The aim of this thesis is to examine the extent to which selected aspects of sport policy in Japan and also UK/England are influenced by international forces. The objectives which underpin the research aim are to analyse the characteristics of the domestic policy areas and identify the varying degree of impact of external influences on domestic sport policy. The thesis examines the interactions between domestic and international factors that shape elite sport policy and anti-doping policy and seeks to identify how domestic institutional values and ideas have been shaped by global influences. Importantly, by analysing the nature and mechanisms of global influence that are manifest at the domestic level, it is intended to identify varying degree of impact external to national policy. To achieve the above objectives, a qualitative methodology and related documentary research methods are adopted in the empirical investigations. Policy document analysis and semi-structured interviews are employed. The cases of UK (or England where appropriate) are introduced in order to generate a deeper understanding of the development of Japanese elite sport and anti-doping policy. The thesis draws on a range of theoretical frameworks, including international relations theory, international regime theory and globalisation, to analyse the empirical data. By adopting these theoretical frameworks, it is aimed to identify the possible characteristics of international policy regimes in the policy areas of elite sport and anti-doping.

Artificial surfaces are increasingly more common in a number of sports including football, rugby and hockey. Each specific sport has mechanical properties designed to suit the requirements of the sport which can be achieved through appropriate selection of surface specification, as well as the appropriate selection of footwear. In player-surface interactions, traction is a key system property that needs to be measured for comfort, performance and any potential injury risk. Many of the current industry tests used to measure traction are simplistic and have limitations when used in tests. The aim of the thesis was to make a contribution to knowledge with regard to the mobilisation of traction and apply this to the understanding of shoe-surface interactions. This was achieved by completing a number of objectives. These included reviewing current knowledge of player-surface interaction behaviour in relation to traction and obtaining relevant human boundary conditions for biofidelic mechanical test development. The mechanisms of traction were then investigated and the variables in the mobilisation of traction identified. The traction forces developed were quantified with appropriate measurement systems. Mechanical test equipment was then developed along with protocols to replicate the translational and rotational lower limb behaviour during sport specific behaviour. This included the standard FIFA rotational device being modified to include two sensors which record continuous data throughout a trial to allow for more than a peak torque value to be analysed. In addition, a piece of equipment to measure translational traction was developed and constructed to support the rotational traction device and help to understand the mobilisation of traction. The device pulled a tray containing a surface sample, with a shoe/plate placed on the sample. The horizontal force was measured, as well as the amount of stud penetration into the surface. It was also necessary to characterise the state of the surface and the effects that any changes may have on the traction that is mobilised. Testing completed involved repeated testing on both the rotational and translational to allow for comparison. Changes in the surface properties were made such as the number of fibres in a set area and the rubber infill density as well as shoe properties such as stud spacing, stud type and number of studs. In the results, the initial stiffness response of the surface was often focussed on as it was stated that this may be a better indicator of the mechanisms involved in the traction mobilised by subjects, compared to peak torque. This is due to actual foot rotation measured in subject testing being observed to be much smaller than the rotation/distance required to produce the peak force. The larger angles/displacements were also considered to help inform the mechanisms of traction. The final objective was to refine the mechanisms based on the experimental design. This all adds to the contribution of knowledge regarding the mobilisation of traction. A key outcome from the thesis is the effect the surface and shoe properties have on traction, therefore it is essential to state the specification when reporting results otherwise comparisons are not able to be made. The mechanism of traction has not previously been fully understood, with this thesis beginning to understand the details of how the change in surface or shoe properties affect how the surface reacts during shoe-surface interactions.

This research study investigated intangible assets generated by sport event hosting, specifically in relation to those industries that could influence the planning and leveraging of this alternate value source at Rugby World Cup (RWC) 2015 host destinations. The industries under scrutiny were sport, public sector and tourism, and the sampled host destinations were Cardiff, Exeter, Brighton and Gloucester. The objectives of this thesis were threefold: (1) to respond to the lack of knowledge around the collaborative roles of sport, public sector and tourism organisations in sport event planning, (2) to pioneer representational capital, a concept that looks to examine the input of those pinpointed planners in the identification and valuation of intangible opportunities generated by hosting RWC 2015 fixtures, (3) to probe planning discourse for examples of leveraging representational capital. Expert opinions were captured from executive-level RWC 2015 planners, and supported by secondary data analysis. The findings showed that public sector and sport organisation planning representatives were key RWC 2015 planners and that tourism planners, at a destination level, were not key collaborators in central planning forums, but collaborated extensively with national and international tourism organisations on RWC 2015 planning matters. Additionally, the analysis uncovered that representational capital was predominantly made-up of three key intangible asset areas: destination image, exposure and reputation. Indeed, these intangible areas were recognised and valued by all three industries, but the data analysis indicated that the levels of collaboration between the sampled planning industries did not translate into collectively leveraging representational capital. Moreover, one of the main breakthroughs from this investigation was identifying the interconnected nature of a range of intangible assets in generating greater value, i.e. increasing representational capital available to planners. Representational capital was found to have a strong connection throughout the leveraging process, in terms of the maximisation strategy and planned outputs in RWC 2015 planning, further supporting the study project objective of investigating the intangible in relation to sport events.

