Abstract
AbstractIt is now becoming widely accepted that our economy has reached the limits both in terms of the carrying capacity of our planet and in terms of bringing real social justice to the table. Degrowth is a research area that aims to transcend mainstream approaches. While moving beyond the growth paradigm would entail serious changes in all areas of social life and Degrowth research extends into most of them, the transformation of sports is not among them. Neither is Degrowth a recognised concept among those who deal with sports. The participatory backcasting research introduced in this paper attempts to fill this void. In the backcasting project, master students of sports economics envisioned the sustainable future of sports and identified potential intervention steps that lead towards such normative states. This paper describes the results and assesses those elements that aim for strong sustainability. The results show that relocalisation and the sharing economy are the most accepted Degrowth concepts in a normative scenario on sustainable sports in this group. At the same time, the paper offers frameworks of thoughts for those who want to move beyond the slogans of sustainability either as responsible citizens or in positions related to the world of sports.
Highlights
On the level of rhetoric and everyday speech, sustainability is becoming an exceedingly fashionable word in political, social and economic discussions
The results show that relocalisation and the sharing economy are the most accepted Degrowth concepts in a normative scenario on sustainable sports in this group
Participants imagined a normative scenario for 2050 for the sustainable world of sports. Their deliberations revolved around key issues such as sustainable events; sustainable sports equipment and infrastructure; community-building; and the role of the state in the development of sports
Summary
On the level of rhetoric and everyday speech, sustainability is becoming an exceedingly fashionable word in political, social and economic discussions. Assuming weak or strong sustainability predetermines certain aspects of the discussions (Ekins et al 2003; Hopwood et al 2005; Malovics – Bajmocy 2009; Pelenc – Ballet 2015) These terms were first applied by Pearce (1989) and later ‘codified’ by Neumeyer (1999) to point out a crucial difference in the sustainability debate: whether the substitutability of natural capital stocks with man-made capitals stocks should or should not be allowed. Utilisation should not exceed nature’s regenerative capacities; while the consumption of non-renewable resources in any case reduces the welfare of future generations (Daly – Cobb 1989) This implies that while throughput growth is acceptable in the weak sustainability scenarios; strong sustainability prompts either a steady-state economy (Daly 1977) or Degrowth (Latouche 2009)
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