Alan Oldham

Alan Oldham

Sport as a public emergency: The case for basic humanitarian standards in sport

Sport is widely considered an “internalist” practice. This means that the goings-on within the practice of sport are in some significant sense “apart from” rather than fully “a part of” society more broadly. This coupled with the fact that there are many situations deemed ethically acceptable within the context of sport that are decidedly unacceptable within normal social situations (e.g. punching someone in the head is acceptable in boxing but decidedly not so at a neighbourhood café) leads to the conclusion that sport is a space where the normal rules of society do not (always) apply. In this sense, sport, like a natural or human-made disaster, constitutes a “state of emergency”. Whereas international agreements on basic humanitarian standards attempt to ensure that risk of harm is managed, and human dignity maintained, during various forms of disaster, my research asks whether similar standards could and indeed should be applied to sport.

Alan Oldham
PhD candidate, Kinesiology
Faculty of Health Sciences - Western University

Supervisors

Dr. Angela Schneider

Alan C. Oldham is currently Project Manager at The International Centre for Olympic Studies in Western's Faculty of Health Sciences School of Kinesiology. His PhD research focuses on the broad topic of ‘integrity in sport’ and the central question of whether and how it is possible to translate complex and sometimes confusing academic research into real-world practice that can inform ethical sport decision making. Alan’s personal connection to sport spans over a quarter century in which he has volunteered and worked professionally with athletes at all levels from grassroots to elite to those seeking life-long engagement with meaningful movement. Alan’s journey into grad school also builds on a background in education and a decade in the field of international sport communication.

View Alan's work as it appears in the Inspiring Minds Digital Collection.