Mapping the role of grassroots sport in public diplomacy

Abstract

In a rapidly changing international relations system, several governments are turning to sport as a cost-effective and high-profile soft power asset. However, in using sport as a tool, much of that function relates to mega-sport events, elite sports and professional athletes and neglects to include the grassroots level, where the organizations, interventions and stakeholders are considered irrelevant for state-led public diplomacy. Yet, grassroots sport-based, sport for development interventions are regularly claimed to strengthen people-to-people relations, contributing to the socio-economic development across groups. As such, gaps in the theory and practice of sport diplomacy endure what, for example, is the relation between the bottom-up, participatory approach of grassroots sport and the top-down, elitist understanding of state-led public diplomacy. This article aims to demonstrate the linkages between grassroots sport, sport diplomacy and Sport for Development and Peace while also attempting to conceptualize the term ‘grassroots sport diplomacy’.