This thesis explores the process of elite sport policy change in three sports (swimming, athletics and sailing/yachting) in Canada and the United Kingdom (UK). The nature of policy change is a complex and multi-faceted process and a primary aim of the study is to identify and analyse key sources of policy change in four elements of elite sport programming: i) the development of elite level facilities; ii) the emergence of 'full-time' swimmers, athletes and sailors; iii) the adoption of a more professional and scientific approach to coaching, sports science and sports medicine; and iv) competition opportunities and structures at the elite level. The study focuses on the meso-level of analysis, which centres on the structures and patterns of relationships in respect of three Canadian national sporting organisations (NSOs) and three UK national governing bodies of sport (NGBs) - representing the three sports cited above. The macro-level of analysis is also considered, where the primary concern is to analyse relations of power between governmenta nd quasi-governmentasl porting agenciesa nd the respective NSOs/NGBs. A case study approach is adopted, focusing on the six NSOs/NGBs, wherein a qualitative methodology is utilised in order to elicit data in respect of policy change in the four key elements of elite sport programming set out above. Within the case study approach, the advocacy coalition framework has proved useful in drawing attention to the notion of changing values and belief systems as a key source of policy change, as well as highlighting the need to take into account factors external to the policy subsystem under investigation. In Canada, it is evident that the preoccupation with high performance sport over the past 30 years, at federal government level, has perceptibly altered over the past two to three years. In contrast, in the UK, from the mid-1990s onwards, there has been a noticeable shift towards supporting elite sport objectives from both Conservative and Labour administrations. The study concludes that it is only by exploring specific sports through a comparative-analytic framework that a better understanding of policy change, within the complex and multi-layered sport policy process, might be achieved.

The requirements placed on Olympic and professional athletes in contemporary world sport are such that they need to dedicate themselves more and more to achieving excellence. This immediately implies that most athletes' time is dedicated to developing their sporting career, with very little time left to develop other aspects of their lives outside their sport. The reality facing many elite athletes is that few are sufficiently financially rewarded to allow them to make a living out of their sport, and even fewer can rely on measures in place in their own country to assist with the financial and psychological impacts of their retirement from sport (Stambulova, Stephan, & Japhag, . 2007). This places even more importance on the need for the athlete to either have a 'dual career' or else to prepare for a post-athletic career while still participating in elite sport. However, though policy makers have begun to demonstrate an awareness of these needs, and programmes have been developed to assist in the educational and vocational development of athletes, little effort has been made to identify how athletes perceive the choices which face them and how they negotiate a way through the challenges of developing and maintaining a dual career. To redress this, a life story approach has been adopted during this research study to try to elicit student-athletes' own life experiences and to identify and evaluate the decision-making processes they go through, in order to combine an academic and elite sporting career successfully. The athletes selected for the development of life-stories are drawn from three countries, Finland, France and the UK which reflect different approaches to state intervention in sport/education (Amara, Aquilina, Henry, & Taylor, 2004). Crucial to an evaluation of these national systems is an understanding of what these policy systems are seeking to achieve. This may be expressed in terms of a balance between the roles; rights and responsibilities of the main stakeholders (including the athlete, the university, the Member State and the European Union) which are articulated within the study. This research study therefore seeks to develop an understanding of the perspectives on student-athletes' development in academic and sporting terms, identifying the principal challenges faced and how these may be overcome, and considers the implications of such insights for practitioners and policy makers.

This thesis explores the significance of hosting the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games (OGs) on elite sport and sport for all development in China. The impacts of the OGs have received significant attention from both academics and practitioners worldwide in the last 20 years and attention has been predominantly paid to political, cultural, economic, and environmental impacts of hosting them, especially as these emerge after the event. However, little concern was given to changes in the host country s sport development that are due to games related preparations. This study identifies the characteristics of the sport system, the policy actors, and how such actors were involved in preparations for the 2008 OGs, and it also outlines the development of policy concerning elite sport and sport for all. A case study approach was adopted focusing on the 2008 OGs. Adopting a qualitative methodology, the study utilised document analysis and semi-structured interviews to elicit data regarding the significance of preparations for the 2008 OGs on elite sport and sport for all. Globalisation, governance and policy making were found to be useful lenses through which to explore the processes of the emergence of such impacts. This thesis found that central government and the General Administration of Sport (GAOS) were the two most powerful policy actors in both elite sport and sport for all development in China, and made decisions as regards how to develop China s sport taking the opportunities of hosting the 2008 OGs. The research reveals that preparations for the 2008 OGs have various impacts on the elite sport and sport for all sectors. On one hand, the impacts can be witnessed in increased funding, more attention received from central government and GAOS, more sport policies, increased number of sport venues, new and updated facilities and equipment, technological, scientific and medical support, and increased sport participation; on the other hand, through providing such support, GAOS exerted its control over non-governmental organisations and individuals, such as via the restrictions by GAOS on athletes commercial activities, and national competitions. The research found evidence that globalisation had influenced China s general governance (including sport governance) process since the 1970s, with governance becoming more privatised and decentralised. However, sport governance took a different path after China won the bid in 2001. Against the backdrop of decentralisation having been previously officially adopted for Chinese sport governance, the research revealed that in pursuit of the aim of winning more medals in the 2008 OGs temporarily recentralisation occurred as required by central government and GAOS. The research also revealed that increased numbers of policies were produced to develop both elite sport and sport for all, however the interests of the public had not always been satisfied because of China's closed policy making process. Therefore, some impacts had not turned out as expected for the public.

