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Athlete maltreatment in organized sport has attracted considerable attention from governing bodies, stakeholders and the general public. Despite numerous studies and policy proposals from various countries, the problem remains unresolved due to its inherent complexity. Drawing upon the concept of 'a wicked problem' widely utilized in policy analysis, this study first identifies the wicked features of maltreatment, focusing on: (1) the difficulty of establishing a definition of maltreatment; (2) the challenges of identifying its causes; and (3) the impediments to identifying solutions in a context of embedded stakeholders and unintended consequences. To provide further analysis, we compare athlete maltreatment with other issues in sport such as doping and match-fixing, to suggest that lessons can be drawn from other wicked problems in the same contested terrain. Overall, given the complex interplay between maltreatment and the maintenance/legitimization of sport systems, this paper calls for continuing attention and evaluation of existing research/policies and advocates for a more multidimensional view that acknowledges maltreatment as a wicked problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wellbeing has firmly established itself within contemporary practice, politics and policy. Indeed, the cultural, commercial, and terrestrial landscape of the concept is staggering and manifests within popular discourse and across global organisations and institutions, national governments, workplaces, and consumer lifestyle products and services. Notably, the field of sport, exercise, and physical activity has been identified by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the United Nations, and the OECD as a key sector with the potential to contribute to people's wellbeing. This should not be surprising given that there is a large body of literature espousing the benefits of regular physical activity (in myriad forms) as part of a healthy lifestyle. However, there are increasing concerns that wellbeing's global ubiquity may be leading to a range of unintended consequences and/or unscrupulous practices within both international organisations and nation-states. This largely conceptual essay focuses on the concept and process of wellbeing washing by (1) tracing the historical roots and evolution of wellbeing; (2) exploring its reconceptualization within the framework of neoliberalism; (3) offering a preliminary outline of the concept of wellbeing washing; and (4) briefly describing how wellbeing washing is manifesting within the context of sport in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Overall, this analysis explores wellbeing as a contested terrain of interests marked by a range of complexities and contradictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study considers the reforms of Chile's state sport structures from 2001 to 2022. Drawing upon institutional frameworks, the purpose of this article is to analyse the emerging rules, practices and narratives from these reforms. This study employed a qualitative approach, with data gathered from document analysis and semi-structured interviews with six policymakers/bureaucrats from the Ministry of Sport (MINDEP) and National Institute of Sport (IND). Data was analysed through thematic coding of available texts (e.g. policies, government documentation, media sources and interview transcripts) via MAXQDA 2022 qualitative analysis software. The findings highlight that incommensurate rules, practices and narratives may be the impetus for institutional change. Rules connected with New Public Management (NPM) and the creation of the National Institute of Sport (Law 19.712 of 2001) conflicted with the discretionary practices of previous institutional arrangements. Subsequent legislation created a (rule-based) dichotomy between 'thinkers' (MINDEP) and 'doers' (IND), which has been influenced by the practice of politically based appointments into the IND. While informants suggested that the system's parochialism and incapacity render change unlikely in the future, there is nevertheless evidence of change emanating from the combination of broken rules (in the form of scandals), incommensurate practices and contemporary narratives about the need to engage with communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 17th May 2020, the New Zealand Government announced a $265 million investment to support sport and recreation amid the country's first COVID-19 lockdown. The Sport NZ Recovery Package (RP) focused on three investment outcomes for the sector: 'Reset and Rebuild', 'Strengthen and Adapt', and [become] 'Different and Better' (Sport NZ 2020a). This study examines the overall design features and funding initiatives of the RP as a novel policy response to 'turbulence'. Of particular interest is whether this instrument was 'system changing' (McDonnell and Elmore 1987) and how it might enable future transformation or stability in the sports sector. Drawing from documents and interviews with officials from Sport NZ, one National Sports Organisation (NSO), and six Regional Sports Trusts (RSTs), three key findings relate to 1) the characteristics of the RP as policy instrument; 2) the novelty of Tū Manawa relative to Sport NZ's shifting strategy; and 3) the way in which organisations coped with the administration of new funds. The findings suggest that Sport NZ's funding strategies were multidimensional (targeting a wider array of activities and organisations than those pre-COVID-19) and