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Medical discourse regarding impairment and (dis)ability dominate assumptions of Paralympic sport. This research examined the lived experience of the first author, a sport physiotherapist and veteran of many Paralympic Games, to consider the experience of sport medicine with Para sport athletes. Self-ethnography and a theoretical lens informed by a human rights approach to disability were used. Structural violence was utilized to explore the social structure of medical professions and the impact on Paralympic sport. Data involved a retrospective journal of the first author. Thematic analysis was conducted and these themes are presented; social potential of sport medicine, medical authority, aversive ableism. The research draws attention to structural violence in Paralympic sport and the potential of sport medicine to be an agent of change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined para swimmers' athlete development experiences from the perspectives and reflections of athletes, and parents of athletes, with a focus on the constraints and challenges experienced. Guided by interpretive phenomenological analysis, 12 participants engaged in the interview process (seven parents and five athletes). Five themes were identified: fundamental skill development, personal connection, coaching, classification, and connecting with others "like me." Through a discussion of the differences in development experiences between the participants in this study and the current literature on athlete development, the authors highlight areas of concern in applying a non-para-specific athlete development model to para swimmers. This study identifies several areas of consideration in the future design of a para athlete development framework or model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research examined spatiality of The Village during the Commonwealth Games XXI. Central to the research is the perspective of the parasport athlete. By foregrounding this perspective, new understandings of the geography of sporting spaces become possible. The integrated nature of the Games establishes The Village as a significant space to consider spatiality and disability. Ethnographic methodology was utilized. The first author, a veteran of many Paralympic Games, brought an "insider" perspective. Thematic analysis was conducted, and three themes, such as language informs space, hypervisibility of the body, and indoor versus outdoor spaces are presented as an ethnographic vignette. Inaccessible construction and hypervisibility of the body in certain spaces impacted athlete experience. The Village Pub and pools were examples of inhospitable spaces for athletes. The language of Games personnel significantly affected athlete participation in Village life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The strategic formation of partnerships for leveraging sport events to achieve social impact is becoming a critical component of large-scale sport events. The authors know less about the process dimensions related to the formation and collaborative dynamics of a sport event–leveraging partnership. To address this gap, the authors focus on examining the formation and collaborative dynamics alongside the challenges of the cross-sector partnership, the Ontario Parasport Legacy Group (OPLG), which emerged as an important leveraging strategy for the Toronto 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games. The authors found that the formation of the OPLG was shaped through broader environmental elements—including resource conditions, window of collaborative opportunity, and cultural influence—and essential drivers of strategic leadership and consequential incentives. Furthermore, the authors' analysis shows that the development of the OPLG and its effectiveness in partnership delivery were determined through key domains of collaborative dynamics (i.e., engagement, motivation, and joint capacity). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interest in how local communities can positively benefit from the hosting of large-scale events has grown exponentially. Where most research has focused on the host city, nonhost regions have the potential to benefit greatly, yet little research has examined how these communities can achieve these benefits. This study examined the leverage process in a nonhost area for the London 2012 Olympics to consider the opportunities and challenges of such a task. Theoretically informed by the event leverage model, this case study used document analysis and semistructured interviews with 10 key stakeholders involved in the leveraging process. Findings reveal that effective event leverage in a nonhost area requires the establishment of early leadership and strategic alliances and highlights a significant role the specific leveraging team played. Partners found it difficult to continue with committing to event leverage due to conflicts of interests and goal misalignment. Theoretical contributions are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented 'where in the author discusses articles published in the journal's special issue on topics including trending organizational forms, erosion of traditional sector boundaries in sport organizations, and importance of social innovations.

With an increasing emphasis on the social value of sport and events, there has been a shift in focus regarding the management and development process of event projects as well as their associated outcomes. This shift is about emphasizing a more strategic approach to developing social benefits by recognizing and utilizing leverageable resources related to sport events as a means of fostering lasting social and economic change (Chalip, 2006; O'Brien & Chalip, 2007; Schulenkorf & Edwards, 2012). In this paper, we adapt and apply the asset-based community development (ABCD) approach as a means of developing a more action-oriented, community-based approach to leveraging the social assets of sporting events. In applying the ABCD approach, we aim to shift the focus of event-led projects away from attempts to "solve" social problems (i.e., deficit perspective) to enhancing the existing strengths of communities (i.e., strengths perspective). We reflect on case study findings that highlight the challenges and opportunities in realizing an ABCD approach for disadvantaged communities through an examination of a healthy lifestyle community event initiative in the Pacific Islands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the underdeveloped area of event portfolios in an attempt to fill a gap in the existing literature. This research article examines strategic positioning of events and the critical role they play in local development. To understand this, a case study design was performed in a medium-sized city in Canada. The purpose of the study was to determine how the city has used sport events for broader local development and enhancement of the civic brand. Interviews with local city actors and document analyses were used to further understand the strategies within the community. The results show that although a city may possess the necessary portfolio components as per Ziakas & Costa (2011), it is essential that there is a strategy that bridges the pieces of the portfolio for sustainable development. Consequently, we found that sequencing, or the strategic timing of events and political grounds, played a crucial role in this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade a great deal of work has examined major sport event legacies and event leverage. Much of this work has involved Olympic studies and this paper seeks to add to the body of knowledge surrounding major sport event