Sport Policy Across the United Kingdom: A Comparative Analysis

This book provides a comparative analysis of sport and physical activity policies, processes, and practices across the home nations (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland) of the United Kingdom.

Drawing upon in-depth analysis by internationally recognised experts within the sport policy and management field, and applying a novel analytical framework, this book offers the first comprehensive intra-country comparison of the most significant features of the sporting infrastructure across the home nations. With chapters focusing on each of the four nations in detail, followed by a comparative chapter that identifies themes regarding the evolution of sport policy across the UK, the book examines the differences and similarities across elite, community, and school sport policy. It provides an important insight into how sport policy interacts with national and devolved political structures and with sociocultural factors to drive both elite sporting success and community sport development.

This book is essential reading for any student, researcher, policymaker or sport practitioner with an interest in sport policy, sport development, sport management, public policy, or politics.

Mathew Dowling is Senior Lecturer in the Cambridge Centre for Sport and Exercise Sciences at Anglia Ruskin University, UK. His current research interests focus on the application of organisational and political theory to understand sport organisations and systems. He has published widely in sport policy and politics, organisational change, governance, professionalisation, and comparative methods in sport.

Spencer Harris is Associate Professor of Sport Management at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, USA. He has more than 30 years’ experience within the sport development industry and has worked for the University of Hertfordshire, Sport England, and Right to Play. His research interests centre on sport governance, sport policy, and the sport-politics relationship.

Chris Mackintosh is Senior Lecturer of Sport Development in the Department for Sport and Exercise Sciences at The Manchester Institute of Sport, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. In 2020-2021 he was appointed the special policy advisor to the House of Lords Special Inquiry into a National Plan for Sport and Recreation, which was debated in UK Parliament in February 2023. He is Chair and Founder of the United Kingdom Sport Development Network (UKSDN). His current research interests include public policy of sport development and delivering systems in national governing bodies, local government, and the role of the voluntary sector.