ERMeCC Lunch Seminar

Reflecting wider debates on public sociology and research impact, sociologists of sport have been urged to actively contribute to social change. In this seminar, Ramón considers how scholars can serve as co-creators of, and actors in, social change in sport, through a critical appraisal of a program of action research, called Change Makers, which aims to co-design sustainable solutions to issues of inequity, discrimination, and exclusion in community sport. Change Makers brings together local coalitions of sports club leaders, change facilitators, researchers, and community partners in a concerted effort to address structural barriers to participation for multicultural communities in sports clubs in Melbourne’s West. Through ripple effect mapping and other qualitative methods, this seminar will reflect on the outcomes and impact pathways that Change Makers has affected within the clubs, organisations, and communities it serves, and identify factors that support or constrain these changes. In the final part of the seminar, Ramón will extend this line of inquiry to a novel collaborative research project that seeks to build sector-wide capacity in Australian sport to address racism and strengthen anti-racism.
 

Ramón Spaaij is Professor in the Institute for Health and Sport at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia. He is also Visiting Professor at the Utrecht University School of Governance and Research Fellow in the Centre for Sport Leadership at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. The arc of his career has been an investigation of how thriving and inclusive communities can be created and sustained, and how conflicts that threaten community cohesion can be transformed. Ramón’s research and education programs have a deliberately broad and interdisciplinary agenda, focusing on (intersections between) diversity, social justice, sport, civic education, youth development, violence, and forced displacement. Using participatory, ethnographic, and mixed methods approaches and critical pedagogies, he collaborates with influential next-users and end-users to co-produce, share, and apply practical guidance and learnings from peer-reviewed research. Ramón’s research and educational activities have influenced the knowledge, policies, and practices of government agencies and civil society organisations around the world.

More information about the seminar series will follow in the coming weeks. If you have any questions or suggestions, please let us know. Thanks, and we look forward to seeing you!