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This article reports on a European Union (EU) funded study of ‘sport-for-employability’ programmes for NEETs (not in employment, education or training) and seeks to address identified limitations o...

Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) has grown into a huge global field of sport-related activity and intervention and is a heavily researched subject in the social scientific study of sport. In this article, we advance the case for a new research agenda in SDP, in part to contribute more fully to sustainable development through substantial societal change. We argue that SDP research should engage with wider literatures and theories, notably on political economy and development; take full account of structural changes within the development sphere; and examine new areas of intervention within SDP per se. To develop our analysis, our discussion is organized into six main parts. We begin by introducing the concept of “Sportland” to reimagine SDP as a strongly institutionalized field of development activity with its own stakeholder networks. Second, we outline the key aspects of prior SDP/Sportland research on which we seek to build. Third, we examine key changes in the political economy and geopolitics of development, which serve to point Sportland scholars toward engaging with fresh literatures in these fields. Fourth, we explore the implications of these changes to retheorize development. Fifth, we detail new ways ahead for Sportland with regard to policy, practice, and research, with particular reference to the position of different organizational stakeholders within SDP. Finally, we consider specific areas of future intervention and inquiry within Sportland that require the attention of researchers. Our analysis is underpinned by many research studies and projects in Sportland which we have undertaken separately or collectively over at least the last decade.

This chapter explores the apparent paradox of sport for development policy based on an evangelical belief in the ‘power of sport’ while also being characterized by increasing calls for evidence of its effectiveness. Such calls are in part to legitimate sport for development’s marginal status within mainstream national and international development policy. The ambitious claims made for sport can in part be explained by the processes of bargaining between a variety of interest groups in the policy process. Such claims are made possible by the combination of the mythopoeic nature of sport and the amorphous nature of ‘development.’ However, it is not clear the extent to which policy is influenced by evidence, which competes with other political and ideological factors—making an important distinction between the ‘truth’ and ‘utility’ of evidence. However, there is a consensus that there is a widespread lack of robust evidence relating to the effectiveness of sport for development. This is said to reflect a predominant funder-driven positivist approach emphasizing the quantification of outputs and outcomes (with little evidence about process and impacts). Such an approach ignores the knowledge of local practitioners and participants and lacks an understanding of the processes and mechanisms underpinning effective programs. One solution to many of these issues is to develop a participatory theory of change approach to program design and monitoring and evaluation. Such an approach will not only produce relevant information about process and critical success factors, but also contribute to program and organizational development, and provide a basis for generalization and increased legitimacy. It also facilitates a shift from evangelism to inquisitive agnosticism.

This article describes a study of a soccer and life skills programme for youth in South Africa: Buffalo City Soccer School (BCSS). The study aimed to provide insight into the programme’s mechanisms, and evaluate participants’ perceptions of the programme’s impact. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 male BCSS participants. Interview data were analysed for thematic content, and the theoretical perspectives of Witt and Crompton ((1997) The protective factors framework: A key to programming for benefits and evaluating for results. Journal of Park and Recreation Administration 15: 1–18), Gambone and Arbreton ((1997) Safe Havens: The Contributions of Youth Organizations to Healthy Adolescent Development. Philadelphia, PA: Public/Private Ventures) and Pawson ((2006) Evidence-Based Policy: A Realist Perspective. London: SAGE) were used to interpret these themes. These perspectives highlighted key processes and mechanisms within the BCSS programme that have led to positive personal impacts: a sense of family and a sense of safety and belonging. Bandura’s ((1986) Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall) concepts of perceived self-efficacy and agency in adolescent development (Bandura A (2006) Adolescent development from an agentic perspective. In: Pajares F and Urdan T (eds) Self-Efficacy Beliefs of Adolescents. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing, pp. 1–43) help make sense of these personal impacts. This study contributes to the identification of the mechanisms through which sport can provide a context for the development of youth.

