Community-led sport and cultural events as levers for sustainable local development: a systematic review of mechanisms and conditions

  • Roli Mardian 
    Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta
    Indonesia
  • Yudik Prasetyo
    Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta
    Indonesia
  • Ali Satia Graha
    Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta
    Indonesia
  • Fadli Ihsan
    Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta
    Indonesia

Abstract

Community-led sport and cultural events, defined here as events initiated, organised or co-governed by local residents, civil-society groups or small local businesses, are increasingly used as community development tools, yet how and under what conditions they contribute to sustainability remains unclear. Guided by event leverage theory, social exchange theory and the community capitals framework, this systematic review aimed to identify the social, cultural, economic and environmental impacts of these events, to explain the mechanisms that generate them, and to compare how event type, scale and setting condition them. Following PRISMA 2020, a Scopus search (TITLE-ABS-KEY, 2021–2026) yielded 238 records. Eligible studies were English-language journal articles or reviews in which a sport, cultural or hybrid event was the unit of analysis and outcomes related to community or sustainable local development. Two reviewers independently screened records and appraised quality with the FICO checklist (minimum 5 of 8 points); disagreements were resolved by discussion. Eighty-three studies were retained and analysed through descriptive bibliometrics, keyword co-occurrence mapping and Thomas and Harden’s three-stage thematic synthesis. Pride, cohesion, well-being and resident support were the most consistent social outcomes, although participation rarely produced durable social capital. Cultural festivals and traditional sports helped preserve heritage and identity but risked commodification. Economic returns depended on deliberate leveraging and local supply linkages, whereas the environmental dimension was the least studied and mostly reported as a pressure. Community ownership, participatory governance, cross-sector partnerships and strategic leverage emerged as the main mechanisms, moderated by event scale, setting and environmental sensitivity. Because most evidence is cross-sectional and perception-based, these relationships are associations rather than causal effects. The review proposes a mechanism-oriented framework and design principles for organisers and local governments, and calls for longitudinal, comparative mixed-methods designs with direct environmental measurement.

Keywords
  • Community sport events,
  • Cultural festivals,
  • Sustainable local development,
  • Event leverage,
  • Social impact
Lisensing Information
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite
Mardian, R., Prasetyo, Y., Satia Graha, A., & Ihsan, F. (2026). Community-led sport and cultural events as levers for sustainable local development: a systematic review of mechanisms and conditions. Lentera Negeri, 7(1), 2099–2120. https://doi.org/10.29210/994210
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