could themselves be 'turbulent-inducing'. Future studies should examine the long-term legacy of the package and its associated goals to interpret if Sport NZ's initiatives are sustained for the [promised] readjustment and strengthening of the New Zealand sports sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global expansion of sports betting has resulted in the formation of (inter)national governing regimes aimed at sustaining revenue and regulating attendant issues, including match-fixing. This article explores the workings of these regimes vis-à-vis the management of match-fixing issues in sport. More particularly, this article focuses on betting monitoring programmes as countermeasures against match-fixing and conceptualises these as social instruments that ultimately define issues and influence the wider integrity agenda of anti-match-fixing campaigns. Analysing documentary, observation and interview data from two disparate monitoring programmes, the results show that betting monitoring is a technical extension of corporate risk management, invariably reflecting the business interests of the betting industry. Therefore, the operating logic of betting monitoring defines match-fixing as an act of sabotaging the competitive edge of betting companies. Moreover, this interest-laden paradigm reigns within the broader policy agenda of sport integrity by equating the betting industry's interest with that of sport. From this, the article suggests that betting monitoring plays a part in the legitimation of commercial gambling by reframing the issue of match-fixing as a common enemy that gambling and sport join forces to combat, not a risk that gambling brings to sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government sport agencies maintain an enduring interest in National Sport Organisations (NSOs) and deploy a number of tools to make them more effective and efficient. Independent, consultant-led reviews are increasingly used to assess aspects of capability, sustainability, governance, management, and programme delivery. However, it is unknown how NSOs respond to these instruments and the latter's capacity to induce substantive change. This research investigates how and why NSOs respond to independent reviews of their organisations, whether purposefully, passively or politically. Drawing from documents and interviews with NSO officials, findings demonstrate that NSOs respond both purposefully and passively to recommendations advising centralised control over their networks. While there is evidence that responses to reviews invite further state involvement, the mix of responses, along with the finding that 'reviews beget reviews', suggests NSOs maintain considerable agency to 'muddle through' recommendations. This study speaks to why reviews may be repeated and why they may face increasing scepticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With growing governmental involvement in sport, there has been a corresponding demand on national sport organizations (NSOs) to operate within performance measurement systems. In this study, we analyze data from New Zealand to determine NSO officials’ perceptions of (a) their reporting relationship with the central agency (Sport and Recreation New Zealand), and (b) the system of performance contracts (or “investment schedules”). Following Norman (2002), we found differing perceptions regarding the legitimacy of performance systems and three tensions emerged. First, the clarity of focus enabled by performance measurement was tempered by the perception of an ever-changing political environment. Second, NSO officials acted strategically and opportunistically at times, marshalling arguments around performance measures to “capture” their principal. Third, neither trust nor distrust in the system necessarily translated into compliance; some NSOs sought independence from the system. This research speaks to the legitimacy of performance systems, a significant but tenuous element to their sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Global Sport Management is the property of the Global Alliance of Marketing & Management Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Non-betting-related match-fixing constitutes an important integrity issue in contemporary sports. With varied forms ranging from passive tanking to the purposeful, coercive, calculated bribing of others to gain advantages, non-betting-related match-fixing can be a form of corruption that deters sport development. This paper examines high-performance athletes' involvement in non-betting-related match-fixing in South Korea. Drawing from survey data (n = 731), this paper describes and analyses the prevalence of match-fixing, its locales (i.e., levels of competition) and origins (i.e., who made the offer/approach). Results show that: (1) 74 athletes (10.12%) were approached to take part in match-fixing, while 33 of those athletes (4.51%) actually participated; and (2) the match-fixing offers were usually made 'by coaches', 'at high school-level nationwide competitions', 'for the purpose of entering universities'. Finally, this paper concludes by suggesting that the excessive incentives (e.g., university admission) linked with elite sport development structures may account for the strong motive behind non-betting-related match-fixing, and its endangering of sport integrity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sociology of Sport Journal is the property of Human Kinetics Publishers, Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study illustrates how the rules and practices