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Abstract
Heeding calls to integrate international development studies with Sport for Development and Peace (SDP), we approach SDP using the Capabilities Approach as articulated by Martha Nussbaum. Applying such a framework to the study and practice of SDP offers a politically engaged yet practical approach, and serves to theorise ways in which sport programmes might be conceptualised and organised as part of holistic approaches to development and not simply instruments thereto. While a number of criticisms of the Capabilities Approach are discussed, we ultimately advocate for its critical deployment within the ongoing study and practice of SDP.
Keywords:
Notes
1. United Nations, “Transforming Our World.”
2. For examples of these respective disciplines in SDP, see Peachey and Lyras, “The Influence of a Sport-for-peace Event”; Hayhurst, “The Power to Shape Policy”; Kidd, “A New Social Movement”; Darnell, “Playing with Race”; Guest, “Sport Psychology for Development and Peace?”; and Black, “The Ambiguities of Development.”
3. For examples of these respective theoretical approaches, see Schulenkorf, “Sustainable Community Development through Sport”; Coalter, Sport for Development; and Darnell, “Playing with Race.”
4. Hartmann and Kwauk, “Sport and Development.”
5. We do recognize that there is a literature focused on the ethics of sport (see, for example, Morgan, Why Sports Morally Matter). However, reviewing this literature and connecting it to SDP is beyond the scope of this article.
6. Coalter, Sport for Development.
7. Nussbaum, Women and Human Development; and Nussbaum, Creating Capabilities.
8. Nussbaum, Creating Capabilities, 77.
9. Darnell, “Playing with Race”; Hayhurst, “The Power to Shape Policy”; and Nicholls, Giles, and Sethna, “Perpetuating the Lack of Evidence.”
10. Coalter, Sport for Development.
11. Darnell and Black, “Mainstreaming Sport.”
12. United Nations, Universal Language of Sport.
13. Hartmann and Kwauk, “Sport and Development.”
14. Hayhurst, “The Power to Shape Policy.”
15. Darnell, “Playing with Race.”
16. Guest, “The Diffusion of Development-through-Sport.”
17. Nicholls, Giles, and Sethna, “Perpetuating the ‘Lack of Evidence’.”
18. Coalter, A Wider Social Role for Sport.
19. Maro, Roberts, and Sorenson, “Using Sport.”
20. Spaaij and Jeanes, “Education for Social Change?”.
21. Apart from Rossi and Jeanes’ single paragraph discussion of the Capabilities Approach (see Rossi and Jeanes, “Researching Education”), no SDP work that we know of has directly engaged with the Capabilities Approach framework.
22. Darnell and Black, “Mainstreaming Sport.”
23. Mwaanga, “Sport for Addressing HIV/AIDS.”
24. Sterchele, “De-sportizing Physical Activity.”
25. Nussbaum, Creating Capabilities, 18.
26. While Sen’s writings have also had a significant influence on the field of international development, and particularly as it relates to economic policy, we focus primarily on Nussbaum in this paper as her discussion offers a more succinct, accessible and direct political philosophy of development.
27. Nussbaum, Creating Capabilities, 18.
28. Ibid., 19.
29. Ibid., 20.
30. Ibid., 24.
31. Ibid., 25.
32. Ibid., 25.
33. However, as this theoretical approach is intended to be practical, it should be noted that some capabilities would be given priority over others based on available resources. For instance, living with other species may be given lower priority over bodily health.
34. Nussbaum, Creating Capabilities, 40.
35. Robeyns, “The Capability Approach.”
36. Clark, “Sen’s Capability Approach.”
37. Robeyns, “The Capability Approach in Practice.”
38. Jaggar, “Reasoning about Well-being,” 320.
39. Robeyns, “The Capability Approach.”
40. Jaggar, “Challenging Women’s Global Inequalities.”
41. Phillips, “Review of Martha Nussbaum.”
42. Clark, “Sen’s Capability Approach.”
43. Robeyns, “The Capability Approach,” 111.
44. Silva and Howe, “Difference, Adapted Physical Activity.”
45. Ibid., 34.
46. Donnelly, “Sport and Human Rights.”
47. Green and Oakley, “Elite Sport Development.”
48. For a notable exception, see Sterchele, “De-sportizing Physical Activity.”
49. Frias and Javier, “The Sport for All Ideal.”
50. See Wilson, “Middle Walkers” for a discussion about finding middle ground in SDP research.
51. Coalter, Sport for Development.
52. Nustad, “Development.”
53. Hartmann and Kwauk, “Sport and Development.”
54. Silva and Howe, “Difference, Adapted Physical Activity.”
55. Ibid.
56. Hartmann, Midnight Basketball.
57. Ibid., 195.