An assessment of the impact of sport development on sport participation

Abstract

There are many definitions of sports development, reflecting the past and current mix of objectives of the various principal agents involved and the changing political, economic, ideological and cultural background in which they operated. These definitions can all be positioned along two axes: first, the axis between encouraging people to become physically active on the one hand (sport for all) and producing elite athletes through talent development on the other (elite sport); and second, the axis between creating the pathways and structures to enable people to participate and perform in sport on the one hand (development of sport) and using sport as a vehicle to achieve non-sport policy goals on the other (development through sport) (Houlihan and White 2002). In assessing the impact of sports development on sports participation, this chapter focuses on a specific part of the space created by these two axes. While Chapter 40 concentrated on the development through sport, this chapter will focus on the development of sport; and contrary to the previous chapter, which explored the impact of sports development on elite sport, this chapter will tackle its impact on sports participation.