Chapter 16: Conclusion

Throughout centuries, individuals and collectives have been practicing movement in manners that lead to the development of the diverse kinds of sports that we know of nowadays. Besides serving as a catalyst for innovation and cultural progress, sport has for a long time served the important role of unifying cultures and creating traditions.

Traditions serve the function of transmitting customs and beliefs from generation to generation. In the context of sport, traditions have in most cases very positive connotations and carry an important value for all involved members of the family or cultural circle in which they are being passed on. For this reason, sport does not lose its value, and its practices become carried on throughout time and generational cohorts. The most valuable background of traditions is the harmony between long-believed values and innovation, which is always introduced as an addition to the existing habit by the newest generation. Throughout this volume, we were able to see multiple examples of knowledge creation resulting from the symbiosis of traditional values and future-oriented innovative thinking and acting. Through such processes, we are able to observe new records being set by passionate athletes and new sports kinds or elements being created by creative minds who are eager to expand the horizon of their beloved athletic arena. With this consideration, it is possible to further observe and investigate how sport serves as a medium for personal development in cultural contexts and everyday life. Human meaning-making is inevitably dynamic in irreversible time, and the significant experiences encountered influence how one is dialogically capable of creating meaning in the communities and ecologies in which one is participating. This meaning becomes sustainable through its persistence and presence throughout time, which opens up the possibility for psychology to step in and investigate these phenomena—just as it has been done by pioneers of the cultural psychology of sports throughout this volume.