Developed countries have dominated the hosting of major sports events for many decades, however recent years have witnessed cities and nations from ‘developing countries’ bidding to stage and actually hosting these events. This thesis examines the growing interest of developing countries in hosting major sports events. There were three main objectives. First, to outline the relationship between African countries and the global sports system (GSS), with a specific focus on Kenya and South Africa. Second, to critically assess the understandings of key actors and agencies in Kenya with respect to the possibilities and challenges of hosting major sports events, in comparison with actors and agencies in South Africa. Third, to investigate the knowledge transfer process with respect to the hosting of major sports events, using Kenya as an example. The thesis adopted a critical realist theoretical framework to examine the structures and agencies of the GSS in order to understand the relationship between it and actors and agencies of sports events in Africa. The thesis argues that, though countries like Kenya may aspire to host one of the major sports events, the actual reality of hosting these events depends on many external factors which are out of their control. The research methodology used in the thesis involved a two-stage qualitative approach through the analysing of archival data and conducting of expert interviews. The researcher reviewed past literature (on sports mega-events, sports policy issues, policy learning and transfer and the history of sport in Kenya) and constructed semi-structured interview guides. The thesis concludes that the structure of the GSS and global sports organizations are not favourable to and are often prohibitive to developing countries in terms of enabling these countries to compete equally with developed countries in hosting sports events, competing in international sports events, and taking part in decision making at the international level. This is contrary to these organizations’ claims to adhere to the values of equality for all their members.

The global securitisation models associated with contemporary sport mega events are currently promoted as having an extremely positive impact on pre-existing domestic security conditions in host cities. This PhD project critically assesses these claims, using the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympics in Brazil as empirical case studies. The research weaves cultural criminological methods with theoretical approaches from the critical scholarship on mega event security. Drawing upon eight months of ethnographic fieldwork in Rio de Janeiro, this work investigates how globally standardised mega event security models were implemented in the everyday practices of security officials at various positions in the Brazilian security apparatus. Structured in two parts, the thesis sheds light on how these models adapted to Brazil's security conditions, and the extent to which they impacted ordinary police work in Rio de Janeiro. Part I outlines the methodological framework of the research, situates the study within the critical literature on sport mega event security, the wider context of the Brazilian crime complex and the development of Rio's urban conflict. Part II of the thesis concentrates on the data analysis. It investigates how the Brazilian authorities planned the mega event security according to three major principles: the implementation of the Integrated Command and Control System (SICC) to foster cooperation among a diverse field of security institutions; investments in technological solutions, such as camera surveillance and communication systems, materialising in the establishment of Integrated Command and Control Centres (CICC); and finally, the realisation of militarised lock-down security perimeters and ostensive policing strategies to secure the mega event boroughs. This first part of the analysis adopts the view from above and mirrors the planners' vision of Rio de Janeiro as a total security fortress. The following parts of the thesis aim to dismantle this vision of security by contrasting it with the mega event security operation at street level. Presenting distinct examples from the field, this work demonstrates how the fortress ambitions played out in selected spaces, thereby illustrating the fortress' permeability. Working from the perspective of a local civil police station and the lived experience of civil police Special Forces, the thesis argues that the planners' rational mega event security model did not affect the everyday conditions of Rio's urban conflict, where traditional patterns of police work still prevail. Furthermore, it reveals how everyday emotions - frustration, pleasure, and adrenaline rushes - and even Special Forces war narratives upset in practice the static and technology-based mega event security models. Finally, the present work critically examines the officially so-called material (technology, buildings, equipment) and non-material (integration concept) mega event security legacy in Rio de Janeiro. The analysis suggests that, while the event's technological legacy cannot fulfil all of the stated security ambitions, it does leave behind a long-lasting surveillance apparatus that will continue to operate in Rio de Janeiro and reproduces the social-spatial division of the city. The integration ambitions worked temporarily, but failed to materialise at street level, provoking questions as to whether these efforts will continue in the future. The security legacy that this thesis puts forth, however, is one of insecurity. While the mega event security spectacle made specific aspects of security visible, it simultaneously produced insecurity and attempted to make invisible the bloody realities of the city's public security drama. Therefore the analysis concludes that both the mega event security and the politics of public security in Rio de Janeiro make use of a security of camouflage to hide the realities of insecurity that shape the complexities of the lived experiences of police officers and marginalised populations.

