The 26th EASM will address the new challenges within sport and society in Europe
The next European Sport Management Conference will be held in in Malmö this September, focusing on the theme of ‘Managing Sport in a Changing Europe.’ Play the Game will be also one of the guests, running a special workshop on good governance.
The 26th annual conference of the European Association for Sport Management (EASM), hosted by the Department of Sport Science at Malmö University, is going to take place at Malmö Live from the 5th to the 8th September 2018.
The main theme of the conference is ‘Managing Sport in a Changing Europe’, and will focus on discussions about the emerging struggles faced by the European society within the sports environment, or rather the issues connected to migration, integration and globalisation.
“The conference theme aims to reflect ongoing processes of change and challenges within sport and society to be handled by sport organizations/actors at different levels,” it says on the EASM’s website.
Additionally, the conference includes other topics such as sport marketing, sport consumer behaviour, sport events and tourism, sport management education, sport facility management and others.
Play the Game Special Workshop
During the conference, 11 workshops on different issues will take place. One of them is entitled ‘Good governance and tools for change in sport’ and is organised by Play the Game. It will take place on Thursday September 6th from 10.00 am to 12.00 am.
Good governance has become a prominent issue in recent years and there is an urgent need of taking action to improve the current situation.
“Corruption and mismanagement scandals in international sports organisations have urged public actors and the sports movement to increase their efforts for better sports governance. While few sports federations would deny the importance of good governance, the reality is challenging; good governance can be seen as difficult to define, measure, and implement – and some sports leaders may be unable or unwilling to make real change,” says the workshop description.
The goal of the workshop is to examine the value and relevance of the key dimensions of good governance: transparency, democratic processes, internal accountability and control, and societal responsibility.
This will be done through a mix of presentations from researchers attached to the ‘National Sports Governance Observer’ project in Europe and beyond, invited keynotes from sports organisations, media or the sports industry, as well as contributions from conference participants based on short paper submission.
The keynote speakers
The conference will feature three keynote speakers who will contribute to the discussions related to the occurring obstacles within sport and society faced by modern Europe but from different perspectives.
Joseph Maguire, Emeritus Professor at Loughborough University, will present two case studies questioning the governance and management of sport; the contemporary migration of ‘highly skilled’ athletes within Europe and the hindrances present in sport in Ireland compounded by the potential implications of Brexit.
The presentation prepared by De Bosscher, professor at the research group Sport and Society at Vrije University, will instead concentrate on elite sport policy; aiming to clarify the development of successful policies, as well as building theoretical understanding of effective strategies and governance to advance elite sport in a changing Europe.
Finally, Professor Mike Weed from Canterbury Christ Church University will reflect on three main areas related to sport management. Firstly, he will discuss about the claims that are made for sport by politicians, policy-makers, managers and researchers; secondly, he will explore the evidence that exists to support such claims; thirdly, he will reflect on the contribution that the research on the topic can make to practice and policy in sport management.