Sport policy analysis revisited: the sport policy process as an interlinked chain of legitimating acts

Abstract

By providing an analytical framework that draws on a conceptualisation of legitimacy in organisation studies, this paper demonstrates that the sport policy process can be understood as an interlinked chain of legitimating acts. Based on recent suggestions in organisation theory literature on how to approach legitimacy and legitimation, we applied the framework on a small sample of published sport policy studies to demonstrate its utility. By applying the framework, six interweaved and interweaving elements of the legitimating act within sport policy processes were identified: legitimacy-seeking organisation, subject, source(s), strategy, bases and scenario. The analysis shows that each of the six elements works by intersecting within each phase of the policy process. The main conclusion is that consequencesoften unintendedresulting from legitimating acts in one phase have legitimacy-related implications for the other phases of the policy process. As pressing as pinpointing the use of all elements of the framework is, it is equally important to distinguish each of the elements in order to fulfil the analytical potential of the proposed framework. Since sport policy processes in practice rely primarily on organisations and organisational action, future sport policy research would benefit from this type of framework connecting organisations and organising to policy processes.

The soft power of Arab women’s football: changing perceptions and building legitimacy through social media

“…The theoretical framework on legitimacy in sport policy proposed by Strittmatter et al (2018) serves to bridge the concepts of soft power in sport and sport policy research for this study. Broadly, the authors define legitimacy as all 'aspects related to the "appropriateness" of a policy, social actor or action' (p. 2).…”

“…Associating WFCs with international campaigns and social media challenges connected the GCC with the broader football community. The specific posts about relatively non-controversial and socially accepted events at both local and global levels could be viewed as working on positive image-building (Nygård and Gates 2013) as well as seeking acceptance, or basis, as can be seen in Strittmatter et al (2018) legitimacy model. By avoiding politically charged content, WFCs avoid offending or alienating followers, which could lead to soft disempowerment (Brannagan and Giulianotti 2015).…”

Hierarchies of criteria in NSO board-nomination processes: insights from nomination committees’ work

“…Indeed, the intrinsic value of individuals' equal access to decision-making bodies aside, sport's external and internal stakeholders' increasing concern with adequate representation indicates that the legitimacy of sport governance systems is at stake. An inability to address inadequate representation relates to sport's continued operation, simply because actors are reluctant to deal with organizations whose legitimacy is put into question (Strittmatter, Stenling, Fahlén, & Skille, 2018). Skewed representation may therefore impact, for example, the flow of financial resources to sport, changes in government regulations, members' propensity to run for board positions, and sport's general standing as an authoritative voice in the public debate.…”

Formation of Sports Public Policy within the Context of Hierarchy Governance

“…According to Strittmatter et al (2018), sport policy processes in practice rely primarily on organisations and organisational action. Therefore, regulatory changes in the process of formation of sports public policy are essential.…”

“…Currently, government involvement in the administration of high-performance sport remains of great interest (Gowthorp et al, 2017). At the same time the analysis of a specific aspects of sport policy, such as sport policy process interlinks with the legitimating acts (Strittmatter et al, 2018) and more common issues related to the sport public policy formation, evaluation and implementation (Osterlind, 2016;Lusted, 2018) poses continued interest of the scholars.…”