Sport, Performance and Sustainability

This book examines the logic of 'faster, higher, stronger', and the techno-scientific revolution that has driven tremendous growth in the sports economy and in sport performance over the last 100 years. It asks whether this logic needs revisiting in the light of the climate crisis and sport's environmental responsibilities.

Daniel Svensson is Associate Senior Lecturer in Sport Management at the Department of Sport Sciences, Malmö University, Sweden. He has written several book chapters and articles about the relationship between sport, science, technology, and the environment. Erik Backman is Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer in Pedagogy and Sport Sciences at the Department of Sport Sciences, School of Health and Welfare, Dalarna University, Sweden. His main research interest is in outdoor education, physical education and sport pedagogy. Susanna Hedenborg is Full Professor in Sport Sciences at Malmö University, Sweden, and President of the Swedish Research Council for Sport Science. Hedenborg has a background in social and economic history and her sport research has focused on gender issues, children and youth sport and equestrian sports. Sverker Sörlin is Professor of Environmental History in the Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, and a co-founder of the KTH Environmental Humanities Laboratory. His research is on the role of knowledge in environmentally informed modern societies, and in research and innovation policies. Current research interests include the history of environmental climate governance.

Part I Overarching Logics and Issues: Tensions and Entanglements Between Sport, Performance, and Sustainability.1. Introduction: Balancing Performance and Environmental Sustainability. 2. The Idea of Natural Athletic Performance: An Interpretation and a Defense. Part II Developments and Processes: Challenges to the Performance Paradigm? 3. Adventure Sports, Social Media, and Environmental Activism. 4. The Changing Landscape of Sport Facilities: Consequences for Practitioners and the Environment. 5. Environmental Sustainability in a Fast-Emerging Sport: The Sportification of Pade. 6. A Diagnosis of Sportification and Indigenisation in the History of Sámi Lassoing. Part III Education and Sport Sustainability: Pedagogical, Social, and Environmental Challenges in School Sport and Physical Education. 7. Environmental Sustainability in Physical Education: A Study of Physical Education Teachers' Perceptions and Attitudes Towards Environmental Sustainability in Physical Education. 8. School Sport Education and Sustainability: Towards Ecological and Inclusive Student-Athletes?