Thinking about Moving Mountains

[Seth Sicroff]

Moving Mountains: Journal of Sport for Development and Peace now has a steering committee of about fifteen people. We'd like to encourage more of you to consider joining, and to that end I am proposing a discussion of practical and theoretical matters relating to the journal. Here is an initial volley of questions. Please feel free to answer just those that strike you as interesting.

1) Keeping in mind that we should avoid reinventing wheels that are already out there...How can this journal, and the associated Web site, help you?  E.g.:
  a) Would it make sense to have a directory of SDP-relevant academic programs? [Are there already such lists? Should the listing be free at first, and then for fee, if the journal prospers?]
  b) How can we encourage students to get involved? Do we risk diminishing the quality of the journal if we give space to students?
  c) What about econferences, with published results? What topics would students be interested in?
  d) Is there some change in traditional academic structure that we should be advocating?
  e) Should we have a column/department/webpage where researchers can ask for advice? A long-distance mentorship program?

2) Stephanie Diaz is involved in writing a curriculum for Soccer Kids (http://soccerkidsofamerica.org/). Could a program developed for disadvantaged Americans help in Nepal or other LDC's?

3) Can sports really promote peace in unstable places like Kashmir?  In sites of ethnic cleansing, like Bhutan? Among disenfranchised, marginalized economic sectors such as mountain porters, whose children generally don't attend school?

4) What is to be made of the propensity of sporting events (eg soccer matches in Europe and South America) to degenerate into riots?

5) Do we have to find value in all sports? What about mountain biking? Are snow-mobile and all-terrain-vehicle use "sports"? If we characterize them as something else, do we risk seeing them morph into sports through the imposition of competitive rules? What about extreme sports? Is promoting peace through risk an acceptable strategy? Are there limits?

[Seth Sicroff]

By the way, the Steering Committee is listed at the MM Website, http://sportdevelopmentpeace.org/0mm-about.html
Seth

[Wandering Educators]

Seth - thanks for asking me to be a part of this. I have some ideas
about all this, but do think that for 1b, we should definitely have
student involvement but it should of course be high quality!. Also, we
could have a recent dissertations area, for people to share their
work.

i'll keep thinking! thanks, cheers, jessie

On Aug 15, 6:40 pm, Seth Sicroff <sicr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> *Moving Mountains: Journal of Sport for Development and Peace* now has a

[Sanjay K Nepal]

I support the suggestions made by Jessica and Emeline. There are too many good student works which never see the light of the day. As a former editor of an online journal I think it would be great to have a student research/paper section. This way not only we will be encouraging students to get involved but also giving others a chance to look at the kinds of research the students are undertaking.

Thanks
Sanjay

Sanjay K. Nepal, PhD
Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX-77845-2261
Tel: 979 862 4080 Fax: 979 845 0446
http://www.rpts.tamu.edu

>>> Wandering Educators <jessica...@gmail.com> 08/19/09 11:27 PM >>>