“Back in the Day, You Opened Your Mine and on You Went”: Extractives Industry Perspectives on Sport, Responsibility, and Development in Indigenous Communities in Canada

in Journal of Sport Management

Click name to view affiliation

Rob Millington Brock University

Search for other papers by Rob Millington in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed Close
*
,
Lyndsay M.C. Hayhurst York University

Search for other papers by Lyndsay M.C. Hayhurst in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed Close
*
,
Audrey R. Giles University of Ottawa

Search for other papers by Audrey R. Giles in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed Close
*
, and
Steven Rynne The University of Queensland

Search for other papers by Steven Rynne in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed Close
*
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1123/jsm.2019-0345
Keywords:
corporate partnerships; corporate social responsibility; sport and social good; sport for development
First Published Online:
05 Jun 2020
In Print:
Volume 34: Issue 6
Page Range:
521–532
Restricted access

Over the past two decades, significant policy shifts within Canada have urged corporations from all sectors, including the extractives industry, to fund and support sport for development (SFD) programming in Indigenous communities, often through corporate social responsibility strategies. The idea that sport is an appropriate tool of development for Indigenous communities in Canada and that the extractives industry is a suitable partner to implement development programs highlight profound tensions regarding ongoing histories of resource extraction and settler colonialism. To explore these tensions, in this paper, the authors drew on interviews conducted with extractives industry representatives of four companies that fund and implement such SFD programs. From these interviews, three overarching discourses emerged in relation to the extractives industry’s role in promoting development through sport: SFD is a catalyst to positive relationships between industry and community, SFD is a contributor to “social good” in Indigenous communities, and extractives industry funding of SFD is “socially responsible.”

Millington is with the Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. Hayhurst is with the York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Giles is with the University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Rynne is with The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Millington (rmillington@brocku.ca) is corresponding author.
  • Collapse
  • Expand

Journal of Sport Management

Cover Journal of Sport Management

  • Aboriginal Sport Circle. (2015). Strategic plan 2015–2020. Aboriginal Sport Circle. Retrieved from http://www.aboriginalsportcircle.ca/en/about-us/asc-overview/strategic-plan.html

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Agathangelou, A.M., & Turcotte, H.M. (2016). Reworking postcolonial feminisms in the sites of IR. In J. Steans & D. Tepe-Belfrage (Eds.), Handbook on gender in world politics (pp. 41–50). Cheltenham, UK: Elgar.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Aqueveque, C., Rodrigo, P., & Duran, I.J. (2018). Be bad but (still) look good: Can controversial industries enhance corporate reputation through CSR initiatives? Business Ethics: A European Review, 27(3), 222–237. doi:10.1111/beer.12183

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Babiak, K. (2010). The role and relevance of corporate social responsibility in sport: A view from the top. Journal of Management & Organization, 16(4), 528–549. doi:10.1017/S1833367200001917

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Babiak, K., & Wolfe, R. (2013). Perspectives on social responsibility in sport. In J.L.P. Salcines, K. Babiak, & G. Walters (Eds.), Routledge handbook of sport and corporate social responsibility (pp. 17–35). New York, NY: Routledge.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Banerjee, S.B. (2011). Voices of the governed: Towards a theory of the translocal. Organization, 18(3), 323–344. doi:10.1177/1350508411398729

  • Banerjee, S.B., & Prasad, A. (2008). Introduction to the special issue on “critical reflections on management and organizations: A postcolonial perspective”. Critical Perspectives on International Business, 4(2/3), 90–98. doi:10.1108/17422040810869963

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Bason, T., & Anagnostopoulos, C. (2015). Corporate social responsibility through sport: A longitudinal study of the FTSE100 companies. Sport, Business and Management, 5(3), 218–241. doi:10.1108/SBM-10-2014-0044

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Boutilier, R.G., & Thomson, I. (2011). Modelling and measuring the social license to operate: Fruits of a dialogue between theory and practice. Social Licence, 1–10.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Butler, P. (2015). Colonial extractions: Race and Canadian mining in contemporary Africa. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.

  • Byrd, J.A., & Rothberg, M. (2011). Between subalternity and indigeneity: Critical categories for postcolonial studies. Interventions, 13(1), 1–12. doi:10.1080/1369801X.2011.545574

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Calas, M.B., & Smircich, L. (1999). Past postmodernism? Reflections and tentative directions. Academy of Management Review, 24(4), 649–672. doi:10.5465/amr.1999.2553246

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Coalter, F. (2013). Sport for development: What game are we playing? Abingdon, UK: Routledge.

