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Abstract
Recent policy statements by the United Nations relating to sport-for-development have gone beyond simple sports participation to emphasize the supposed importance of sport as an element of civil society. Reflecting changes in the wider aid paradigm, emphasis has been placed on sport's potential contribution to social cohesion and the development of social capital. However, such statements are vague and lack theoretical and policy coherence. This article reviews theories of social capital and, via a case study of the Mathare Youth Sport Association, explores the extent to which certain elements of sport-for-development organizations can contribute to certain types of social capital (bonding, bridging and linking). It also examines the extent to which various types of social capital can contribute to aspects of development and at the same time illustrates the potential limitations of overly romanticized, communitarian views based on limited and untheorized notions of bonding capital.
Notes
1 CitationUnited Nations, Business Plan.
2 CitationUnited Nations, Sport as a Tool.
3 CitationCoalter, A Wider Social Role for Sport.
4 CitationUNICEF, Monitoring and Evaluation; CitationKruse, ‘Review of Kicking AIDS Out’; CitationBotcheva and Huffman, Grassroot Soccer Foundation.
5 Kruse, ‘Review of Kicking AIDS Out’, 8.
6 Kruse, ‘Review of Kicking AIDS Out’, 8
7 CitationKidd, ‘A New Social Movement’, 376.
8 CitationLevermore, ‘Sport’.
9 Kidd, ‘A New Social Movement’.
10 Levermore, ‘Sport’.
11 CitationCoalter, A Wider Social Role for Sport. CitationMwaanga, Kicking Aids Out; CitationBanda and Mwaanga, Dunking AIDS out.
12 Coalter, A Wider Social Role for Sport.
13 CitationUnited Nations, ‘International Year of Sport and Physical Education’, www.un.org/sport2005.
14 CitationUnited Nations, ‘International Year of Sport and Physical Education’, www.un.org/sport2005, 7.
15 United Nations, Sport for Development and Peace, 14.
16 United Nations, Sport for Development and Peace, 7.
17 United Nations, Sport for Development and Peace, 12, 20.
18 CitationRenard, ‘Cracks in the New Aid Paradigm’; World Bank, Social Capital and Civil Society; CitationGrootaert et al., ‘Measuring Social Capital’.
19 CitationWoolcock and Narayan, ‘Social Capital’.
20 CitationPortes and Landholt, ‘Social Capital’.
21 CitationPortes and Landolt, ‘Social Capital’ 530.
22 World Bank, Social Capital and Civil Society, http://web.worldbank.org/wbsite/external/topics/extsocialdevlopment.
23 CitationHognestad, ‘Norwegian Strategies on Culture’.
24 Renard, ‘Cracks in the New Aid Paradigm’.
25 Coalter, A Wider Social Role for Sport.
26 CitationVan Rooy, Global Legitimacy Game.
27 Kruse, ‘Review of Kicking AIDS Out’.
28 CitationPortes, ‘Social Capital’; CitationField, Social Capital; CitationJohnston and Percy-Smith, ‘In Search of Social Capital’; FCitationarr, ‘Social Capital’.
29 CitationBourdieu, ‘Forms of Capital’; CitationColeman, Foundations of Social Theory, ‘Social Capital’; CitationPutnam, Bowling Alone.
