ABSTRACT
This chapter tells the story of sport and social capital: from early attraction, through careful consideration to continuing exploration. The intention here is to provide a big-picture overview of how research and policy in this area has developed. First, I examine the big splash – the moment when social capital landed and really started making waves in the US and elsewhere – and I explain the attraction social capital held for those working in sport. Then, I analyse the ‘first period’ of sport and social capital research, from 2001 to 2008, in which a number of researchers really thought through the concept in sport and conducted the first empirical work. Then, I examine the ‘second period’, from 2009 to 2021, in which sport and social capital research has somehow ‘settled’, with researchers in various sub-fields of sport employing the concept, mostly in empirical work. In each period, I look at the key insights, the type of work done and how understanding of the sport-social capital relationship has evolved. Finally, I pull the threads of the story together and set out what is by now well established about sport and social capital and what remains unknown.
