M.A. / A linear managerialist paradigm is considered normative in the planning, implementation and evaluation of development through sport initiatives. Such an approach is also assumed in an audit culture that has a clear bias for quantitative indicators that measure pre-set outputs and outcomes. The global popularity of using sport, especially football, as a development tool is being confronted with an uncompromising evidence burden, expecting rigid justification for money spent effectively. This approach is epitomised by techniques such as logical frameworks, which in turn make epistemological and ontological assumptions that are often in conflict with the local paradigms of recipients. What effect does this normative approach have on localised initiatives? A grassroots organisation (GRO) in central Mozambique instinctively employs a strategy of contestations and compromises to ensure that the people benefit from the ‘sport and dev’ industry, while maintaining their dignity. The history of Mozambique coupled with radically distinct contexts lead to donors and recipients collaborating without the ideals of equality, partnerships, transparency and participation being realised. Local beneficiaries start to play subversive games once they sense that they cannot change the donors’ offending impositions. A case study in central Mozambique, reinforcing the work of critical scholars, points to a recognition of unequal power relations as the first step out of the current impasse. An ethnographic approach reveals the complexity of inter-personal relationships, multiplicity of stakeholders and how a simple concept such as friendship can redefine power relations. The sustainability of the specific development through a football programme seems to hinge on the quality of friendship between all the actors that make up an unarticulated network, governed by unspoken rules.

In this study, I critically analyse two grassroots organisations in rural Aragón (Spain) that oppose renewable energy projects proposed for their communities. Named after their respective regions, the groups La Fueva no se Vende and La Ribagorza no se Vende demand that those in power consider the impacts on rural communities, the natural environment and tourism before installing solar farms. The groups argue that the green projects focus too much on creating profit for a few large companies, rather than creating truly sustainable systems. Through semi-structured group interviews, I examine the motivations for their resistance processes, the challenges they face, and how they used communication and community engagement practices to overcome them. The findings are then analysed with a mainly Gramscian framework to advance the understanding of rural development issues in the green energy transition.