Disability Sport: A Vehicle for Social Change?

This book contains a selection of papers presented at the “Disability Sport: A Vehicle for Social Change?” conference hosted by the Centre for Peace and Reconciliation Studies (CPRS) at Coventry University from 23rd – 25th August 2012. The brainchild of conference organiser Dr Ian Brittain, the conference brought together around forty academics and practitioners in the field of sport for people with disabilities from around the world. They came from all corners of the globe including Afghanistan, Australia, Canada, Germany, Ghana, Japan, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States and Zimbabwe and spent their time discussing a wide variety of ways in which sport can help change and enhance the lives of people with disabilities. The conference participants were made up of an interesting mixture of academics (staff and PhD students) and practitioners from a variety of NGOs and other organisations that use sport as a tool in order to try and improve the lives of people with disabilities in a wide variety of situations. This mixture of academics and practitioners from around the world form the basis for this book. A main aim of the conference was to get academics and practitioners talking and working more closely together and by presenting perspectives from both sides this book attempts to provide a varied and interesting perspective on the field that highlights topics and issues rarely publicised in the usual academic outputs. In addition the conference has been successful in forming new networks of practitioners and academics aimed at to creating new knowledge and improving programmes that use sport as a tool to enhance the lives of people with disabilities.