of a task force inquiry shaped the formulation of its policy. Adopting an institutional approach, it analyzes New Zealand's Ministerial Taskforce on Sport, Fitness and Leisure (2001). Specifically, this article investigates the role of institutional arrangements (including public consultation and submission procedures) in shaping, delimiting, and circumscribing that task forces findings and recommendations. The investigation consists of a critical analysis of available texts—including recorded observations of public consultations, written submissions, committee notes—and interviews with task force members. Two features of this task force are described and analyzed: (1) its terms of reference and operative assumptions and (2) its rules and procedures that guided the public participation processes. It is shown that the institutional arrangements can channel debates and thereby recast political relations among interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sociology of Sport Journal is the property of Human Kinetics Publishers, Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Sociology of Sport Journal is the property of Human Kinetics Publishers, Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Urban Policy & Research is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article deploys the notion of 'self-Orientalization' to empirically investigate the signifying practices across the East–West divide for the construction of global advertising campaigns by Japanese sport brand Asics. In this context, Asics engaged in the practice of self-Orientalization as it formed a creative alliance with Western advertising agencies that represented Japanese culture and identity on behalf of the Japanese-based global headquarters. With insights from interviews with key advertising personnel, the article illuminates practices of negotiation and accommodation between Japanese and European creative workers in shaping 'authentic' and 'cool' signs of Japan. Overall, it suggests that self-Orientalization: (a) entails negotiations over the cultural-economic politics of representation between the Orient and the Occident and (b) simultaneously functions to blur such distinctions at the micro level of social relations and personal identification of creative workers when embodying and performing the Other on behalf of the Self. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governing state-funded sport is tenuous because of the need to maintain legitimacy and support from political authorisers, stakeholders and network partners/members. The purpose of this paper is to compare/contrast how central sport agencies in Norway and New Zealand create, build or sustain legitimacy through their accountability regimes. More particularly, this comparison distinguishes between input and output sources of legitimacy, where the former is associated with democratic processes (e.g., electoral procedures and public consultation), and the latter is linked with results and demonstrable benefits. While the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports (NIF) draws legitimacy from its representative membership structures and status as a social movement, Sport New Zealand claims legitimacy on the basis of achieving targets and outputs. In both cases there are emerging pressures to recast input-output legitimating narratives, suggesting their 'depleteability' over time. These shifts are discussed in relation to their influence on policy reforms within environments of accountability that are fluid and incomplete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research question: Officiating structures are under increasing pressure to ‘modernise’, raising the need to understand and appraise the suite of reforms aimed at modernising umpire development. The study explores how modernisation has impacted on officiating stakeholders at community and development levels. It investigates how stakeholders have responded to modernisation’s institutional ‘logics’ (e.g. continuous improvement, alignment) and its associated technologies (e.g. accreditations, whole-of-sport planning). Research methods: The study draws from a detailed case analysis of New Zealand’s largest women’s sport organisation: Netball New Zealand (NNZ). Methods include document analysis, semi-structured interviews with national officiating panel members (n = 4) and focus groups with zone representatives (two groups with four participants in each). This study combined inductive and deductive analyses. Results and findings: NNZ emphasised growth and continual improvement by establishing targets and initiating programmes to support more squads and levels of accreditation. It elicited specialist governance structures in umpiring through the addition of regional panels, while pursuing alignment and ‘joined-up’ operations through the advancement of pathways and the integration of athlete development strategies into umpiring. Implications: Modernisation reforms (such as umpire pathways) can lead to increasing volunteer workloads, a greater focus on youth and the emergence of an achievement culture concerned with standards, qualifications and incentives. Modernisation may thus improve youth recruitment, but does not necessarily solve retention problems. This study advances the importance of considering the consequences of modernisation on the capabilities of sport organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper re-conceptualizes cultural intermediaries as shapers of “emerging cultural capital” (Prieur, A., and M. Savage. 