This article reports on research on the effectiveness of sports-based interventions that sought to address issues of gang membership, racism, at-risk youth and a rather ill-defined notion of ‘conflict’. The article illustrates the varying centrality of sport in such programmes, reports on a series of in-depth interviews with participants in four programmes, exploring the nature of their experiences and perceptions of the programme elements that had the greatest impact on their values, attitudes and behaviour. The analysis draws on a number of programme theories about how such programmes might work and emphasises the centrality of social relationships between leaders and participants and the development of respect, trust and reciprocity as a basis for potential attitude and behaviour change. The interview data and previous research are used to develop an indicative programme theory which illustrates that, where change occurs, it is most likely to occur via systems of social relationships most characteristic of sport-plus programmes.

Sports have long been viewed as an opportunity to actively engage young people in a leisure context and not just in terms of participation in sports activities, but across a range of issues including education, employment and training, community leadership and healthy lifestyles. Although there are some indications that when working towards broader outcomes with socially vulnerable youth a specific methodology is required, it remains unclear what constitutes this specificity within a sports context. For this, a Flemish (northern region of Belgium) sport project was selected in which data were gathered by means of indepth and focus group interviews with participants, coaches and key witnesses. The purpose was to gain more insights into how sports are delivered for and experienced by youth who could be considered as socially vulnerable. At the level of coaching, the socio-pedagogical approach and the cultural capital are described as key elements in working towards broader outcomes for socially vulnerable youth. The aim of this study was to develop our understanding of how organised sports, as a series of social relationships and processes, can contribute in making socially vulnerable youth less vulnerable.

This article uses material from The Spirit Level (Wilkinson and Pickett 2009, The Spirit Level: why equal societies almost always do better. London: Allen Lane) to question Game Plan’s use of certain Scandinavian countries as comparators and as a basis for setting aspirational targets for sports participation. It illustrates the robust and consistent relationship between sports participation and social class in the UK. It questions the importance of sports clubs and provision in explaining different levels of sports participation and illustrates the substantial differences between these countries and the UK on key factors such as the distribution of wealth, income inequality, general inequality, educational access and social mobility and gender. These data are used to argue that such differences mean that such countries are not true comparators, and economic and social features in these countries, which may help to explain the higher sports participation rates, are well beyond the control of sports policy.

Recent policy statements by the United Nations relating to sport-for-development have gone beyond simple sports participation to emphasize the supposed importance of sport as an element of civil so...

This article explores the almost evangelical policy rhetoric of the sports-for-development ‘movement’ and the wide diversity of programmes and organizations included under this vague and weakly theorized banner. It is suggested that, although the rhetoric of sport as a human right has provided some rhetorical and symbolic legitimation for sport-for-development initiatives, the recent dramatic increase in interest reflects broader changes in the aid paradigm, reflecting perceived failures of top-down economic aid and an increased concern with issues of human and social capital, as well as the strengthening of civil society organizations. In this context the presumed ability of sport to offer an economy of solutions to a wide range of development problems led the United Nations, with the encouragement of a vociferous sport-for-development lobby, to turn to the world of sport in an effort to achieve its Millennium Development Goals. While there is a certain theoretical logic to some of the policy assertions about the contribution of sport to aspects of development, it is argued that the new approaches contain a number of dangers: confusing potential micro-level individual outcomes with community and broader macro-level impacts; ignoring wider socio-political contexts within which sport-for-development organizations have to operate; seeking to solve broad gauge problems via limited focus interventions; and encouraging mission drift by sport-for-development organizations wholly dependent on aid from a variety of aid agencies, with often overly ambitious non-sporting agendas. It is argued that if sport-for-development is to make a contribution to wider processes of development there is a need to ‘de-reify’ the rhetoric of sport-for-development and its implicit view of sport, and to view research and evaluation in terms of local programme development rather than the legitimation of international organizations and lobbies.

