Dr. Gareth J. Jones joined SIRC in 2016 as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and is now an Assistant Professor of Sport and Recreation Management in the School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management. Dr. Jones’ research focuses on how sport and recreation influences the cognitive, social and physical development of youth and communities. In addition to analyzing the individual outcomes associated with participation in sport and recreation programs, Dr. Jones also focuses on the management and delivery of these services across different communities. He is particularly interested in how inter-organizational partnerships and collaborative networks are utilized to enhance and expand sport and recreation services. This includes building the capacity of sport and recreation organizations and ensuring services are available and accessible for diverse communities. Dr. Jones also has a keen interest in sport-for-development (SFD), broadly defined as the use of sport to address prevailing social, economic and/or health-related issues. In addition to assessing individual programs within this space, Dr. Jones has also evaluated the efficacy of both large- and small-scale events in promoting SFD goals.
Dr. Jones draws on a diverse repertoire of methodological tools to conduct his research. He has experience leading qualitative studies involving interviews, focus groups and participant observations, as well as quantitatively-focused studies using both primary and secondary data. In addition to variable-based quantitative methods, Dr. Jones also utilizes social network analysis to focus on relational traits at both the organizational and individual level. While at North Carolina State University, Dr. Jones also earned a certificate in geographic information systems (GIS) and consults on a variety of projects involving community master planning, component-based inventories and geospatial analysis.