2013. “Emerging Forms of Cultural Capital.”European Societies15 (2): 246–267; Savage, M., F. Devine, N. Cunningham, M. Taylor, Y. Li, J. Hjellbrekke, and A. Miles. 2013. “A New Model of Social Class? Findings from the BBC’s Great British Class Survey Experiment.”Sociology47 (2): 219–250) and re-frames their practice of signification and negotiation as informed by “multiple dimensions of mediation.” Drawing on a case study of Nike’s transnational advertising production and interviews with key actors within the context of production, the paper examines how the creative/cultural labour process cuts across global and national fields of cultural production and consumption through which popular culture and middle-brow tastes were mediated, signified and represented. In particular, a television campaign for the Japanese youth market was critically analysed to reveal how specific new tastes, lifestyles and consumption practices were legitimized as emerging forms of cultural capital. Consequently, their taste-making practices are profoundly implicated in symbolic struggles and cultural changes emerging within/from the increasingly “globalizing” field of cultural production. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As match-fixing has emerged as a global problem, states and sports organisations have proposed a range of countermeasures. However, despite their neutral, technocratic appearance, these instruments produce their own political effects. Drawing from a case study of the 2011 South Korean ‘K-League’ football match-fixing scandal that resulted in a raft of countermeasures, this article examines how match-fixing countermeasures (re)organise the power relations within the sports betting industry. Using a qualitative, interpretive multi-method approach, three consequences are suggested. First, the education programme redefines sports ethics by delivering new codes of conduct that are aligned to the demands of betting. Second, regulations instituted by the K-League and the government frame the illegal activity as infringing upon the key stakeholders’ economic interests, further privileging the importance of the betting regime. Third, the sports betting monitoring system itself empowers the sole betting company as a trustworthy ‘fixer’ of the match-fixing problem through co-optation into its policy framework. Consequently, this study shows that key stakeholders manage the risk of losing legitimacy by showcasing their efforts to fight against match-fixing, while also taking advantage of the countermeasures to normalise the business of sports betting, thus furthering their own interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migration has commonly been theorised as a process that ends with settlement in a new country and thus return visits have not been conceptualised as part of the migration experience. As has been noted in the literature, the return visit is a temporary visit to an individual’s place of birth (or the ‘external homeland’) from a current country of residence which may help immigrants to construct and negotiate a transnational identity between the new and old homes. This study focuses on how one government, South Korea, uses sport as a part of a wider strategy to encourage return visits in order to maintain cultural, economic and political connections with overseas citizens. More specifically, this paper examines the experiences of Korean immigrants living in New Zealand who return to Korea to participate in the annual National Sports Festival. Drawing upon document analysis, interviews and participant observation data, three different types of experiences emerged: (1) athletic experiences through the event itself; (2) nostalgic experiences from reconnecting with families and friends or enjoying forms of culture and entertainment difficult to access in the receiving country; and (3) political and economic experiences through interactions with politicians and business people which may contribute to mutual benefits between their old and new homes. Overall, the paper discusses the experience and implications of Koreans who represent New Zealand in an (inter)national sport and cultural festival and its influence on their transnational lives and identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small states are broadly distinguished on economic, political and cultural grounds and more particularly in relation to their vulnerability and resilience. This paper examines how legitimations around a country’s small size can induce compromises to buttress particular sport policies. Drawing from the New Zealand context, it explores how domestic cooperation can be prompted by the discursive frames of smallness itself. It further suggests that New Zealand’s corresponding ambition to ‘punch above its weight’ has enabled policy transformations to make the sport system appear more legitimate but no less vulnerable. Because scale invites consolidation, targeting and rationing, central sport agencies in small states may have to paradoxically invoke strategies to break the very communal bonds that provide them with the ‘fertile’ conditions for growth and competitive advantage. The study of small states may help scholars and policy-makers to better understand the significance of ‘managed intimacy’ as a counterbalance to neoliberal doctrines. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses several report published within the issue on topics discussed at the 'Sport in Small Nations' International Symposium held at the University of Otago, Dunedin New Zealand in 2015 including importance of sport policies in small states.

