This jointly authored book extends understanding of the use of sport to address global development agendas by offering an important departure from prevailing theoretical and methodological approaches ...in the field. Drawing on nearly a decade of wide-ranging multidisciplinary research undertaken with young people and adults living and working in urban communities in Zambia, the book presents a localised account that locates sport for development in historical, political, economic and social context. A key feature of the book is its detailed examination of the lives, experiences and responses of young people involved in sport for development activities, drawn from their own accounts. The book's unique approach and content will be highly relevant to academic researchers and post-graduate students studying sport and development in across many different contexts.
Prominent developments in English PE and school sport (PESS) policy across the period of Conservative-led governments since 2010 have not been empirically or comprehensively researched. In addressing ...this shortcoming, this study was uniquely underpinned by punctuated equilibrium theory in order to respond to long-standing difficulties of differentiating and explaining both policy change and continuity. Application of this theory benefited from the collection and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data from ten elite interviewees, policy documents and searches of broadsheet newspapers and parliamentary records across a 15-year period. Overall, the ring-fencing of significant funding for PESS since 2013 indicates that successive Conservative-led governments maintained and further embedded the enhanced status of PESS that had initially emerged in the 1990s. On the other hand, significant modifications in PESS policy increasingly aligned it with health-related objectives and were implemented through a decentralised model that differed significantly from the standardised, top-down approach enacted by preceding Labour governments. It is argued that these policy changes represent a 'policy punctuation' which occurred across 2010 and 2013 when the attention of cabinet ministers was drawn to PESS as a result of a confluence of external events and dramatic spikes in wider media and political interest. Subsequently, a reconstituted but expanded coalition of key PESS policy actors has supported the re-establishment of 'equilibrium' and continuity in PESS policy. These findings demonstrate the broader importance of distinguishing the continuation of a relatively high status for PESS from the intermittent salience that it has at the highest levels of government. In-depth explanation of both a rare policy 'window' for PESS policy change and long-standing institutionalisation of policy continuity was also significantly enhanced by the utilisation of punctuated equilibrium theory, demonstrating its distinctive value for future studies of PESS and sport policy.
This article addresses the urgent need for critical analysis of the relationships between sport and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals enshrined in the United Nations’ global development framework, ...the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Importantly, there has yet to be any substantial academic exploration of the implications of the position accorded to sport as ‘an important enabler’ of the aims of 2030 Agenda and its broad set of Sustainable Development Goals. In beginning to address this gap, we draw on the concept of policy coherence for two reasons. First, the designation of a specific Target for policy coherence in the 2030 Agenda is recognition of its centrality in working towards Sustainable Development Goals that are considered as ‘integrated and indivisible’. Second, the concept of policy coherence is centred on a dualism that enables holistic examination of both synergies through which the contribution of sport to the Sustainable Development Goals can be enhanced as well as incoherencies by which sport may detract from such outcomes. Our analysis progresses through three examples that respectively focus on: the common orientation of the Sport for Development and Peace ‘movement’ towards education-orientated objectives aligned with Sustainable Development Goal 4; potential synergies between sport participation policies and the Sustainable Development Goal 3 Target for reducing non-communicable diseases; and practices within professional football in relation to several migration-related Sustainable Development Goal Targets. These examples show the relevance of the Sustainable Development Goals across diverse sectors of the sport industry and illustrate complexities within and across countries that make pursuit of comprehensive policy coherence infeasible. Nevertheless, our analyses lead us to encourage both policy makers and researchers to continue to utilise the concept of policy coherence as a valuable lens to identify and consider factors that may enable and constrain various potential contributions of sport to a range of Sustainable Development Goals.
The lack of attention towards issues of governance in both global sport-for-development (SfD) policy and academic literature is placed in stark relief when compared to the significance accorded to ...such issues in international development. This article addresses this lacuna in sport-for-development by drawing on international development literature as well as interview data from representatives of international agencies, domestic governments and in-country non-governmental organisations involved with sport-for-development in Ghana and Tanzania. As previously recognised in other development sectors, the commonality of narrow, project-based approaches in sport-for-development contributes to excessive donor influence, fragmentation, competition and limits both impact and sustainability. It was in response to similar problems that, from the mid-1990s, Sector-Wide Approaches were instigated within specific sectors in particular countries as a more systematic model of development governance based on leadership by the domestic government and co-ordination among donors and other stakeholders. Although interviewees’ perspectives and some exemplar sport-for-development initiatives aligned with key features of Sector-Wide Approaches, significant challenges to their effective instigation in sport-for-development can be identified. Nevertheless, examining the applicability of Sector-Wide Approaches to sport-for-development raises important issues that require further consideration and demonstrates the necessity that sport-for-development, more generally, learns from the longer-established field of international development.
