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Youth sport volunteers in England: A paradox between reducing the state and promoting a Big Society

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  • Geoff Nichols
  • Peter Taylor
  • David Barrett
  • Ruth Jeanes

Abstract

•The paper uses survey data to outline the challenges volunteers within youth sport are facing.•It demonstrates how volunteering in youth sport epitomises the values espoused by the Big Society.•It emphasises how important continued investment by the state is to maintain work within the voluntary sector.This paper uses the example of volunteers in clubs promoting youth sport to consider the role of the UK Government in promoting a general civic activism as part of a ‘Big Society’. The UK government advocates the replacement of public sector provision by a greater role for volunteers. Exemplary of the ‘grassroots’ organisations which epitomise ‘Big Society’ ideals are the 64,000 volunteer-run sports clubs in which almost 1.5 million volunteers support over 5.3 million junior participants in England. These clubs face problems which state intervention could alleviate; and this state support may in fact be critical to maintain the structures which provide the opportunity for so much volunteering to take place. The government's desire to increase volunteer activity can be seen to be at odds with other policy intentions such as cost-cutting, and with wider trends affecting volunteerism such as professionalisation. Thus the paper illustrates the complex, even paradoxical relationship between promoting civic activism and the role of the state. The example of youth sport volunteers also suggests that policies to promote a Big Society will need to deal with more fundamental questions about the role of volunteering.

Suggested Citation

  • Geoff Nichols & Peter Taylor & David Barrett & Ruth Jeanes, 2014. "Youth sport volunteers in England: A paradox between reducing the state and promoting a Big Society," Sport Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 337-346, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:rsmrxx:v:17:y:2014:i:3:p:337-346
    DOI: 10.1016/j.smr.2013.09.001
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    Cited by:

    1. Wicker, Pamela, 2017. "Volunteerism and volunteer management in sport," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 325-337.
    2. Geoff Nichols & Deborah Forbes & Lindsay Findlay-King & Gordon Macfadyen, 2015. "Is the Asset Transfer of Public Leisure Facilities in England an Example of Associative Democracy?," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 5(2), pages 1-17, May.
    3. Hayton, John W., 2016. "Plotting the motivation of student volunteers in sports-based outreach work in the North East of England," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 563-577.

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