Sport, Policy and Politics is a genuinely comparative analysis of sport policy-making in five countries - Australia, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom and North America. Some of the issues raised in this book include: * the process of sport policy-making * the administrative framework for sport: the responsibilities of central or federal governments, state governments and local authorities * the division of responsibility between different levels of government * how policy-making has addressed the topical problems of drug abuse in athletes, and the provision of sport and physical education in schools.

Austerity is perhaps the major challenge of our times, given the speed at which it arrived and the consequences of its impact upon society. The global financial crash and economic downturn was the catalyst for change and, against a backdrop of advice from experts adverse to Keynesian economics, the ideology of austerity grew and became the dominant thinking to steer economies out of recession. This comprehensive volume draws upon both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies to provide a varied and contextually rich insight into sport, policy, and politics in an era of austerity. The authors cover a wide range of issues in a variety of organisational contexts and geographies, including sports participation across different socio-demographic groups; the impact of austerity on the provision of community sports; disability sport; public management of sport facilities; the performance of public sport facilities with respect to access, finance, utilisation, and customer satisfaction; the potential impact of austerity on sport for development; elite sport; and social inclusion and poverty. This book makes a significant contribution to the current academic debate, while raising important considerations for policymakers and managers. It was originally published as a special issue of The International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics.

Far-reaching in scope encompassing government regulation and sport's intersections with other government policies.

This innovative new text examines sport's relationship with politics and argues that sport has always been political, even as far back as antiquity. However, in the last 30 years there has been an unprecedented politicization of sport through increasing government intervention. Jonathan Grix takes a comprehensive and engaging look at sport politics by examining state involvement in initiatives from sports mega-events through to grass-roots and community sport activities. Providing an accessible introduction to this growing area of study, the text examines a number of approaches to the topic – including theories from Political Science, Sociology and International Relations – and adopts a critical framework throughout. In doing so the text discusses the relationship between social capital and sport, how governments use sport for non-sporting objectives and the role of governance in sport policy. Real-world examples demonstrate just how entwined sport and politics are: from ardent soccer fans effectively 'locked-in' by ever-increasing ticket prices, to taxpayer's money funding ever more extravagant international sports mega-events, to the moral and political implications of doping.

When originally published in 1991 this was the first book to tackle the UK policy process of sport and to provide a political science analysis of some of the key issues facing sports administrators today. The volume identifies the parties involved: central government, local government, the Sports Council, the Central Council of Physical Recreation, and the individual sports governing bodies. It examines their effect on sport’s policy and administration through an analysis of three important current sport issues – football hooliganism, drug abuse among athletes and sport opportunities and facilities for school children.

For small nations like Grenada, New Zealand and Norway, medal counts relative to population are increasingly touted as the most meaningful comparisons with sporting superpowers China, the United States and Germany. In acknowledging that 60% of the world’s states have populations of less than 10 million and 48% of these have less than 5 million inhabitants, this book explores how the ‘minnows’ can build or sustain their sport programmes. Despite the immense variation among and between small states, this book suggests that scale ‘matters’. The contributors, from Antigua and Barbuda, Finland, Lebanon, Norway, New Zealand, and Sweden demonstrate the challenges and opportunities of governing sport in their respective countries. These works highlight the distinctive policy ‘ecologies’ of sport in small states, marked by the unique responses to global pressures, the domestic realities of having limited resources, and by the close-knit networks of accountability. This volume will help scholars and policy makers to better understand the significance of having fewer ‘degrees of separation’ and the implications this has for sport. This book was published as a special issue of the International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics.

Who makes sport policy and why do we need it? What is the purpose of sport development programmes? Sport Policy and Development answers these questions and more by closely examining the complex relationships between modern sport, sport policy and development and other aspects of the wider society. These important issues are explored via detailed case studies of key aspects of sport policy and sport development activity, including: school sport and physical education social inclusion health elite sport sporting mega-events. Each case study demonstrates the ways in which the sport policy and development fields have changed, and are continually changing in response to the increasing political, social and cultural significance of sport. The book helps the reader to understand the complexities of the sport policy-making process, the increasing intervention of government in the sport policy and development fields, and how the short-term, ever-changing and frequently contradictory political priorities of government come to impact on the practice of sport policy and development. Accessible and engaging, this textbook is an invaluable introduction to sport policy and sport development for students, practitioners and policy-makers alike.

Since 1990, Britain has seen a period of unprecedented public investment in, and political commitment to, sport. This book provides an analysis that examines sport policy as a field of government and discusses how the various sectors have been affected by government and the competition for public resources.

Acknowledging China’s established status as a global sporting superpower, this is the first book to systematically investigate sport policy in that country. With a focus on sport development in the most recent three decades, Sport Policy in China explores a wide range of topics in Chinese sport, including elite sport development, professional sports, major sports events, sport for all, the political context within which sport is interiorised and the distinctive sporting status of Hong Kong. It examines the debates around policy, globalisation, diplomacy and soft power, as well as the significance of the principle of ‘one country, two systems’. With international appeal, this book is a valuable resource for students and researchers in the fields of sport policy, sport management, sport development and sport sociology.