Strategic Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Messaging Through Sport Events

A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis of a Mega Cycling Event

Bibliographic Data

ID13049119
AuthorsD Mcgillivray (0000-0002-9383-2804, University of the West of Scotland, corresponding author), Nasreen Akhtar (0000-0001-7176-7805, University of the West of Scotland), Emma Reid (0000-0003-4222-6115, University of the West of Scotland)
Year2025
Publication date2025-11-13
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCommunication & Sport (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2167-4795 • E-ISSN: 2167-4809
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/21674795251398441
OpenAlexW4416167704
LanguageEN
References cited31

The literature on sport event leveraging suggests that these events can play an important role in addressing social inequities when planned carefully and utilizing the media to promote key messages. However, relatively little is known about how effectively sport event organizers and their partners make use of social media platforms to achieve these ambitions and what dominant discourses are perpetuated in the process. Drawing on a case study of the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships held in Scotland, this paper explores how event organizers and their partners used strategic social media messaging to promote equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) discourses before, during and after the event. We draw on leveraging theory and a Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (FDA) of social media posts by event stakeholders and find that while EDI messaging was evident, it was inconsistent, overly generalized and failed to recognize the systemic injustices faced by marginalized groups. We conclude that, given the resources available to organizers and their partners, greater attention needs to be paid to how coherent social media messaging can be utilized to more effectively address social inequities

Discourse analysis · Diversity (politics · Event (particle physics · Inclusion (mineral · Key (lock · Mega · Social media · Recreation, Leisure, Wilderness Management · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society

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Open DOIOpen Access