Athlete Maltreatment as a Wicked Problem and Contested Terrain

Haewan Park (), Michael P. Sam and Steven J. Jackson
Additional contact information
Haewan Park: School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Sciences, University of Otago, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand
Michael P. Sam: School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Sciences, University of Otago, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand
Steven J. Jackson: School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Sciences, University of Otago, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand

Social Sciences, 2024, vol. 13, issue 7, 1-15

Abstract: Athlete maltreatment in organized sport has attracted considerable attention from governing bodies, stakeholders and the general public. Despite numerous studies and policy proposals from various countries, the problem remains unresolved due to its inherent complexity. Drawing upon the concept of ‘a wicked problem’ widely utilized in policy analysis, this study first identifies the wicked features of maltreatment, focusing on: (1) the difficulty of establishing a definition of maltreatment; (2) the challenges of identifying its causes; and (3) the impediments to identifying solutions in a context of embedded stakeholders and unintended consequences. To provide further analysis, we compare athlete maltreatment with other issues in sport such as doping and match-fixing, to suggest that lessons can be drawn from other wicked problems in the same contested terrain. Overall, given the complex interplay between maltreatment and the maintenance/legitimization of sport systems, this paper calls for continuing attention and evaluation of existing research/policies and advocates for a more multidimensional view that acknowledges maltreatment as a wicked problem.

Keywords: athlete maltreatment; wicked problems; contested terrain; sport; policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/13/7/376/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/13/7/376/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:13:y:2024:i:7:p:376-:d:1439460

Access Statistics for this article

Social Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Yvonne Chu

More articles in Social Sciences from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().