  • Connell, R. (2018). Decolonizing sociology. Contemporary Sociology, 47(4), 399–407. doi:10.1177/0094306118779811

  • Cutler, A.C. (2010). The legitimacy of private transnational governance: Experts and the transnational market for force. Socio-Economic Review, 8, 157–185. doi:10.1093/ser/mwp027

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Darnell, S.C. (2007). Playing with race: Right to play and the production of whiteness in “development through sport”. Sport in Society, 10(4), 560–579. doi:10.1080/17430430701388756

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Darnell, S.C. (2012). Olympism in action, Olympic hosting and the politics of ‘sport for development and peace’: Investigating the development discourses of Rio 2016. Sport in Society, 15(6), 869–887. doi:10.1080/17430437.2012.708288

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Darnell, S.C., Chawansky, M., Marchesseault, D., Holmes, M., & Hayhurst, L. (2018). The state of play: Critical sociological insights into recent ‘Sport for Development and Peace’ research. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 53(2), 133–151. doi:10.1177/1012690216646762

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Darnell, S.C., & Dao, M. (2017). Considering sport for development and peace through the capabilities approach. Third World Thematics: A TWQ Journal, 2(1), 23–36. doi:10.1080/23802014.2017.1314772

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Darnell, S.C., & Kaur, T. (2015). CLR James and a place for history in theorising “sport for development and peace”. International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 16(1–2), 5–17. doi:10.1504/IJSMM.2015.074919

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Darnell, S.C., & Hayhurst, L.M. (2011). Sport for decolonization: Exploring a new praxis of sport for development. Progress in Development Studies, 11(3), 183–196. doi:10.1177/146499341001100301

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Dauvergne, P., & LeBaron, G. (2014). Protest Inc.: The corporatization of activism. Toronto, Canada: John Wiley and Sons.

  • Devenin, V., & Bianchi, C. (2017). Soccer fields? What for? Effectiveness of corporate social responsibility initiatives in the mining industry. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 25(5), 866–879. doi:10.1002/csr.1503

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Du, S., & Vieira, E.T. (2012). Striving for legitimacy through corporate social responsibility: Insights from oil companies. Journal of Business Ethics, 110(4), 413–427. doi:10.1007/s10551-012-1490-4

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Fairclough, N. (2001). Critical discourse as a method in social scientific research. In R. Wodak & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis (pp. 121–138). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Fairclough, N. (2003). Analyzing discourse: Textual analysis for social research. New York, NY: Routledge.

  • Forsyth, J., & Giles, A.G. (2013). Aboriginal peoples and sport in Canada historical foundations and contemporary issues. Vancouver, Canada: UBC Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Forsyth, J., & Wamsley, K.B. (2006). ‘Native to native … we’ll recapture our spirits’: The world indigenous nations games and north American indigenous games as cultural resistance. The International Journal of the History of Sport, 23(2), 294–314. doi:10.1080/09523360500478315

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Frenkel, M., & Shenhav, Y. (2006). From binarism back to hybridity: A postcolonial reading of management and organization studies. Organization Studies, 27(6), 855–876. doi:10.1177/0170840606064086

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Gagnon, Y. (2010). The case study as research method a practical handbook. Québec City, Canada: Presses de l’Université du Québec.

  • Gardam, K., Giles, A., & Hayhurst, L.M.C. (2017). Sport for development for Aboriginal youth in Canada: A scoping review. Journal of Sport for Development, 5(6), 30–40.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Gartner-Manzon, S., & Giles, A.R. (2016). A case study of the lasting impacts of employment in a development through sport, recreation and the arts programme for Aboriginal youth. Sport in Society, 19(2), 159–173. doi:10.1080/17430437.2015.1067770

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Gilberthorpe, E., Agol, D., & Gegg, T. (2016). ‘Sustainable mining’? Corporate social responsibility, migration and livelihood choices in Zambia. The Journal of Development Studies, 52(11), 1517–1532. doi:10.1080/00220388.2016.1189534

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Gilberthorpe, E., & Rajak, D. (2017). The anthropology of extraction: Critical perspectives on the resource curse. The Journal of Development Studies, 53(2), 186–204. doi:10.1080/00220388.2016.1160064

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Giles, A., & van Luijk, N. (2018, April 3). Federal budget undermines Indigenous self-determination in sport programs. The conversation. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/federal-budget-undermines-indigenous-self-determination-in-sport-programs-93711

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Giulianotti, R. (2015). Corporate social responsibility in sport: Critical issues and future possibilities. Corporate Governance, 15(2), 243–248. doi:10.1108/CG-10-2014-0120

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Go, J. (2016). Postcolonial thought and social theory. London, UK: Oxford University Press.

