What would the future look like if there were no sports? What would be missing in a society without sports? Those questions kicked off IF’s project on the Future of Sports and Society. They helped the citizen participants to explore the different roles that sports can, do, or should play in our society. Now there’s a draft of the Future of Sports and Society Discussion Guide available for test discussions.
What are “sports”—and what do they mean to us as individuals and as a society? Why should we care? What public goals might we have more sports—and what could be different ways to reach these goals and to embody our values? Questions like these led the citizen participants to develop seven different policy possibilities:
- Embrace an Inclusive Future for Sports Participation
- Sports for Healthy Communities
- Protect and Empower All Athletes
- Focus on Developing Elite Athletes
- Sports for Education
- Run a Business as a Business: A Policy for Revenue Sports
- A Department of Sports: Centralize Sports Policy
You’ll find these possibilities as linked documents by clicking on the introduction to the guide. If you read the guide or use it for your own discussions, we’d love to hear your thoughts about it.