Working together through sport? Local authority provision for ethnic minorities in the UK

Abstract

Ethnic minority participation in sport or physical activity has been the subject of recent sociological debate but has received relatively limited empirical analysis. This article assesses the extent to which two local authorities in the UK, Stoke-on-Trent City Council and East Staffordshire Borough Council, had developed strategies to increase participation rates for ethnic minorities. It draws on 16 semi-structured interviews with ethnic minority community leaders, local authority employees and a selection of active ethnic minority participants involved in projects in both areas. The results highlight projects established by both local authorities to engage with ethnic minorities and although this is acknowledged as a step forward, racial inequalities and other barriers to participation remain. The article concludes by suggesting that there are still many opportunities for local authorities to work more closely with ethnic minorities to reduce racial inequalities and barriers to participation.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful and helpful thoughts on an earlier draft of this article.

Notes

^1. See, for example, Carrington and McDonald, ‘Whose Game is it Anyway?’; King, Offside Racism; Burdsey, British Asians and Football.

^2.Baglihole, Equal Opportunities and Social Policy.

^3. Burdsey, British Asians and Football, 11.

^4.Miles and Brown, Racism.

^5.Garner, Racisms.

^6. Ibid., 17.

^7.Swinney and Horne, ‘Race Equality and Leisure Policy Discourses’.

^8. See Rowe and Champion, Sports Participation and Ethnicity in England.

^9.Sport England, Active People 2 Survey.

^10. Ibid.

^11.Sporting Equals, Briefing Paper.

^12. Sport England, Active People 2 Survey.

^13.Department of National Heritage, Sport: Raising the Game.

^14.Sporting Equals, Findings from the Racial Equality Survey.

^15.Sporting Equals, Achieving Racial Equality.

^16.Long, Robinson and Spracklen, ‘Promoting Racial Equality’.

^17.Coalter, A Wider Social Role for Sport.

^18.Horne, ‘Local Authority Leisure Policies’; Swinney and Horne, ‘Race Equality and Leisure Policy Discourses’; Carrington and McDonald, ‘Whose Game is it Anyway?’; Long, Robinson and Welch, Raising the Standard; Long, Robinson and Spracklen, ‘Promoting Racial Equality’; Spracklen, Hylton and Long, ‘Managing and Monitoring Equality and Diversity’.

^19. Long, Robinson and Welch, Raising the Standard.

^20. Long, Robinson and Spracklen, ‘Promoting Racial Equality’.

^21. Ibid.

^22. Spracklen, Hylton and Long, ‘Managing and Monitoring Equality and Diversity’.

^23. Horne, ‘Local Authority Leisure Policies’; Swinney and Horne, ‘Race Equality and Leisure Policy Discourses’.

^24. Horne, ‘Local Authority Leisure Policies’.

^25. Ibid.

^26. Swinney and Horne, ‘Race Equality and Leisure Policy Discourses’.

^27. Ibid.

^28. Spracklen, Hylton and Long, ‘Managing and Monitoring Equality and Diversity’; King, Offside Racism; Long and Hylton, ‘Shades of White’.

^29. See King, Offside Racism; Burdsey, British Asians and Football; Carrington, ‘Sport, Masculinity and BlackCultural Resistance’.

^30.Hylton, ‘“Race”, Sport and Leisure’.

^31. Ibid.

^32. Long and Hylton, ‘Shades of White’.

^33. Rowe and Champion, Sports Participation and Ethnicity in England.

^34.Sport England, ‘The Use and Management of Sports’.

^35.Cabinet Office, ‘Minority Ethnic Issuers in Social Exclusion’.

^36.Carroll, Ali and Azam, ‘Promoting Physical Activity in South Asian Women’; Collins and Kay, Sport and Social Exclusion.

^37. Carroll, Ali and Azam, ‘Promoting Physical Activity in South Asian Women’.

^38.Johnson, ‘Perceptions of Barriers to Healthy Physical Activity’.

^39.Collins and Kay, Sport and Social Exclusion.

^40. Rowe and Champion, Sports Participation and Ethnicity in England.

^41.Wray, ‘Connecting Ethnicity, Gender and Physicality’.

^42. Carroll, Ali and Azam, ‘Promoting Physical Activity in South Asian Women’; Duval, Sampson and Boote, Perceptions of Local Women about Physical Exercise; Sporting Equals, Briefing Paper.

^43. Carroll, Ali and Azam, ‘Promoting Physical Activity in South Asian Women’.

^44. Duval, Sampson and Boote, Perceptions of Local Women about Physical Exercise; Sporting Equals, Briefing Paper.

^45.Gratton and Jones, Research Methods for Sports Studies.

^46.Carrington and McDonald, ‘The Politics of “Race” and Sports Policy’, 242.

^47.Miles and Huberman, Qualitative Data Analysis, 9.

^48. Coalter, A Wider Social Role for Sport.

^49. Horne, ‘Local Authority Leisure Policies’.

^50. Coalter, A Wider Social Role for Sport; Collins and Kay, Sport and Social Exclusion.

^51. Coalter, A Wider Social Role for Sport.

^52. Long, Robinson and Welch, Raising the Standard.

^53. As suggested by Carroll, Ali and Azam, ‘Promoting Physical Activity in South Asian Women ’.

^54. Collins and Kay, Sport and Social Exclusion.

^55. See Long, Robinson and Welch, Raising the Standard; Long, Robinson and Spracklen, ‘Promoting Racial Equality’; Horne, ‘Local Authority Leisure Policies’; Swinney and Horne, ‘Race Equality and Leisure Policy Discourses’; Spracklen, Hylton and Long, ‘Managing and Monitoring Equality and Diversity’.

^56. Wray, ‘Connecting Ethnicity, Gender and Physicality’.

^57. Ibid.

^58. As identified by Sport England, Active People 2 Survey.

^59. Hylton, ‘“Race”, Sport and Leisure’.

^60. See Johal, ‘Playing Their Own Game’; Carrington and McDonald, ‘Whose Game is it Anyway?’.