Sport, Health, Religion, Social and
Faithful Capital and the Big Society
Mike Collins
Centre for Sport, Spirituality & Religion, University of
Gloucestershire, UK
Marjons 11 July 2013
Sport & Muscular Christianity – then
and now
Health of mind & body, manliness, leadership, fairness/high moral code
(Mangan, 1981) spread to Empire & armed forces (Watson, Weir & Friend, 2005)
Sport
• Doubled 1885-2003, nearly 2% of Value added
& consumer spend
• But still an age gap and especially an
income/class one
• New Labour ‘sport for good’, ConDems ‘sport for
sport’s sake’ Gove’s Edwardian model of
competition, ignoring those who don’t want team
games and contests, and many girls (Collins,
forthcoming)
Sport
• Clinging on to small Olympic surge in
participation among youth(Sport England, Active People 6-7)
• Physical and mental health benefits/wellbeing
indisputable, valued at £19-23,000pa (Downward &
Rasciute, 2011)
• Sport not a religion, but strongly linked (Watson &
Parker, 2013) small growth in UK (Collins & Parker 2009); in
USA in thrall to professional sport –‘sportianity’
(Hoffman, 2010)
Religion
Year
belief /attendance (Brierley,2011)
Belief in Christian God
Non-belief in Christian God
Total
Regular attenders
Non-regular attenders
%
Not church Active
members
church
members
%
%
Nominal (1) Notional
church
Christians
members %
%
col
A
B
C
D
1980
77
3
8
1990
75
3
2000
72
2010
2020est
Total
%
Other
religions
%
NonReligious
%
E
F
G
H
9
57
23
4
19
7
8
57
25
5
20
2
5
8
57
28
6
22
70
2
4
7
57
30
7
23
68
2
3
6
57
32
8
24
2008 BSA 48
belief
-
-
-
-
52
6
46
(2)
(1) a church members who rarely attends, maybe at Christmas
(2) those calling themselves
Christian but never attending church and making no effort to follow the Christian ethic
Religion & wellbeing
• Nominal/fuzzy Christians (Voas,2009)
• wellbeing- healthier lifestyles, happier (George et al,
2000; Francis, 2011)
• More involved as volunteers
• Decline slowed,34% of churches grew 19982005, ‘fresh expressions’(Brierley,2006, 2011)
• No decent surveys of sport & church regionally
or nationally
Social capital
• Bonding (superglue), bridging (WD40), linking
• associational decline in US(Putnam 2000) , but stable in
Britain (Hall,1998, Warde et al, 2003, Li, et al, 2003) except for lower
SE?, still growing Nordic (Rothstein, 2001)
• Sport good at bonding varies by area, works through
organisations (NSOs, clubs),integrates youth (Crabbe, 2008)
develops new nations (Coalter, 2011), takes time to build and
easily destroyed (Collins, 2007)
• Religious/Faithful Capital (Furbey et al 2006; Baker & Miles Watson,
2010) to cities (eg CULF, 2006)- volunteers & buildings (incl.
mosques), but not money, & suspected by politicians
Wellbeing/sport/leisure
•
‘the
most important reasons why leisure is important for psychology
is that it is a major source of joy, happiness and other aspects of
well-being.’ (Argyle et al,1996:6) – ‘flow’ in performance (Csikszmentmihalyi,
1975)
• Health & inequality closely linked - Spirit level (Wilkinson &
Prickett, 2009 ) globally & UK
• Happiness=personal resilience +external locus
of control, including state (Haworth & Hart, 2007)
• Not riches- well-being levels off at $20,000
household income (Layard, 2005)
National Well being (ONS, 2012)
Measures now
include 4x30 mins
moderate intensity
sport in last month (Sp
Eng, Active people);
and cultural activity
at least 3 times in last
year (DCMS,Taking Part)
(Self & Randall, 2013)
Cameron’s Big Society
• Social action by Burke’s ‘small platoons’; localism;
support civil sector via BS Bank
• Criticised as: vague; inseparable from ConDem ideology; difficult
when cuts require more volunteers just to keep things going; no-for profit
sector not offered resources; lead to ‘differently served’ areas (Lampard,
2011); ignores local difference (Ransome ,2011), especially skewed against,
N rural areas in S (Mohan, 2012)
• ‘churches are the obvious place for revived localism, yet their potential
remains locked behind regulatory clutter [like the Disability
Discrimination Act] and spiraling costs’ that are not recognized or helped
by government (Simon Jenkins, Guardian Comment 22 April 2011:37)
Sport & the Big Society
Not able to help much (Such 2013), because:
• already stretched (Nichols, Taylor & Jeanes, 2011)
• one-third of clubs uninterested in helping as
government agents (May, Harris & Collins, 2013)
• participation & volunteering are falling, amongst
the vulnerable - women, ethnic groups, poorer households,
disabled people (Active People/Taking Part)
Already evidence of rich-poor gap & differently
served communities(Rowan Williams Guardian 1 February 2011:19)
References 1
Argyle, M., M. Martin, & J. Crossland. (1989) Happiness as a function of personality & social
encounters 189-203 in eds J. P. Forgas & J.M. Innes Recent advances in social
psychology, North Holland: Elsevier.
