For small nations like Grenada, New Zealand and Norway, medal counts relative to population are increasingly touted as the most meaningful comparisons with sporting superpowers China, the United States and Germany. In acknowledging that 60% of the world’s states have populations of less than 10 million and 48% of these have less than 5 million inhabitants, this book explores how the ‘minnows’ can build or sustain their sport programmes. Despite the immense variation among and between small states, this book suggests that scale ‘matters’. The contributors, from Antigua and Barbuda, Finland, Lebanon, Norway, New Zealand, and Sweden demonstrate the challenges and opportunities of governing sport in their respective countries. These works highlight the distinctive policy ‘ecologies’ of sport in small states, marked by the unique responses to global pressures, the domestic realities of having limited resources, and by the close-knit networks of accountability. This volume will help scholars and policy makers to better understand the significance of having fewer ‘degrees of separation’ and the implications this has for sport. This book was published as a special issue of the International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics.

This book critically examines the roles and contributions of different organisations in the implementation of sport policy in the UK and, therefore, provides an important guide to the complexities of implementing sport policy and of achieving policy goals through, and for, sport. Presenting analytical chapters by leading sport researchers alongside shorter commentaries by practitioners working in the field, this book outlines the uneven path between policy planning and real-world outcomes. Adopting a multi-level analysis, this book examines the interlocking structures and challenges of organisations, from grassroots voluntary sport to national governing bodies and professional clubs, and considers the most important issues affecting UK sport policy today. This is fascinating reading for any student, researcher or practitioner working in sport policy, sport for development, sport management, sport coaching, physical education and related areas of policy such as public health, community development, social policy, public policy and education.

Sport Policy and Development introduces the key themes in sport and social policy and provides students with a base for understanding the process of social policy creation more generally. Bringing a distinctively sociological perspective to the subject, the text provides a comprehensive analysis of the ways in which pro-sport policies are thought to influence the community and the individual.

This is a cutting-edge text which responds to the increasing importance of sport policy and its relation to public investment.

"Research Centre for Sport in Canadian Society, University of Ottawa."

Acknowledging China’s established status as a global sporting superpower, this is the first book to systematically investigate sport policy in that country. With a focus on sport development in the most recent three decades, Sport Policy in China explores a wide range of topics in Chinese sport, including elite sport development, professional sports, major sports events, sport for all, the political context within which sport is interiorised and the distinctive sporting status of Hong Kong. It examines the debates around policy, globalisation, diplomacy and soft power, as well as the significance of the principle of ‘one country, two systems’. With international appeal, this book is a valuable resource for students and researchers in the fields of sport policy, sport management, sport development and sport sociology.

Sport Policy and Governance: Local Perspectives is the first detailed study of the politics of sport policy at the local authority level of governance. In focusing on the local level, the book recognises that the extent to which we benefit from public policy is a result of where we live. Taking the city of Liverpool as its core case study, the author investigates the changing contours of sport policy from the inception of the service area in the 1970s through the economic and political turbulence of the 1980s to the year of European Capital of Culture 2008. As the book gives centre stage to the period since 1997, the changing parameters of local sport policy are located within New Labour priorities around elite sport development and the instrumental uses of sport to deliver social policy goals. Written in a clear and accessible style, this book: Traces the evolution of the relationship between central government policy priorities and local sport policy and practice. Provides a political analysis of sport policy that foregrounds competition between differing interests in a context of scarce resources. Explores relationships between local authority policy for sport and policy relating to education, health, land-use planning and community regeneration. Investigates the organisational and funding contexts in which sport policy actors formulate and implement policy Assesses the strategies utilised by sport policy actors in pursuing their interests. Theorises contemporary sport policy processes and establishes parameters for future research. Sport Policy and Governance: Local Perspectives is essential reading for anyone who is studying or teaching sport-related degree programmes, researching public policy, or who is a practitioner or policy-maker in the sport sector.

This book explores the organisation and structure of sport in and beyond Europe. Drawing upon up-to-date data, the collection’s main focus lies on the relationship between public sport policy structures and sport (con)federations. The authors present thirteen country-specific contexts wherein sport policy systems are embedded. This evidence provides in-depth descriptions and analyses within a solid academic and theoretical framework. This volume will be of interest to students and scholars of Sociology of Sport, Sport Management and Sport Policy.

This book examines how states in the post-socialist Western Balkans region have used sport as a policy tool, and how sport in the region has been shaped by politics, history, and culture. Looking closely at the intersection of sports policy and politics in the countries of Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, this book explores the roles of sport in nation-building and how sport has been used by regimes looking to establish political legitimacy in the transition from the post-socialist era. It offers a fascinating insight into the way that sport has been co-opted for political purposes, and into the complexities of formulating sports policy and wider public policy in societies in which governance structures may be weak and in which clientelism, corruption, and partisanship pose constant challenges. This book is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in the history and politics of sport, in public policy, or in the history, politics, and culture of the former Yugoslav countries.