Paper short abstract:

This paper interrogates the semiotic construction of a global movement, come to known as "Sport-for-Development-and-Peace" (SDP). Deconstructing the discourses and logics of SDP demonstrates how these rely on tautology, equivocation and self-referentiality.

Paper long abstract:

Sport as a Human Right, enshrined by internationally influential agencies of the likes of the United Nations (UN), the International Olympic Committee, among others, has taken a practical and instrumental turn in the form of SDP over the last 15 or so years. SDP finds its significance and legitimacy in proclamations, resolutions, reports and practices, where sport is promoted as a tool to achieve a broad range of "development" objectives, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). While sport's association with education, character building and youth socialisation can be traced back to the 18th century notions of 'Muscular Christianity', the UN's endorsement of secularised sport has thoroughly institutionalised SDP as a global phenomenon. A closer deconstruction of SDP discourses, claims, and reports, reveals a kind of a tautology at play: where calls for "hard evidence" to prove sport's "development" utility are made to support and guide SDP policies and practice, and sport's recognition on international development policies, the UN endorsements and declarations are referred to, and accentuated, as evidence. As the recent report from the UN office for SDP claims, sport is likely to remain relevant as a necessary component in the post-MDG era of Sustainable Development Goals. In the context where sport-based interventions have such political legitimacy and can play a deeply political role, a critical interrogation of semiotic construction of SDP discourses reveals limitations and contradictions in such projections.