Business, politics and sport

Download a PDF or order a book version of this course.

Business, Politics and Sport is a unit of study that introduces you to some of the varying aspects of political processes and corporate involvement in local, state, national and international sport, exercise and recreation. The unit aims to give you the opportunity to investigate topics that are of interest to you, to establish professional expertise in that topic, and make a contribution to public knowledge about these topics.

The coordinator will organise a number of events, seminars, interviews and panel discussions, to assist you in accessing and understanding the subject range of this unit. Use these topics to help decide on the topics you cover in your assignments. Exceptional assignments from present and past students may also appear in this list.

1. Orientation to the unit
2. Chain reactions - cycling in Australia
3. Greater than the sum of the parts? - The Crawford Report
4. Open water - Australian canoeing
5. Wayfinding - Orienteering in Ausralia
6. Individuals and sport - the role of family, politics, and marketing in the development of a generation
7. The use of sport as a political vehicle - Considering nation state politics in the Olympic Games
8. The history of the paralympic movement in Australia - Tony Naar talking about the History of the Paralympic Movement in Australia
9. The corporate approach - Alannah Magee from Sportsman's Warehouse talking about her work and outlook (notes only, no recording)
10. The role of sport in communities - Sport is uniting and dividing communities, says Keith Lyons
11. Football power and politics - under development

• Unit weblog - up to date news, links and resources

You have three assignments with which to demonstrate your grasp of the learning objectives for this unit:

• Essay
• Presentation
• Exam

• Essays
• Presentations on Youtube (other presentations included in the essays)
• 2011 exam questions

The learning objectives for this course are:

1. Explain the major catalysts responsible for the commodification of Australian sport
2. Identify the similarities and differences between the commercialisation of Australian sport and international sport
3. Discuss the ways in which sport and politics intersect
4. Contribute to public debates about the politics of sport in modern societies.
5. Communicate - express knowledge and ideas, present arguments and ideas effectively, listen and respond to the ideas of others and create and present new ideas.
6. Develop your information literacy – locate, identify, collate, analyse, evaluate, interpret and present information.
7. Engage in problem solving – identify problems and analyse the main features of problems relevant to their professional field, apply appropriate problem solving processes, arguments and critical thinking, implement and evaluate strategies for the resolution of problems, anticipate and define new problems, and identify and resolve new problems in new fields.

• Feedback from participants is collected on the discussion page of this wiki