Baker, C. & Miles-Watson, J. (2010) Faithful & traditional capitals: defining the scope of
spiritual and religious capitals: a literature review Implicit Religion 13.1 17-69
Brierley, P. (2006) Pulling out of the nosedive: What the 2005 English Church Census reveals
London: Christian Research
Brierley, P. (2011) Nominal Christians, a note attached to Future First newsletter 18, Dec
Collins, M.F. (2007) Leisure studies and the social capital discourse pp155-66 in Collins, M,
Holmes, K. and Slater (eds) Sport Leisure culture and social capital: discourse and practice
Leisure Studies Association publication 100 Eastbourne: University of Brighton
Collins, M.F. and A. Parker, A. (2009) Faith and sport revival in Britain: Muscular Christianity
and beyond. Special issue Sport & Religion, Stadion 36: 195-212
Coalter, F. (2011) Sport, conflict & youth development, Report for Comic Relief. Stirling,
University Department of Sports Studies
Commission on Urban Life & Faith (2006) Faithful Cities: A call for celebration, vision and
justice, London: Church House Publishing/Methodist Publishing House
Csikszmentmihalyi, M. (1975) Flow: The psychology of happiness, London: Rider
.
References 2
Crabbe, T. (2008) Avoiding the numbers game: Social theory, policy & sport’s role in the art of
relationship building 21-37 in Sport & social capital, eds. M. Nicholson &R. Hoye, Oxford:
Butterworth-Heinemann
Downward, P. and Rasciute, S. (2011) Does sport make you happy? An analysis of wellbeing
derived from sports participation, International Review of Applied Economics 25,3 331-48
Francis, L .J. (2011) Religion & happiness: Perspectives from the psychology of religion, positive
psychology & empirical theology, 113-24 in Practices of happiness: Political economy, religion
& wellbeing eds. J. Atherton, E. Graham & I. Steedman London: Routledge
Furbey, R. et al. (2006) Faith as social capital: Connecting or dividing? Bristol: Policy Press
George, L. K., Larson, D. B, Koenig, H. G. & McCullough, M. E. (2000) Spirituality & health:
What we know, what we need to know, Journal of Social & Clinical Psychology,19.1,103-15
Hall, P. A. (1999) Social capital in Britain, British Journal of Politics 29:417-61
Haworth, J. T. and G. Hart (eds. 2007) Wellbeing: Individual, community & social perspectives,
Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan
Hoffman, S.J. (2010) Good Game: Christianity &the culture of sports Waco,TX: Baylor UP
Layard, R. (2005) Happiness: Lessons from a new science, London: Allen Lane
Lampard, R. (2011) What is the Big society, & how should churches respond? report to
Methodist Conference, Liverpool, Agenda 137-53
oresonline.org.uk/7/3/li.html
References 3
Li, Y., Savage, M. Tampbulon, G. Warde, A. & Tomlinson, M. (2003) Dynamics of social
capital: Trends & turnover in associational membership in England & Wales 1972-99,
Sociological Research Online at www.soresonline.org.uk/7/3/li.html
May, T., Harris S. & Collins, M. (2013) Implementing community sports policy; Understanding
the variety of voluntary club types, International Journal of Sports Policy & Politics
Mangan, J. A. (1998) The Games Ethic & Imperialism: Aspects of the Diffusion of an Ideal,
London: Frank Cass
Mohan, J. (2012) Commentary: Geographical foundations of the Big Society Environment and
Planning A 44, 1121-9
Nichols, G., Taylor P. & Jeanes, R. (2011) Youth sport volunteers: The potential and
challenges of the Big Society, Paper to Leisure Studies Association conference
Southampton
Office of National Statistics (2012) Measuring national wellbeing: Measuring what matters,
London: ONS
Putnam, R. D. (2000) Bowling alone: the collapse &revival of American community, New York:
Simon & Schuster
Ransome, P. (2011) The Big Society: Fact or fiction? Sociological Research Online 16(2)18
http://socresonline.org.uk16/2/18.html>10.5153/sro.2383 downloaded 12.9.2011
References 4
Rothstein, B. (2001) Social capital in the Social Democratic welfare state, Politics & Society
29,2: 207-41
Self, A. & Randall, C. (2013) Measuring national wellbeing- Review of domains & measures
2013 London: ONS
Such, E. (2013) Little leisure in the Big Society Leisure Studies 32,1 89-107
Voas, D. (2009) The rise and fall of fuzzy fidelity in Europe, European Sociological Review 25,2:
155-68
Warde, A., et al (2003) Trends in social capital: Memberships of associations in Great Britain
1991-98, British Journal of Social Policy 33:525-34
Watson, N., Weir, S. and Friend, S. (2005) Development of muscular Christianity in Victorian
Britain & beyond Jnl of Religion & Society 8, 35-50
Watson, N. & Parker, A.(eds,2013) Sports & Christianity: Historical & Contemporary issues
London Routledge
Wilkinson, R. G. & K. Prickett (2009) The spirit level: Why more equal societies nearly always
do better? London: Allan Lane/Penguin
Thank You!