a need to clearly define fundamental concepts used in this discussion forum. We all are talking about sport for development and peace. We all tend to believe that we are talking about the same thing, but we are not, Legat says.
Some use a wider definition of ‘sport‘, including professional elite sport and all sorts of movement activities, e.g. traditional Zambian games. Others use a narrower one, e.g. sport as the Western cultural product like those activities represented in the program of the Olympic Games.
Some use a definition of ‘development‘ which is close to material or economic development. Others again use a wider definition of human and social development, but what does that mean? And which one do you use?
And finally, there is also different ideas about what implies ‘peace‘? Is peace the absence of war? Or is there also an individual spiritual dimension to it?
- If we manage to keep in mind that each one of us has different concepts, and if we remind each other to be clear about what we mean, then we can have a fruitful dialogue that can make us learn from others‘ different perspectives, he says.
Different expectations
The discussion forum has also reveiled that there are different expectations among the participants regarding what they want to gain from the discussion forum.
Some expectations involve individual learning by creating a better understanding and awareness of phenomena related to sport for development and peace at a personal level.
Other expectations are concerned with influencing actions ’out there‘, e.g. inspire implementing organisations, policy makers or the content of the existing study program at NSSS itself.
- There seems to be an agreement that these changes, either at personal or institutional level, need to be informed by an open dialogue amongst the participants of the discussion forum in which different perspectives are presented and discussed. This discussion forum should be an arena which is open to everyone who is concerned with sport for development and peace, Peter Legat says.