Social functions and social responsibility of formal sports organizations

Organizations today are challenged more than ever to highlight their usefulness for society. This includes both their positive contributions to society and the active containment of possible negative influences on society. Sport and its formal organizations are particularly affected by this, since they on the one hand receive public funding and are dependent on it but, on the other hand, they have to justify that they operate in a socially acceptable and beneficial manner.
Unpaid and voluntary commitment are key factors in sport and this is largely linked to the motivation to “do something good”. Due to this peculiarity sport is particularly suitable as a research field for investigating the general question of (the production of) social responsibility and public welfare in formal organizations.
In this core research area of the German Sport University, longitudinal analyses are carried out at regular intervals of the development of formal organizations of sport and their social functions (sport development reports), e.g. on the integration potential of sports clubs and its prerequisites. In further studies, the inclusion and exclusion processes of sport are analyzed, especially with regard to social diversity in sport. Furthermore, there is a focus on strategies of good governance, equal opportunities, and violence prevention in organized sport. The common goal is to analyze the conditions of public welfare and social responsibility of formal sport organizations.