The climate crisis is becoming increasingly apparent within all areas of society. How this crisis presents itself differs from region to region, as well as from neighborhood to neighborhood, meaning that efforts to mitigate these impacts need to be simultaneously globally aligned and adapted to each local context. There is a need for grassroots organizations to be empowered to enable communities to reflect on their changing environments and consider their own lived experiences when developing solutions. As such, creative modes of participation in climate action are required which engage individuals’ sense of personal connection with their lived spaces. While there are increasing efforts from the broader social science and humanities disciplines to enact this, particularly through arts-based methods, one potential method that has been underexplored is the use of sport. Sport has been shown to enable people to become more attuned to their bodies and how they relate to the environments around them. By being able to evoke such strong emotional and embodied connections with their surroundings, sport possesses the platform through which awareness of local environmental issues can be raised and climate action within communities can be promoted.

This Research Topic focuses on the potential for sport, which also encompasses physical activity and leisure, to engage individuals’ senses of embodiment and emotions about increasing awareness of local environmental issues and climate action. The goal of this Research Topic is to understand the wide variety of considerations in enabling the sport to be used in such a way, which might include the practicalities involved in organizing and managing climate-focused sport for development and peace programs; the social, cultural, and historical complexities of using sport to understand the local environment in different geographical contexts; the theoretical possibilities, opportunities, and limitations in underpinning climate activism work. These are just some of the potential areas that could be addressed to help highlight the intersecting philosophical, theoretical, ethical, pedagogical, and practical considerations that might be of concern to sports practitioners and scholars who wish to promote climate action.

We invite scholars and practitioners from diverse disciplines and regions to contribute to this Research Topic, especially those using cross-disciplinary or trans-disciplinary approaches, those using decolonial theoretical approaches, as well as those working directly within local communities that are underrepresented within academic research, including women, Indigenous Peoples, and the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

This Research Topic aims to address the following themes, although it is not limited to:
• Youth, Climate Crisis, and Climate Justice
• Embodiment and Emotions in Climate Activism Through Sport
• Climate Urgency from below, and Local Bodily Experiences
• Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) in the Anthropocene
• Pollution and Degradation as a way to “connect” with environmental issues
• Digital Anthropocene, Emotions, and Embodiment
• Decolonizing Research Methodologies
• Community sports and Self-Organized Initiatives
• Evaluation of Sport-Based Interventions Focused on the Environment
• Gender and Climate Justice
• Queer and Indigenous Embodiment in the Anthropocene
• Sports Activism, Policies, and Environment
• Eco-Friendly Sports Initiatives and Practices

Are you interested in contributing a manuscript to this Research Topic?

Environment, Embodiment, and Emotions: The Role of Sport in Promoting Climate Action