James Skinner

Development through Sport: Building Social Capital in Disadvantaged Communities

Traditional delivery of sport development programs, especially at the community level, faces particular challenges under neoliberal ideology. While several issues are evident, this paper addresses only the issue of development through sport for disadvantaged communities. It reviews models where sport was employed to develop better community and citizen life outcomes and to deal with social issues previously addressed through “welfare state” processes. These new models flow out of neoliberalist state agendas to assist in fostering social inclusion and in building positive social capital in disadvantaged communities. Examples from England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Canada are analysed and the implications for the Australian context are discussed. The discussion focuses on best practice success factors such as policy and strategy, partnerships, places and spaces, community/social development, evaluation and monitoring and sustainability. The role of traditional sports clubs and local government in delivering social inclusion programs and the emerging provision of community based sport activities by community/social development organisations is detailed. The implications for sport management, in terms of community development, community sport development and sport policy, are also discussed.

Coming in from the margins: ethnicity, community support and the rebranding of Australian soccer

Soccer in Australia exists at the margin of the professional sport landscape, although it enjoys popularity at the development levels. This historic position is the result of many social and political forces. With four football codes operating in Australia, amongst other elite and professional sport teams and leagues, soccer occupied a troubled position. The sustenance and growth of the sport emanates from a strong ethnic, immigrant basis of soccer, but this base also resulted in further marginalization of the code. Add to these difficulties organizational and governance issues, soccer was a management ‘basket‐case’ for some time. Marginalization in the Oceania federation and questionable qualifying processes for the World Cup exacerbated the problems in Australian soccer. This essay traces the various changes to soccer in Australia as it seeks to move into the mainstream of national and international sport. A reorganized national sport governing body, the Football Federation of Australia, a new national professional competition in the A‐League, new television revenues, and membership in the Asian Football Confederation point to the changes that will lead Australian soccer into the mainstream of the ‘world game’.

Modelling organizational change in the International Olympic Committee

Abstract The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has grown from a nineteenth-century amateur-based gentlemens club to a multi-national, non-governmental, professionally run sport organization in the twenty-first. Commercial development and subsequent high integration with webs of outside organizations wrought change to sport and to the IOC, especially under the impacts of environmental disturbances. The research is based on historical documents of the organization and secondary sources of data. These data were examined first in the context of Laughlins (1991) model of organizational change. Although this model reveals succinctly the way in which change can be represented historically, it does have limitations, so we subject Laughlins model to a critical post-modern framework as adopted by Skinner, Stewart, and Edwards (1999). In the end, organizational change is a complex phenomenon that filters through the organization with differing ramifications.

Public perception of sport anti-doping policy in Australia

Aims: An implicit rationale for anti-doping legislation is that doping damages the public image of sport and that this, in turn, has serious consequences for the sporting industry. However, there is scant evidence that doping impacts on public opinion, and even less so that it has dire consequences for sports consumerism. This study sought to fill a void in public policy debate by canvassing public opinion on a range of anti-doping policies and practices. Methods: A representative sample of the Australian public (n = 2520) responded to a telephone survey with questions on performance enhancing and illicit drug use. Findings: The majority agreed that clubs should be penalized if athletes were found to use drugs and that companies and government should stop sponsoring athletes who have been using drugs. Opinion was split on the issue of whether performance-enhancing drug use should be criminalized (slight majority in favour). Conclusions: These results show that the Australian public support anti-doping measures. As anti-doping initiatives become more widespread, invasive and costly, policy makers will need to ensure that anti-doping legislation maintains strong public support.

Sport Public Relations and Communication

All sporting organisations depend on a range of stakeholders spread across disparate geographies. The first idea that strikes us about community is that it is primarily local. However as some professional sporting organisations are known around the world, community is a term that can be extended to many regions and international communities. Sports organisations focus on these newer communities has led some to prioritise areas of potential lucre over traditional communities. Rein, Kotler and Shields (2006) stated that in an essentially crowded market place the importance of re-connecting with fans through engagement is vital to long-term success. By considering community needs as a central part of our business strategy the function of Sports Public Relations and Communications (SPRC) is to aid the organisation in reaching out and engaging the community to create positive relationships for the sport organisation.This chapter will discuss the importance of community to sports organisations and the vital role that SPRC plays; in doing so it will address the following areas. First the chapter will briefly examine the work of sporting organisations engaging in the community and how they are using these initiatives creates positive relations. The chapter will then consider the rise of ethical consumerism that is in tune with increasing corporate community activities, in particular Cause-Related Marketing (Cause-RM). This part will examine objectives, benefits and issues surrounding the use of Cause-RM with particular attention on initiatives with sporting organisations. Many of these sporting organisations have limited resources in which to operate the SPRC. The case study example will highlight the work of a UK based sporting charity and their efforts to use SPRC to communicate the community work they perform. Following the case the chapter will conclude with a brief discussion on the implications for the developments in the area of community relations and engagement.This chapter sets out to describe the evolution of media in the context of Public Relations (PR) and Communications in sport over the last twenty years (roughly the life of the internet from birth through to integral part of the way we live and organise ourselves in society). It will survey the impact of changing media (and underlying technology) on the practice of PR and Communication, in the context of the role and purpose of that function within the overall concept of sport management. The chapter will develop a framework of definitions, ideas and concepts for SPRC to adapt and use new media to develop its capabilities and increase its effectiveness.

