Big Society, Sport and Big Democracy:What is Sport?

Who are the Stakeholders?

Cathy DevineUniversity of Cumbria

Sports Coaching: Pasts and Futures: Manchester Metropolitan University: 25-26 June 2011

Democracy & Power 2011

Sport England Strategy 2008-2011‘National Governing Bodies will be at the heart

of delivery and funded via a simple single pot’‘focus exclusively on sport’‘greater autonomy over the investment of public

funds’‘high standards of internal organisation and

democracy’‘reach and serve all sectors of society’‘developing the girl’s & women’s game’‘work to increase women’s participation in

football’

‘From bureaucracy to democracy. From big government to Big Society. From politician power to people power.’

David Cameron: 8 July 2010

What is Democracy?International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) (2008)

A political concept

Popular control and political equalitypopular control over public decision making

and decision makers

Equal exercise of citizenship rightsequality of respect and voice between citizens

in the exercise of that control

Democracy Assessment FrameworkAdapted from: International IDEA (2008)

1 Citizenship, law and rights

1.1 Nationhood and citizenship Is there public agreement on a common sporting citizenship without discrimination?

1.2 Rule of law and access to justice

Are state and sporting society consistently subject to the law?

1.3 Civil and political rights Are civil and political rights in relation to sport equally guaranteed for all?

1.4 Economic and social rights Are economic and social rights in relation to sport equally guaranteed for all?

Democracy Assessment Framework Adapted from International IDEA (2008)

2. Representative and accountable government

2.1 Free and fair elections Do elections give people control over governments (state and sport, international, national and local) and their sport and policies

2.2 The democratic role of political parties

Does the party system assist the working of sporting democracy

2.3 Effective and responsive government

Is government (state and sport, international, national and local) effective in serving the public in relation to sport and responsive to its concerns?

2.4 The democratic effectiveness of parliament

Does the parliament (state and sporting, international, national and local governing bodies) or legislature contribute effectively to the democratic process?

2.5 Civilian control of the military and the police

Are the military and police forces under civilian control?

2.6 Integrity in public life Is the integrity of conduct in sport assured?

Democracy Assessment Framework Adapted from International IDEA (2008)3. Civil society and popular participation

3.1 The media in a democratic society

Do the media operate in a way that sustains democratic values in relation to sport?

3.2 Political participation Is there full citizenship participation in sport?

3.3 Decentralization Are decisions taken at the level of government (state and sport, international, national and local) that is most appropriate for the people affected?

Democracy Assessment FrameworkAdapted from International IDEA (2008)

4. Democracy beyond the state

4.1 External influences on the country’s democracy

Is the impact of external influences (generic and sporting) broadly supportive of the country’s sporting democracy (UN, EU, IOC, FIFA etc)?

4.2 The countries democratic impact abroad

Do the country’s international policies contribute to strengthening global sporting democracy?

UK Sport Policy: Ontological Shift1995: Competitive Sport for Sports Sake (ideologically based policy)

Sport, Raising the Game (DNH, 1995)

1997-2004: Sport for Social Good (evidence based policy) England, the Sporting Nation (ESC,1997) Sport England Lottery Fund Strategy 1999-2009 (SE, 1999) The Value of Sport (SE, 1999) Game Plan (Strategy Unit, 2002)

• 2005: London awarded 2012 Olympic Games: Sport/PA bifurcaction

2005-2010: Sport for Sports Sake (ideologically based policy) Sport England Strategy 2008-2011 (SE, 2008) Be Active be Healthy (DoH 2009)

• 2010: Competitive Sport for Sports Sake (ideologically based policy) ‘for this government, competitive sport really matters…in its own right’ (Jeremy Hunt, Secretary

of State, DCMS, 28.6.10) DCMS Structural Reform Plan (DCMS, 2010)

Sport for Peoples Sakes? Big sporting society Fully realised sporting citizenship Sport for All?

Active People Survey 4Sport England: October 2009-October 2010Comparison: APS2 Baseline

Statistically Significant Decrease

Female participation

Swimming, football, golf, tennis, bowls, rugby union, cricket, basketball, snowsport, hockey, weightlifting, sailing, rugby league, gymnastics, rowing, volleyball, rounders, fencing

EM region

Volunteering, club membership, tuition, organised sport

Statistically Significant Increase

35-54 age groupNS SEC 4 (small employers)Non-white adults

Athletics, cycling, mountaineering, netball

Sport & active recreation APS1 (9/29 County Councils )

Participation in sport and active recreation including recreational walking & cycling

Satisfaction

NW and WM regions

Cumbria CSP: participation in sport and active recreation

Active People Survey 5Sport England: January 2010-January 2011Comparison: APS2 Baseline

Statistically Significant Decrease Statistically Significant Increase

Rate of participation Non white adults

Female participation NS Sec 1-2 (managerial and professional)