30 CitationColeman, Foundations of Social Theory, 300.
31 Johnston and Percy-Smith, ‘In Search of Social Capital’, 321–34.
32 Coleman, ‘Social Capital’, 117.
33 Portes, ‘Social Capital’, 10.
34 Putnam, Bowling Alone.
35 Putnam, Bowling Alone, 18–9.
36 Putnam, Bowling Alone
37 CitationWoolcock and Narayan, ‘Social Capital’, 240; CitationFukuyama, Social Capital and Civil Society.
38 Putnam, Bowling Alone.
39 Putnam, Bowling Alone 23.
40 Woolcock and Narayan, ‘Social Capital’.
41 Woolcock and Narayan, ‘Social Capital’, 229.
42 Coalter, ‘Sports Clubs’.
43 United Nations, Sport for Development and Peace.
44 CitationBrady and Kahn, Letting Girls Play; CitationWillis, ‘Sport and Development’, 825–49; www.mysakenya.org.
45 H. Atkins, ‘Mathare United: A Model CECAFA Club’, available at www.toolkitsportdevelopment.org.
46 CitationMunro, ‘Role Models’, 5.
47 Brady and Kahn, Letting Girls Play, 2.
48 CitationMunro, ‘Role Models’, 3.
49 CitationMunro, ‘Role Models’, 2.
50 CitationMunro, ‘Role Models’
51 Portes, ‘Social Capital’, 10.
52 Coalter, ‘Sports Clubs’.
53 CitationYouthNet, From Theory to Practice; CitationKerrigan, Peer Education and HIV/AIDS.
54 CitationPayne et al., Sports Role Models.
55 CitationBandura, Social Learning through Imitation.
56 CitationSaavedra, ‘Women, Sport and Development’.
57 Munro, ‘Role Models’, 4.
58 Munro, ‘Role Models’, 4
59 Kruse, ‘Review of Kicking AIDS Out’.
60 CitationNicholls, ‘On the Backs of Peer Educators’, 170.
61 Putnam, Bowling Alone; GCitationaskin and Smith, A New Civic Europe?; Portes and Landholt, ‘Social Capital’.
62 Fukuyama, Social Capital and Civil Society, 2.
63 Fukuyama, Social Capital and Civil Society
64 CitationSeippel, ‘Sport and Social Capital’; CitationSkidmore, Bound and Lownsborough, Community Participation.
65 CitationMwaanga, ‘HIV/AIDS’.
66 United Nations, Sport for Development and Peace, 12, 20.
67 Putnam, Bowling Alone.
68 CitationForrest and Kearns, Joined-up Places?, 1.
69 Woolcock and Narayan, ‘Social Capital’, 231.
70 Portes, ‘Social Capital’, 19.
71 Portes and Landholt, ‘Social Capital’, 542.
72 Portes and Landolt, ‘Social Capital’ 546.
73 Woolcock and Narayan, ‘Social Capital’, 235.
74 Munro, ‘Greed vs Good Governance’
75 Woolcock and Narayan, ‘Social Capital’.
76 Putnam, Bowling Alone, 23.
77 Woolcock, ‘Place of Social Capital’.
78 Skidmore, Bound and Lownsborough, Community Participation, viii.
79 Seippel, ‘Sport and Social Capital’.
80 United Nations, Sport for Development and Peace, 21.
81 Woolcock and Narayan, ‘Social Capital’, 231.
82 Woolcock and Narayan, ‘Social Capital’ 234.
83 Renard, ‘Cracks in the New Aid Paradigm’.
84 Kidd, ‘A New Social Movement’.
85 CitationGiulianotti, ‘Human Rights’.
86 CitationHowells, ‘Organisational Sustainability’.
87 Field, Social Capital,118.
88 Fukuyama, Social Capital and Civil Society, 18.
89 Field, Social Capital.
90 CitationSport England, Sports Volunteers,14. Emphasis added.
91 Personal communication.
92 United Nations, Sport for Development and Peace, 20. Emphasis added.
93 Kruse, ‘Review of Kicking AIDS Out’; Nicholls, ‘On the Backs of Peer Educators’; Portes and Lindolt, ‘Social Capital’; Coalter, ‘Sports Clubs’.
94 Fukuyama, Social Capital and Civil Society.
95 Coleman; Bourdieu, ‘Forms of Capital’.
96 Howells, ‘Organisational Sustainability’.
97 Coleman, ‘Social Capital’, 108.
98 Kruse, ‘Review of Kicking AIDS Out’.
99 CitationPawson, Evidence-Based Policy, 5.