ABSTRACT
‘Sport development’ is a term that has come to have meaning as a social service, a measure of progress in sport policy and practice, a professional rationale, and a form of engagement in sport. The term is both ubiquitous and insubstantial. However, any attempt at comprehensive genericism creates a lack of focus and interpretation of purpose that renders it almost worthless as a descriptor of function, and useful only as an occupational category. Much of the meaning and discourse about sport development is attached to the claims made for it (Coalter, 2007) but the ‘picture’ conjured up by the term is most often one associated with sporting activity in a learner, developmental or recreational context. Nonetheless, the term has a common usage that embraces all levels of sport participation, and increasingly, physical activity. The use of the term connotes a plethora of initiatives, personnel, social structures, aspirations and shared meanings.
