Sport Ecology: Conceptualizing an Emerging Subdiscipline Within Sport Management

TLDR

Sport and the natural environment are interdependent, influencing sport production and experiences, yet the environment is often taken for granted in management contexts amid climate change and public concern. The authors aim to establish sport ecology as a new subdiscipline of sport management. They propose this subdiscipline by defining its scope and integrating existing concepts such as sustainability and green practices. The paper defines sport ecology, reintroduces key concepts like sustainability and green, and identifies foundational research and potential interactions with other sport management subdisciplines.

Abstract

The relationship between sport and the natural environment is bidirectional and critical to the production of sport products, events, and experiences. Researchers have studied sport and the natural environment within the various subdisciplines of sport management. However, given the changing climate and mounting public concern for the environment, there is pressure to reconsider the relevance and significance of the natural environment, which is taken for granted in managerial contexts. Reflecting the importance of the natural environment, the robustness of the current literature, and the potential for the future, we propose a new subdiscipline of sport management called sport ecology . Thus, we proposed, in this paper, a definition for sport ecology , (re)introduced key concepts related to this subdiscipline (e.g., sustainability, green), and highlighted the leading research that serves as the foundation for sport ecology. We concluded with a discussion on the ways sport ecology can inform—and be informed by—other subdisciplines of sport management.