The performance measurement regimes instituted by central government sport agencies have both intended and unintended effects in relation to their network partners. The purpose of this article is to investigate the actions and interpretations of national sport organizations (NSOs) in relation to a performance regime. Drawing from data in New Zealand, two broad categories of institutional effects are identified and discussed. The first category of effects relates to the tendency for performance measurement and monitoring to reinforce the delineation/demarcation between elite and community sport due to the relative clarity of the former’s measures, and the institutionalization of ‘cream-skimming’ at national and sub-national levels. The second category of effects surrounds the apparent paradoxes and vulnerabilities of performance measurement that include the demand for indicators to ‘mushroom’ and the development of ‘gaming’ behaviours. This study highlights the tenuousness of performance measurement schemes as a feature of ‘good management’ as well as their ultimate contribution towards (or disruption of) ‘good policy’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the complex and complicit financial arrangements enabling the construction of a stadium for the Rugby World Cup. It investigates how costs and debt can be deliberately obscured, blurred and otherwise conflated within the disaggregated structures of contemporary local government. More particularly, we draw comparisons with the ‘shell game’ (a type of swindle involving three cups or shells and a pea). We trace the historical context in which governments have been encouraged to become entrepreneurial, resulting in the mixed ownership models of holding companies. We argue that this model of governance enabled the shifting of costs and debt such that the project could be made palatable to both councillors and citizens. However, the complexity of this design is such that it would be virtually impossible to analyse, interpret and debate. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Policies aiming to enhance sport participation and physical activity are prone to change and highly influenced by shifting government priorities and instruments. In 2009, the New Zealand Government and its agency Sport and Recreation New Zealand (SPARC) abolished programmes aimed at inducing general physical activity and in their place establishedKiwisport, an initiative to get more school-age children involved in organized sport. This study analyses the impact of these changes on regional sports trusts (RSTs), as regional implementers of national sport policy and theKiwisportinitiative. Based on a process of induction from available texts (interviews with chief executives of RSTs and both public/nonpublic documents), three emerging challenges are presented and discussed. The first concerns how RSTs can fulfil Kiwisport's promises of minimal bureaucracy in the light of the limited capacities of community organizations and increasing demands from SPARC for evaluation. The second surrounds the difficulty in reconciling Kiwisport's allowance for greater RST discretion/autonomy with the demands for integrated national–regional delivery. The third challenge is with regard to creating sustainable community initiatives under conditions of depleting resources and shifting policy priorities. Findings raise fundamental questions as to how and to what extent RSTs should realign their organizations to meet central government objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The authors outline the set of political-economic developments that have eroded the traditional role of public broadcasters in providing free-to-air telecasts of sporting events of national significance for all citizens. They argue against the belief that new digital sports broadcasting landscape is workably competitive. The authors propose that the said landscape should fall within the mandate of the nation's public broadcaster to provide live telecasts of these events.