16-34 age group, 55+ age group SE funded: Athletics, netball, mountaineering, table tennis

White adults Non SE funded: body boarding, body pump, caving/pot holing, cross training, health and fitness, pilates, surfing, walking

NS Sec 5-8 (lower supervisory and technical, semi-routine, routine, never worked & long term unemployed)

SE funded: Swimming, football, golf, badminton, tennis, bowls, rugby union, cricket, basketball, hockey, weightlifting, sailing, gymnastics, rugby league, rowing, volleyball, fencing

Club membership, tuition, organised sport

Non SE funded: aerobics, body combat, darts, frisbee, ice skating, martial arts, motor racing, motor cycling, movement and dance, skipping, pool, skittles, snooker, step, tai chi, ten pin bowling, yoga

The Sexual Division of PlayTuesday 15 March 2011: Manchester

Ailey 2 in Alvin Ailey’s ‘Revelations’ Photo: Eduardo Patino The Lowry, Manchester: 1730 seats Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre Primarily school groups doing A2

Dance and ‘Revelations’ as set piece Ecstatic reaction, standing ovation Audience primarily (not exclusively)

girls and young women Significant black audience

Champions League: Manchester United vs Marseille

Old Trafford, Manchester Javier Hernandez Spectators primarily (not exclusively)

boys and men

Sports Participation in Scotland 2000 (Sportscotland, 2001)Sexual Division of Play

Most popular sports amongst women: aerobics (75%), dancing (74%), swimming (60%), yoga (87%), horse riding (75%)

Least popular sports amongst women: football (7%), fishing (8%), rugby (8%), golf (12%), squash (15%)

Most popular sports amongst men: football (93%), rugby (92), golf (88%), fishing (92%), squash (84%)

Least popular sports amongst men: yoga (13%), aerobics (25%), dancing (26%), horse riding (25%), gymnastics (29%)

Top Ten Sports by GenderBullough and Moore (2010)Sexual Division of Play

Sport Overall Male

Football 1

Boxing 2

BMX 3

Basketball 4

Archery 5

Tennis 6

Swimming 7

Table Tennis 8

Cycling 9

Mountain Biking

10

Sport Female

Ice Skating 1

Dance 2

Swimming 3

Trampolining 4

Horse Riding 5

Gymnastics 6

Badminton 7

Skiing 8

Climbing 9

Tennis 10

Gendered Sporting CitizenshipFormal sporting citizenship rights accorded

to all individuals (gender neutral)Inequalities of opportunities & power derive

from sexual division of labour… and playWomen more likely to be second class

sporting citizens than men

So:Citizenship of equality (but androcentric)? Citizenship of difference (valued differently

or equally)?Critical synthesis (Lister 1997)

transformation (Walby 2002)

‘Activity choice’ and physical education in England and WalesSmith, Green & Thurston (2009) Androcentric Sporting Citizenship despite Sexual Division of Play

Restrictions particularly felt amongst girls…dissatisfied with over-representation of a small number of traditional team sports

‘It was like last week, they gave us the choice of basketball and rounders and there was twenty-odd of us that wanted to do dance and they said “No, sorry” ‘ (‘Eve’)

‘Lots of us enjoy dance don’t we?’ (‘Donna’) ‘We mainly do footy don’t we?’ (‘Carl’) ‘They (teachers) don’t offer us things that the boys usually

do- like football-that some girls are really interested in. They just think that all we’re into are “girly” sports…’ (Amy)

Conclusions: Democratisation and Informalisation

Big Sporting Democracy: Critical SynthesisAdapted from Lister 1997 & Fraser 2009

Sexual division of labour:Decentring waged work and valorising unwaged

activities (e.g. caring)Both valuable?

Sexual division of playDecentring competitive sport and valorising other

movement activities (e.g. dancing, outdoor and adventurous activities, recreational rather than performance & elite sport, ‘sport for all’ rather than ‘grassroots sport’)

All both or some valuable?

Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education: October 2010The Importance of Teaching - The Schools White Paper: DfE 2010PE resignified as sport (androcentric) ‘I want competitive sport to be at the centre of a truly

rounded education that all schools offer’ ‘the government is clear that at the heart of our ambition is

a traditional belief that competitive sport, when taught well, brings out the best in everyone’

The government plans to ‘revise the PE curriculum… to place a new emphasis on competitive sports’

‘We will provide new support to encourage a much wider take up of competitive team sports. With only one child in five regularly taking part in competitive activities against another school, we need a new approach to help entrench the character building qualities of team sport’.

Concepts of Sporting Citizenship underlying UK Sport, PA and PE policies Competitive sport for sport’s sake (and gender mainstreaming?):

‘naturalise injustices of gender and remove from political contestation’ (Fraser 2009)

Competitive sport does not bother to legitimise (evidence base) its hegemonic status as a universal right, a meta overarching category.

