Sport and Incarceration – Mark Norman
Despite a rapid expansion in research on Sport for Development (SfD), there remain numerous untapped veins of exploration. This open-access article by Mark Norman from McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada makes a novel argument for increasing the theoretical and substantive depth of SfD research.
Drawing from the emergent field of carceral geography and the literature on prison sport, this article provides critical theoretical considerations for SfD programmes that occur in ‘compact’ sites of confinement, such as prisons or refugee camps.
Given the structures of inequality that have led to the confinement of more than 13 million people in prisons, refugee camps, and migrant detention centres across the globe, as well as the multitude of ways that groups and individuals are criminalised and stigmatised in community settings, there are compelling reasons for SfD research to more deeply engage with concerns of space and carcerality as they relate to sport.
This article provides an important foundation for future analyses of SfD and carcerality, and signposts some potential ways forward for a deepening of theoretical perspectives in SfD research.
You can download it below.