Social capital in Australian sport

Abstract

Socio-cultural studies of sport in society have employed various conceptual categories from a variety of theoretical perspectives, with the latest to gain wide currency being ‘social capital’. While there is much general debate on the concept and its measurement in the study of society, the number of studies using social capital has grown remarkably. Of the research using social capital as a central concept, little of this work focuses on understanding sport's position and role in society. This study adds to this new focus by linking recent empirical work and published papers on sport and social capital in Australian society. Social capital is seen to add many positive features to life in society, to provide positive development for individuals, and for building community capacity.

Notes

¹ Toohey, Politics of Australian Elite Sport; Cashman, Sport in the National Imagination.

² These include Zakus et al., Basketball Market Research Report ; Zakus, Bird and Roobottom, Report for the Australian Football League; and Zakus, Skinner and Edwards, ‘Identifying and Measuring Social Capital’.

³ Cashman, Paradise of Sport.

⁴ Coalter, ‘Sports Clubs’, 538.

⁵ For additional information see Rowland, Is the Club Really a Better Place?

⁶ Zakus, Skinner and Edwards, ‘Identifying and Measuring Social Capital’.

⁷ Coalter, ‘Sports Clubs’, 537.

⁸ For additional information on the history of social capital, see Field, Social Capital; Putnam, Bowling Alone; and Spies-Butcher, ‘Understanding the Concept of Social Capital’.

⁹ Productivity Commission, Social Capital, 8.

¹⁰ See Tonts, ‘Competitive Sport’; and Atherley, ‘Sport, Localism’.

¹¹ Productivity Commission, Social Capital, viii.

¹² Spies-Butcher, ‘Understanding the Concept of Social Capital’, 6.

¹³ See Stone and Hughes, Social Capital.

¹⁴ See Onyx and Bullen, Measuring Social Capital; Onyx and Leonard, Social Capital.

¹⁵ ABS, ‘Aspects of Social Capital’; ABS, ‘Measuring Social Capital’.

¹⁶ Edwards, in Measuring Social Capital, and Coalter, in ‘Sports Clubs’ have been strong advocates for more work in this area.

¹⁷ For additional discussions of these disciplines see Spies-Butcher, ‘Understanding the Concept of Social Capital’; Woolcook, ‘Social Capital’; Quibria, The Puzzle of Social Capital.

¹⁸ See Engelberg, Zakus and Skinner, ‘Volunteer Commitment’; Engelberg, Skinner and Zakus, ‘The Commitment of Volunteers’.

¹⁹ Cuskelly, Hoye and Auld, Working with Volunteers.

²⁰ ABS, ‘Voluntary Work, Australia’.

²¹ Cuskelly, Harrington and Stebbins, ‘Changing Levels of Organizational Commitment’.

²² ABS, ‘Voluntary Work, Australia, 2006’.

²³ Lyons and Hocking, ‘Australia's Highly Committed Volunteers’.

²⁴ Putnam, Bowling Alone.

²⁵ Nichols, ‘Pressures on Volunteers’.

²⁶ ABS, ‘Voluntary Work, Australia, 2006’, 1.

²⁷ Talbot, ‘Voluntary Sector Sport’.

²⁸ Coalter, ‘Sports Clubs’.

²⁹ Seippel, ‘Sport and Social Capital’.

³⁰ Coalter, ‘Sports Clubs’.

³¹ Tonts, ‘Competitive Sport’, 137.

³² Stoddart, Saturday Afternoon Fever.

³³ Zakus, Bird and Roobottom, Report for the Australian Football League.

³⁴ Tonts, ‘Competitive Sport’.

³⁵ Atherley, ‘Sport, Localism’, 349.

³⁶ See Tonts and Atherley, ‘Rural Restructuring’, 126–8.

³⁷ Pooley, Cohen and Pike, ‘Can Sense of Community Inform Social Capital?’ Their findings augment those found by Zakus, ‘The Saskatchewan Roughriders’. In a similar vein Zakus and Chalip, ‘Fanship and Identity’, using similar scales to Pooley, Cohen and Pike, found that a professional sport franchise added to the psychological sense of community.

³⁸ Tonts, ‘Competitive Sport’.

³⁹ Skinner, Zakus and Edwards, ‘Football Communities’.

⁴⁰ Elkington, ‘Country Communities’, 75.

⁴¹ Tonts and Atherley, ‘Rural Restructuring’, 127. Also see Collins and Kay, Sport and Social Exclusion.

⁴² Macdonald and Skinner, ‘The Long and Winding Road’.

⁴³ Skinner, Zakus and Edwards, Football Communities.

⁴⁴ Seippel, ‘Sport and Social Capital’.

⁴⁵ A. Timms, ‘Winning. Why Sport Means So Much’. The Sydney Morning Herald, SuperSport Magazine, January 20, 2007, 6.

⁴⁶ Giulianotti, Football.

⁴⁷ Giulianotti, Football., 1–24.