ABSTRACT
In recent years there has been increasing interest in the relationship between, on the one hand, sport as a range of activities and associated institutional arrangements (particularly clubs and national federations) and, on the other, individual and community social capital. The interest in the relationship between sport and social capital can, in part, be explained by the realisation that, in any examination of the signifi cance of associational activity, association through sport is, in many countries, by far the most common form. However, the interest in sport is also the product of the mythology that surrounds sport and which is evident in the policy outputs of many transnational organisations such as UNESCO and the European Union and also of domestic governments, which assumes that participation in sport can generate positive outcomes in relation to educational, community integration and personal behavioural objectives. As Perks observes, ‘Research exposing the paradoxical nature of sport and how it can simultaneously break down, as well as reinforce, social divisions has not stopped policy-oriented groups, both locally and internationally, from enthusiastically supporting the notion that sport participation positively contributes to community life’ (2007, p. 381).
