Sport for decolonization

Abstract

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.