Speaker
Description
Description of the phenomenon to be studied
As a definitional basis, policy can be conceived of as ‘a set of interrelated decisions taken by a political actor or group of actors concerning the selection of goals and the means of achieving them within a specified situation’ (Jenkins, 1978, p?). Policy, in terms of goals and means, is thus represented in particular policy documents but also in other ways such as in the allocation of funding or specification of regulations. It is such ‘policy content’ that is the focus of this paper and, specifically, research approaches by which it may be analysed.
Aims/Objectives
The paper seeks to differentiate different disciplinary and conceptual approaches to the analysis of sport policy content. In doing so, it will consider the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches in respect of their potential to: (i) interrogate the goals and means of sport policies, (ii) provide analytic or normative bases for sport policy research and (iii) enable historical or cross-context comparison of sport policies.
Justifications and Implications
The potential value of adopting different disciplinary approaches will be identified through reviewing prominent existing approaches to analysing sport policies, including the “Sport Policy factors Leading to International Sport Success” (SPLISS) framework and sociological discourse analysis. The paper will then move to consider how utilising concepts from policy design and political philosophy fields could enhance future research analysing the content of sport policies.
