Balancing between coordination, cooperation and competition? A mixed-method approach for assessing the role ambiguity of local sports authorities

Abstract

In recent years, the subsidiarity principle has been underlined in Sport-forAll policies in countries such as Germany, Austria and Belgium. According to this organising principle, issues need to be handled by the lowest possible political and administrative level, and as close to the citizens as possible. The 2007 decree concerning Sport-for-All policies at the local level in Flanders (Belgium) clearly referred to this. It emphasised the decentralisation of the Sport for All policy, and highlighted the regulatory and coordinating role of local sports authorities. As a consequence, they may face conflicting roles of being coordinator, regulator and provider of mass sport at the local level. In this paper, a mixed-method approach is used to give a closer insight in the role perceptions of local sports authorities in Flanders, and their position towards private sport providers. The results show that local sports authorities consider the coordination and regulation of mass sport in their municipality as their primary task. Yet, it appears that private sport providers also perceive competition from local sports authorities. Moreover, a considerable number of the local sports authorities believe they can combine the roles of provider and coordinator. As there appears to be considerable goal ambiguity, it is necessary for local sports authorities to formulate clear goals. Referring to the principle of subsidiarity, it is argued that sports authorities should only intervene when (non-)profit sport providers are not able to achieve the desirable outcomes with regard to sport and the welfare agenda.

Local Policymaking in Sport: Sport Managers’ Perspectives on Work Processes and Impact

“…This suggests that a layered or hierarchical perspective would be needed to grasp the sport policy process at the local level (Vos, Vandermeerschen, & Scheerder, 2016), in line with Bronfenbrenner's (1979) socio-ecological perspective. The socioecological perspective holds that individual behaviour is constituted within an environment and thus is partly the outcome of different interacting and overarching contextual systems.…”

“…This affirms the value of a hierarchical perspective and suggests the need to incorporate the influence of other domains linked to sport policy. Vos et al (2016) concluded that different policy domains work together at the local level. Hoekman and Van der Maat (2017) found this to be true in relation to local sport policy in the Netherlands.…”

Facing Societal Challenges in Living Labs: Towards a Conceptual Framework to Facilitate Transdisciplinary Collaborations

“…In the context of living labs, stakeholders often form a very heterogeneous group of professionals encompassing, amongst other things, different disciplines, sectors, roles, and temporal dimensions [35]. The challenge here is how to facilitate the collaboration process based on stakeholders' knowledge, expertise, and/or contribution to the project development, rather than a role or function-driven, hierarchical status [36]. To overcome collaboration challenges, literature examining collaboration processes acknowledges a variety of essential conditions for successful collaboration, which often starts with creation and adoption of a shared vision [33] in the early stages of collaboration [27,37].…”

Facilitating access to sports for people in poverty? A study on local social sports policy

“…The implementation of policies to facilitate and/ or encourage the participation of people in socially disadvantaged situations is also part of local authorities' coordinating and regulating role. Over the last decade, the emphasis on the role of local authorities as regulators and coordinators has gradually been strengthened (Vos, Vandermeerschen & Scheerder, 2015).…”

“…Cooperation with partners is necessary for local sports authorities to fulfil this role (Vos et al, 2015). The expectation of working together with partners to achieve policy objectives has become much stronger compared with previous decades.…”