Call for papers: Re-imagining Sport for Social Change: Exploring Perspectives from Central and Eastern Europe

Guest editors: Eva Soares Moura (FSV UK), Simona Šafaříková (PřF UPOL), Arnošt Svoboda (FTK UPOL)

Submission of abstracts: 31st March 2026

Submission of full manuscripts: 31st October 2026

Since the early 2000s, sport has been promoted as a tool for international development and a means of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The institutionalisation of the Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) sector has led to the global expansion of sport in addressing gender and social inequalities, climate change, and other societal challenges (Giulianotti et al., 2019). However, it has also triggered critical debates about the limitations of sport in fostering social change and peace.

Despite an increasing amount of research on SDP, the field is still dominated by Anglo- American and Western European viewpoints. Critical scholars have emphasised how Northern paradigms define 'best practices', impose standardised metrics and marginalise local knowledge (Ponciano Núñez, 2025; Quijano, 2019). While these critiques typically target contexts in the Global South, we argue that similar epistemic hierarchies also shape the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region. The CEE region has historically been positioned as Europe’s 'periphery' and has been subject to both Westernisation and post-socialist transitions (Berend, 2005). Persistent East–West disparities in governance, development and political alignment remain salient (Volintiru et al., 2024) and crises such as the war in Ukraine exacerbate these challenges. Situated outside the conventional North–South binary and characterised by 'inbetweenness' (Drieschova, 2024), CEE offers a unique viewpoint from which to reconsider how knowledge and practice are produced and valued in SDP.

This thematic issue explores how sport is imagined, utilised and contested as a catalyst for social change in Central and Eastern Europe. Using the lens of social imaginaries — collectively shared frameworks that guide practices and shape expectations of the future (Taylor, 2004; Castoriadis, 1987) — this issue will examine how various stakeholders and actors in Central and Eastern Europe envision and enact the transformative potential of sport. In line with calls for the reflexive co-construction of knowledge (Bilgen et al., 2021), we aim to prioritise the perspectives and knowledge systems of individuals in CEE, thereby contributing to a more situated understanding of sport and SDP. We consider sport in CEE to be a contested practice, intertwined with the histories of socialism, post-socialist transformation and geopolitical conflict. Furthermore, given that development and peace are intertwined, Central and Eastern Europe provides a particularly timely context in which to examine how sport can contribute to social change and peace-building.

To analyze and exemplify the topics mentioned above, we welcome empirical, theoretical, and methodological contributions. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

  • Forms of mobilization of sport in CEE and how they differ from the Global North.
  • Historical, political, and economic legacies and how they shape sport’s uses for broader societal change and/or peace-building in CEE.
  • Sport’s potential for social change in sociological, anthropological and development studies and policy research in CEE.
  • The Olympic movement’s role in the SDP sector in CEE.
  • Emerging and established social movements, campaigns and non-governmental sector practices utilising sport for social change in CEE.
  • Role of corporate social responsibility sport programmes, sport diplomacy or top-level sport field in SDP in CEE.

Instructions for authors

Send an abstract (200–300 words), summarizing the research aims, methodology, theoretical framework and main arguments and/or findings to casopis@soc.cas.cz, eva.smoura@fsv.cuni.cz, simona.safarikova@upol.cz and arnost.svoboda@upol.cz.

Authors of accepted abstracts will be invited to submit manuscripts, which will undergo a standard anonymous peer review process. A final decision on the acceptance will be based on the outcome of the peer review process.

Time schedule and deadlines:

  • March 31, 2026: End of the Call for abstracts
  • April 2026: Selection of abstracts, informing the authors
  • October 31, 2026: Deadline for full manuscripts, distributing papers to reviewers
  • January 2027: Distributing reviews (first round)
  • Fall, winter 2027: Final editing, publication

Author Guidelines

Czech Sociological Review’s guidelines for authors: https://sreview.soc.cas.cz/artkey/inf-990000-1600_Author-Guidelines.php?l=EN

Cotact

In case of any additional questions or information, please contact the guest editors:

References:

  • Berend, I. T. (2005). What is Central and Eastern Europe? European Journal of Social Theory, 8(4), 401-416. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368431005056420 (Original work published 2005)
  • Bilgen, A., Nasir, A., & Schöneberg, J. (2021). Why positionalities matter: reflections on power, hierarchy, and knowledges in “development” research. Canadian Journal of Development Studies / Revue Canadienne d’études Du Développement, 42(4), 519–536. https://doi.org/10.1080/02255189.2021.1871593
  • Castoriadis, C. (1987) [1975]. The imaginary institution of society. trans. K Blamey, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
  • Drieschova, A. (2024). The North-South divide and everything that gets left out in-between: conceptualizing Central and Eastern Europe to explain its positioning on climate change. International Relations, 38(3), 292-312. https://doi.org/10.1177/00471178241268255
  • Giulianotti, R., Coalter, F., Collison, H., & Darnell, S. C. (2019). Rethinking sportland: A new research agenda for the sport for development and peace sector. Journal of sport and social issues, 43(6), 411-437.
  • Ponciano Núñez, P. D. (2025). Sport, consciousness, and epistemic justice: a critical model for decolonising sport-for-development in the Global South. Third World Quarterly, 1–17. https://doi-org.ezproxy.is.cuni.cz/10.1080/01436597.2025.2552350
  • Quijano, A. 2019. “Colonialidad del poder, eurocentrismo y América Latina.” Espacio Abierto 28 (1): 255–301. https://www.redalyc.org/journal/122/12262976015/12262976015.pdf(open in a new window).
  • Taylor, C. (2004). Modern Social Imaginaries. Duke University Press, Durham, NC.
  • Volintiru, C., Surubaru, N. C., Epstein, R. A., & Fagan, A. (2024). Re-evaluating the East-West divide in the European Union. Journal of European Public Policy 31(3), 782-800. DOI: 10.1080/13501763.2024.2313694.