Knowledge, power and politics: Contesting `Evidence-based' national sport policy Research Completed

Title

Knowledge, power and politics: Contesting `Evidence-based' national sport policy

Lead Author

J Piggin, S J Jackson and M Lewis

Organisation(s)

University of Otago

Publication Year

2009

Publisher

International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 44(1), 87-101 .

Contacts

Abstract

This article analyses the sources of knowledge New Zealand sport and recreation policy-makers rely on when forming public policy. Specifically, utilising a Foucauldian lens of governmentality, the authors consider how New Zealand sport and recreation policy is influenced by various sources of knowledge. Through analysis of official policy documents, media releases and interviews with senior New Zealand policy managers, the authors argue that despite claims of positivistic, `evidence-based’ policy, writers draw on a wide range of knowledge sources. Thus, despite being governed by positivism, policy-makers themselves utilise other, multifarious sources of knowledge in order to construct national sport policy. Considerations for the future setting of such public policy are offered, and in particular it is suggested the existing rationale for the formulation of public policy could be altered to acknowledge these wide ranging knowledges.

Keywords:

evidence based practice, policy, politics, recreation, sports,

Areas of Focus

Views

1252

Added

December 14, 2011

Last Modified

December 14, 2011