Social capital in Australian sport

Socio-cultural studies of sport in society have employed various conceptual categories from a variety of theoretical perspectives, with the latest to gain wide currency being ‘social capital’. While there is much general debate on the concept and its measurement in the study of society, the number of studies using social capital has grown remarkably. Of the research using social capital as a central concept, little of this work focuses on understanding sports position and role in society. This study adds to this new focus by linking recent empirical work and published papers on sport and social capital in Australian society. Social capital is seen to add many positive features to life in society, to provide positive development for individuals, and for building community capacity.

Cluster theory and competitive advantage: the Torquay surfing experience

This paper aims to explain the global expansion of the Rip Curl and Quiksilver surfing brands through the lens of Michael Porters cluster theory of competitive advantage. Porters cluster theory was used to identify the special features of the Torquay region in Australia, and explain how these features provided the conditions for the explosive international growth of these businesses. Data was collected though interviews, document analysis, and field trips to the Torquay region. The data was interpreted through the prism of Porters cluster theory of competitive advantage. It was found that the successes of Rip Curl and Quiksilver were not only the consequence of a historically strong surf culture but also the result of their ability to innovate and design superior surf products, develop strong inter-organisational synergies, and the international exposure from their association with the annual Bells Beach surfing contest.

Perceived incidence of drug use in Australian sport: a survey of public opinion

In the last few years, a large number of cases have come to light in which celebrated individuals, and even whole teams, have been found to have used either banned performance enhancing or ‘recreational’ drugs. There are two very different perspectives on this issue. On the one hand, some see the use of banned drugs as a threat to sport, whereas on the other hand, the use of performance enhancing drugs is actually lauded as a way of energizing flagging public interest in sport. This study is the first survey of Australian popular opinion on the incidence and seriousness of drug use in sport. Data were collected via telephone interviews featuring a nationally representative sample of 2520 participants. Results showed that the public believe that a quarter of athletes use banned performance-enhancing drugs, and a third use banned recreational drugs. The sport most commonly identified as one where performance-enhancing drug use is common was athletics (Australian Football League for recreational drugs). The public were strongly opposed to all forms of drug use in sport, yet opinion was divided as to whether anti-doping investigations should be handled by the police. Results are discussed in light of the efforts of anti-doping agencies to enforce rules and procedures that the public may not fully comprehend.

Athletes' and coaches' perceptions of deterrents to performance-enhancing drug use.

Policies to prevent performance-enhancing drug use in sport are implicitly based on a form of deterrence theory, whereby the threat of sanctions deters prohibited behaviour. While deterrents generally fail to deter serious criminal actions, criminological research suggests that deterrents can be effective with certain types of offences or offenders. This study explored the perceptions of elite athletes (n = 488) and coaches (n = 92) of two forms of deterrents to performance-enhancing drug use (legal and material loss sanctions) and a range of other anti-doping policy issues. There were marked differences in the perceived deterrent effect for athletes and coaches, with coaches consistently seeing deterrents as less credible than athletes. Both groups endorsed sanctions for the coaches and clubs of doping athletes and expressed support for the withdrawal of commercial and government sponsorship for such athletes. Findings are discussed in relation to the increasing focus of anti-doping campaigns towards elite coaches rather than athletes.

Perceived incidence of drug use in Australian sport: a survey of athletes and coaches

Doping control statistics suggest that only 1–2% of athletes are doping. However, studies of the perceived incidence of doping suggest that athletes believe that doping may be far more prevalent. Perceptions may potentially be of greater significance than actual incidence: athletes who believe that other athletes are doping may be more likely to engage in such practices, potentially creating a damaging self-fulfilling prophecy. This study investigated the perceptions of 609 Australian elite athletes and coaches about the extent of doping in sport. Data were collected via a self-completed survey. Results showed that the perceived incidence of performance-enhancing drug use was approximately 19% (30% for perceived incidence of recreational drug use). Findings are discussed in relation to how perceptions might influence athletes through the creation of damaging self-fulfilling prophecies, and how sporting associations have attempted to control testing procedures to influence perceptions of drug use in sport.