Women’s involvement in sport has remained a critical issue in society for several decades. Sex verification and drug testing are two methods that have been used to regulate women’s eligibility to compete in international sports competitions based on their testosterone levels. Organizations such as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) have published and updated policies and rules that set eligibility criteria for who can compete in women’s sport and under what conditions. However, the academic literature addressing Chinese women’s perspectives on international sex verification and drug testing policies available in English is extremely limited. This study investigates how recent policy revisions regarding doping and sex eligibility rules impact women student- athletes competing in track and field at the university level in China. Using qualitative research methods, this thesis analyzes the impact of recent doping and gender policies on a sample of Chinese female student-athletes. / October 2015

This dissertation brings an interdisciplinary methodology to bear on the rhetorical analysis of women's sport and health social movements in the twenty-first century. Specifically, I read "sports feminism" as a rhetorical discourse that engages ongoing feminist struggles for women's rights to both their bodies and public space. Drawing on transnational feminist rhetorics, I network sports feminist arguments to international policy documents, like the Brighton and Beijing Declarations, to illustrate how the topoi of sport, health, and fitness function as commonplaces in global gender mainstreaming policy. In applying the metaphor of the network to the communicative infrastructure of global sports feminist advocacy, I also draw on new media rhetorics to analyze the role of the wireless Internet and social networking in the rhetorical practice of networking sports feminist policy and arguments across transnational lines of difference. Yet, in reading the rhetorical practices of the Women's International Sports Movement and Nike's Girl Effect through transnational feminist rhetoric, I illustrate how sports feminism is neither a homogenous discourse nor singular feminist identity, and thus, must be analyzed as a pluralistic political praxis with competing rhetorical objectives and audiences. Thus, the final chapter situates sports feminist rhetoric locally in the context of US-based girl power media culture, analyzing the impact of sports feminist rhetoric on the embodied perceptions of gender and gender relations of adolescent American girls. The project thus demonstrates the importance of understanding sports feminist rhetoric's global sociopolitical and economic roles and its impact on gendered identity and labor in the twenty-first century.

The aim of this study was to establish whether there is a policy community for disability sport in England. Whilst structured competitive disability sport may traditionally have been organised and run by charitable bodies, segregated from mainstream non-disabled sport, contemporary policies stress a need for disability sport to be the responsibility of mainstream organisations. However, there is a dearth of literature that considers how disability sport policy has developed, which agencies have been powerful in the organisational network, and the significance of the values of key actors in the policy process and outcome. This study; a) establishes the key characteristics of disability sport policy in England, and b) establishes the interests, resources, power and relationships between organisations involved in disability sport and determines the ideologies of key actors involved in disability sport policy. Data is generated in three phases using an analysis of policy documents, a survey of 162 sports organisations and 21 interviews with key personnel. In Phase I semi-structured interviews with key personnel combined with documentary analysis were used to establish how disability sport emerged and developed. Informed by the data from Phase 1, in Phase 2a survey of governing bodies of sport and disability sport organisations was conducted to establish which national organisations are involved in the policy network, how disability sport policy is formed, the role organisations play and ideologies of key actors. In Phase 3, informed by the data from Phases I and 2 and using interviews and documentary analysis, two case studies were carried out to examine, 1) the formation and role of the English Federation of Disability Sport, and 2) the mainstreaming of disability sport. The analysis of data is informed by theories of disability, a history of disability policy and sports policy, and three prominent theories of policy analysis: Marsha and Rhodes' policy network model, Sabatier's advocacy coalition framework and Kingdon's policy streams approach. (Continues...).

