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Emerging third-sector sports organisations and navigating uncertainty in an ‘era of austerity’: a single ethnographic case study from Liverpool

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posted on 2017-12-21, 14:33 authored by James Andrew KenyonJames Andrew Kenyon, Carolynne MasonCarolynne Mason, Joel Rookwood
There have been a number of recent policies in the UK which have attempted to capitalise on the benefits that sport potentially offers for health and wellbeing. These are, however, set against a somewhat incongruous backdrop of reductions in opportunities to participate, resulting from the ongoing constraints on public spending associated with austerity. In response to these constraints, an increasing number of third sector sports organisations (TSSOs) have emerged to fill some of the gaps left by the public services that local authorities are no longer able deliver. This research draws on the experiences of one of those TSSOs, Target Football, a Community Interest Company located in Princes Park, Liverpool, one of the most deprived neighbourhoods in the UK. Drawing upon six-years of ethnographic research, and a posteriori semi-structured interviews, this paper examines the ways in which this TSSO has navigated – and continues to navigate – the contextual uncertainty arising from austerity, to sustain sports provision inn an environment where opportunities have declined in recent years. Underpinned by stakeholder theory, this research examines the relationships that exist between organisations and their stakeholders, and frames these in relation to power, legitimacy, and urgency. The findings provide insight into the significant obstacles that challenge the survival of TSSOs in the context of a scarcity of resources. From a more practical perspective, these findings also provide critical insight into David Cameron’s aspiration ‘to do more with less’.

History

School

  • Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences

Published in

International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics

Citation

KENYON, J.A., MASON, C.L.J. and ROOKWOOD, J., 2018. Emerging third-sector sports organisations and navigating uncertainty in an ‘era of austerity’: a single ethnographic case study from Liverpool. International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 10(1), pp. 25-42.

Publisher

© Taylor and Francis

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Acceptance date

2017-12-18

Publication date

2018

Notes

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics on 23 January 2018, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/19406940.2018.1425732.

ISSN

1940-6940

eISSN

1940-6959

Language

  • en

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