ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the complex reality of sport and social movements. It addresses the following themes: what social movements are; sport within social movements; sport as a social movement; sport as a social forum; and freedoms, myths and capability about sport and social movements. Many movements grew out of the late-1960s gay liberation movement protesting to improve the lives of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. Many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and intersex (LGBTI) activists have made considerable gains in liberal democracies where demands have been framed in terms of civil rights. Despite the growth of grass-roots environmentalism in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, the environmental movement is not new. Social movements are among the most powerful forms of collective action. The notion of sport as an old/new social movement or contributing to broader social movements helps to acknowledge the collective efforts to promote or resist political and/or cultural change in and through different sports, styles and tastes.
