Naming the ghost of capitalism in sport management

Abstract

Research question This paper questions why, despite capitalism’s intimate connections with sport, it is rarely named, let alone explicitly discussed in sport management. It questions whether capitalism should remain as the invisible, ghostly backdrop wherein sport management is located and conceptualized.Research methods This paper is primarily a position and conceptual paper, though it is foregrounded with a search of the term ‘capitalism’ within leading sport management academic journals, conference abstracts, and textbooks. It also provides a synopsis of capitalism (as a global system of power) and suggests that capitalism has a ghostly presence in contemporary sport management scholarship.Results and findings This paper advocates for an expansive understanding of ‘sport management’ as the organizing processes of sport activities, as opposed to the ‘managing’ modalities with capitalist values. Naming capitalism is a necessary first step for sport management research to become more accountable to social justice and emancipation.Implications Naming capitalism makes it analyzable. It opens up intellectual space to support multi-racial, multi-gender working-class and anti-colonial struggles within and beyond the sport industry, furthering existing analyses on racism, sexism, heteronormativity, ableism, etc. with a renewed focus on contradictions under capitalism. Moreover, it opens up possibilities to theorize non-capitalist forms of organizing sport that challenge the default logics of the sport ‘industry’.