Dr Davide Sterchele, Senior Lecturer

Dr Davide Sterchele

Senior Lecturer

Davide joined Leeds Beckett University as a Leverhulme Visiting Fellow in January 2013 from the University of Padua, Italy, where he completed a PhD in sociology with an ethnographic study on football and inter-ethnic relationships in post-war Bosnia & Herzegovina.

Davide is a board member of the European Association for the Sociology of Sport (EASS), whose Young Researcher Award he initiated in 2009 and has chaired ever since. He is also a former coordinator of the Research Network 28 ‘Society and Sports’ of the European Sociological Association (ESA) and he has served in the Editorial Board of the International Review for the Sociology of Sport.

Alongside his academic work, Davide holds both a FA Level 1 and a Uefa B football coaching qualification.

Current Teaching

  • Sport events organisations (L4)
  • Sport events and society (L4)
  • Events organisations management (L4)
  • Managing events workforce (L5)
  • Impacts and legacies of sport (L6)
  • Events in society (L4)
  • Policy and politics of sports events (L6)
  • Sport events – Impacts, issues and policy (L7)

Research Interests

Underpinned by a qualitative, interpretive sociological approach, Davide’s research mainly deals with the inclusive/exclusive dynamics in sports and the changing forms of physical cultures (notably in the fields of sport for development and peace, alternative sport events, anti-racism/multiculturalism, and lifestyle sports).

Davide is currently part of a research group which investigates the institutionalisation of Italian parkour. He was previously involved in the evaluation of the Battle Back project, funded by The Royal British Legion, to analyse the role of adaptive sports and outdoor activities in the psychosocial recovery and personal development of wounded, injured, and sick military personnel.

Davide’s previous study funded by the Leverhulme Trust examined liminality and de-sportisation as characteristics of alternative/anti-discriminatory sport events and initiatives, with particular focus on the Mondiali Antirazzisti (Antiracitst World Cup).

Dr Davide Sterchele, Senior Lecturer

Selected Outputs

  • Sterchele D; Hammer J (2013) Interview with Davide Sterchele on BBC Sportshour.

  • Pizzolati M; Sterchele D (In press) Mixed-sex in sport for development: a pragmatic and symbolic device. The case of touch rugby for forced migrants in Rome. Sport in Society, pp. 1-22.

    https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2015.1133600

  • Richards G; Censon D; Gračan D; Haressy M; Kiráľová A; Marulc E; Rossetti G; Barkiđija Sotošek M; Sterchele D (2022) Event management literature: exploring the missing body of knowledge. Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events

    https://doi.org/10.1080/19407963.2022.2128810

  • Sterchele D (2019) Memorable tourism experiences and their consequences : An interaction ritual (IR) theory approach. Annals of Tourism Research, 81

    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2019.102847

  • Sterchele D; Ferrero Camoletto R (2017) Governing bodies or managing freedom? Subcultural struggles, national sport systems and the glocalised institutionalisation of parkour. International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 9 (1), pp. 89-105.

    https://doi.org/10.1080/19406940.2017.1289235

  • Camoletto RF; Sterchele D; Genova C (2015) Managing alternative sports: new organisational spaces for the diffusion of Italian parkour. Modern Italy, 20 (3), pp. 307-319.

    https://doi.org/10.1080/13532944.2015.1065237

  • Sterchele D; Saint-Blancat C (2015) Keeping it liminal. The Mondiali Antirazzisti (Anti-racist World Cup) as a multifocal interaction ritual. Leisure Studies, 34 (2), pp. 182-196.

    https://doi.org/10.1080/02614367.2013.855937

  • Sterchele D (2015) De-sportizing physical activity: From sport-for-development to play-for-development. European Journal for Sport and Society, 12 (1), pp. 97-120.

    https://doi.org/10.1080/16138171.2015.11687958

  • Sterchele D; Saint-Blancat C (2015) Keeping it liminal. The Mondiali Antirazzisti (Anti-racist World Cup) as a multifocal interaction ritual. Leisure Studies, 34 (2), pp. 182-196.

    https://doi.org/10.1080/02614367.2013.855937

  • Sterchele D (2013) Fertile land or mined field? Peace-building and ethnic tensions in post-war Bosnian football. Sport in Society, 16 (8), pp. 973-992.

    https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2013.801223

  • Sterchele D; Saint-Blancat C (2013) Keeping it liminal. The Mondiali Antirazzisti (Anti-racist World Cup) as a multifocal interaction ritual. Leisure Studies

    https://doi.org/10.1080/02614367.2013.855937

  • Sterchele D (2007) The limits of inter-religious dialogue and the form of football rituals: The case of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Social Compass, 54 (2), pp. 211-224.

    https://doi.org/10.1177/0037768607077032

  • Sterchele D; Ferrero Camoletto R; Borgogni A; Digennaro S (2017) Undisciplined spaces: lifestyle sports and sport-for-all policies in Italy. In: Turner D; Carnicelli S ed. Lifestyle Sports and Public Policy. London: Routledge, pp. 43-60.

  • Digennaro S; Sterchele D; Borgogni A (2016) Un análisis de la participación deportiva de Italia desde el Advocacy Coalition Framework. In: Llopis-Goig RLG ed. Participacion deportiva en Europa. Barcelona: Oberta UOC Publishing, pp. 359-383.

  • Borgogni A; Digennaro S; Sterchele D (2015) Sport Clubs in Italy. In: Breuer C; Hoekman R; Nagel S; van der Werff H ed. Sport Clubs in Europe. New York: Springer, pp. 249-269.