Sport policy, sports development and figurational sociology

In this chapter, however, we will focus upon the application of some of the central concepts of figurational sociology in our empirical investigations of sport policy processes and enactment in settings such as local authorities (e.g. Bloyce and Green 2011; Bloyce et al. 2008) and schools (e.g. Smith 2015; Smith and Leech 2010; Haycock and Smith 2010a, 2010b, 2011a, 2011b). More specifi- cally, we shall examine: (1) how the concepts of the figuration, interdependence, power and habitus were used to understand the enactment of sport policy and development activity by sports development officers (SDOs) in local authori- ties; (2) the importance of ideology and Elias’s concepts of involvement and detachment for explaining why local authority SDOs think and act in the way they do and (3) how Elias’s concept of unplanned outcomes was important in explaining aspects of organizational change and policy enactment in local authorities and schools.