The World Cup and social cohesion
Bread and circuses or bread and butter?
Too many coats of convenience hanging on too many conceptually
loose pegs
Prof Fred Coalter
University of Stirling
Bread and circuses or bread and butter?
A personal introduction
The journey of a liberal white man
Complex/dynamic political, economic, ethnic and cultural situation
‘whatever you say, say nothing’
So, what do we know about events……….?
Little substantive evidence: nature and extent of social impacts
Complexities of uneven development of developing societies
Events and social cohesion
The match programme
(i)
Imagined communities.
(ii)
The development of forms of social capital
The soft infrastructure/’soft economics’ agenda
 Processes of bidding, managing and delivery.
 The development and management of ‘volunteers’
 Investment in sport-for-development organisations.
Imagined Communities
Lack of face-to-face contact

Language, media and symbolic practices
‘the imagined community of millions seems more real as a team of
eleven named people’ Hobsbawn (1990)
Miller
Civic and ethnic national identities: difficult in SA
 culturally based nationalism might be possible
Rugby, cricket  football
Soccer throughout its history in South Africa has been a signifier for
‘respectability’, African initiative, political struggle, individual freedom,
escapism and capitalism through its pervasive role of urban black
communities Nauright
Sport and imagined communities
90 minute patriots
• Role of sport in broad issue of social cohesion is minor.
• Big problems are political, economic and social
• Sport cannot work miracles
Fodimi
Thabo Embeki quotes Nauright (1997)
The overall conception of what South Africa is, or should be, is still
being negotiated through lived experience and discursively through
the media and other forms of public discourse…Sport is but one area
where the South African nation can exist, however, the divisions that
exist in sport and within wider South African society mean that it will
take a long time before a truly ‘national’ identity is forged and takes
account of race, class and gender differences.
Which road to social cohesion?
All of them …….and I am not sure that I would start here
This is a tough league
Social cohesion : core concern of sociology (ies)
 Factors promoting equity in distribution of opportunities
(e.g. poverty, educational opportunities, social mobility),
and

Capacity for cooperation based on high levels of social capital
(compliance with law, interpersonal trust, trust in public
institutions and politicians).
Playing in mid field
Grand narrative/sports evangelism  middle range theory
 Mechanisms, processes, networks and ‘purposive action’

Sport
Magic box; social vaccine
  


A (social) capital prospect
Putnam and team work
Strong social networks/civic infrastructure/social norms/mutual trust/reciprocity
Bonding social capital
 ‘like us’; ‘sociological superglue’; getting by; ‘dark side’
Bridging social capital
 ‘a sociological WD40’; friends  colleagues  ‘getting ahead’
Linking social capital (Woodcock)
 vertical connections between different social strata/
outside community
Coleman and personal goals
Social capital
Organic


human capital
‘ rationally devised material and status incentives’
The ‘soft-infrastructure’ of events
Partnerships  bridging and linking capital
Urban and political elites/’boosterists’/ FIFA
Kim et al South Korean World Cup
Lack of involvement in the planning and decision-making process
Misener and Mason (2006) : forms of bridging and linking capital
• Community values central to all decision-making processes
•
All stakeholders, esp community interest groups, involved in strategic activities
•
Collaborative action  empower local communities  agents of change
Linkages: community members  local elites/power structures
• Open communication/mutual learning throughout strategic activities
Hiller
Cape Town Olympic Steering Committees
‘transmitting information about Olympic plans for reaction’
‘Volunteering’ and active citizenship
‘Volunteering’ : key index of social capital
brings people into contact with those outside their normal circle, broadening
horizons and raising expectations, and can link people into informal networks through
which work is more easily found.
High economic value  high social value
Chalip: Sydney Olympics: Aus$1  Aus$10  c 4.5% saving on total budget
Human resource management: volunteer development strategy
Strategic/systematic approach to recruitment/training/retention
Manchester Commonwealth Games: PGVP
Coleman: social capital and human capital: purposive
Sport for development
Evangelism
 ‘rationally devised material and status incentives’
UN: Sport-in-development volunteering
Social welfare/community participation/trust and reciprocity
 Bonding social capital
Papacharisisi et al (2005)
‘there is nothing about …sport itself that is magical…It is the experience
of sport that may facilitate the result’
Sport …… plus
Mathare Youth Sport Association (MYSA)
Strategy, tactics and managing for a result
Inputs

Outputs
Programmes

Sporting Inclusion
Equity/target groups/frequency

Sporting outcomes
Skills/competencies/sporting ethics

 Theory of change?
Individual outcomes
Personal/social development [self-efficacy/esteem]

Outcomes
Changed behaviour
Peer leaders more important than programmes: people/responsible citizens
Going beyond the touchline
‘important sector of civil society’
‘integrated partnership approach ... involving a full spectrum of actors in fieldbased community development including all levels/sectors of government,
sports organisations, NGOs and the private sector
Bridging and linking social capital
Seippel
 Isolated clubs: sport/bonding
 Connected clubs: bridging/linking
But who writes [and interprets] the rules of the game?
Woolcock and Narayan (2006) Institutional View
• Civil society organisations not simple substitutes for the state
• Thrive to extent that state encourages them.
• In the absence of ‘civic and government social capital’: limited impact
Trickle down and the road to hell……..
Since the Games are not about development per se, the Games could
only be developmental to the extent that there was a deliberate will to
make them so. Embracing principles and putting them into operation are
two different things – constantly endangered by finances, time
constraints and politics Hiller
‘fragmented, one-service-at-a-time programs, dissociated from people’s
total patterns of living’ Weiss
What are the material, cultural, economic basis of social cohesion?
Winning (from) the World Cup
From sports evangelism 
• Systematic strategy, planning and implementation
• Sustained hard work, based on a coherent strategy
• Understanding of the importance of tactics……
……even then you might not win all your games.