  • Hall, R. (2013). Diamond mining in Canada’s Northwest Territories: A colonial continuity. Antipode, 45(2), 376–393. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2012.01012.x

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Hapeta, J., Stewart-Withers, R., & Palmer, F. (2019). Sport for social change with Aotearoa New Zealand Youth: Navigating the theory-practice nexus through indigenous principles. Journal of Sport Management, 1, 1–12.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Hayhurst, L.M.C., & Giles, A.R. (2013). Private and moral authority, self-determination, and the domestic transfer objective: Foundations for understanding sport for development and peace in Aboriginal communities in Canada. Sociology of Sport Journal, 30(4), 504–519. doi: 10.1123/ssj.30.4.504

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Hayhurst, L.M.C., Giles, A.R., & Wright, J. (2016). Biopedagogies and Indigenous knowledge: Examining sport for development and peace for urban Indigenous young women in Canada and Australia. Sport, Education and Society, 21(4), 549–569.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Hayhurst, L.M.C., & Szto, C. (2016). Corporatizating activism through sport-focused social justice? Investigating Nike’s corporate responsibility initiatives in sport for development and peace. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 40(6), 522–544.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Heine, M. (2013). Performance indicators: Aboriginal games at the Arctic Winter games. In J. Forsyth & A. Giles (Eds.), Aboriginal peoples and sport in Canada: Historical foundations and contemporary issues (pp. 160–181). Vancouver, Canada: UBC Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Henhawk, D. (2009). Aboriginal participation in sport: Critical issues of race, culture and power (Master’s thesis). University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Howitt, R., & Lawrence, R. (2008). Indigenous peoples, corporate social responsibility and the fragility of the interpersonal domain. In C. O’Faircheallaigh & S. Ali (Eds.), Earth matters: Indigenous peoples, the extractive industry and corporate social responsibility (pp. 83–103). Sheffield, UK: Greenleaf Publishing Ltd.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Jenkins, H., & Yakovleva, N. (2006). Corporate social responsibility in the mining industry: Exploring trends in social and environmental disclosure. Journal of Cleaner Production, 14(3–4), 271–284. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2004.10.004

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Keeling, A., & Sandlos, J. (2015). Mining and communities in Northern Canada: History, politics, and memory. Calgary, Canada: University of Calgary Press.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Khan, F.R., Westwood, R., & Boje, D.M. (2010). ‘I feel like a foreign agent’: NGOs and corporate social responsibility interventions into Third World child labor. Human Relations, 63(9), 1417–1438. doi:10.1177/0018726709359330

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Kidd, B. (2008). A new social movement: Sport for development and peace. In S. Jackson & S. Haigh (Eds.), Sport and foreign policy in a globalizing world (pp. 36–46). London, UK: Routledge.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Levermore, R. (2010). CSR for development through sport: Examining its potential and limitations. Third World Quarterly, 31(2), 223–241. doi:10.1080/01436591003711967

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Levermore, R., & Moore, N. (2015). The need to apply new theories to “sport CSR”. Corporate Governance, 15(2), 249–253. doi:10.1108/CG-09-2014-0113

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Levitan, T., & Cameron, E. (2015). Privatizing consent? Impact and benefits agreements and the neoliberalization of mineral development in the Canadian North. In A. Keeling & J. Sandlos (Eds.), Mining and communities in northern Canada (pp. 259–290). Calgary, Canada: University of Calgary Press.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Lyras, A., & Peachey, J.W. (2011). Integrating sport-for-development theory and praxis. Sport Management Review, 14(4), 311–326. doi:10.1016/j.smr.2011.05.006

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • McSweeney, M.J., Hayhurst, L.M.C., & Kidd, B. (2019). Corporate social responsibility, sport and development. In M. Li, E. Macintosh, & G. Bravo (Eds.), International sport management (2nd ed., pp. 369–384). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Michael, B. (2003). Corporate social responsibility in international development: An overview and critique. Corporate Social Responsibility Environmental Management, 10(3), 115–128. doi:10.1002/csr.41

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Millington, R., Giles, A.R., Hayhurst, L.M.C., van Luijk, N., & McSweeney, M. (2019). ‘Calling out’corporate redwashing: the extractives industry, corporate social responsibility and sport for development in indigenous communities in Canada. Sport in Society, 22(12), 2122–2140.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Nelsen, J.L. (2006). Social license to operate. International Journal of Mining, Reclamation and Environment, 20(3), 161–162. doi:10.1080/17480930600804182

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Neuman, W.L. (1997). Social research methods: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

  • Newell, P., & Frynas, J. (2007). Beyond CSR? Business, poverty and social justice: an introduction. Third World Quarterly, 28(4), 669–681. doi:10.1080/01436590701336507