The concept of ignorance has been unfairly stigmatised in research and practice, and consequently has not received the attention it deserves as a powerful motivator of behaviour in organisations. To understand the role of ignorance, it must be examined as a productive force rather than a shameful weakness, an achievement instead of a failure. This thesis develops an understanding of how ignorance is achieved and why it is perpetuated in the context of managing the Olympic and Commonwealth Games, a series of worldwide mega-events that are popular with proponents of urban development, but which have experienced persistent organisational problems in the form of cost overruns, schedule delays, and scope creep. To do so, this research draws on literature about ignorance from the disciplines of philosophy, anthropology, sociology, and organisational theory, to motivate an embedded case study of Games Organising Committees (OCs) in six host cities around the world. These OCs, which were actively planning the Games during the research, are studied through qualitative research, to develop a dynamic understanding of the role of ignorance in planning the Games. The findings and analysis are presented from two perspectives: the structure of the ‘Games system’ and of the OC; and, the substance of Games planning in the areas of cost, time and scope. While other studies have focused on ignorance as necessary, strategic, and inadvertent, the original contribution to knowledge of this thesis is the proposal of a theoretical framework that focuses on the functional and detrimental outcomes of ignorance. This framework is also shown to be useful in understanding why ignorance persists between organisations, and suggests three basic principles for further research: ignorance as a productive force in management; structure as a scaffold for ignorance; and budget, time and scope as catalysts for ignorance.

Le concept de Responsabilité Sociale de l’Entreprise (RSE), développé à travers la seconde moitié du 20ème siècle aux Etats-Unis, constitue l’application des principes du développement durable dans les entreprises. Autrefois réservée au secteur des multinationales, la RSE s’étend à de nombreux types d’organisations dont les clubs sportifs professionnels français. L’objet de cette recherche est de montrer, dans la lignée des travaux néo-institutionnels sociologiques appliqués en sciences de gestion, que l’exercice de la RSE dans ces organisations répond avant tout à des objectifs de légitimation visant à faire conformer leurs activités aux attentes des parties prenantes de leurs environnements. En proposant un cadre d’analyse et en l’appliquant à quatre études de cas (Elan Chalon, Asvel, AJ Auxerre et Olympique Lyonnais), différents comportements en matière de RSE sont mis en évidence. Les résultats de cette recherche montrent que les pratiques en la matière revêtent avant tout un caractère cosmétique marqué par une faible intégration de la RSE à la stratégie globale des clubs. Dans une approche normative, des préconisations sont établies afin de dégager des perspectives de développement de la question de la RSE au sein de ces organisations. / The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), developed in the US throughout the second half part of the 20th century, is the application of the principles of sustainable development in businesses. Formerly used by the multinational sector only, the concept of CSR has spread nowadays over a large kind of organizations including French professional sports clubs. The purpose of this research is to show, in the continuity of neoinstitutionnalism, that CSR practices in these organizations are primarily answering to goals of legitimating, aiming to make their activities viable towards the expectations of their environment stakeholders. Suggesting a framework, and applying it to four case studies (Elan Chalon, Asvel, AJ Auxerre and Olympique Lyonnais), different CSR behaviours are highlighted. The results of this research stress that CSR practices firstly hold a “cosmetic” nature, in which CSR is not well integrated in the clubs’ global strategies. In a normative approach, numerous prescriptions are established to underline future prospects on the matter of CSR in these organizations.

