CONCEPTUALISATION OF THE ECOSYSTEM APPROACH IN MODERN SCIENCE AND ITS ADAPTATION TO THE FIELD OF SPORT

Abstract

Contemporary sports research demonstrates a shift from fragmented analyses of individual elements of sporting activity toward a holistic understanding of the interaction of social, institutional, and resource-related factors. In this context, the ecosystem approach is gaining particular relevance, as it enables sport to be conceptualized as a multilevel sociocultural system. At the same time, the scientific discourse reveals insufficient systematization of the integration of diverse theoretical models into a unified analytical framework for studying the sports domain. The aim of this article is to provide a theoretical and methodological justification for applying the ecosystem paradigm to the analysis of sport as a complex social system. The study was conducted in the format of a narrative-analytical review with elements of conceptual synthesis. Peer-reviewed publications indexed in Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, and Google Scholar were analyzed. Methods of analysis and synthesis, systemic and structural-functional approaches, and comparative analysis were employed. The results. The study establishes that the contemporary understanding of sport within the ecosystem paradigm is based on an interdisciplinary synthesis of theoretical and methodological approaches aimed at analyzing the structural, procedural, and sociocultural dimensions of sporting activity. It is demonstrated that each of these approaches reflects specific structural, procedural, and sociocultural aspects of the functioning of the sport sector, while their integration ensures a comprehensive view of the interaction among actors, resources, and institutions. The study substantiates the relevance of integrating these models for analyzing the mechanisms of self-organization, adaptation, and value co-creation in the sporting environment. An integrated analytical framework is proposed, enabling the interpretation of sport as a dynamic network of social interactions and partnerships oriented toward the formation of sporting and social value, the development of social capital, and the ensuring of institutional sustainability of sporting communities. The ecosystem approach represents an effective methodological foundation for the comprehensive study of sport as a sociocultural system functioning under conditions of multilevel interaction among social, institutional, and resource-related factors. Its application contributes to a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of self-organization, adaptation, and value co-creation within the sporting environment, as well as the processes of social capital formation and institutional sustainability of sports communities. The proposed integrated analytical framework makes it possible to combine structural, procedural, and sociocultural dimensions of sports analysis, thereby providing a solid theoretical and methodological basis for further empirical research and for improving sports development policies in the context of contemporary social transformations.