You’re juicy: autoethnography as evidence in sport for development and peace (SDP) research

Abstract

Since gaining momentum in the early 2000s, critics and supporters of the sport for development and peace (SDP) movement have called for evidence to substantiate the claim that sport can deliver ‘social good’ for people and communities around the world. This paper aims to consider broad themes of epistemology and methodology in light of calls for evidence-based SDP research by presenting four autoethnographic vignettes from my work and research experiences within the SDP field. By turning attention to multiple readings of my embodied self in the SDP realm and in foregrounding the body as something that one can know with, about, and through, I highlight the complexities of SDP subjectivities. Moreover, my use of autoethnography raises complex questions about how and what personal accounts from ‘Northern’ practitioners contribute to debates around evidence, impact and the utility of SDP work.

Keywords:

• sport
• international development
• autoethnography
• gender
• sexuality