Understanding Uk Sport Policy: a Comparative Context

This book represents the first attempt to examine whether the UK model of sport is fit for purpose by examining its efficacy in the context of a range of comparative elite sport models. The aim is to outline the broad contours of the UK s model of sport, with individual chapters focusing upon its central components (for example elite, school and community sport and talent ID policies). The upcoming London Olympics 2012 is apposite and provides the perfect timing for an examination of UK sport policy, which will be undertaken with an eye to other leading sporting nations such as Canada and Australia. A recurring theme will be to probe the notion of a virtuous cycle of sport (Grix, 2011) that appears to underpin many countries rationale for elite sport investment (a process through which elite success stimulates mass participation, produces more active people and a larger pool from which to draw successful elite athletes etc.). This book invokes a model of sport that seeks to be more inclusive than the traditional elite sport development (ESD) system, by including school and community sport policy whose objectives are closely aligned with elite sport through partnership arrangements.

This book was published as a special issue of the International Journal of Sport Policy.

Jonathan Grix is one of the UK’s leading experts on sport politics and policy and has published widely in leading journals including Public Administration (2011), Public Policy and Administration (2011), International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics (2012), Journal of Sport and Tourism (2013) and British Journal of Politics and International Relations (2013).

Lesley Phillpots’ research interests focus primarily upon policy for sport, school sport and physical education. She has recently published on the governance of sport; youth sport development and county and school sport partnerships, including leading policy journals such as Public Policy and Administration (2011) and Physical Exercise and Sport Pedagogy (2012). She is currently investigating the experiences of female PGA golf professionals in the man’s world of golf.