Sport & Society
Sport and society are increasingly intertwined. Sports organisations are asked to contribute to a variety of public goals, ranging from health and inclusion to sustainability and social safety. At the same time, athletic performance and competition remain central, commercial interests play a major role, and the sports sector faces specific challenges such as doping, match-fixing, and transgressive behaviour. This interconnectedness creates tensions in the daily practice of sports organisations, administrators, and policymakers.
The Sport & Society chair examines these tensions from a public administration and organisational science perspective. We focus on how sport is organised, governed and accounted for, how organisations address the complex requirements of sporting and public value creation, and what this means for the world of sport and society. In doing so, we combine empirical and theoretical rigour with social relevance.
Tensions in policy, governance and practice
Sport is not a neutral domain but a sphere where social values and interests are constantly contested. Sports organisations operate in environments where diverse norms, expectations and interests come together. Social pressure is increasing, but the means, structures, and forms of supervision to respond to it are not always sufficient or well aligned. Our research group analyses these tensions across a variety of contexts, such as:
- Professional football organisations seeking a legitimate social role within a hyper-commercial environment;
- Volunteer boards responsible for social safety, but do not always equipped with the necessary knowledge or support;
- Local authorities seeking to use sports facilities for public value creation, but encountering spatial, administrative or organisational boundaries;
- Policymakers and implementing parties aiming to realise effective sport and exercise interventions for citizens in vulnerable positions through public-private partnerships;
- (Inter)national sports associations seeking to operate decisively while upholding democratic principles.
The central question in our work is: how can sport and public values be combined in a responsible way? What forms of organisation, management, and cooperation make this possible? And what does this mean for existing and emerging institutions in sport?
Our approach: critical, practice-oriented and theory-driven
Sport offers a rich array of crucial cases in which general public administration and organisational science issues arise in sharp and often extreme forms. Consider themes such as diversity in organisations, cultural aspects of change, hybridisation of organisations, private authority and the creation of public value(s). In this way, our work contributes both to solutions for current social issues and to the development of scientific theory.
We combine scientific analysis with collaboration in practice. Together with sports organisations, policymakers, social partners, and governments, we work on critically analyse and help to resolve administrative and organisational issues. We offer, among other things:
- Reflection on governance, policy and leadership in sport;
- Insight into the relationship between public and sporting ambitions;
- Support in the design of public-private solutions;
- Evaluations of policies and interventions aimed at sustainable effects and learning processes.
Insight with impact
By studying sport from a public administration and organisational science perspective, we contribute to well-founded decision-making and future-proof policies and governance. We do not develop standard solutions, but rather context-specific, critically substantiated insights that help organisations navigate a complex and changing playing field. In doing so, we not only make an impact in practice, but also make a substantive contribution to the development of theories on governance, organisational change, and public value(s).
