Transnational unities, challenges and opportunities for sport volunteering: lessons from the European PlayGreen project

Abstract

Within global sport, volunteering has been identified as a fundamental resource to the effective operation and continuity of operations. However, investments in, and the success of, sport volunteering is contingent on amiable socio-cultural, political, and economic conditions. In Europe, the context of this paper, the vibrancy of sport volunteering remains a concern since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Notwithstanding the pandemic, some transnational sport networks and regional governmental partnerships have been making more dedicated investments to fortify volunteer cultures in the region. In addition, collaborative ventures are finding ways to connect sport volunteering with wider international issues to support its growth across all sectors. Here, sustainability and environmental change have provided a key issue platform for sport volunteer leverage. As the pandemic continues to confront the existence and practices of sport organisations, and specifically their ability to engage volunteers, these issues have become salient. We present a commentary of the Erasmus + Sport-funded, pan-European, sport volunteering and sustainability focused, PlayGreen consortia and its organisation members responses to the unfolding pandemic across Europe. Our commentary is guided by spatial theory and internal administration insights. The pandemic has brought new ideas and cohesion into sport volunteer communities, challenged, and changed modes of production, and led to new forms of social transformation and action vis-à-vis environmental and sustainability issues. As sport organisations continue to find viable ways of existing, the experiences within the PlayGreen consortia evidence creative potential for future volunteer engagements.

Keywords:

• Sustainability
• spatial theory
• volunteering
• Europe
• sport communities

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.