Sporting Capital: Transforming Sports Development Policy and Practice

by Nicholas F. Rowe

In a world of competing public policy priorities, economic challenges and political uncertainty, sports development organisations and initiatives need to adapt to survive. This book makes the case for 'Sporting Capital' as a new conceptual model of sports participation with the potential to transform public policy and practice in sports development.

The central argument presented is that a model of Sporting Capital - with its three domains of physiological, social and psychological attributes - provides a missing framework, creating a new impetus for sustained growth in community sport by joining up the levels at which sports development is planned and implemented. Touching on important issues such as youth sport, public health, volunteering, disability, ethnicity and social inequality, it examines patterns of sports participation in relation to age, gender and social class and offers recommendations for strategic policy improvements that can be implemented by practitioners working on the frontline of community sport.

Sporting Capital: Transforming Sports Development Policy and Practice provides valuable insights for all those interested in sports development, youth sport, community sport, or sport and social policy.

194 pages, ebook

Published November 8, 2017

About the author

Nicholas F. Rowe is a freelance sport research consultant and Visiting Research Fellow at Leeds Becket University, UK. For nearly 30 years he worked for the GB Sport Council and Sport England, most recently as Sport England’s Strategic Lead for Research and Evaluation.