ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some of the structural changes in community sports development as policies and sports organisations have adapted over time. It also considers how the inevitability of change over the years has not reduced significantly the necessity for an alternative to mainstream provision. Chapter 4 emphasised how sports development has struggled to engage some social groups and communities and it is often towards community sport practitioners that policy makers turn for answers to this failure. For many involved in community sports development, the experience of cyclical change in policy and practice reinforces the view from experienced practitioners how effectively others have learned from past successes and failures. This chapter aims to uncover the essence of these changes and so explore the fundamental ideals of community sports development. Further, the dynamics of the situated practice of community sports development are considered in relation to divergent forms of community sports development.
