On the field, in the classroom, and throughout the literature, sports enthusiasts routinely tout the ways sports can improve lives, unite communities, and promote more peaceful societies. Unfortunately, much of the dominant thought regarding sport and peace relies too heavily on the “what” and the “why” and offers very little answers to the “how.”
As we found in our research, most organisations could easily articulate “why” sports are an effective tool for peace and “what” sports can achieve for individuals and communities, but struggled to express “how” sports are different from other universal human interests (e.g. art, music) and “how” those differences provide a unique platform for building peace.
Through this report, however, we hope to move beyond the claims and toward a more theoretically-grounded and systematic understanding of the conditions and processes needed to promote peace through sport.
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