Abstract
The aim of this paper is to investigate the “governmentality” behind community sport in the contemporary society. For this purpose, the paper examines community sport policy under New Labour in the United Kingdom, by drawing on Foucauldian writings on “governmentality”. The paper draws on the data with analyses of key sport policy-related documents published by the Government and Sport England.
From the analysis of policy documents, there seems to be two key characteristics in New Labour's community sport policy. Firstly, “partnership” with stakeholders was employed as a major mechanism to deliver sport policy. Secondly, the Government considered community sport as a “policy tool” for broader social objectives, such as health, reduction of crime and anti-social behaviour, education, and in particular, social inclusion.
Following the discussion of these two characteristics with Foucauldian writings on “governmentality”, we conclude that community sport in the UK was governed under “advanced liberal” rationalities. That is, although voluntary sports organisations and local authorities came to be regarded as the “partner” in delivering community sport policy and seemed to be delegated power from the Government and Sport England in policy documents, in reality, their conducts might be strongly constrained by the Government and Sport England through setting agendas, allocating the funding, and monitoring and evaluating the outcomes. In addition, community sport was to be promoted as one of “the technologies of government” under New Labour, with which the Government (re)constructs individuals and communities as “active citizen” to sustain governing under “advanced liberalism”.
