Highland games play a unique cultural role in Scotland, as a platform for indigenous sporting competition, traditional music and dance. There has been very little academic attention paid to Highland games and this is a first attempt to capture a detailed account of multiple events across Scotland. Organised by volunteers and operating the events on a not-for-profit basis, the majority of Highland games are self-sustaining, relying on the ingenuity and commitment of committee members. The political forces in Scotland do not appear to acknowledge or understand the importance of Highland games to communities; or the social, cultural and economic benefits they create, whilst contributing substantially to Scotland’s event and tourism industries. Key themes within the research objectives are volunteer organisers, sport, events, tourism and culture with social capital theory underpinning the study. The study adopts a mixed methods approach with three phases of data collection. An initial search identified 95 Highland games in Scotland which provided the context and knowledge base from 50 returned surveys. A second survey was conducted with audience members (n=1316) with the third data set collected from interviews with organisers and experts (n=16). The results reveal that Highland games operate in a very fragile financial environment with little support from central government or national tourism and event organisations. The events are well supported by domestic, UK and international visitors and tourists appealing to all age groups, encompassing family and adult social groups while transcending social and cultural diversity. There is evidence of repeat visitation by audience members and competitors to single and multiple events, furthermore, the evidence of bonding and bridging social capital is conclusive within the organising groups and spectators. This study confirms that Highland games collectively contribute to event tourism bringing social and economic benefits to Scotland and could be a key feature of Scotland’s international event and tourism strategies.

Le Sens Communautaire est important pour le bien-être et le développement social positif des adolescents (Pretty, 2002 ; Cicognani et al., 2006; 2012). Cependant, peu d'études ont fourni des informations significatives sur les mécanismes qui peuvent conduire à la construction d'une communauté dans le sport (Warner, 2011). L'objectif de cette thèse est de contribuer à la définition d'une communauté sportive, en examinant les mécanismes sous-jacents à la formation d'un Sens Communautaire dans des contextes sportifs à l'adolescence. Pour cela, un premier chapitre présente une revue de littérature sur le Sens Communautaire et un deuxième chapitre examine la littérature sur le sens communautaire sportif, et la participation sportive à l'adolescence. Par la suite deux axes de recherches sont proposés. Le premier axe comprend deux études qualitatives. Les résultats de ces études ont révélé que la communauté sportive comprend en particulier, les parents, l'entraineur et les pairs sportifs. Il émerge une difficulté pour ces jeunes athlètes à maintenir des relations avec des pairs non sportifs. Le deuxième axe comprend deux études quantitatives. La première étude a porté sur la validation du questionnaire du Sens Communautaire Sportif à l'Adolescence (SCSA), en langue française et italienne. La seconde étude a porté sur la compréhension des processus de ce SCSA en mettant en évidence ses relations avec le climat perçu des parents, de l'entraineur, des pairs non-sportifs, et de l'engagement sportif. Les résultats ont montré qu'à l'adolescence, le SCSA influence de manière significative l'engagement, et que la relation entre le climat perçu des pairs non-sportifs et l'engagement sportif est médié par le SCSA / The Sense of Community is important for the well-being and positive social development of adolescents (Pretty, 2002; Cicognani et al., 2006, 2012). However, a few studies have provided significant information on the mechanisms that can lead to the construction of a community in sport (Warner, 2011). The objective of this thesis is to contribute to the definition of a sport community, examining the mechanisms underlying the formation of Sense Community in sport contexts in adolescence. For this, the first chapter presents a review of literature about Sense of Community and the second chapter examines the literature on the Sense of Community in Sport and sports participation in adolescence. Subsequently two lines of research are proposed. The first line consists of two qualitative studies. The results of these studies revealed that the sport community includes in particular parents, peers and coach sports. There emerges a challenge for these young athletes to maintain relationships with nonathlete peers. The second line comprises two quantitative studies. The first study focused on the validation of the questionnaire Adolescents Sense Community in Sport (SCSA), in French and Italian. The second study focused on understanding the processes of SCSA and its relationship with parents, coach, peer non-athletes climate perceived and sport involvement. The results showed that during adolescence, the SCSA significantly influences the commitment, and the relationship between peer non-athletes climate perceived and sporting commitment is mediated by SCSA