Sport Policy in Britain Houlihan, Barrie; Lindsey, Iain
2003, 20121112, 2012, 2012-11-12, Letnik:
18
eBook
Since 1990, Britain has seen a period of unprecedented public investment in, and political commitment to, sport. In this book, Iain Lindsey and Barrie Houlihan examine and analyze sport policy since ...the appointment of John Major as leader of the Conservative Party in 1990.
John Major's period as Prime Minister was a watershed in British sport policy marking the beginning of a prolonged period of public and lottery investment and relatively high political salience. The text also locates Labour sport policy not only in relation to the previous government of John Major, but also in relation to the Labor government's broader concerns and ambitions related to modernization of British institutions, its ambition to tackle the 'wicked issues' epitomized by its focus on achieving greater social inclusion, and its interest in facilitating greater stakeholder involvement in the policy process.
Lindsey and Houlihan provide the first analysis that examines sport policy as a field of government and that discusses how the various sectors (e.g. youth/school sport, mass sport, etc.) have been affected by government policy and the competition for public resources.
Frequent calls for sport for development (SFD) to be reoriented toward transformative social change reflect the extent that policies and programs have instead focused on individualized forms of ...personal development. However, SFD research has yet to substantially address fundamental ontological assumptions and underlying conceptualizations of transformative social change. To addresses this gap, this article considers how Margaret Archer’s Morphogenetic Approach can help explain how transformative social change might occur through SFD activities. Three conceptual contributions are brought into focus: (a) assuming a realist social ontology; (b) making distinctions between structure, culture, and agency; and (c) identifying social change as happening across three temporal phases. The authors conclude by identifying potential benefits and implications of applying the Morphogenetic Approach to consider the potential for SFD to contribute to social change.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this chapter is to critically examine the extensive calls for enhanced evidence within the sport-for-development field. The chapter questions whether these are ...appropriate and realistic.
Design/methodology/approach
The chapter utilizes current literature to deconstruct the assumptions that increased evidence will legitimize the field of sport-for-development, improve practice and enhance future policy. The authors’ own experiences, working as external evaluators, are also drawn upon to critique the value of current “evidence.”
Findings
The chapter illustrates how current calls for evidence are somewhat misguided and are unlikely to fully realize the intended consequence of validating sport-for-development or improving future practice. Utilizing personal reflections, the impact that Global North/Global South power imbalances have on data is discussed, suggesting that this will rarely lead to data that provide a detailed understanding of work in practice.
Research limitations/implications
The chapter builds on the work of other authors illustrating the importance of disconnecting research from evidence and monitoring and evaluation in the sport-for-development field.
Originality/value
The chapter utilizes previous literature but also provides a rarely available personal perspective on the issue of evidence that continues to permeate the rationale behind undertaking research within sport-for-development.
The potential contribution of sport to development within the Global South has recently gained prominence in terms of policy, practice and as a subject of academic interest. Internationally oriented ...perspectives are predominant both in descriptive and analytic contributions to the emerging sport-for-development literature. Descriptive accounts highlight the importance of international policies, resources and organizational stakeholders. Analytic contributions are aligned with instrumental and hegemonic strands of the mainstream development literature that have been criticized for insufficiently contextualizing development within localities in the Global South. To address this limitation of much existing sport-for-development research, this study of sport and community development in Lusaka, Zambia, was guided by Bevir and Rhodes's (2003). Interpreting British governance. London: Routledge 'decentred' approach and Long's (2001) Development sociology: actor perspectives. London: Routledge actor-oriented sociology. Data were primarily collected through 37 interviews with representatives of organizations involved in youth and community development work in two case study communities. Sport was almost universally considered by interviewees to be an important aspect of local development efforts due to its popularity, accessibility and the malleable way it could be used to address complex and locally identified problems. Organizations involved in sport-for-development were primarily indigenous, received limited international input and were more diverse than commonly identified in the existing literature. Particular approaches to sport-for-development both linked to and challenged local cultural values. These findings suggest that the two case study communities represent counterexamples to internationalist perspectives in the sport-for-development literature. Consequently, it is suggested that alternative methodologies may enable a more balanced consideration of the relative influence of local and global aspects on sport-for-development.
