What’s the Big Idea? A Critical Exploration of the Concept of Social Capital and its Incorporation into Leisure Policy Discourse

Abstract

Starting from the overwhelming welcome that Putnam's (2000) treatise on social capital has received in government circles we consider its relative merits for examining and understanding the role for leisure in policy strategies. To perform this critique we identify some of the key points from Putnam's work and also illustrate how it has been incorporated into a body of leisure studies literature. This is then extended to a discussion of the methodological and theoretical underpinnings of his approach and its link to civic communitarianism. We suggest that the seduction of the 'niceness' of Putnam's formulation of social capital not only misses the point of the grimness of some people's lives but it also pays little attention to Bourdieu's point that poorer community groups tend to be at the mercy of forces over which they have little control.We argue that if the poor have become a silent emblem of the ways in which the state has more and more individualised its relationship with its citizens, it is they who also tend to be blamed for their own poverty because it is presumed they lack social capital. This in turn encourages 'us' to determine what is appropriate for 'them'. As a critical response to this situation we propose that Bourdieu's take on different forms of 'capital' offers more productive lines for analysis. From there we go on to suggest that it might be profitable to combine Bourdieu's sociology with Sennett's recent interpretation of 'respect' to formulate a central interpretive role for community leisure practitioners -recast as cultural intermediaries -if poorer community groups are to be better included.

Youth sport volunteers in England: A paradox between reducing the state and promoting a Big Society

“…2008) and promoting the social integration of young people (Coalter, 2007a). Currently sports clubs run by volunteers are central to Sport England's (2008) strategy to promote participation (Sport England is the non-departmental public body responsible for implementing government sport policy) although the efficacy of using sports clubs run by volunteers as vehicles of sport policy has been fiercely debated (Coalter, 2007b;Blackshaw and Long, 2005).…”

Sport and Social Capital

“…The conceptualisation of social capital as a panacea for economic growth, political engagement and active citizenship has also become a subject of increasing academic debate in economics, political science, sociology, and leisure studies in North America, the UK and France (Fukuyami 1995, Putnam 1993, Coleman 1990, 1994, Bourdieu 1984, 1999, Blackshaw and Long 2005. This has led to a range of competing and contested definitions of social capital and some confusion as to what constitutes social capital and the way in which its effects become manifest to impact upon social relations and civil society.…”

Personal goals, group performance and ‘social’ networks: participants’ negotiation of virtual and embodied relationships in the ‘Workplace Challenge’ physical activity programme

“…Consequently network development can facilitate the construction and reproduction of power inequalities (Blackshaw and Long, 2005). Concurrently, power struggles and competing agendas can occur within partnerships (Mackintosh, 2011, Hayhurst and Frisby, 2010, Frisby et al, 2004, leading to a contentious element of partnership work in which service delivery can become dependent upon how effectively power struggles are managed (Anderson andJap, 2005, Coulson, 2005).…”