ABSTRACT
Introduction To reach immediately for a sporting metaphor, sport scholars have, in the last decade or so, picked up the social capital concept and run with it. There have been two edited collections (Collins et al. 2007; Nicholson and Hoye 2008) and a host of books and articles examining the subject. But why, beyond the general fascination with social capital seen elsewhere, has this particular interest in sport and social capital emerged? There are at least four reasons. First, perhaps superficially, there is the title and image of Bowling Alone (Putnam 2000). As Field (2003: 4) noted, ‘the picture of bowling lanes peopled by people playing on their own . . . neatly captured the idea of people’s steady disengagement from a common public life’. This vignette of the lone bowler, it has been argued, has coupled sport and social capital in the popular (and academic) consciousness (Nicholson and Hoye 2008). Second, there is the emphasis in much of the social capital literature on voluntary associations. This has led to a focus on sport, simply because sport organisations are often the largest part of a country’s voluntary sector (Bergsgard et al. 2007). Third, there is the lengthy tradition of attributing to sport a series of social benefits: teamwork; tolerance; cohesion; moral development; and so on. Social capital has increasingly been drawn into this tradition and is now often used as an umbrella term for many of the social benefits that sport is presumed to bring. Although academic reviews have noted that this tradition is based largely on assertion, rather than rigorous sociological analysis, it nevertheless remains strong (Coalter 2007). Fourth, there is the increasing political interest in sport. Comparative international policy research has demonstrated how sport has recently risen up the political agenda in many countries (Hoye et al. 2010). This has partly been driven by an explicit contention, following Putnam, that sport can help develop social capital. Again, reviews have suggested that the policy claims made for sport are often nebulous and not well supported by research evidence. Still, this political interest, along with the other reasons, means that politicians, policy makers, academics and practitioners are all increasingly interested in the relationship between sport and social capital.
