The labour of climate change in community sport: capacities of recovery, repair and care

This article examines the impacts of climate change on community sport. The study is located in Te Tairāwhiti, a region of New Zealand that has been significantly and repeatedly impacted by extreme weather events. This paper draws upon focus groups and interviews with 46 young athletes (aged 13–25 years old), and 23 coaches, managers, leaders and parent volunteers from a range of community sports clubs. Engaging the concepts of ‘climate adaptation labour’ and ‘repair and care,’ it reveals the additional physical, organizational, financial and gendered labour performed predominantly by volunteers in their efforts to recover and rebuild the physical and social infrastructure of community sports clubs, as well as the human toll of this work. This paper makes visible the significant work performed by local sports clubs to rebuild in the climate crisis, and offers a new conceptual vocabulary for research, policy and practice related to climate change and sport. It concludes by calling for greater recognition of sports clubs as critical infrastructure for climate adaptation and mitigation.