Despite its recognised importance, studies of collaboration within specific communities in the Global South are rare. This paper examines the purposes and processes of collaboration between ...organisations undertaking development work with young people in two communities in Lusaka, Zambia. Interviewees recognised the need for collaboration given the limitations of existing provision and the fragmented organisational context. Existing collaboration was commonly orientated towards information sharing and joint provision rather than broader coordinated planning. Building awareness and understanding across organisations were viewed as key processes in developing collaboration. To enhance collaboration between organisations, it is suggested that inclusive community forums be instigated.
Collaboration communautaire dans le cadre d'activités de développement parmi les jeunes : points de vue de communautés zambiennes
Malgré son importance reconnue, la collaboration au sein de certaines communautés dans l'hémisphère Sud n'a fait l'objet que de rares études. Cet article se penche sur les finalités et les processus de collaboration entre organisations qui entreprennent des activités de développement avec des jeunes dans deux communautés de Lusaka, en Zambie. Les personnes interrogées reconnaissaient la nécessité de collaborer étant donné les limites des services disponibles et le contexte organisationnel fragmenté. La collaboration existante était fréquemment axée sur le partage des informations et la prestation conjointe, plutôt que sur une planification coordonnée plus large. Le développement de la prise de conscience et de la compréhension entre les organisations était considéré comme un processus clé dans le développement de la collaboration. Pour améliorer la collaboration entre organisations, le lancement de forums communautaires est suggéré.
Colaboración comunitaria en el trabajo de desarrollo con jóvenes: perspectivas de comunidades zambianas
A pesar de la reconocida importancia del tema, la colaboración entre comunidades específicas del Sur ha sido poco estudiada. El presente artículo examina los propósitos y los procesos de colaboración que se establecen entre organizaciones que realizan trabajo de desarrollo entre jóvenes en dos comunidades de Lusaka, Zambia. Dadas las limitaciones de la provisión actual y el contexto organizativo fragmentado, las personas entrevistadas reconocieron la necesidad de colaborar entre sí. En general, se constata que la colaboración ya existente se orienta más a compartir información y a la provisión conjunta que a una planeación coordinada más amplia. Construir conciencia y comprensión entre organizaciones constituye un proceso clave para fomentar la colaboración. El artículo sostiene que la colaboración entre organizaciones puede mejorarse a través de la realización de foros comunitarios incluyentes.
Colaboração da comunidade no trabalho de desenvolvimento com jovens: perspectivas de comunidades zambianas
Apesar de sua reconhecida importância, estudos de colaboração dentro de comunidades específicas no Sul Global são raros. Este artigo examina os propósitos e processos de colaboração entre organizações que estão realizando trabalho de desenvolvimento com jovens em duas comunidades de Lusaka, na Zâmbia. Os entrevistados reconheceram a necessidade de colaboração tendo em vista as limitações da provisão atual e o contexto organizacional fragmentado. A colaboração existente era comumente voltada para o compartilhamento de informações e provisão conjunta em vez de um planejamento coordenado mais amplo. Promover a conscientização e a compreensão entre as organizações foi vistos como um processo-chave no desenvolvimento da colaboração. Para ampliar a colaboração entre as organizações, é recomendado que fóruns comunitários inclusivos sejam promovidos.
Gendered differences in participation in active lifestyles (encompassing sport, physical activity, and physical education) are well established, with young men typically participating in more ...activities than young women. This paper uses a theoretical approach inspired by Bourdieu’s notions of habitus, field and capital to explore the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of these differences. Drawing on mixed-methods data obtained from questionnaires (n = 332) and semi-structured interviews with 33 young men and 37 young women aged 15–16, we present two gendered trends which explain gendered differences in active lifestyle participation. Firstly, in this research, young men participated in more activities than young women, viewing their participation as integral to their identity, their sense of self. Young women, in contrast, viewed sport as an ‘optional’ extra, something they could do, if they wished. Secondly, in relation to the differences in the type of activities participated in, young men were more likely to participate in traditional team sports, whereas young women chose to engage in gym/fitness activities to promote appearance and feminine attractiveness. We argue that the gendered norms which dictate ‘appropriate’ gendered active identities are damaging to both young men and women who may wish to deviate from these norms. Social capital is allocated to gendered bodies in accordance with these norms, influencing how young people are viewed in their social hierarchies. A gender-neutral narrative which destabilises gendered sporting norms whilst simultaneously celebrating diversity is needed to promote a safe and inclusive environment where all young men and women can engage in sufficient physical activity.
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