Mitchell McSweeney
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Assistant Professor, Sport Management
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School of Kinesiology
Cooke Hall
1900 University Ave SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455-0376 - mmcsween@umn.edu
Areas of interest
sport for development and peace, social entrepreneurship and innovation, participatory action research, institutional theory, postcolonial theory, corporate social responsibility, diaspora, forced migration and sport.
PhD, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada
Specialization: Socio-Cultural Studies of Sport and Health
Graduate Diploma in Refugee and Migration Studies
York University, Toronto, ON, Canada
MA, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, Canada
Specialization: Sport Management
BSM, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, Canada
Specialization: Sport Management
Expertise
McSweeney’s research usually revolves around three guiding questions:
(1) How may sport and physical activity contribute to or hinder ‘development’ (e.g., gender equality, economic empowerment, etc.) of individuals, communities, regions, and/or countries?
(2) What entrepreneurial strategies are adopted and implemented by sport organizations, staff, and program participants to achieve sport-for-development goals?
(3) In what ways do institutions and the institutional environment that organizations and sport-for-development actors operate within and against promote or constrain social change?
McSweeney seeks to respond to these questions by using an interdisciplinary approach to conduct research in both global North (e.g., Canada) and global South (e.g., Uganda) contexts. He uses theories such as postcolonial management theory and institutional theory while also adopting participatory action research approaches and the use of visual and digital methods (e.g., photovoice, photocollaging, digital storytelling) to collaborate with organizations, communities, groups, and individuals.
Awards and Honours
Journal of Sport for Development Early Career Scholar Award, 2022
Sport Management Association of Australia and New Zealand Best Conference Paper Award, 2020
North American Society for the Sociology of Sport Barbara Brown Student Paper Award (PhD Category) Honourable Mention, 2020
Canada Graduate Scholarships – Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplements, 2019
North American Society for Sport Management Doctoral Research Grant, 2019
Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship Doctoral Award, 2019
North American Society for the Sociology of Sport Barbara Brown Student Paper Award (Masters Category), 2017
McSweeney, M.J., Svensson, P.G., Hayhurst, L.M.C., & Safai, P. (2022) Social innovation, entrepreneurship, and sport for development and peace. Routledge.
McSweeney, M.J., Hakiza, R., & Namukhula, J. (2022). Using participatory action research and visual and digital methods with refugee-background people in Kampala, Uganda: Process, ethics, and reciprocity. Sport in Society: Cultures, Commerce, Media, Politics, 25(3), 485-505.
McSweeney, M.J., Millington, R., Hayhurst, L.M.C., & Darnell, S. (2021, online first). Becoming an occupation? A research agenda into the professionalization of the sport for development and peace sector. Journal of Sport Management.
McSweeney, M.J., Hayhurst, L.M.C., Wilson, B., Bandoles, E, & Leung, K. (2021, online first). Colliding mandates of social enterprises: Exploring the financial strategies, environment, and social-market tensions of bicycles-for-development organizations. Sport Management Review, 24(5), 791-814.
McSweeney, M.J., Millington, B., Hayhurst, L.M.C., Wilson, B., Ardizzi, M., & Otte, J. (2021). “The bike breaks down. What are they going to do?” Actor-networks and the bicycles for development movement. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 56(2), 194-211.
McSweeney, M.J. (2020). Returning the ‘social’ to social entrepreneurship: Future possibilities of critically exploring sport for development and peace and social entrepreneurship. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 55(1), 3-21.
McSweeney, M.J., & Safai, P. (2020). Innovating Canadian sport policy: Towards new public management and public entrepreneurship?. International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 12(3), 405-421.
McSweeney, M.J., Kikulis, L., Thibault, L., Hayhurst, L.M.C., & van Ingen, C. (2019). Maintaining and disrupting global-North hegemony/global-South dependence in a local African sport for development organization: The role of institutional work. International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 11(3), 521-537.
Robar, J., & McSweeney, M.J. (2022, June). COVID-19, innovation, and the sport-for-development and peace sector: Conceptualizing an entrepreneurial mindset for the future of the field. Oral presentation at the 2021 North American Society for Sport Management Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
McSweeney, M.J., Hayhurst, L.M.C, Otte, J., & Wilson, B. (2022, April). Social entrepreneurship and gender relations in Northern Uganda: Using postcolonial theory to critically explore the use of bicycles for development. Oral presentation at the 2021 North American Society for the Sociology of Sport Conference, Montreal, Canada.
McSweeney, M.J., Kikulis, L., & Warner, M. (2021, October). “We started drinking the kool-aid”: The self work of key agents of change in shaping a corporate community investment strategy in a professional sport team organization. Oral presentation at the 2021 European Association for Sport Management Festival of Sport Management Research and Practice (virtual).
McSweeney, M.J., Liu, H., & Teare, G. (2021, June). Examining the use of postcolonial management theory in sport management education: Strategies to enhance student learning of colonial histories and challenge dominant ideologies. Oral presentation at the 2021 North American Society for Sport Management Conference Teaching and Learning Fair (virtual).
McSweeney, M.J. (2021, June). “You need to move at times a step ahead, but at times you don’t have the resources to help you move ahead”: Institutional entrepreneurship and the use of bricolage in a sport for development and peace organization. Oral presentation at the 2021 North American Society for Sport Management Conference (virtual).
McSweeney, M.J. (2020, November). Sport and social entrepreneurship in the base-of-the-pyramid: The institutional work of refugees and a refugee-led organization in Uganda. Oral presentation (award session) at the Sport Management Association of Australia & New Zealand Conference (virtual). *Winner of SMAANZ Best Conference Paper Award.
McSweeney, M.J. (2020, May). Utilizing participatory visual and digital methods in sport-for-development and sport management research: Process, benefits, and challenges. Oral presentation at the 2020 North American Society for Sport Management Conference, San Diego, California, USA (virtual).