Framing of environmental issues in voluntary sport organizations

Abstract

This explorative study draws on content analysis of the environmental policy documents of voluntary sport organizations in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. We develop a typology of ways in which sport organizations frame environmental problems and find four ideal typical frames: (1) a general non-committal frame; (2) a sport-specific technical frame; (3) a growth-oriented opportunity frame; and (4) a crisis frame viewing environmental issues as an existential crisis for sport. We then explain the emergence of these frames. To this task, we discuss how materialities, institutional mechanisms and wider environmental discourses matter for environmental framing in voluntary sport organizations.