Le Liban est l'un des pays les plus petits de la région. Le système politique multi confessionnel constitue la marque principale de la société libanaise. En fait, cette spécificité intervient dans tous les aspects de la société, y compris le secteur sportif. Suite à la guerre civile qui a éclaté dans le pays de 1975 jusqu'à 1990, cette distribution religieuse, et les communautés qui en résultent, sur une surface géographique restreinte, ont rapidement conduit à penser la nécessité d'avoir un gouvernement qui puisse établir une « harmonie nécessaire » entre les 18 différents groupes religieux qui sont représentées dans la majorité des partis politiques de l'après Taëf. Ce projet de thèse tend à examiner plutôt le sens «politics» dans le sport libanais ou plutôt de la «politisation du sport» (politics) au Liban et comment cette implication politique se répercutera sur l'essor sportif au Liban. A travers une méthodologie qualitative à type de Participation Observante, nous avons profité du fait de notre appartenance politique au parti AMAL pour examiner de près les différents acteurs de la vie sportive au Liban, en commençant par la structure légale des instances sportives telles qu'elles figurent dans les textes officiels. La constitution du corpus de connaissance sur lequel portera l'analyse fut des plus compliquée vu qu'il a été nécessaire de faire usage de mon appartenance politique afin d'accéder a posteriori, à certaines sources d'information. L'analyse inductive a permis de décomposer la manipulation qu'exercent les politiciens sur le sport au Liban, dont l'essor devient totalement dépendant des agendas des partis politiques / Lebanon is the smallest country in the Middle-East characterized by its multi confessional political system. This system impacts all the aspects of social activities including sports. After the eruption of the civil war from 1975 until 1990, the existence of multiple religious communities on a limited geographical area, led to rethink their redistribution within the Lebanese government in order to ensure equity between 18 different religious groups that represent the majority of political parties during the post Taef era. This PhD project aims to examine the essence of "political use of sports" within the Lebanese sport sector or the "politicization of sport" (politics) in Lebanon and how political involvement will affect sport activities in Lebanon. Through a qualitative methodological design more specifically a Participant Observation study, I took advantage of my political affiliation to AMAL party to examine closely the various actors in the Lebanese sport sector. The study began by examining the overall structure of Sports in Lebanon starting at it emergence in official texts mainly in the Lebanese constitution. Afterwards, I gathered a body of literature by the means of my political resources in order to analyze a posteriori the relevant information. Inductive analysis was used to extract chore meanings related to politicization of sport and to highlight political manipulation of sports in Lebanon. Growth of certain sport disciplines became sometimes totally dependent on political parties’ agendas

Dans le contexte d’un renouvellement des formes de gouvernance locale, nous assistons depuis quelques années à des expériences de débat participatif dont le sport est l’objet. Contribuant à un rapprochement à la fois spatial et affectif, ces dispositifs de démocratie participative entendent rénover une démocratie représentative qui serait en crise. A Strasbourg, alors que la démocratie locale s’instaure comme un nouvel outil de l’action publique, le nouveau pouvoir municipal en place depuis 2008 organise les Etats Généraux du Sport (EGS) et engage une dynamique innovante de démocratie par et dans le sport. Issue d’une observation participante et d’une série d’entretiens, cette recherche propose une analyse interne tant du dispositif participatif local visant une nouvelle politique sportive municipale que des caractéristiques des acteurs engagés dans le jeu de la concertation. Elle met en lumière les enjeux sociopolitiques sous-Jacents et invite à mieux comprendre la stratégie des élus dans la conception du débat public et dans la mise en scène de la voix des habitants intéressés par la question sportive. Dynamiques descendantes - au profit des élus - et dynamiques ascendantes - à travers la reconnaissance d’une expertise citoyenne- se conjuguent pour faire émerger un jeu participatif local particulier au carrefour de diverses logiques. / In relation to the renewal of local governance procedure, some participative debates on sport issues have taken place over the past few years. By reducing the gap between citizens and representatives spatially and emotionally, this participative democracy actions has targeted to upgrade a representative democracy that is said to be in crisis. In Strasbourg, while local democracy was increasingly more shown as a new tool for public action, the new municipal council elected in 2008 staged the “Etat Généraux du Sport (EGS)”. Therefore, it started an innovative dynamics of democracy in the sport. Based on a participative observation and a range of interviews, this research work analyses not only the local participative plans aimed at creating a new municipal sport policy but also the characteristics of the actors involved in the consultation processes. It highlights social and political issues and enables to better understand elected members’ strategy in public debates and how they manage the voice of the citizens’ who have an interest in sport issues. Top down democracy – towards elected members – and bottom up democracy– through the acknowledgment of civic expertise – are combined in order to define the participative local setup which gathers several logics.

