Utvecklingen av svensk sport management som såväl utbildnings- som forskningsfält har varit markant de senaste decennierna och pågår i allra högsta grad fortfarande. I detta kapitel beskriver vi denna utveckling. Vad som ingår i fältet sport management är dock en diskussionsfråga. Vi har valt att avgränsa det utifrån de fyra verben planera, organisera, leda och utvärdera, vilka hämtats från en trilogi om svensk sport management (Bäckström m fl 2018, 2019, 2020). För att illustrera svensk sport managements utveckling redogör vi för hur sport managementutbildning tar sig uttryck, då detta säger en del om hur vi ser på ämnesområdet i Sverige. Därefter redogör vi för forskningsfältets framväxt med särskilt fokus på ett urval av avhandlingar, och annan forskningsproduktion. Avslutningsvis belyser vi hur svensk sport management förhåller sig till internationell dito. Att sätta genomgången i ett internationellt perspektiv blir ett sätt belysa det särskilt svenska.

The development of Swedish sports management as well as the field of education and research has been significant in recent decades and is still ongoing to a great extent. In this chapter we describe this development. However, what is included in the field of sports management is a matter of debate. We have chosen to define it based on the four verbs plan, organize, lead and evaluate, which are taken from a trilogy on Swedish sports management (Bäckström et al. 2018, 2019, 2020). To illustrate the development of Swedish sports management, we describe how sports management education expresses itself, as this says something about how we view the subject area in Sweden. Next, we report on the growth of the research field with particular focus on a selection of dissertations and other research production. In conclusion, we highlight how Swedish sports management relates to international ditto. Situating the review in an international perspective is a way of highlighting the particularly Swedish.

Voluntarily organized sport is the cornerstone of Swedish sports and has an important societal role. In this chapter, the Regional Sports Confederation and Sports Education Skåne, which is the gathering body of the non-profit sport clubs in the region, represents the voluntary, non-profit sector. The Leisure Department, City of Malmö, represents the public sector. The football club Malmö FF represents the for-profit sector, despite not being a completely commercial club. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and analysis of documents.

The three sectors have overlapping interests and a lot to gain from extended cooperation and knowledge transfer to bring about change. All our informants state a clear awareness of the importance of sustainability and highlight sustainable development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) at the leading level of their organizations. However, their capacity and incentives to act differ, partly due to each sectors’ specific logics. Malmö FF, strongly affected by commercial logics, stands out as the organization most active in realizing the SDGs. The Leisure Department, limited by political requirements, works hard to handle basic political requirements with an ambition to do good and even be a role model among municipalities. For the sports movement, the possibility of collective actions is challenged by voluntarism and the strong autonomy of sports clubs. Perhaps it would be logical to argue for a stricter control of the sports clubs’ operations to ensure proper handling of sustainability issues, but according to the Swedish sport ideology, the incentives should rather be created from the bottom-up.

In this chapter, the new social economy is addressed from the point of view of the Swedish social economy. The Swedish social economy is appropriately described as the sole or the backbone of the Swedish society. It is a vast sphere containing several sectors and a melting pot of numerous organisations emphasising social values and has an effect on most Swedish citizens and denizens at some point, if not throughout their entire lives. Hence, it would be close to megalomania to set out to cover all aspects of the social economy sphere in this chapter. Instead, the main focus is on those aspects relating to the Swedish welfare state.

Small and large sport clubs, in big cities or in the countryside, need to respond to external pressures created by social, financial and environmental factors. These pressures may come from the commercial environment, communities, national governing bodies, or political stakeholders. This chapter introduces the reader to the current pressures faced by Nordic sport clubs and the entrepreneurs’ role in the clubs’ development through the lens of entrepreneurship, and especially social entrepreneurship. This chapter addresses the role of the entrepreneur in relation to the triple bottom line of corporate social responsibility (CSR)—economy, environment, and society—in the context of Finnish and Swedish team sport clubs by using two football clubs as examples.

CSR eller idrottens sociala ansvar är en beskrivning av hur en idrottsorganisation förväntas ta höjd för sin påverkan på samhälle och miljö genom att integrera sociala, miljömässiga och finansiella åtagande, utöver juridiska skyldigheter, framtagna i dialog med sina intressenter, i sin dagliga verksamhet på frivillig basis. Även om det är frivilligt för idrottsorganisationer att arbeta utifrån ett (C)SR-perspektiv framstår det dock alltmer som intressenterna förväntar sig just detta. Detta kapitel diskuterar och presenterar praktiska förhållningssätt och lösningar såsom arbete med TBL, VMOSA-CSR och CSR-snurran.

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the main results of the Enabling the Flourishing and Evolution of Social Entrepreneurship for Innovative and Inclusive Societies (EFESEIIS) project. It also discusses the multidisciplinary approach that was adopted in the EFESEIIS project as well as the different methodologies and theoretical frameworks that were used to answer the project's main research questions. The book addresses the history and evolution of both social entrepreneurship and social enterprises (SE) in Europe. It focuses on the various features and behaviors of SEs and social entrepreneurs. The book explores the role of stakeholder and institutional networks in shaping the development of SE ecosystems in various European countries. It offers a dynamic analytical framework that will allow scholars and practitioners to better understand the ecosystem in which SEs are set while also identifying whether or not these ecosystems act as an enabling force.

This chapter summarizes the development of social enterprises (SE) and their ecosystems in Europe. It provides the nature of social entrepreneurship and SEs. The chapter focuses on some of the policy implications and offers suggestions on how to improve the study of social entrepreneurship, SEs, and social innovation. The neoliberal turn initiated during the 1980s still shapes the manner in which many European welfare regimes try to reinvent themselves. The chapter shows that Albania, Austria, France, Poland, and Serbia have statist-macro ecosystems, due to the predominance of state institutions in delivering support to the SE ecosystem. SEs operate in different sectors, they take on different legal forms, their capacity to remain and stay compatible in the market differ, and they are often dependent on external funding. Social innovation, another context-dependent phenomenon, often involves actions, frameworks, models, systems, processes, services, rules, organizational forms, and sometimes products.

The Enabling the Flourishing and Evolution of Social Entrepreneurship for Innovative and Inclusive Societies (EFESEIIS) project addressed several Innovation Union priorities on smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, which shows that it is serious about drawing up a wide range of policies relating to social entrepreneurship. European policy has focused on the related concept of social innovation. Since social entrepreneurship is a relatively new phenomenon, building both a partnership and a methodology required a great deal of attention. The cooperative methodology employed by the partnership inspired controversy, consensus, and ambivalence. European welfare systems play an important role in improving the living conditions of its citizens, most notably in the areas of childcare, health prevention services, employment services, and benefits for the elderly. The chapter discusses some ambivalences, divergences, convergences, and unifying concepts. From a methodological point of view, the EFESEIIS project is full of interesting tensions and ambivalences.

This chapter discusses the mutual interests of social enterprises (SEs)/social entrepreneurs and neo-liberal policy-makers/stakeholders. It offers a brief historical discussion of the evolution of SEs in Western Europe from the nineteenth century to the 1970s. The chapter focuses on how these institutions changed from 1980 to the present. It also focuses on the role political institutions at all levels played in reshaping the sector. The chapter discusses the connections between SEs and market forces, and how these connections produced dramatic changes. It addresses how our cross-temporal analysis can help understand contemporary SEs and welfare regimes. The chapter describes the historical evolution of solidarity in the context of the sweeping changes that have been made to various welfare regimes. It provides a fair assessment of the evolution and growth of the welfare sector across Europe, as well as how these predecessors have affected current SEs.