Daniel Bloyce

‘Playing the Game (Plan)’: A Figurational Analysis of Organizational Change in Sports Development in England

Abstract Drawing upon aspects of figurational sociology, this paper examines the practice of sports development at a time of rapidly changing social and political policy. In particular, the paper examines how sports development officers (SDOs) experience and attempt to manage organizational change. The study was based on semi-structured interviews with sixteen SDOs in the West Midlands and North West of England. The kinds of organizational change experienced by SDOs were associated with a perceived bureaucratization of their role, and increased pressure to develop partnerships with a variety of sporting and non-sports organizations. These developments, which were also related to concerns over the availability of resources and the increasing accountability and “target-hitting” culture within sports development, can only be understood adequately as resulting from the largely unintended outcomes of government policy, which prioritizes the development of non-sports objectives, rather than those related to the achievement of sporting goals. It is concluded that the growing complexity of the networks involved in sports development may undermine the extent to which government is able to achieve its sporting priorities because it is dependent on the actions of other, seemingly less powerful, groups such as SDOs, who simultaneously seek to protect, maintain and advance their own individual and/or collective interests.

Planning for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic legacy: a figurational analysis

The purpose of this article is to provide a figurational analysis of the plans for the participation legacy of London 2012. In the build-up to hosting the Games, there have been three different Prime Ministers and two different London Mayors; therefore, the changing political, and economic, landscape that impacted on the policy formation is a feature of this article. From a figurational sociological perspective, policy tends to be a complex, often contradictory and messy process frequently lacking a convincing evidence base. Such features are quite apparent within the legacy policies analysed for this article. This research entailed qualitative documentary analysis of official publications (n = 102) from selected organizations. Documents were analysed through coding emerging themes. A key feature of our findings was the centrality of the notion of an inherent ‘inspiration’ in virtually all publications analysed. It also emerged that the complexity of the networks involved in ‘delivering’ the legacy contributed to an unintended consequence that few, if any, organizations were willing to take accountability for any specific participation legacy outcomes. There was also limited reference to valid evidence in support of the claims being made in most publications. Despite the changing political climate, policy was characterized by continuity alongside change. The London 2012 Games were found to be too much of a ‘focusing event’ that the change in government did not impact substantially on the process.

The ‘Olympic and Paralympic effect’ on public policy: use and misuse

It is now well recognized that the global spread of modern achievement sport has occurred in the context of wider social processes, including the growing social significance of sport, the medicalization of life and sport, the growing commercialization and politicization of sport and the de-amateurization of sport (Maguire 1999, Beamish and Ritchie 2006, Waddington and Smith 2009, Bloyce and Smith 2010). It is not altogether surprising, therefore, to find that much ink has been spilt in recent decades on some key aspects of two of the most global sporting competitions in the modern era – the Olympic and Paralympic Games – and their sociopolitical importance not only to the host city and country, but also to many other countries that constitute the increasingly complex networks within which policy decisions (or non-decisions) are taken, directly and indirectly, in relation to the Games. Of particular interest have been the policy processes associated with hosting mega-events of this kind and the impact they have on broader aspects of public policy and other associated legacies alleged to emerge from hosting them. As Roche (2000, p. 1) has noted, the global appeal of events such as the Olympics and Paralympics makes them ‘important points of reference for processes of change’ and for analysing political motivations that underpin significant policy changes and promises made by governments who seek to secure the right to host the Games, often in the absence of evidence for such promises. The most recent Olympic and Paralympic Games were, of course, held in London between 27 July 2012 and 9 September 2012 and were justified by the host organizations on the basis, as is now commonplace, that the Games would produce a variety of legacies for those involved and members of the wider society. Indeed, it was claimed that ‘for the city, hosting the Games would leave an enduring sporting, social and economic legacy’ (London 2012, 2004, p. 1), which was later encapsulated in a variety of promotional programmes and marketing strategies subsumed under the politically and emotionally attractive phrase, ‘Inspire a Generation’. This appeal to public consciousness via a rejection of inconvenient truths stood in marked contrast to the recognition – before a decision was made by the British government to bid for the right to host the 2012 Games – that ‘the benefits of hosting mega sporting events, whether economic, social or cultural are difficult to measure and the available evidence is limited’ (Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)/Strategy Unit 2002, p. 149). To more critical observers this was not a particularly profound observation, for it has long been recognized that despite the underwhelming evidence in favour of hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games for their exogenous, or even sport development, legacies, ‘in the end such decisions are political rather than part of a rational planning process’ (Gratton et al. 2005, p. 996). In this Special Issue of the International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics (IJSPP), articles written by 19 authors from five countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States) revisit some of the sociopolitical processes associated with the Olympic and Paralympic Games and focus, in particular, on the impact on public policy from broader political decisions taken in relation to Olympicand Paralympic-related policy. International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics Vol. 4, No. 3, November 2012, 301–305

Involvement and Detachment, from Principles to Practice: A Critical Reassessment of The Established and the Outsiders

In this paper we revisit The Established and the Outsiders (Elias and Scotson 1965; second edition 1994). We argue that Elias was so intent upon demonstrating the heuristic value of his theory of established–outsider relations that he allowed these concerns to cloud his assessment of Scotsons data. We argue that the paradox is Elias had already developed more sophisticated and flexible tools for analysing the dynamic complexities of human figurations. Finally, we suggest that the problems Elias encountered in maintaining an effective degree of detachment in this study may lead to a wider appreciation of the difficulties facing anyone wishing to move from an understanding of the principles of the involvement-detachment thesis to their practical application.

