Casting a wide net

Choosing to start broadly, I figured I need to ask, What does the literature {e.g. theoretical research, empirical research, policy papers, evaluation studies, news & popular press, company websites, ...} in the fields of sport, business, education, and community development say about the role of professional sports organizations within community relations/community engagement/public relations?

As a clarifying point, at this moment I'm interested in more direct forms of engagement, not so much in indirect forms, like social-issues ad campaigns or PSA's.

So last week, I began by combing through the stacks of Boston College and Boston University libraries, skimming books related to sports in society. Over several days, I lugged bags of books home and to the office, books on the economic dynamics of pro sports, like Pay Dirt, on the sociology of sports, on cultural representations in pro sports (for example, why we look upon sport stars as deities, where this tradition stems from), and a few textbooks on sports management. Plus, I've got a list of 10 books or so in O'Neill stacks just waiting for me to release them from their shelves and stack on mine.

Next, I've begun running searches in the social sciences CrossSearch, a search engine that cuts across multiple databases: Anthropology Plus, Communication Abstracts, ERIC, Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts, PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO 1840-current, Social Sciences Citation Index, Social Services Abstracts, and Sociological Abstracts. So far, I have found very little that directly addresses my question, but a lot of material to contextualize things.

I know the task of familiarizing myself with a wide body of literature will be long (and I've only started), and the next step of tightening my gaze seems like so foreign at this point, but my early sense is that this is a ripe area for inquiry. Many researchers and writers have delved into the complicated relationships of professional sports in society, yet few authors appear to have directly approached the pedagogical relationships therein. More to come...