ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author provides a framework for the analysis of sport policy implementation via local and voluntary sport clubs or, for 'understanding sport clubs as sport policy implementers'. The general phenomenon of interest was sport policy, and the specific phenomenon of interest was the implementation process. The key concept in the proposed theoretical framework is translation. Hence the concept of translation was introduced in order to indicate an active process where, the local sport club and its relation to central sport policy were conceived as active processes conducted by active agents. Translation implies that there is a new institutional element taken from outside the focal organisation, which is actively imported. A complete theory refers to a framework taking into account stability and change, as well as structure and agency. Theoretical or empirical extensions of the neo-institutional theory or the general phenomena of interest are huge topics.