À la fin des années 2000, de nombreuses fédérations sportives traditionnelles se structurent pour organiser une pratique à destination des personnes handicapées. Des transformations des organisations sportives internationales et locales favorisent cette nouvelle forme d'action fédérale. Au niveau national, des politiques publiques incitent également ces fédérations à un plus grand investissement auprès des populations handicapées. Toutefois, l'action fédérale envers les personnes handicapées doit aussi être comprise à travers l'engagement d'acteurs particuliers. L'analyse de sept fédérations, en tant qu'institutions, démontre alors la construction d'une nouvelle catégorie d'acteurs souvent identifiés comme référents handicaps et pouvant être caractérisés d'entrepreneurs. Ces acteurs, soutenus par leurs dirigeants, investissent l'organisation de la pratique des personnes handicapées et rallient un nombre important d'acteurs fédéraux pour développer les projets. La mise en évidence des compétences sociales de ces entrepreneurs est également possible à travers l'analyse d'un travail de coopération avec des acteurs extérieurs à la fédération. L'étude des relations avec les fédérations spécifiques ou avec le ministère des sports, notamment par l'intermédiaire du pôle ressources national sport et handicaps, met alors en exergue des luttes pour la manière d'organiser la pratique des personnes handicapées. Ces luttes renforcent la visibilité et le positionnement des différents acteurs impliqués dans les processus d'engagements fédéraux. Elles permettent aussi la caractérisation d'un espace national « sports et handicaps » en pleine recomposition face à l'enjeu de l'intégration des personnes handicapées au sein du monde sportif. / In the late 2000s, many mainstream sports federations are structured to organize a way of practicing sports for people with disabilities. International and local transformations promote this new form of federal action. The transformation of international and local sports organizations promotes this new form of federal action. On a national level, public policies also encourage the federations to be more invested with people with disabilities. However, the federal action organized for people with disabilities must also be understood through the commitment of individual actors. The analysis of seven federations, as institutions, demonstrates the construction of a new category of actors, often identified as 'disability referents' and that can be characterized as entrepreneurs within their federation. These actors, supported by their leaders, invest the organization of with the practice of sports by disabled people and rally a large number of federal actors to develop the projects. Highlighting these entrepreneurs’ social skills is also possible through the analysis of cooperation with actors outside the federation. The study of these relationships with specific federations or with the Ministry of Sports, especially through the “pôle ressources national sport et handicaps”, highlights struggles about how to organize the practice of sports by disabled people. These struggles reinforce the visibility and positioning of the actors involved in the process of federal commitments. They also allow the characterization of a national "sports and disabilities" space in full recombining in front of the challenge of integrating people with disabilities in the sports world.

La présente thèse analyse en profondeur le rôle de l’État et l’implication des acteurs politiques dans l’espace sportif gabonais. Elle étend son investigation dans le domaine des pratiques corporelles traditionnelles au Gabon. Cette recherche théorise un processus par lequel des acteurs construisent leur légitimité. Ce processus qui guide la problématique générale de ce travail est nommé théâdonlégitimation. Il permet de mettre un accent particulier sur la dimension de théâtralité des acteurs (Balandier), la logique du don (Mauss) et les différentes formes de légitimités (Weber) qui en découlent. C’est donc une thèse socioanthropologique qui s’appuie sur une forte dimension historique pour faire ressortir les logiques d’acteurs et les rapports de pouvoirs qui s’exercent dans l’espace sportif et politique gabonais. Le corpus utilisé s’appuie sur une analyse documentaire très importante (coupure de presse, d’archives et photographies), des entretiens avec plusieurs types d'acteurs de l’espace sportif et d’une longue « participation observante » au Gabon. Elle se base sur une démarche à la fois inductive et déductive qui fait ressortir les différents types d’instrumentalisations du sport et des pratiques corporelles traditionnelles développées par tous les acteurs de l’espace sportif gabonais (instrumentalisation réciproque). De plus, elle présente les différentes stratégies de légitimation développées par chaque acteur à partir du processus de théâdonlégitimation par le sport et les pratiques corporelles traditionnelles qui se manifestent davantage par l’organisation de manifestations sportives et culturelles où les acteurs se mettent en scène par des politiques de don afin de se légitimer sur un espace donné. / This Phd thesis analyzes in detail the role of the Gabonese government and the implication of political players in the Gabonese sport environment. Its inquiry is then extended to the field of traditional Gabonese body practice. This research theorize a process the allow the different political player to create and reinforce their political legitimacy. It is this process that serve as a key thread which guide the main question of the work. It allows us to focus in an unique way of the Maussian gift logic, the weberian form legitimacy and the balandirian concept of theatricality which come from it. Therefore this is main field of this thesis is socio-anthropology but an historical aspect is used in order to understand and analyze the interaction and the power relationship that occure in the Gabonese poilitical and sporting environement. The data gathered are composed of picture, newspaper clipping , photo and historical archive. Many interview were also made with various representative of the Gabonese sporting field , there was also a long period of “participant observation” in the country. Its objectif was the traditional sporting and corporal activity in order to give a new insight on the way that they are used from a political perspective in the Gabonese systeme. The method of investigation was a mix between the inductive and deductive method. It show how the “théâdonlégitimatio” use sport and tractional physical activity by political player in order to increase theire legitimacy and popularity.