This article reports on a research project undertaken to explore the relevance of the concept of reference pricing to public sport and recreation provision. The project explored the extent to which participants’ reference price (the price they expect to pay) for sport and recreation activities could be changed by the provision of certain types of information and the extent to which their resistance to increased charges could be reduced. A face-to-face survey was undertaken in six sports facilities in Scotland and attitudes to current charges, value for money and highest acceptable charges were examined. Respondents were then provided with information about subsidy levels, reduced opening times and improved quality and asked to reconsider their assessment of an appropriate highest charge. The data indicate statistically significant increases in acceptable highest charges and the article concludes that, properly managed and promoted, negative reactions to price increases can be reduced, although not wholly ...

Despite differing domain assumptions, the various perspectives in leisure studies have largely concentrated on providing a negative critique of ideologies of consumerism and the supposed ‘passivity’ of commercial leisure, often juxtaposed to the supposedly more ‘participatory’ and inclusive nature of public leisure provision. This concern with the mode of production and access has resulted in a failure to develop systematic sociological understandings of acts of consumption. It has also limited theoretical and empirical exploration of the extent to which new forms of consumerism may have served to re-define ‘leisure citizenship’ and the relationship between leisure and social exclusion. The article reviews the various perspectives and suggests that, despite differing domain assumptions there is a growing recognition within leisure studies of the need to move beyond a political defence of the ‘excluded’ to develop an empirically grounded sociological understanding of modern leisure forms.

This paper argues that much theorizing and research in leisure studies takes place within a normative citizenship paradigm which regards public leisure provision as a central component of social citizenship and largely ignores the predominantly commercial nature of modern leisure. This combines with a reproductionist, society in leisure, approach to emphasize leisure as an area of inequality and inequity with a consequent downplaying of issues relating to the nature of leisure experiences. The assumption that public leisure provision is necessarily about the extension of citizenship rights is questioned by examining the centrality of the merit good rationale and suggesting that the leisure studies' defence of recreational welfare and leisure needs is not wholly coherent. It suggests that certain approaches within leisure studies risk proposing welfare without citizenship and over-estimating the role of public leisure facilities as a component of citizenship. It concludes that what is needed is the explora...

This article suggests that although United Kingdom leisure studies and North American leisure sciences are characterized by different epistemological, methodological, and theoretical perspectives, they have both arrived at a similar recognition: their relative failure to develop an understanding of the societal, cultural, and individual meanings associated with leisure. The predominantly sociological leisure studies has adopted a society in leisure approach, exploring how broader sociocultural structures are reflected in leisure and largely ignoring issues of individual meaning. The predominantly sociopsychological leisure sciences, with its stress on positivist methodology, has often produced analyses of leisure without society and failed to address issues of the social and cultural meanings associated with leisure. Assertions about a “postmodern condition”; have highlighted the gaps in leisure studies’ understanding of leisure meanings, and critics within leisure sciences have argued that the predominan...

The sub-title of this chapter is a paraphrase of Gramsci’s advice to radicals. He argued that the challenge of modernity was to live without illusions and without becoming disillusioned. In that context he stated that ‘I’m a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will’ (Letter from Prison, 19 December 1929). This represents a succinct summary of the conflicts I have faced undertaking research in sport-for-development in nine African countries, India and Brazil, and working very closely with some sport-for-development organisations.

The CCT legislation sought to create a market for the sport and leisure management function in local government. Competition was seen as essential to the achievement of improved efficiency and effectiveness. This paper examines the very limited nature of this 'market' and the constraints on its development. However, CCT left responsibility for policy with the client side and this paper also presents evidence that this responsibility has not been exercised in the 'defence of welfare' and suggests that those responsible for leisure services need to accept greater political and intellectual responsibility for the definition and defence of welfare in the second round of contracting.

Heavily subsidized entrance charges for public sport and recreation facilities are a central component of public leisure policy. This policy is based on the assumption that the cost of entrance represents a major obstacle to participation for a range of social groups. This article reports on a study (sponsored by the Scottish Sports Council) which examined the impact of increased entrance charges at a number of sports centres. Drawing on user and household surveys it suggests that, at current levels, the cost of entrance is an absolute barrier for a small number of people. However among committed participants it may act as a relative barrier by reducing the frequency of their participation. The data suggests that compared with other forms of leisure, sports participation is relatively cheap and that constraints on participation are more likely to be related to cultural attitudes underlying a lack of interest or life-style factors which limit free time available for sports and physical recreation.