The concept of the `sport business metaphor' refers to the extensive use of sport analogies in the corporate sector and represents the way in which positive attitudes to sport are embedded in corporate culture. Whilst positive perceptions of sport have permeated corporate culture in many ways and attitudes towards sport are clearly positive, the concept has never been empirically researched. The purpose of this study was to empirically research the `sport business metaphor' and provide insight into the values it embodied. The research used a mixed-methods strategy that involved three phases. The first, a systematic review, identified the skills that were perceived to be characteristic of an effective manager. The second used semi-structured interviews with sport coaches and business recruiters to ascertain whether sport was perceived to develop the skills that were identified by the systematic review. The third and final phase used the Multi- Factor Leadership Questionnaire to measure perceptions of leadership in athletes and nonathletes, and reflected findings that leadership was the skill desired most by the corporate sector in the first two phases of research. Findings indicated that the corporate sector, as reflected in the literature and interviews, perceived sport to develop the skills that they perceived as desirable. Significant differences in SELF and OTHERS ratings of perceptions of leadership in athletes and non-athletes further strengthened these findings, by reporting that athletes scored higher in all measures of transformational leadership. These results provided valuable insight into the values that the `sport business metaphor' embodied. Three models were developed as a result of research: The Developmental Exchange Model of Sport, The Model of Mental Toughness and The Sport Business Transferability Model.

The ‘power of sport’ and its efficacy in personal and social development programmes has often been taken for granted. Despite the growing number of studies which have critically questioned how sport is used in developmental contexts, there has been seemingly little focus placed upon participants’ accounts of their sport-for-development experiences. My research explores individuals’ lived experiences of sports leadership courses, and their descriptions of the social interactions and feelings they encountered, in order to address the lack of experiential data in the current sport-for-development literature. An ethnographic methodology meant that I was immersed within the field. I was positioned as a moderate participant, which enabled me to reflect on my own sports leadership experiences. Data were collected through four sports leadership course observations and cyclical interviews over 4-10 months with eleven course attendees, plus individual interviews with five tutors. I adopted a phenomenologically-inspired perspective, utilising Merleau-Ponty’s (1986) concept of the lived body to emphasise the corporeal investments involved in such physically-oriented courses. Goffman’s (1959) presentation of the self and Hochschild’s (1979) emotion management were also applied to an exploration of individuals’ investment of self during their participation. My reflections from the field highlighted the wide variety of course locations, deliveries, participants, motivations, and tutors involved in sports leadership courses. The social and embodied aspects of the courses emerge as key influences upon individuals’ experiences, with the opportunity to learn intercorporeally becoming apparent as vital to individuals’ motivations and engagements. The crucial points of connection and disconnection individuals experienced can be thus understood through their descriptions of confidence, which encapsulates their mind-body-world relationships with the course. Therefore, this study is important in understanding the role of sport in sport-for-development courses, as it discusses how the physical elements of such courses provide a chance for individuals to invest their embodied selves into a personal development opportunity.

Published works submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Sheffield Hallam University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy on the basis of published work.

The playing surface has a great influence on the outcome of a sport. It has a significant effect on the ball behaviour and the technical performance of skills of the sports participants, but it also impacts on their safety. This research is focused on the interaction of humans with natural turf pitches (NTPs). The project research integrates human body, and soil, mechanics in a laboratory environment by means of new technology and methodology to provide new understanding of this interaction. In a biomechanical study carried out using a portable pitch system, stresses and movements for nine male players performing running and turning movements on sand-based and clay-based NTPs revealed significantly greater peak vertical rate-of-loadings (dFz max ) and peak pressure rate-of-loadings (dP max ) for the sand compared to the clay-based condition. A further soil mechanical study to determine how the dynamic inputs from players affected the behaviour of those surfaces concluded that soil mechanical parameters such as moisture content and dry bulk density have a significant effect on the dynamic stiffness of the surface and that sand-based pitches have a significantly greater intrinsic stiffness than clay-based pitches explaining the observed biomechanical loading rate results. The research provides a step forward in the attempt to understand how humans interact with sports surfaces and how the surfaces respond. It highlights the importance of the elastic-plastic stress-strain behaviour of soils (or the soil-turf matrix) in response to stresses applied by humans and the difference in mechanical behaviour between sand and clay-based pitches. The findings of this research will inform sports engineers about the advantages of integrating biomechanical and soil mechanical data and lead them to ensure that surfaces that are safe to play and do not hinder the quality of the game by providing reasonable wear resistance, stiffness and traction values.

No description available.

