Editorial

Abstract

There are certain times when Journals take stock of where they are, where they have come from and how they hope to develop. Such thought pieces may fall on an anniversary, the turn of the millennium or the introduction of a new Editorial Team. This Editorial Brief is slightly different, in so far as it marks a rejuvenation of our Editorial Board. However, it is also a response to the unprecedented times we are living through and offers some reflections on how we, as social science scholars, are reacting to, and making sense of, the seismic changes in society that are impacting all facets of sport. First, we’d like to thank all those who have served on our Editorial Board in recent years. We have been lucky to be able to draw on the collective wisdom of our Board as IJSPP has grown and developed (the journal has around 170, 000 downloads and views per annum). It is common practice to revamp the Editorial Board from time to time and we have attempted to re-shape our Board to be more representative in terms of both the geographical areas and expertise covered, but also to be more diverse. A stock-take of our journal is also necessary in tumultuous times and we offer some reflections on what this means for the study of sport policy and politics in a changing global environment. The wider political backdrop to this critical juncture is the re-shaping of the so-called liberal world order, underpinned as it is by Western norms and values and upheld by global institutions, such as the World Trade Organisation, United Nations and the North Atlantic Trade Agreement. The restructuring of this institutional architecture manifests itself in the following in many ways: The growing strength of the ‘Global South’ and the dissemination, manipulation and distorting of ideas and ideology through digital data, social media and new technology. Alongside these developments, the world has witnessed the rapid rise of populist politics across a wide geo-political area. The most recent rise of populist politics can be linked to the ‘right’ or ‘radical right’ and can combine populism with nativism and authoritarianism. This backdrop matters for international sport policy and politics more broadly, as all policy is made within changing political priorities and environments. The following highlights some of the recent trends in articles published in IJSPP and some of the areas articles of the future may focus on.