ABSTRACT
This introductory chapter begins by repeating a question asked of one of the authors after a presentation about his sport and peace-building work in the Middle East given to staff and postgraduate students at the University of Loughborough. After the talk he was asked, “What difference does the fact that you are a sociologist make to the way you approach this kind of work”? After a reiteration of the short answer that was given to this question at the time, and drawing on the work of C. Wright Mills and relevant elements of the making of our own sociological consciousness, this chapter introduces an outline of the critical sociological framework that is used to flesh out the full answer to this question. The chapter therefore proposes a critical approach that acts as a framework for the task that occupies the remainder of this book as it goes on to consider and critically interpret three empirical SDP (Sport, Development and Peace) case studies before reviewing in the final chapters the strengths and weaknesses of SDP research and scholarship, and presenting a praxis-based model for designing, implementing and theorising SDP work.
