ABSTRACT
Community sport organizations (CSOs) represent an important sub-sector of the broader non-profit sector, offering a place for individuals and families to participate in sport and negotiate belonging within and outside of their existing social boundaries. These local sport clubs serve as important sites which facilitate creative and collective acts of civic engagement. This chapter provides a backdrop for community sport as a vehicle for civic engagement and challenges traditional understandings of sport participation from what was once understood as primarily an athletic pursuit towards competitive advancement and physical health towards an opportunity for people to form, express, share, and reshape individual and collective identities. The chapter outlines possibilities for rebuilding the systems of influence in community sport at the individual, organizational, and network levels. The transformative role of key actors at each level is explored in order to promote a vision for community sport refocused on inclusion, social responsibility, and community development. We explore the challenges and potential of this vision for civic engagement in the New Century.