Legitimacy building is an increasingly recognized feature of bureaucratic practice under networked governance. Mark Moore's (1995) model of ‘public value creation’ captures the strategic imperative to build credibility, legitimacy and support for policies and programmes in this context. As an emerging ‘narrative’ in public organizations, it combines perspectives on managerial and political leadership and is therefore useful to explain bureaucratic experiences with legitimacy building and their implications for policy. This article investigates the efforts of Canada's federal sport agency to secure legitimacy and explores the implications of public value creation on future policy-making. Drawing from interview data as well as public and internal documents, the study outlines Sport Canada's initiatives to establish sport's ‘benefits’, collaborate widely and add value in terms of equity and ethics. Two related implications (or storylines) are considered and discussed: (a) the tendency for public value creation to reduce the policy sector to anecdotal understandings in the eyes of political authorizers, and (b) the propensity for building public value to result in over-commitment due to the accumulation and embedding of new collaborations, mandates and target populations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

From the perspective of city officials, proposals to build new stadiums are tenuous because of the dual local government imperatives of having to be both visionary (i.e., entrepreneurial) and conservative (i.e., fiscally responsible and publicly accountable). Based on case data in Dunedin, New Zealand, we investigate two related dilemmas that emanate from that city's stadium deliberation process. The first is with regards to the dichotomy between politicians and bureaucrats, and the degree to which deliberations on a new stadium should be politically or technocratically driven. The second concerns the extent to which local authorities favour independence or accountability in gathering information. Here we suggest that deference and delegation to an 'independent' body became tantamount to procrastinating - that is a case of holding the process up in order to progress it. Our analysis demonstrates that such dilemmas demand immediate responses that, while seemingly benign in the short term, alter the balance between a city's entrepreneurial outlook and its view towards citizen responsiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In conjunction with the extensive growth of new media technologies, stadium debates and competing claims on civic resources are being increasingly played out in cyberspace. Using case material from Dunedin, New Zealand, we critically examine the deployment of popular video sharing websites like YouTube that allow dominant interest groups to articulate their 'unfiltered' ideological positions. We suggest that stadium proponents (in the private and public sectors) are utilizing new media technologies (e.g., websites, blogs, etc.) as part of highly orchestrated public-relations campaigns that are designed to create the impression of popular support and optimistic momentum for development. In bypassing traditional media and skirting oppositional viewpoints, we argue that these types of promotional strategies have profound implications for local democratic politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Costas Spirou on private interests, civic politics and community resistance, another by Larissa E. Davies on sport-related regeneration initiatives in England, and another on a sport stadium in Dunedin, New Zealand.

The purpose of this article is to investigate how numbers come to be part of the political fabric of an ongoing debate to build a new stadium with public funds. We begin by briefly outlining the importance of numbers in the broader context of policy-making. More specifically, we situate the emphasis on numbers in governmental decision-making within the growth of 'technocracy' and more contemporary demands for 'evidence-based' policy. Drawing from an interpretive methodology of narrative analysis, we then turn to our case to illustrate how numbers came to be articulated and politicized, focusing on three inter-connected storylines: 1) the story of decline and merit, 2) the story of helplessness and control, and 3) the story of risk and assurance. In the last section we attempt to synthesize a brief comment concerning number narratives in stadium debates, particularly those associated with expertise and the implications for public trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sport policies are underpinned by particular interpretive frameworks or paradigms. These paradigms shape: a) the construction of policy problems, b) the alternative approaches to resolving these problems and c) what is considered to be an acceptable government intervention. This article investigates how a policy paradigm shaped the findings and recommendations of New Zealand's Ministerial Taskforce on Sport, Fitness and Leisure. Using empirical data gathered from observations of the Taskforce's consultations, interviews with Taskforce members and a review of public submissions, it is argued that a paradigm (stressing rationalization and integration) served as the basis for recommendations to reduce the number of regional sports trusts, to centralize control over the sector and to coordinate the administration of sport. Two fundamental contradictions and paradoxes arising from this paradigm shift are discussed. The first notes the historical contingencies that gave rise to the problem of fragmented sport delivery structures, including govermnent's preference for contractual agreements and decentralized control. The second examines the appropriateness of centralizing powers given the inherent need for specialized (and autonomous) delivery mechanisms. This study's focus on paradigms helps to explain how policies can alter institutional relations and the lived world of actors with respect to their identities, opportunities and capacities to act. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]