Cecilia Stenling

The order of logics in Swedish sport - feeding the hungry beast of result orientation and commercialization

Abstract The purpose of this study was to analyse the dominant logics (Bettis & Pralahad, 1995) that set the stage for the Swedish sports movement. The study was made within the conceptual framework of institutional theory (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983) and the concept of design archetypes (Greenwood & Hinings, 1988). Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with six respondents representing six Swedish voluntary sports clubs. The results reveal a design archetype emerging from the Swedish sports movement that is influenced by three dominant logics; the sport-for-all logic, the result-oriented logic and the commercialization/professionalization logic. It is proposed that there is an order in these logics where the sport-for-all logic, promoted by the sports movement itself, is overshadowed by forces originating from the open market and the inherent performance focus of competitive sports, i.e. the commercialization/professionalization logic and the result-oriented logic. Furthermore, it is argued that this order of logics originates from the implementation of attitudes and values in organizational structures that reflect the result-oriented and commercialization/professionalization logics.

Sport policy in Sweden

Contemporary sport policy in Sweden is the result of a century-long relationship between national and local governments and voluntary, non-profit and membership-based club sport which has resulted in extensive financial support to organised sport. The relationship is defined by an ‘implicit contract’ in which the government decides on the extent and the purpose of the funding, and the recipient, the Swedish Sports Confederation, determines the details of the distribution and administration. These funds are distributed to 20,164 sport clubs and their 3,147,000 members in exchange for the realisation of social policies on public health and the fostering of democratic citizens. While an important cornerstone of the relationship has been the autonomy and self-determination of the recipient of the funds in their capacities as civil society organisations, recent decades have witnessed an increase in demands on performance outputs. These demands have explicated a wider social responsibility for organised sport and entailed a system for follow-up and control of the results of the government support via key performance indicators. In these ways, the corporatist agreement and consensus traditionally characterising the public–civil society interaction has been accompanied by governing mechanisms associated with neo-liberal ideologies which in turn are putting the sustainability of the implicit contract to the test.

Same same, but different? Exploring the organizational identities of Swedish voluntary sports: Possible implications of sports clubs’ self-identification for their role as implementers of policy objectives

The aim of this study is to contribute to the ongoing discussion of sports clubs’ propensity to act as policy implementers. Theoretically, we conceptualize this propensity as contingent on an alignment between a sports club’s organizational identity and the cultural material, that is, ends and means of a given policy. Building on data from short, qualitative interviews with representatives of 218 randomly selected sports clubs, we construct 10 organizational identity categories. Between these categories, there is a variety of clubs’ core purposes, practices and logics of action. The implications of this heterogeneity, in terms of sports clubs’ propensity to act as policy implementers, is discussed with reference to what clubs in each category might ‘imagine doing’. Also discussed are three avenues by which institutional conditions might affect the formation and change of sports clubs’ organizational identity, in turn having implications for their role as implementers.

Sport programme implementation as translation and organizational identity construction: the implementation of Drive-in sport in Swedish sports as an illustration

This article outlines a theoretical framework to be used in the analysis of sport programme implementation. The need for such a framework resides in the increase in government interest in sport during the last decades, expressed in various top-down programmes positioning voluntary sports clubs as intended implementers, and in recent calls for a theoretical grounding of implementation analysis. The framework consists of two main parts. One is the translation perspective, proposed as an approach to understand sport programmes as open to (re)construction. The other is the organizational identity concept, proposed as a tool to understand how and why implementing organizations interpret and act upon, i.e., translate sport programmes. It is argued that the use of the framework, in tandem with the proposed methodological approach ‘follow the actor’, will provide new insights into the sport programme implementation analysis. An analysis of a national initiative on organized spontaneous sports, part of the Swedish government’s programme ‘The Lift for Sport’, is used to illustrate the proposed framework.