Hegemonic status of sport (competitive, performance) results in an emphasis on performance and professional sport, a minor/sub/partial category

Stakeholders defined primarily as internal to competitive performance sport

‘Grassroots sport’ (part of performance ladder) has replaced ‘sport for all’ (plural, inductive)

Ideological retreat from equality and collective entitlement to ‘sport for all’

Sport and physical activity conflated when useful to do so: slippery concepts, category errors: sport flips from meta overarching category to minor sub/partial category

Gender-neutral (androcentric universal sportsman) concept of sporting citizenship and gender mainstreaming (gender sidelining)

Big Sporting Society: 2012 Olympic Legacy Civil & Political Rights:Protection from/by State: Individual goods

Economic Social & Cultural Rights: Entitlement from State: Shared goods

Collective Rights:Common goods:Movement rights

£50m to sport fromderegulated lottery

LA’s: 25%+ cuts to £1bn sport spend

Defra plans to sell off nature reserves, rivers, forests

Olympic Games (4 weeks): £9.375bn (£27m cut for ODA)

DCMS: 25%+ cuts to £2bn total spend

LA’s cut budgets for public rights of way & open spaces

‘competitive sport for sports sake’

Schools: 11% cuts to £55bn sports facilities programme

Extension of CROW 2000 Act?

‘light touch regulation at the heart of sport policy’

Free swimming for under-16’s & over 60’s: £40m cuts

Urban ’Right to Roam’?

Structural Reform Plan 15.7.10: lottery delivers community school legacy

Swimming pool refurbishment: £25m cuts

Extension of Marine & Coastal Access Act 2009?

Top tax rate of 50% Commodification of movement/risk/space

Big Sporting Society: 2012 Olympic Legacy Civil & Political Rights:Protection from State: Individual goods

Economic Social & Cultural Rights: Entitlement from State: Shared goods

Collective Rights:Common goods:Movement rights

Nationwide Olympic and Paralympic style competition for schools

£235m Playbuilder Scheme to create 3 500 playgrounds frozen

Mass trespass: Kinder Scout (1932)

‘volunteers are crucial’ Office for Civil Society cuts of £11m

Ramblers: Urban Path Policies, Claim the Coast

‘the private sector has a key role to play in developing sport’

NCVO warns many charities will fold

BMC: Access and Conservation Trust, Make the Most of the Coast Campaign

Curriculum review to embed competitive sport

Charity Commission loses 60 jobs + 5% funding cuts

CTC: Right to Ride, Right to Ride to School

Premier League CEO’S: £1M+Footballers: up to £10m pa

BCU’s Rivers Access Campaign

Democracy Assessment FrameworkAdapted from: International IDEA (2008)

1 Citizenship, law and rights

1.1 Nationhood and citizenship Is there public agreement on a common sporting citizenship without discrimination?

1.2 Rule of law and access to justice

Are state and sporting society consistently subject to the law?

1.3 Civil and political rights Are civil and political rights in relation to sport equally guaranteed for all?

1.4 Economic and social rights Are economic and social rights in relation to sport equally guaranteed for all?

Wytham Woods: Tobias Reynolds, 2010

Big Sporting Democracy: can’t see the wood for the trees!

Selected References Beetham, D., et al, 2008. Assessing the Quality of Democracy: A Practical Guide.

International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. Available online: http://www.idea.int/publications/aqd/upload/aqd_practical_guide.pdf [accessed 24 June 2011].

Bullough, S. and Moore, R., 2010. The Importance of ‘Student Voice’ Consultation with Young People. Presentation to Sport for Sport Conference, Hatfield. 9 September 2010.

Cameron, D., 2010. Speech. David Cameron: We will make government accountable to the people. Conservative Party. 8 July 2010. Available online: [accessed 14 July 2010].

Fraser, N., 2009. Feminism, Capitalism and the Cunning of History. New Left Review. 56, 97-117. New Left Review.

Gove, M., 2010. The Importance of Teaching-The Schools White Paper. DfE. Available online: https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/CM-7980.pdf [accessed 24 June 2011].

Lister, R., 2003. Citizenship: Feminist Perspectives. New York, New York University Press. Smith, A., Green, K., and Thurston, M., 2009. ‘Activity choice’ and physical education in

England and Wales. Sport Education and Society, 14(2) 203-222. Retrieved April 11, 2011, from SPORTDiscus database.

Sport England, 2011. Active People Survey 5. Sport England. Available online: http://www.sportengland.org/research/active_people_survey/active_people_survey_5.aspx [accessed 24 June 2011]

Sport England, 2008. Sport England Strategy 2008-2011. Sport England Sportscotland, 2001. Sports Participation in Scotland 2000. Research Digest 84.

Edinburgh, Sportscotland. Walby, S., 2005. Measuring women’s progress in a global era. International Social Science

Journal, 57(184), 371-387. Retrieved April 11, 2011, from Academic Search Complete database.