This is a cutting-edge text which responds to the increasing importance of sport policy and its relation to public investment.

Sport, Policy and Politics is a genuinely comparative analysis of sport policy-making in five countries - Australia, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom and North America. Some of the issues raised in this book include: * the process of sport policy-making * the administrative framework for sport: the responsibilities of central or federal governments, state governments and local authorities * the division of responsibility between different levels of government * how policy-making has addressed the topical problems of drug abuse in athletes, and the provision of sport and physical education in schools.

Austerity is perhaps the major challenge of our times, given the speed at which it arrived and the consequences of its impact upon society. The global financial crash and economic downturn was the catalyst for change and, against a backdrop of advice from experts adverse to Keynesian economics, the ideology of austerity grew and became the dominant thinking to steer economies out of recession. This comprehensive volume draws upon both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies to provide a varied and contextually rich insight into sport, policy, and politics in an era of austerity. The authors cover a wide range of issues in a variety of organisational contexts and geographies, including sports participation across different socio-demographic groups; the impact of austerity on the provision of community sports; disability sport; public management of sport facilities; the performance of public sport facilities with respect to access, finance, utilisation, and customer satisfaction; the potential impact of austerity on sport for development; elite sport; and social inclusion and poverty. This book makes a significant contribution to the current academic debate, while raising important considerations for policymakers and managers. It was originally published as a special issue of The International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics.

Sport in the Middle East has become a major issue in global affairs. The contributors to this timely volume discuss the intersection of political and cultural processes related to sport in the region. Eleven chapters trace the historical institutionalization of sport and the role it has played in negotiating "Western" culture. Sport is found to be a contested terrain where struggles are being fought over the inclusion of women, over competing definitions of national identity, over preserving social memory, and over press freedom. Also discussed are the implications of mega-sporting events for host countries, and how both elite sport policies and sports industries in the region are being shaped. Sport, Politics and Society in the Middle East draws on academic disciplines from the humanities and social sciences to offer in-depth, theoretically grounded, and richly empirical case studies. It employs diverse research methodologies, from ethnography and in-depth interviews to archival research, to make a lasting contribution to this critical subject.

This innovative new text examines sport's relationship with politics and argues that sport has always been political, even as far back as antiquity. However, in the last 30 years there has been an unprecedented politicization of sport through increasing government intervention. Jonathan Grix takes a comprehensive and engaging look at sport politics by examining state involvement in initiatives from sports mega-events through to grass-roots and community sport activities. Providing an accessible introduction to this growing area of study, the text examines a number of approaches to the topic – including theories from Political Science, Sociology and International Relations – and adopts a critical framework throughout. In doing so the text discusses the relationship between social capital and sport, how governments use sport for non-sporting objectives and the role of governance in sport policy. Real-world examples demonstrate just how entwined sport and politics are: from ardent soccer fans effectively 'locked-in' by ever-increasing ticket prices, to taxpayer's money funding ever more extravagant international sports mega-events, to the moral and political implications of doping.

This book examines how states in the post-socialist Western Balkans region have used sport as a policy tool, and how sport in the region has been shaped by politics, history, and culture. Looking closely at the intersection of sports policy and politics in the countries of Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, this book explores the roles of sport in nation-building and how sport has been used by regimes looking to establish political legitimacy in the transition from the post-socialist era. It offers a fascinating insight into the way that sport has been co-opted for political purposes, and into the complexities of formulating sports policy and wider public policy in societies in which governance structures may be weak and in which clientelism, corruption, and partisanship pose constant challenges. This book is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in the history and politics of sport, in public policy, or in the history, politics, and culture of the former Yugoslav countries.