Lucie Thibault, Lisa Kikulis, Wendy Frisby, Sue Vail, Larena Hoeber, Kathy Babiak, & Lisa Kihl -Brock University
Français
Recent public sport policy and legislation have identified collaboration as an important lever to enhance sport participation. The Canadian Sport Policy (CSP) articulates a goal of enhanced interaction where “the components of the sport system are more connected and coordinated as a result of the committed collaboration and communication amongst the stakeholders” (p. 19). Collaboration is also given legislative support in the Physical Activity and Sport Act. Of particular interest is the provision in legislation for the federal minister to enter into bilateral agreements with every province and territory. These agreements, supported by federal and provincial funding, enable each province and territory to prioritize and develop sport participation initiatives that are unique to their particular circumstances. Collaboration is also endorsed in policy through consultations where representatives of the sport community or those who desire to be part of the sport community are invited to participate in deliberations. The purpose of our study is to examine how organizational collaborative approaches (i.e., interorganizational relationships, deliberative democracy, and community development) in Canadian provinces can inform sport participation policy development and implementation.
Sport participation has recently gained prominence on federal and provincial government policy agendas following reports that have highlighted the decline in sport participation by Canadians (Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, 2002; Statistics Canada, 2000) and promoted the benefits of sport participation (Bloom, Grant, & Watt, 2005; Donnelly & Kidd, 2003). With a current policy environment supporting sport participation through collaborations, these are timely areas of investigation. The complexity of collaborative approaches, the unique federal-provincial bilateral agreements, and the contextual differences between provinces, requires a comparative case study design. Data collection will involve interviews with key policy makers representing various organizations and stakeholders involved in sport participation policy, analysis of sport participation policy documents, and where possible observations of collaborative deliberations.
Given the policy goal of enhanced interaction, findings will provide policy makers with an indication of the extent to which this goal is being achieved through interorganizational relationships, deliberative democracy, and community development. Sport policy implementers will become more informed and knowledgeable about what is working and what is not working and may learn from other provinces. Finally, this research will inform the literature on policy studies, organizational collaboration, deliberative democracy, and community development. Other social policy areas may also learn about the experiences of policy makers and stakeholders, how collaborative spaces are created and the limitations of these approaches.
Contact Us
