Processes of political, cultural, and social fragmentation: changes in the macro-environment of sport policy and management: c.1980–c.2022

Research question: This paper reviews the period of the last four decades and evaluates the significance of four major themes in the macro-environment of sport management and policy. These themes are (a) the shift in international relations from a bi-polar to a multi-polar model; (b) the challenging of teleological assumptions concerning the development of western models of modernization, and their replacement with accounts of multiple modernities; (c) the emergence of Populism and the changing nature of political Ideology and sport policy; and (d) contemporary notions of language, truth, discourse. 

Research methods: The paper presents a review of relevant literature in the fields of philosophy, politics, policy and discourse analysis, identifying the impact and significance of such changes. 

Research findings and implications: The findings highlight the need for policy and management to adapt to the new realities. (a) First, operating within a multipolar international relations system implies adaptation to the erosion of western hegemony in the international sports economy. (b) Second, challenge to the dominance of the western modernization thesis, by proponents of multiple modernities, implies a requirement to serve needs of heterogeneous markets within culturally diverse societies. (c) Third, the development of the politics of cultural populism, requires managers/policy-makers to understand and resist the use of sport in promoting negative, non-inclusionary ideological messages. (d) Finally, the undermining of notions of truth in public discourse, will require managers to defend evidence-based policy, and publicly acknowledged criteria of truth in decisionmaking.