Inside-out and outside-in: Applying the concept of conventions in the analysis of policy implementation through sport clubs:

The aim of this article is to enrich theoretically the analysis of processes of policy implementation through sport clubs. Subsequent to reviewing previous theoretical contributions on this topic, we make the case that available conceptualizations are marked by an inside-out perspective and that they conceptually and empirically stop short at the end implementer, i.e. the sport club. Consequently, analyses of policy implementation through sport clubs have not taken into account the fact that sport clubs are distinctly local phenomena. As such, past, current and potential future participants, volunteers and local inter-organizational relationships are found in a sport club’s local community. Because of this, there is a need for a concept that provides analytical coverage of an outside-in perspective, i.e. a concept that takes into account outside actors’ conceptions of the implementing sport club and the impact their views have on the implementation process. In relation to this need, we propose the application of the concept ‘convention’. In addition to describing the concept, we exemplify the methodological and analytical implications of its use in sport policy implementation analysis.

Tensions and contradictions in sport's quest for legitimacy as a political actor : the politics of Swedish public sport policy hearings

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to and analyse strategic representations and legitimacy production in sport policy advocacy processes. Considering it as a case of public consultation in part made possible by contemporary governing systems, the empirical base of the study is the public hearings with representatives of six parliamentary parties that were arranged by the Swedish Sports Confederation (SSC) prior to the 2014 election to the Swedish parliament. Using verbatim transcripts of these hearings as data and the notion of policy advocacy as institutionally situated production of legitimising accounts, two research questions are addressed: (1) What legitimising accounts are produced and deployed by the SSC during the hearings? (2) To what wider systems of meaning are those legitimising accounts connected and how? The analysis shows three sets of legitimising accounts and how both long-standing and contemporary ideas of the sport–government relationship in Sweden were used as cultural resources in these framing processes. Two aspects of policy advocacy processes arising from the study are discussed. First, the possible reasons for and consequences of the contradictory nature of legitimising accounts advanced, and second the transformations of the institutional conditions of sport that are implied by the emergence of phenomena, such as the hearings under analysis.

Money talks - A qualitative analysis of the organizational change connected with the corporation formation of a voluntary sport club Money talks - Eine qualitative Analyse des organisationalen Wandels und der Korporationsbildung in einem freiwilligen Sportverein

Summary The purpose of this study was to illustrate and analyze the organizational change the Swedish voluntary sports club IF Björklöven went through in connection with the corporation formation of its representative team. The study was made with institutional theory as a theoretical frame of reference. Particularly important for the shaping of the study was a theoretical model by Greenwood and Hinings (1996). The data was collected using semi-structured interviews with seven respondents representing different parts of the organization. The results show that the change process was driven and enabled for the most part by the offer of SEK 22.5 million from an external financier. The restructuring has brought about a change in the way Björklöven thinks about the outcome, purpose, structure and goals of the organization, now that the organization is moving towards a more market-oriented way of organizing. Zusammenfassung Der Artikel analysiert den Organisationswandel und die Korporationsbildung im schwedischen Sportvereins IF Bjoerkloeven. Den theoretischen Rahmen bildet das Modell von Greenwood und Hinings (1996). Die Datenerhebung basiert auf halbstruktuierten Interviews mit sieben Vereinsvertretern in unterschiedlichen Funktionsrollen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass der Vereinswandel vor allem durch das 22,5-Millionen-Angebot eines Investors angeregt wurde. Die Restrukturierung und die verstärkte Marktorientierung haben den Verein veranlasst, seine Struktur und die Vereinsziele zu überdenken.

Police bodies and police minds: professional learning through bodily practices of sport participation*

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature concerned with bodily perspectives on professional learning by reporting on a study of Swedish police officers’ sport participation as a form of occupational learning. The study seeks to answer how ideals of work practice and sport participation intersect, how professional learning is channelled through sport participation, and how such bodily practices might have excluding effects on professional participation. Using a practice theory framework, the Schatzkian concept of teleoaffective structure guides the analysis. Sixteen interviews were conducted with police officers who practice police sports. The analysis targeted symbolic manifestations of teleoaffectivity, and the findings indicate five overlapping ideals between sport and police practice. In addition, one police specific ideal was constructed. Based on these findings, we discuss how professionals learn by participation in practices not directly related to the work in question, and how such learning includes and excludes from participation.