legacies by examining the largely overlooked area of the Paralympic Games. The Paralympic Games are the second largest multisport event after the Olympic Games depending upon which parameters are used and since Sydney 2000 there has been an 'operational partnership' where bid cities are required to host both Games. Yet, few studies have evaluated the comparative outcomes, legacies and event leverage that Paralympic games have generated. This paper addresses this absence by conducting a thematic analysis of Paralympic legacy research. The thematic analysis used a combination of keywords involving event legacy across 13 major academic databases. Of the 43 articles identified as having Paralympic legacy related content only 13 articles empirically investigated Paralympic legacy. In reviewing the research, it is noted that the bulk of the research has focused on Summer Paralympic Games with little interest in the Winter Paralympic Games. The major findings for legacy-based research include: infrastructure; sport; information education, and awareness; human capital; and managerial changes. However, while these findings may seem congruent with major event legacies frameworks conceptually, an examination of the detailed findings shows that Paralympic legacy research is isomorphic and adds a new component to existing legacy dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the perceptions of members of urban regimes in three cities: Edmonton, Manchester, and Melbourne, regarding the use sporting events for broad-based community outcomes. In Edmonton, members of the urban regime interviewed did not perceive the sporting events strategy to be directly tied to community development objectives. In Manchester and Melbourne, regime members believed that the use of events for development was uniquely tied to communities and community development goals. In addition, regime members in the latter two cities provided examples of symbolic attempts to foster community around the sporting events strategies. While this study could not reveal whether attempts to meet the needs of local communities were being achieved through the sporting events strategies, it is at least encouraging to note that those who control resources and conceive of, oversee, and implement growth strategies within cities view community development as important to these strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the coalitions undergirding comprehensive sport-centered growth agendas in three cities actively pursuing sporting event development strategies: Edmonton, Canada; Manchester, United Kingdom; and Melbourne, Australia. Using DiGaetano and Klemanski's (1999) study of modes of urban governance as a starting point, we review each city's urban political economy, urban governing agenda, and urban governing alliances. We then discuss whether coalitions in each of the cities can be identified as regimes, by examining the conditions required for the presence of regimes developed by Dowding (2001). Results suggest the presence of regimes in each city, which can be best described using Stoker and Mossberger's (1994) symbolic regime, developed in their typology of regimes for cross-national research. However, the cities differ slightly, with Edmonton exhibiting the characteristics of a progressive version of a symbolic regime, whereas Manchester and Melbourne more closely resemble urban revitalization regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the application of crowdsourcing in research studies. The aim of this study is to understand how crowdsourcing is being used in research by undertaking a content analysis of studies posted to an online site designed to facilitate crowdsourced research. While there are a number of websites that facilitate crowdsourcing, this study provides an analysis only of research studies posted on crowdcrafting.org. Characteristics of crowdsourcing, proposed by Estellés-Arolas and González-Ladrón-de-Guevara, served as the framework for the content analysis, and research projects were evaluated as to how they addressed each of the proposed criteria. This article concludes with recommendations for researchers undertaking the design and implementation of projects employing crowdsourcing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses agency problems in sport organizations in which the same individuals are involved in both the management and control of decision making. We focus our analysis on the case of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) by reviewing the behavior of selected IOC members with regard to the bidding process for the Olympic Games and the resulting reform attempts made by the IOC in an effort to address issues of corruption. After a review of examples of corrupt behavior on the part of IOC members, agency theory is introduced to discuss IOC reforms and provide some suggestions for future reform. We propose incorporating other stakeholders (in addition to the IOC members), such as corporate partners, media conglomerates, and other members of the Olympic movement (e.g., athletes, coaches, officials), into management and control functions. More specifically, it is suggested that these stakeholders comprise a board that oversees the operations of the IOC (similar to the IOC's current executive committee) and be given the ability to remove and/or sanction IOC members who act self-interestedly to the detriment of the Olympic movement. Thus, by delegating the control function of decision making to a board and the management function to internal agents, greater accountability for all organization members can be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2016 Summer Olympic Games1 bids were selected as a case study to explore how the focus on social responsibility (CSR) and community development (CD) differs in traditional versus nontraditional bid cities. We employed a media framing methodology to examine how the bids were represented through media and articulated by various stakeholders. Of specific interest was the finding that the discourse surrounding the Rio de Janeiro bid put a greater focus on the capability of sport to reach out to disadvantaged populations and create balance within the global economy. The results from this study will provide insights into how the global media has framed megaevent bids from nontraditional cities, and the social and economic benefits event proponents argue can be accrued from hosting. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstracts of articles on sports administration are presented including "The effect of goal visualization on goal pursuit: Implications for consumers & managers" from a 2011 issue of "Journal of Marketing," "Economic impact analysis versus cost-benefit analysis: The case of a medium-sized sport event," from a 2011 issue of "International Journal of Sport Finance" and "Evaluating sport-for-development: Approaches & critical issues," from a 2011 issue of "Progress in Development Studies."

This article offers a discourse analysis of media representations of para-athletes before, during and post the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games in print and online sources, drawing on the lens of critical disability theory. We consider the importance of the media–sport cultural complex in influencing public attitudes towards disability. We conclude that whilst the importance of discursive change cannot be underestimated at the level of the media agenda, change at the level of lived experience will only flow from carefully designed and executed political and policy initiatives rather than directly from changes in the media presentation or visibility of individual athletes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]