Paralympic Brand Governance: The Best of Both Worlds?

This chapter examines key tensions, challenges and paradoxes that intersperse with the development and governance of the Paralympic brand. To this aim, a brief overview of the historical development of the Paralympic movement is first offered to better understand the background on which the Paralympic brand has developed. Second, a theoretical discussion of the concept of brand governance is developed in particular around the dimensions of brand co-creation and brand governance in terms of institutional dynamics. Third, the governance of the Paralympic brand is examined, highlighting how the brand operates in a complex institutional system composed of multiple stakeholders with diverging demands that can jeopardize the Paralympic brand’s equity. This section also emphasizes how the Paralympic brand is shaped by broader societal discourses and attitudes towards disability and has the potential, thanks to its position at the edge of multiple “worlds”, to support but also potentially to undermine change in society for all people with an impairment.