ESA Research Network 28 Society and Sport Midterm Conference
About
The purpose of RN28 Society and Sport is to critically investigate the multifaceted role of sport in shaping—and being shaped by—contemporary societies. While sport has long been heralded for its unifying, educational, and health-promoting capacities, it is equally implicated in exclusion, inequality, and commodification. RN28 provides a sociological platform to unpack these contradictions, asking: Can sport truly function as a force for cohesion, inclusion, and well-being, or does it continue to mirror and reinforce social divides?
The 2026 Midterm Conference, Embodied Mobilities: Sport, Body, and Social Transformation in the Global South, engages such questions through the lens of (im-)mobility, embodiment, and global inequalities. With a special focus on the Global South, the event aims to critically explore how bodies in motion— whether through migration, sport participation, or everyday physical practices —mediate broader socio-political transformations. Anchored in a sociological lens, it challenges conventional paradigms that prioritize elite performance sports, foregrounding instead the lived experiences, inequalities, and resistances embedded in everyday bodily practices. By situating sport within global and local power structures, the event invites dialogue on displacement, colonial legacies, gendered embodiments, and emerging forms of inclusion, sustainability, and digital mediation. With a focus on reflexivity, methodological rigor, and transregional exchange, the conference intends to bring together scholars, educators, and practitioners to reimagine the role of sport in shaping and resisting contemporary global inequalities.
For further information about the European Sociological Association's Research Network 28 (ESA RN28), Society and Sport, click here .