ABSTRACT
When it comes to social capital, ‘context counts … and counts crucially’ (Foley and Edwards, 1999: 151). This chapter draws on case study research in three voluntary sports clubs in the UK to identify key elements of context and explore how they shape the way people form and maintain social ties and become able to access resources. The chapter starts by making a distinction between ‘personal’ and ‘socio-organisational’ context. It then examines the most salient elements of ‘personal’ context that emerged from the case studies, namely life-stage and personal circumstances, level of sporting ability and achieving, level of involvement and level of ‘clubbiness’. It then does the same for two fundamental elements of ‘socio-organisational’ context, namely the way sporting activity was organised and club culture. Finally, the chapter addresses a question implicit in all of this, namely why did the clubs act as they did? (This is the first of two chapters on how context shapes social capital in voluntary sports clubs, with Chapter 9 of Social capital and sport organisations as the second part. Further details of the case study research are also available in Chapter 4 and the Appendix.)
