Speaker
Description
Sport organizations’ purpose is to organize sport activities. Yet, at the same time, there are also a wide specter of expectations towards sport organizations when it comes to non-sportive issues. On the one hand sport organizations are supposed to contribute to social issues as integration, social equality, sustainable development and health. On the other hand, they are challenged to take more political stands: to encourage climate action or to fight corruption in (global) sports. One question which is discussed is the extent to which sports achieve some of these social and political aims. Another question, so far much less studied, is how people expect sports to contribute to such issues. People’s expectations are important because sports depend on legitimacy to access resources: members, volunteers, public funding and commercial sponsors. The question is, however, what give sport organizations their legitimacy: what do people expect from sports, besides sport (performance or participation)? We first show how a representative sample (N ≈ 1200) of the Norwegian population consider sport organizations social and political responsibility when it comes to health, racism, the environment, disabled people, gender equality, integration of immigrants, doping, local communities, economic and social equality and discrimination based on sexual orientation. Next, we ask how these views depend upon social background, political orientations and affiliation to sports. Finally, we discuss how people’s expectations towards sport organizations matter for these organizations policy strategies.
