ABSTRACT
Global development praxis has featured a chronic tension between ‘top down’ and ‘bottom up’ orientations, encompassing both actors and the values and objectives they promote. Top down and bottom up manifestations of sport for development (SFD) have been more closely integrated, practically and imaginatively, than most other development domains, with the logic of ‘bottom up’ development typically subordinated to ‘top down’ assumptions and practices. Scholars and practitioners need to better understand why this situation prevails and how a more mature relationship can be built, based on a healthy measure of critical distance between these orientations in SFD policy and practice.
