Archives for December, 2024

Developing Sport for Women and Girls: First Edition (Book Review)

Developing Sport for Women and Girls is a unique and well-organized text, which grants readers a thorough analysis of contemporary sport development with a female-specific focus. Given the international growth of women’s sport (media, participation and leadership roles, gender equity dialogue etc.), this one-of-a-kind book serves as a valuable addition to the existing body of research for scholars and sport for development practitioners. The book holds the global perspectives of authors from the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom while providing cultural contexts for a range of national sport systems including the National Football League (NFL), One Day International (ODI), International Olympic Committee (IOC), and many others. The text divides the general concepts into three themes: participation and inclusion, development through sport (SFD), and development of sport (SD).

Community sport, Australian sport policy and advocacy: Lobbying at a localized level

This article explored rural Australia’s community sport policy process, focusing on policy development and implementation issues alongside advocacy for community organizations involved with ‘grassroots’ sport. The analysis focussed on the significance of the relationships between community sport clubs (CSCs), national sporting organizations (NSOs), government, and other actors in the community sport policy process. Through an intervention, a group of CSCs (n=9) formed a coalition to lobby for their collective issues and needs. The research drew attention to the hierarchical nature of the community sport policy process, the implications for collaboration, and the role of CSCs in policy creation. Incorporating the evaluation of partnership theory in conjunction with the Advocacy Coalition Framework, a meso-level policy framework the overall objective herein was to assess the potential for advocacy structures in community sport through an ethnographic action-research approach based on observing a group of CSCs coalescing. It is posited that a localized coalition can offer CSCs a voice in the policy process and lead to a more accurate and equitable understanding of the policy landscape.