Cette thèse évalue et explique l’impact économique des nouveaux stades sur l’écosystème d’affaires du football professionnel français. Entre 2008 et 2016, 13 nouvelles enceintes ont été créées ou ont été rénovées. L’objectif visé par ce programme est de permettre l’évolution des modèles de revenus des clubs, et en parallèle la baisse des subventions publiques qui leur sont versées. Ce modèle avait été observé en Allemagne à la suite d’un programme similaire réalisé entre 2001 et 2006. Dans un premier temps, à partir de ces ambitions, les indicateurs utilisés pour effectuer une analyse comparée France-Allemagne, montrent que les résultats économiques attendus sont éloignés des espérances. Dans le but d’identifier les liens de causalité entre les objectifs ex ante et les résultats ex post, une analyse des modalités de programmation et d’exploitation de la ressource stade est réalisée à l’aide de 7 monographies. Cette recherche inductive fait émerger des limites structurelles, financières et organisationnelles importantes, générées par les logiques d’acteurs de ces projets. Il apparaît en effet, par faute de leader, que les collectivités territoriales, les clubs et les sociétés privées du bâtiment n’ont pas su enclencher le processus de coévolution nécessaire à la bonne programmation de ces « outils de production ». Il est ainsi montré comment l’alchimie de la compétence joue un rôle central dans la création d’une nouvelle ressource. Outre le savoir et le savoir-faire, la volonté d’action, de partage, définis quant à eux par la notion de « savoir-être », éclairent les logiques initiales d’acteurs et expliquent l’impact final de la politique publique de rénovation des stades en France. Ainsi, grâce à ce cas spécifique, la recherche enrichit les travaux en management du sport portant sur la compréhension des performances économiques d’une organisation sportive, à travers l’analyse de ses actifs et son business model. Dans une logique de new public management, elle évalue la pertinence et l’efficience d’un programme de rénovation qui a mobilisé plus de 2 milliards d’euros de fonds publics. Enfin, dans une logique d’apprentissage et d’évolution ces travaux se concluent par des préconisations managériales. / This thesis assesses and explains the economical impact of new stadiums on the business ecosystem of French professional football. From 2008 to 2016, 13 new venues were built or renovated. The aim of this program is to enable the evolution of club revenue models, and, in parallel, the decline of the public subsidies paid to them. This model was witnessed in Germany following a similar program carried out between 2001 and 2006. Firstly, from these aspirations, the indicators used to perform a comparative analysis France-Germany, show that the expected economical results are far from expectations. In order to identify the causal links between ex ante objectives and ex post results, an analysis of the programming and exploitation modalities of the stadium resource is crafted using 7 monographs. This inductive search reveals important structural, financial and organizational limits, generated by the logics of these projects' actors. It appears, by absence of leader, that local communities, clubs and private building companies have failed to initiate the process of coevolution needed for the correct programming of these "tools of production". It therefore demonstrates how an alchemy of competence plays a central role in the creation of a new resource. In addition tothe knowledge and the « know-how », the will for action and sharing, defined by the notion of soft skills or « know-how-towbe », clarifies the initial logics of actors and explains the finalimpact of the stadiums' renovation's public policy in France. Thus, thanks to this specific case, the research enriches works in sports management dealing with the understanding of economic performance of a sports organization, through its assets and business model. Following a logic of new public management, it evaluates the relevance and efficiency of a renovation program that has mobilized more than 2 billion euros of public funds. Finally, following a logic of learning and evolution, this work eventually leads to managerial recommendations.