ABSTRACT

This chapter is circumspect in its approach to the exploration of social integration through sport. Social integration is a transnational agenda and as such its significance for sports development is traced through policy endorsements from the United Nations, through the European Union, the UK Government and its national sport agencies. While social integration is considered in relation to its possible advancement using sport as a tool, the interconnection between sport and social integration is also considered in relation to fundamental cultural and structural inequalities in society. The concept of social integration is used to refer to a number of related policy discourses and, 10 years after the 1999 Macpherson Report (Macpherson 1999), its potential for success is framed using a critical ‘race’ lens as a proxy for many other intersecting social factors requiring consideration in sports development.