Growing Opportunities
Featured Sports for Development and Peace Programs in Preventing Violent Extremism among Young People in Pakistan View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Umair Asif, Simon Rosenbaum, Tegwen Gadais
This research is part of an ongoing PhD project. The historical and geographical vulnerability of Pakistan to violent extremism and the increasing number of Pakistani communities using Sports for Development and Peace (SDP) programs informed the need for this research. The government has often adopted a top-down approach to its Preventing Violent Extremism (VE) efforts. In cases where civil society organizations are consulted or engaged, the role of sports/SDP programs is largely overlooked despite their social significance in local communities and Pakistan in general. Due to this gap, the study explores two SDP programs in Pakistan’s Lahore and Islamabad cities. The study aims to learn from available global literature in the field of SDP and preventing violent extremism. Based on the findings, a qualitative questionnaire was developed and used to interview program participants and implementers in an effort to understand how SDP helps to prevent VE. Data was also gathered through focus group discussions. The United Nations sports-based theory of change model is used as a theoretical tool to analyze the collected data. The research will help to understand the mechanism of SDP programs employed in Pakistan to prevent violent extremism, and the literature review will contribute to the international body of literature in the field.
What Football Means to Palestinian Athletes View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Moetiz Samad
The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of Palestinian Muslims through sport, religion, and safety lenses. Building on the existing literature on Critical Race Theory (CRT), the focus of this paper leans into the tenet of counter-narrative/storytelling. Thus, the narratives provided throughout this study are from Palestinians who practice Islam, compete in football (soccer) as their sport of choice, and navigate life in a war-torn environment. Lived experiences of the athletes are provided in a way to address the biases and negativity on this focal population (Palestinians) by the Western world and its allies. Using a structured survey, Palestinians shared their values and livelihood. Based on access, availability, and willingness to speak out, this study included teenage athletes (n= 14). Through counter-storytelling and addressing the misconceptions of Palestinian Muslims, this study tackles the needed work to address global issues within the region. Additionally, this study calls for action through and beyond sport as a vehicle for peace, something Islam stands for within the core values of the religion. The study concludes with implications and future directions on research with Palestinian Muslims as the focal point to further make a global impact in and beyond sport.
Breaking the Green Ceiling: Overcoming Barriers for African American Women in the PGA View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Christopher Prosser
The Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) has a long history of racial exclusion (Rosselli and Singer, 2017b; Prosser, Mamo, Heimdal, and Hoffer, 2021) and has significant barriers for African American women in the golfing community (Rosselli and Singer, 2017a). This research aims to explore the experiences and barriers faced by African American women who are PGA Members. According to the PGA’s diversity webpage women PGA members makeup five percent of Membership and only 9 of the 31,670 are African American women (PGA, 2024). Through a standard open-ended qualitative interview approach (Patton, 2002), this research highlights the intersectionality of race and gender, offering insights into how these barriers affect both career trajectories and overall experiences within the PGA. The interviews allow the voices and experiences of African American women in the PGA to contribute toward the ongoing discourse on diversity and inclusion in professional sports, advocating for a more equitable and supportive environment for future generations of women and minorities in golf.
Routine, Volunteering and Ontological Security in English Non-League Football View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Thomas Jenkins
Below the professional sphere in England lies a ‘non-League’ football scene. Here fandom transcends contemporary conceptions of a football fan and forms a key aspect of individuals regular routines through traditional practices and volunteer activities. This paper explores these routines of non-League football fans, that regularly involve a form of volunteering, and the resulting potential to form a sense of ontological security and self-identity. As elite football continues to experience increased globalisation, placelessness and an influx of neo-liberal developments, non-League football is frequently seen as a site of ‘traditional’ football spectatorship and friction with neoliberal flows, with increased democratic fan engagement, less commerciality and greater spectator freedom. I argue that this suggests a broader conceptualisation of English football fandom is required to wholly account for those that turn from the professional game. Evidently there remains a longing amongst some football supporters to maintain ‘forgotten’ aspects of football fandom with the potential for this to increase sentiments of authenticity and traditionality that is linked to the development of self-identity and ontological security. Inspired by an ongoing doctoral thesis, this paper draws upon qualitative data derived from 19 semi-structured interviews with non-League football supporters and a collection of autoethnographic vignettes of non-League matchdays to explore this. Analysis suggests that fans commonly act to safeguard and reinforce much of these traditional elements through habitually developed routines and volunteer activities. This is driven by a desire for an increased individual ontological security that is indelibly linked to an appeal to traditionality, sociality and familiarity.
