Management strategies of non-profit community sport facilities in an era of austerity

Abstract

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Examining the Impact of Austerity on Community Sport Development Workers and Their Professional Environment

“…Where such studies do exist, focus is typically placed upon macro-level analyses of austerity (see Collins & Haudenhuyse, 2015;Roberts, 2017;Widdop et al, 2018), with only a small number of studies offering insight into the actual day-to-day impact of austerity at the delivery level (e.g. Parnell et al, 2019;Walker & Hayton, 2018). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to add to this emerging literature and present insights from community sport development workers (CSDWs) who have managed community sport programmes through the turbulence of changing political priorities and the fiscal constraints of the recent period.…”

“…Literature has documented how community sport development providers have become more calculating and agile in the manner in which they have negotiated the variegated intensities of an actually-existing neoliberalism (Andrews & Silk, 2018;Goldstein, 2012;Peck & Theodore, 2012), and developed strategies to compete for increasingly scarce resources that have been exacerbated by austerity (see, for example, Morgan & Costas Batlle, 2019;Parnell et al, 2019;Walker & Hayton, 2018;Widdop et al, 2018). For Parnell et al (2017), this poses a significant threat to the viability of organisations that are dependent on government funding for their survival.…”

“…While recent empirical work has sought to evidence the impact of austerity on the community sport sector (e.g. Parnell et al, 2019;Walker & Hayton, 2018), relatively little is known about the dayto-day repercussions of these circumstances on the practice of community sports development workers (CSDWs). In the absence of such discussion, this paper presents the findings of a small-scale qualitative study of the everyday working practices of a group of CSDWs in the South of England (n ¼ 10).…”

Re-thinking sport and physical activity: management responses to policy change

“…This creates concerns about the effectiveness of the Government's physical activity and sport participation strategy at the local level (Grix & Phillpots, 2011); concerns that are brought into sharp focus at a time of rapid change and thus challenge the sustainability of sport and physical activity provision strategies. At the same time, from a global perspective, the economic downturn and the imposition of austerity measures in different countries limit available funding for sport organisations (Giannoulakis, Papadimitriou, Alexandris, & Brgoch, 2017;Parnell, May, Widdop, Cope, & Bailey, 2018).…”

“I Feel We are Inclusive Enough”: Examining Swimming Coaches’ Understandings of Inclusion and Disability

“…This paper explores the effects of "neoliberal-able rationality" sport policy and swimming coaches' understandings of inclusion and disability. Recent research has highlighted how economic policies underpinned by neoliberal rationalities of government often see sport as a tool that can be used to alleviate social problems that are conceived to be a social and economic burden on the state (e.g., juvenile delinquency, obesity, homelessness, unemployment and so on) (Gard, Dionigi, & Dionigi, 2018;Hall, 2006;Parnell, May, Widdop, Cope, & Bailey, 2018). Our research specifically responds to Bush and Silk's (2012) call to critically examine how neoliberal governing rationalities influence coaches' thoughts and beliefs of inclusion in the disability context.…”