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Norman, M.E., Petherick, L., Garcia, E., Glazebrook, C., Giesbrecht, G., & Duhamel, T. (2015). Examining the more-than-built environments of a northern Manitoban community: Re-conceptualizing rural indigenous mobilities. Journal of Rural Studies, 42, 166–178. doi:10.1016/j.jrurstud.2015.09.008

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Oh, H., Bae, J., & Kim, S.J. (2017). Can sinful firms benefit from advertising their CSR efforts? Adverse effect of advertising sinful firms’ CSR engagements on firm performance. Journal of Business Ethics, 143(4), 643–663. doi:10.1007/s10551-016-3072-3

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Paraschak, V. (1995). The Native Sport and Recreation Program, 1972–1981: Patterns of resistance, patterns of reproduction. Canadian Journal of History of Sport, 26(2), 1–18. doi:10.1123/cjhs.26.2.1

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Parsons, R. (2008). We are all stakeholders now: The influence of western discourses of “community engagement” in an Australian Aboriginal community. Critical Perspectives on International Business, 4(2/3), 99–126. doi:10.1108/17422040810869972

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Phillips, N., & Hardy, C. (2002). Discourse analysis: Investigating processes of social construction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

  • Prasad, A. (2003). Postcolonial theory and organizational analysis: A critical engagement. New York, NY: Springer.

  • Preston, J. (2013). Neoliberal settler colonialism, Canada and the tar sands. Race & Class, 55(2), 42–59. doi:10.1177/0306396813497877

  • Richey, L.A., & Ponte, S. (2008). Better (Red)™ than Dead? Celebrities, consumption and international aid. Third World Quarterly, 29(4), 711–729. doi:10.1080/01436590802052649

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Ritskes, E. (2017). Beyond and against white settler colonialism in Palestine: Fugitive futurities in Amir Nizar Zuabi’s “the underground Ghetto City of Gaza”. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 17(1), 78–86. PubMed ID: 32131024 doi:10.1177/1532708616640561

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Robidoux, M.A. (2012). Stickhandling through the margins: First Nations hockey in Canada. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.

  • Rovito, A., & Giles, A.R. (2013). Outside looking in: Resisting colonial discourses of Aboriginality. Leisure Sciences, 38(1), 1–16. doi:10.1080/01490400.2015.1057661

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Rowe, A.C., & Tuck, E. (2017). Settler colonialism and cultural studies: Ongoing settlement, cultural production, and resistance. Cultural Studies↔ Critical Methodologies, 17(1), 3–13. PubMed ID: 32131024 doi:10.1177/1532708616653693

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Sherry, E., Schulenkorf, N., & Phillips, P. (Eds.). (2016). Managing sport development: An international approach. New York, NY: Routledge.

  • Silver, C., & Lewins, A. (2014). Using software in qualitative research: A step-by-step guide. New York, NY: Sage.

  • Smith, A.C., & Westerbeek, H.M. (2007). Sport as a vehicle for deploying corporate social responsibility. Journal of Corporate Citizenship, 25(1), 43–54. doi:10.9774/GLEAF.4700.2007.sp.00007

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Smith, B. (2018). Generalizability in qualitative research: Misunderstandings, opportunities and recommendations for the sport and exercise sciences. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 10(1), 137–149. doi:10.1080/2159676X.2017.1393221

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. (2015). Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to action. Winnipeg, Canada: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • van Luijk, N., Giles, A., Frigault, J., Millington, R., & Hayhurst, L.M.C. (In Press). “It’s like, we are thankful. But in the other way…they are just killing us too”: Community members’ perspectives of the extractives industry’s funding of recreational and cultural programmes in a small northern Alberta community. Leisure/Loisir.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Wainwright, J. (2008). Decolonizing development: Colonial power and the Maya. Hoboken, NJ: Blackwell Publishing.

  • Walker, M., & Parent, M.M. (2010). Toward an integrated framework of corporate social responsibility, responsiveness, and citizenship in sport. Sport Management Review, 13(3), 198–213. doi:10.1016/j.smr.2010.03.003

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Welty Peachey, J., & Burton, L. (2017). Servant leadership in sport for development and peace: A way forward. Quest, 69(1), 125–139. doi:10.1080/00336297.2016.1165123

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Westwood, R. (2006). International business and management studies as an orientalist discourse: A postcolonial critique. Critical Perspectives on International Business, 2(2), 91–113. doi:10.1108/17422040610661280

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation
All Time Past Year Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 3880 942 82
Full Text Views 225 33 2
PDF Downloads 134 36 1