Public Integrity

Sports play a role in shaping culture and public identity, and it is in this context that athletes shape public policy.  The 20th and 21st centuries ushered in eras of athletes that have drawn attention to ethical public administration dilemmas within society, within their sports organizations and within the communities that they represent. These include, but are not limited to: racial segregation; discriminatory zoning practices under the guise of sport; unequal pay within sport; gender-based violence; access to name, image and likeness earnings for amateur athletes and; public-funding for private-corporation projects. This call encourages submissions that utilize sport as setting to understand long-standing past administrative dilemmas along with emergent and new ethical issues facing the administrative state today. We are especially interested in understanding how populations and respective organizations entrenched in sport are using their platforms to bring attention to longstanding norms and are on the precipice of creating change in the administrative state and/or the relationship between their communities and the administrative state.

This issue welcomes all types of methodological and research approaches and encourages the incorporation of interdisciplinary work. Potential topics and areas of research to start this conversation include but are not limited to:

• How should public resources be used within a name/image/likeness (NIL) context? What considerations should be made about public institutions using funding for these purposes?
• What are the ethical dilemmas associated with providing funding to privately-owned sports enterprises?
• What are the advantages/disadvantages to athletes acting as super citizens? How can super citizens best use their positions and platforms to create meaningful change in the administrative state and/or in their communities?
• To what extent can/should outside actors be empowered to use international sporting events to determine local community priorities?
• To what should athletes, managers, teams, and/or leagues  reflect the values of the community the participants represent?  What mechanisms of accountability exist for this type of representation

Abstracts (plus references) should be submitted to Dr. Blair Thomas ([email protected]) and Dr. Jamie Levine Daniel ([email protected]). Please include the following:

• Names and affiliations of author(s). 
• Email address of corresponding author(s)
• 500-word abstract of paper
• References (not counted in word count) 

Instructions for AuthorsSubmit an Article