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This study investigates whether the shift from welfare state to participation society in the context of austerity in the Netherlands has had consequences for local sport policy. The central research questions are (1) do municipal sport budgets show evidence of a move away from classical welfare state values towards a participation society? and (2) do changes in local sport policy suggest a move away from classical welfare state values towards a participation society?First, we analysed spending on sport across all Dutch municipalities. Second, we quantitatively and qualitatively analysed 104 municipal coalition agreements for the 2014-2018 governing period. The approach used was interpretive, focusing on dominant or hegemonic discourses or storylines within local sport policy.It shows that Local sport policy in the Netherlands still hinges strongly on welfare state values and has not yet been hit by serious austerity measures. We found no evidence of a neoliberal slant or an emphasis on free-market and private entrepreneurship. Rather, the accent is on an expanded role for voluntary sport clubs (VSCs) in operating sport facilities and as policy implementer. We conclude that the shift in narrative from classical welfare state to participation society has, as yet, had limited effect on local sport policy. ARTICLE HISTORY

This study investigates whether the shift from welfare state to participation society in the context of austerity in the Netherlands has had consequences for local sport policy. The central research questions are (1) do municipal sport budgets show evidence of a move away from classical welfare state values towards a participation society? and (2) do changes in local sport policy suggest a move away from classical welfare state values towards a participation society? First, we analysed spending on sport across all Dutch municipalities. Second, we quantitatively and qualitatively analysed 104 municipal coalition agreements for the 2014-2018 governing period. The approach used was interpretive, focusing on dominant or hegemonic discourses or storylines within local sport policy. It shows that Local sport policy in the Netherlands still hinges strongly on welfare state values and has not yet been hit by serious austerity measures. We found no evidence of a neoliberal slant or an emphasis on free-market and private entrepreneurship. Rather, the accent is on an expanded role for voluntary sport clubs (VSCs) in operating sport facilities and as policy implementer. We conclude that the shift in narrative from classical welfare state to participation society has, as yet, had limited effect on local sport policy.

The modularization of daily life refers to the growing exchangeability of forms of spending time in the unwinding of daily life (daily paths and life paths) due to increases in the scale of the supply of standardized time-units - filled with more or less predictable, calculable and re-combinable activities - and the simultaneous growth in the opportunities for individual actors to choose from this supply and reflexively organize their daily lives. After having introduced this concept, its relation to leisure is discussed. A distinction is made between having leisure and ways of spending it. In the first case, it is argued that there is no monolithic leisure area, where everybody can do whatever he or she likes. Rather, there exist different leisure-scapes, designating differences in the freedoms people are entitled to, depending on the differences in sources of income. In the second case, the discussion focuses on the relation between leisure and consumption. Particular attention is given to how the search for moral satisfaction shapes the ways people assemble time-modules in their daily life paths.

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