Sports administration on the hoof: the three points for a win ‘experiment’ in English soccer

In this essay we set out to rectify the failure of the English Football League to monitor the consequences of the three points for a win reform it introduced in 1981. We begin by identifying the conditions leading to its introduction before going on to present the before and after goal‐scoring patterns at the highest level of English football. We also compare the English situation with the impact the reform has had upon the elite level of Italian and Spanish football. We assess these processes from a figurational perspective and make specific use of Elias’s games model approach. We conclude that football administrators have yet to absorb the lessons that an understanding of these processes has to offer. ‘All the management know something is wrong – we are not idiots. But don’t ask me the solution’ (Jack Dunnett, President of the Football League, 1981). 1

Local status and power in area-based health improvement partnerships

Area-based initiatives have formed an important part of public policy towards more socio-economically deprived areas in many countries. Co-ordinating service provision within and across sectors has been a common feature of these initiatives. Despite sustained policy interest in area-based initiatives, little empirical work has explored relations between area-based initiative providers, and partnership development within this context remains under-theorised. This article addresses both of these gaps by exploring partnerships as a social and developmental process, drawing on concepts from figurational sociology to explain how provider relations develop within an area-based initiative. Qualitative methods were used to explore, prospectively, the development of an area-based initiative targeted at a town in the north west of England. A central finding was that although effective delivery of area-based initiatives is premised on a high level of co-ordination between service providers, the pattern of interdependencies between providers limits the frequency and effectiveness of co-operation. In particular, the interdependency of area-based initiative providers with others in their organisation (what is termed here as ‘organisational pull’) constrained the ways in which they worked with providers outside of their own organisations. ‘Local’ status, which could be earned over time, enabled some providers to exert greater control over the way in which provider relations developed during the course of the initiative. These findings demonstrate how historically constituted social networks, within which all providers are embedded, shape partnership development. The theoretical insight developed here suggests a need for more realistic expectations among policymakers about how and to what extent provider partnerships can be managed.

Violence, competition and the emergence and development of modern sports: Reflections on the Stokvis-Malcolm debate

As sociologists of sport involved in teaching and researching the broad area of theemergence and development of modern sport we have been captivated by therecently reinvigorated debate in the International Review for the Sociology ofSport (IRSS) concerning the place of violence-reduction in the socio-genesis ofsports. In this brief review of the debate between Dominic Malcolm and RuudStokvis — and, by extension, that between figurational sociologists of sport anda figurational sympathizer — we present a selective summary and critique of thelatest phase in a lively and productive discussion regarding the emergence anddevelopment of modern sporting forms. We do so in the belief that stimulatingthis kind of dialogue in the IRSS is not only worthwhile in itself, but also holdsout the promise of making a significant contribution to our understanding of thedevelopment of modern sport in the form of a refinement of existing explanations.Before addressing the core of the debate between Stokvis and Malcolmand, a decade earlier, Stokvis (1992) and Elias and Dunning (1986), we providea short summary of their respective positions.

Theorising lifestyle drift in health promotion: explaining community and voluntary sector engagement practices in disadvantaged areas

Abstract The past two decades have seen an increasing role for the UK community and voluntary sector (CVS) in health promotion in disadvantaged areas, largely based on assumptions on the part of funders that CVS providers are better able to engage ‘hard-to-reach’ population groups in services than statutory providers. However, there is limited empirical research exploring CVS provider practices in this field. Using ethnographic data, this paper examines the experiences of a network of CVS providers seeking to engage residents in health-promoting community services in a disadvantaged region in the North of England. The paper shows how CVS providers engaged in apparently contradictory practices, fluctuating between an empathically informed response to complex resident circumstances and (in the context of meeting externally set targets) behavioural lifestyle approaches to health promotion. Drawing on concepts from figurational sociology, the paper explains how lifestyle drift occurs in health promotion as a result of the complex web of relations (with funders, commissioners and residents) in which CVS providers are embedded. Despite the fact that research has revealed the impact of targets on the work of the CVS before, this paper demonstrates more specifically the way in which monitoring processes within CVS contracts can draw providers into the neoliberal lifestyle discourse so prevalent in health promotion.

Professional Golf—A License to Spend Money? Issues of Money in the Lives of Touring Professional Golfers:

Drawing on figurational sociology, this article examines issues of money that are central to touring professional golfers’ workplace experiences. Based on interviews with 16 professionals, results indicate the monetary rewards available for top golfers continues to increase; however, such recompense is available to relatively small numbers and the majority fare poorly. Results suggest that playing on tour with other like-minded golfers fosters internalized constraints relating to behavior, referred to as “habitus,” whereby many players “gamble” on pursuing golf as their main source of income despite the odds against them. Golfers are constrained to develop networks with sponsors for financial reasons, which has left some players with conflicting choices between regular money, and adhering to restrictive contractual agreements, or the freedom to choose between different brands.

‘Glorious Rounders’: The American Baseball Invasion of England in Two World Wars – Unappealing American Exceptionalism

During the two world wars of the twentieth century, American cultural wares were spread far and wide, and the global pervasiveness of US troops contributed significantly toward this development. One major aspect of an American servicemans spare time was his involvement with sporting pursuits and, where possible, baseball matches were played, and even formalized, in the guise of exhibition matches played for war charities. Little, if anything, has been written about the matches that were played by the American military outside the USA from the perspective of the indigenous population. This paper examines the English response to the ‘friendly’ American invasion: the invasion of allied troops and their favourite pastime, baseball. In doing so, it is evident that even though, on the whole, the troops were welcome, there was a less than positive reception for the American national game.