The efficient and effective management-led implementation of change is often required for successful performance across a host of organisational domains (By, 2005; du Gay & Vikkelsø, 2012; Sorge & van Witteloostuijn, 2004). However, while a major modern-day industry, elite sport organisations have seen limited development of their change management practices; particularly those deployed in the department responsible their core product: on field performance. Reflecting growing awareness of the need for elite sport performance team managers to rapidly create and sustain high performing cultures when taking over at a new team (Cruickshank & Collins, 2012a; Fletcher & Arnold, 2011; League Managers Association, 2012; Lee, Shaw, & Chesterfield, 2009), the aim of this thesis was to therefore provide the first exploration of this specific culture change process. Accordingly, interviews were undertaken with performance team managers in professional then Olympic sport as part of a grounded theory approach for developing domain-specific models of culture change best practice. Illuminating the criticality of the manger’s initial programme integration phase, both models primarily depicted a holistic, dynamic, and 360-degree process which was rooted to the manager’s power- and political-based interactions with key internal and external stakeholders. To further understanding of these features and their effective management, a case study of a successful change programme in a professional sport performance team was undertaken. This time examining multi-stakeholder perspectives (i.e., team management, players, support staff, and CEO) through a decentred theory lens, successful change was shown to have been facilitated by the team managers’ deployment of processes which proactively encouraged a “to and fro” of social power. Additionally, and falling out from the analysed data across the grounded theory and case studies, a unique change-mechanism plus a range of novel and previously overlooked leadership styles and management skills were also found to underpin optimal change in all settings. Overall, this thesis represented a long overdue study of the challenges faced by newly appointed elite sport performance team managers and, most significantly, provided the first sports team-specific, evidence-based implications on which these may be surmounted to enable consistent success.

This thesis seeks to analyse to what extent, in what ways and with what success does the Chinese government seek to manage its interaction with sport globalisation in Olympic Movement, football and basketball? Held et al's (1999) conceptualisation of globalisation provides the major theoretical framework for the analysis. In order to analyse the behaviour of the Chinese state we adopt Houlihan's (1994) concepts of 'reach' and 'response' which focus attention on global actors and pressures external to the country and state (reach) and the capacity of states to determine their response. A set of quantitative and qualitative indicators of globalisation have been identified. Data were collected from a number of sources including official government documents, news media, and a series of 32 interviews with Chinese officials. The analysis reveals that the Chinese government has demonstrated a desire and a capacity to manage the impact of the Olympic Movement, global football and basketball on domestic sport practices; and second, the Chinese government has attempted, with reasonable success, to manage the impact of commercial interests on Chinese domestic football, basketball and other Olympic sports practices, elite athletes and professional clubs. However, a number of tensions exist: first, between the priorities of commercial clubs and national teams' development; and second, between the highly paid and internationally mobile 'star players' and the centrally controlled elite development system.

La gestion des équipements sportifs est un des piliers de la politique sportive élaborée par les élus, et ce, quelque soit la commune. La programmation, la réalisation et l’entretien d’infrastructures sportives permettent à une Direction des sports de réaliser diverses missions dans le domaine de l’éducation, l’animation sportive et le soutien aux associations dans l’organisation de manifestations sportives. Toutefois, ces initiatives publiques sont confrontées à un triptyque complexe : l’obsolescence du patrimoine sportif, l’identification des demandes sociales et les stratégies individuelles et collectives des acteurs du monde sportif.Ce champ d’étude soulève plusieurs questions : Comment concevoir une offre d’espaces sportifs pour une ville comme Rennes ? Quelles sont les logiques d’implantation du patrimoine sportif ? Quels sont les indicateurs inhérents aux pratiques sportives qu’un service des sports d’une collectivité locale doit intégrer pour concevoir une politique d'animation, de construction et de rénovation d'équipements sportifs ? L’approche sociohistorique permet d’appréhender l’articulation entre contexte local et national ainsi que les logiques de réseaux dans la prise de décision en matière de programmationd’équipements. Celle-ci s’appuie sur une étude de la construction des équipements sportifs à Rennes de la fin du 18ème siècle à nos jours. De plus, l’enquête auprès des acteurs du sport et des pratiquants à Rennes, ainsi qu’une étude comparative des méthodologies de programmation des équipements dans neuf villes de France, apportent des éléments de réponse et dessinent les perspectives en matière d’aide à la décision dans la programmation des espaces sportifs / Management of sports facilities is one of the pillars of sports policy developed by elected officials, whatever the town. Planning, implementing and maintaining sports facilities allow a Sports Departments to carry out various tasks in the field of education, sports activities and supporting associations in the organization of sport events. However these public initiatives are facing a complex triptych: the obsolescence of sporting equipment, identifying the social demand and the individual and collective strategies of the players in the sports world. This study raises several questions: How to design the right offer of sport facilities for a city like Rennes? What should be the logic behind picking location of sport equipment? What indicators are inherent to sports that sports department of a local authority must track to develop a policy for utilization, construction and renovation of sports facilities? The sociohistorical approach allows understanding the relationship between local and national context and the logic of the networks of decision making for equipment planning. It is based on a study of the construction of sports facilities in Rennes from the late 18th century to today. In addition a survey of sport stakeholders and practitioners in Rennes, and a comparative study of programming methodologies facilities in nine cities of France, provide some answers to improve decision making in regards to planning sport facilities.