ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the way in which sport has been linked with the realities of poverty and homelessness and what sport can or cannot do. The relationship between sport and poverty is often characterized in at least three ways: sport can be an escape from poverty for some and, therefore, sport has been closely linked to social mobility. The popularity of sport has meant it has been used as a symbol to draw attention to some of the world's areas of need. And it has been used as a means to an end, in the sense that other resources or capabilities have been part of a welfare or humanitarian package that involves sport. The chapter also draws attention to the fact that many of the poorest states, and the people in them that contribute to the bottom billion, have struggled to escape the poverty trap for a number of reasons.