This chapter is based on extensive fieldwork in Africa and India to develop a user-friendly monitoring and evaluation manual for UK Sport and UNICEF (Coalter, 2006).1 The chapter explores issues relating to the intersection of two recent policy developments. Firstly, the dramatically increased growth in interest in the role of sport in international development (see section 1.2) and the often rhetorical and grandiose claims made for sport’s contribution — ranging from individual self-esteem via the strengthening of communities to creating the conditions for conflict resolution and peace. For example, at the World Sport’s Forum in March 2000 Louise Frechette, the UN Deputy Secretary General, stated that: The power of sports is far more than symbolic. You are engines of economic growth. You are a force for gender equality. You can bring youth and others in from the margins, strengthening the social fabric. You can promote communication and help heal the divisions between peoples, communities and entire nations. You can set an example of fair play. Last but not least, you can advocate a strong and effective United Nations (United Nations, 2000: 4).

Professional status is not an inherent property of an occupational group but refers to a particular set of relationships with others. Current debates about the nascent ‘profession’ in public sector leisure services tend to operate with a restricted view of the ‘politics of professionalism’ and exaggerate the autonomy of proto-professional organizations. Professional status is determined by and determinate of the relationships between leisure service personnel, established local government professions, the political process and the general public. This article examines the nature of some of these relationships and in particular the increasing managerial emphasis on consumerism and the consumer and attempts to reassert the importance of the citizen.

Recent political and policy concerns with social inclusion, civic renewal and ‘joined up’ government have placed debates about social capital at the centre of a number of areas of social policy. In this context increasing demands are being made of sport to contribute to this broader social regeneration agenda. This essay explores the nature of sport's presumed contribution, in particular the contribution of sports clubs to the development of types of capital, especially social capital. It concludes that it is not clear what contribution sports clubs can play in this agenda, that the new policy agenda carries dangers of undermining the nature and strengths of the voluntary sector in sport and that more research is required to explore the processes of social capital formation in sports clubs.

The history of public leisure policy in the United Kingdom (but also elsewhere) has been characterized by an essential duality. Government involvement and investment has the dual purposes of extending social rights of individual citizenship while recognizing the potential wider social benefits associated with leisure provision.

The purpose of this chapter is to situate our discussion of the nature and significance of management and planning in the leisure industries by highlighting the context within which the leisure industries and leisure policy have developed. An historical perspective is important for three reasons. First, in respect of the public sector, many of the contemporary facilities, which account for a large proportion of local government current expenditure, are products of decisions taken in the nineteenth century — for example, many urban parks, museums, swimming baths and libraries date from the 1870s–1890s. Such provision, and the inherited financial commitments often lead to ‘facility inertia’, reducing the capacity to develop new provision. Secondly, such facilities represent a ‘philosophical legacy’, or conventional wisdom, concerning the appropriate divisions between the public, voluntary and commercial sectors. These attitudes are currently coming under close scrutiny as proposals for ‘compulsory competitive tendering’ for the management of public sector leisure provision raise fundamental questions about their appropriateness.

In this chapter we will be concerned to identify the nature of the values implicit in the development of leisure policy, and their implications for the role of the leisure professional. The setting of management goals and the choice of means for their attainment are rarely purely technical issues. Such decisions take place within, and are often directly influenced by, the context of political values, attitudes and decisions. Political debates concerning the most appropriate division of responsibility between the public, voluntary and commercial sectors in leisure, the most effective role for local government (i.e., direct provision, subsidy, regulation, contract management) and the proper balance between income maximisation and catering for disadvantaged groups, all serve to emphasise the political dimensions of management decisions.

(1985). Crowd behaviour at football matches: a study in Scotland. Leisure Studies: Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 111-117.

Although the study of leisure has developed outside the mainstream of social policy analysis, both are united by the duality of their objects of study. This is usually expressed by conceptual couples — social policy and ‘liberation and control’; leisure theory and ‘freedom and constraint’.