This thesis seeks to analyse the policy making and policy implementation processes of elite sport in China and the UK, covering the period 1992-2012. Three sports are selected for detailed cases studies: artistic gymnastics, swimming and cycling. They represent a wide range of sports in two countries, based on their varying competiveness, weights and traditions. Key areas including organisational structure, financial support, talent identification and athlete development, coaching, training, competition opportunities, scientific research and others (including international influence and other sport- and country-specific areas) are identified to organise the discussion. The aim is not only to present key characteristics of the development of each sport in China and the UK respectively and to introduce the successful experience and problems but also to form a basis for the discussion of policy making, policy implementation and policy changes.

The study of sport initiations is in its infancy. So far, the North American-centric research has focussed on ‘exposing and condemning’ morally unacceptable initiation activities, which are referred to as hazing. Hazing moral panics in North America has resulted in universities utilising sport initiation empirical research to construct anti-hazing policies; policies proven to be ineffective in banning sport initiations. The purpose of this research is to address some of the gaps in the knowledge of sport initiations. A two stage ethnographic research approach was utilised to collect information on British university sport initiations. An international student embedded himself as a student-athlete within a British university to learn the cultural meanings of a foreign sport culture and to possess an emic perspective. Semi-structured interviews were then conducted with key policy actors possessing differing organisational cultural perspectives (differentiational and fragmentational), specifically university staff and sport - rugby union, football, and track and field - club members from multiple higher education institutions. The researcher’s ethnographic confessional tale of his experience as a self-funded international student is combined with the data from interviewee participants to construct British university sport initiations as a resistance research topic.

The purpose of this dissertation was to understand how Canadian sport system stakeholders select the international youth events in which athletes will take part. The first part looked at the policies and processes consistent among all national sport organizations (NSOs) using a policy-based approach. The second part focused on how NSOs responded to these demands in conjunction with pressures stemming from their specific sport communities and stakeholders, and analyzed the NSOs’ governance structures and processes in doing so. A conceptual framework composed of the governance, stakeholder theory and policy diffusion literatures guided the study and a qualitative methodology was used. Sport Canada and Own the Podium (OTP) played a steering role within the event selection process. NSOs faced numerous pressures such as learning, coercion, imitation, and competition, which they responded to by creating policies and processes for their organization and through selecting events for their athletes that best responded to these pressures. The final findings found the policies and processes were created using a network governance approach, taking into consideration NSOs’ sport-specific needs, which included, but were not limited to, the NSO’s organizational capacity, the number of athletes competing in the sport, and the depth and field of competition within Canada. Two key concepts outlined as best practices among successful NSOs and as an area for improvement for the Canadian sport system overall were alignment and communication.

In 2007 the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) was reformed by the introduction of the so-called trio Presidency . The trio mechanism encourages policy continuity by grouping incumbent Presidencies in teams of three and inviting them to coordinate. This thesis seeks to contribute original knowledge on EU policy-making by mapping how trio practices are established, exploring which factors explain how Member States coordinate, and by assessing how the trio arrangement affects the EU agenda. Empirically, the trio function is examined through its implementation in the policy area of sport, focusing on the three trios to assume office after the coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009. The analysis is structured around a number of carefully selected dossiers adopted between 2010 and 2013. Guided by a conceptual framework based on agenda-setting and new institutionalism, these decisions are submitted to in depth process-tracing. The analysis draws on qualitative research, primarily official documents and 37 semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal that actors approach the trio with differing preferences and expectations, leading to much variation in how the arrangement is performed. The thesis identifies a number of factors that explain variation. Thus, a fixed agenda supports trios in coordinating priorities and activities ex ante. Moreover, coordination is conditioned by trio composition, as federal and new Member States are more inclined to cooperate. Further, trio practices are shaped by factors such as multiannual planning and focusing events, with the intenseness of trio coordination reflecting whether the agenda includes issues that demand sustained attention. The thesis concludes that the introduction of the trio mechanism has preserved the ability of Member States to use the Council Presidency to prioritise national priorities whilst also encouraging and facilitating EU policy continuity. By extending agenda-management beyond a six month spell, the trio can strengthen the agenda-setting powers of incumbent Member States, particularly on issues that concern establishing urgent responses or developing Council procedures. Moreover, evidence suggests that the arrangement can produce a specific spirit of collegiality, trio solidarity, which sees trio Member States support each other during negotiations, thus affecting EU policy-making beyond agenda-management.