Speaker
Description
The UK government invests significant financial resources into the high-performance sports system. For over twenty years, this investment has underpinned a policy that has sought to achieve sporting success on the international stage. Despite this investment, little is known about the development, implementation, evolvement, and unintended consequences of high-performance sports policy in the UK.
Initial data collected from an ongoing series of interviews with nine senior members of staff from four National Governing Bodies [NGBs] reveals a far more complex and challenging policy environment. Themes of continuous change, the importance of personal relationships, knowing how to play ‘the policy game’, the fragility of NGB influence and the impact on individual well-being are consistent patterns evident in the data.
Drawing upon the theory of process sociology it is argued that policy development and implementation in high-performance sport is fundamentally relational. The relationships between interdependent individuals are constantly in a state of flux and success is influenced by insider/outsider status, power dynamics and game playing. Resulting pressures and tensions in the high-performance sports policy making environment are such that individuals openly question their on-going involvement as they become concerned for their well-being.
Consequently, studies of high-performance sport policy need to shift away from analyses solely built on organisational relationships and towards approaches that focus more explicitly on people and their connections. The presentation illustrates the applicability of process sociology to inform this area of inquiry.
