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INSTITUTIONS AND PRACTICES
DOI: 10.14515/monitoring.2018.5.20 Правильная ссылка на статью:
Тевари С., Тевари С. Спортивные практики в Бихаре и Уттар-Прадеше: становление социологии спорта в Индии // Мониторинг общественного мнения : Экономические и социальные перемены. 2018. № 5. С. 269—291. https://doi.org/10.14515/monitoring. 2018.5.20. For citation:
Tewari S., Tewari S. (2018) Sport practices in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh: Making of "Sports Sociology" in India. Monitoring of Public Opinion:Economic and Social Changes. No. 5. P. 269—291. https://doi.org/10.14515/monitoring.2018.5.20.
S. Tewari, S. Tewari SPORT PRACTICES IN BIHAR AND UTTAR PRADESH: MAKING OF "SPORTS SOCIOLOGY" IN INDIA
SPORT PRACTICES IN BIHAR AND UTTAR PRADESH: MAKING OF "SPORTS SOCIOLOGY" IN INDIA
Sanjay TEWARI1 2 3 — Ph.D., Managing Committee Member; Director; Founder and Ex Convener
E-MAIL: [email protected] ORCID: 0000-0003-3360-6407
1 Indian Sociological Society (ISS)
2 UP Athletics Association
3 Research Committee on Sports Sociology, ISS, New Delhi, India
СПОРТИВНЫЕ ПРАКТИКИ В БИХАРЕ И УТТАР-ПРАДЕШЕ: СТАНОВЛЕНИЕ СОЦИОЛОГИИ СПОРТА В ИНДИИ
ТЕВАРИ Санджай — Ph.D., член руководящего комитета, Индийское социологическое общество (ISS); директор, UP атлетическая ассоциация; координатор и основатель, Исследовательский комитет социологии спорта (ISS); Нью-Дели, Индия.
E-MAIL: [email protected] ORCID: 0000-0003-3360-6407
Sanjana TEWARI4 — MA student in International Sociology
E-MAIL: [email protected] ORCID: 0000-0002-4078-7368
4 St Petersburg University, St Petersburg, Russia
Abstract. States of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the focus of this investigation, is a geographical term used to describe the area of the India. This research is premised on the argument that the wealth and power exposure currently associated with sports in India, coupled with its status as one of the most coalescing features of Indian culture and society, presents it as a potentially powerful tool for development. As such, the broad aim is to explore trends and debates from the emerging 'development through sport' literature, as well as those from wider development theory, in the context of sports in India. This is challenging, as sports sociological studies here have yet to make a way.
Keywords: development, sports, India, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh
ТЕВАРИ Санджана — студент магистратуры по международной социологии, Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет, Санкт-Петербург, Россия. E-MAIL: [email protected] ORCID: 0000-0002-4078-7368
Аннотация. Исследование, представленное в данной статье, охватывает два штата Индии — Бихар и Уттар-Пра-деш. Мы основываемся на том, что могущество и благосостояние, связываемое сегодня со спортом в Индии, а также его непревзойденная возможность объединять индийские культуру и общество, делает его потенциально мощным инструментом развития страны. Таким образом, общей задачей для нас является анализ тенденций и дебатов в рамках темы «развитие через спорт», а также более широко — в рамках теории развития в контексте спорта в Индии. Это непростая задача, поскольку социологические исследования спорта в Индии все еще находятся на раннем этапе развития.
ключевые слова: развитие, спорт, Индия, Бихар, Уттар-Прадеш
Objectives and Research Questions
This research is premised on the argument that the wealth and power exposure currently associated with sports in India, coupled with its status as one of the most coalescing features of Indian culture and society, presents it as a potentially powerful tool for development in India. As such, the broad aim of this analysis is to explore trends and debates from the emerging 'development through sport' literature, as well as those from wider development theory, in the context of sports in India. Within this broad aim, this study seeks to address the following three research questions:
1. How and why can sports be used for social development purposes in the states of UP and Bihar in India?
2. What role do government authorities and their commercial and social partners have in the formulation and implementation of social development initiatives in India?
3. What are the ways through social development through sports can be implemented in the states of UP and Bihar in India?
Literature Review
The topic of the research, 'sociological development through sport', has been used as a mainstay of many sports programmes in India. The objective of this research is to find out the practicality of the use of sport in sociological development, focusing on India as a demographic area. The literature review will define and introduce the concept of 'people-centred development' or the so-called 'bottom-up' approach to development, which is a central theme in many sports sociological development initiatives. It draws attention to the work of NGOs that focus its practices at the grassroots level. Examples offer analysis of different types and approaches to the use of sports in sociological development. It aims to outline major barriers for sociological development through sports, as a movement, to gain further recognition as an effective tool for development.
The other body of literature which informs this research is 'development', and more specifically the inter-sub disciplinary concept of 'development through sport'. While this concept has been gaining prominence over the past two decades [Kidd, 2008], efforts remained largely disparate until the Secretary-General convened a United Nations (UN) Inter-Agency Task Force on Sport for Development and Peace in July 2002. The subsequent publication of 'Sport for Development and Peace: Towards Achieving Millennium Development Goals' [UN]1 provided the catalyst for a more coalescing approach to 'development through sport', and much has been written since. This review charts the progress of this literature, exploring the merit of the 'development through sport' concept as it is implemented in developing countries worldwide. While the volume of literature on the concept has expanded in recent years, its application in India is largely ignored. As such, this review will conclude by discussing the concept of 'development through sport' in the context of India, arguing that the wealth and identity currently attached to sports in India presents it as a potentially powerful tool for development in the country's disadvantaged communities. It is this argument, coupled with the dearth of current literature, which ultimately provides the motivation for this research.
Sociological Development
Initial manifestations of sociological development focused on generating economic growth, as countries with strong economies were seen as more developed than those with weak economies, and so 'to develop' was to enhance a state's economic output [Deneulin, McGregor, 2010]. Growth theory evolved into modernization theory in the 1960s with Rostow's The Stages of Economic Growth [Rostow, 1960], which argued that all countries must pass through five predetermined stages in the sociological development process. Thus, sociological development largely constituted top-down approaches, based on industrialization, from the 1950s through to the early 1970s [De Knop et al, 2009]. The emergence of the 'New Right' in the 1980s saw a return to a market-driven approach, referred to as neo-liberalism, and became entrenched in the policies of international sociological development agencies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
1 www.un.org/sport/sites/www.un.org.sport/files/documents/pdfs/Backgrounders/Milestones_Sport%20for%20 Development%20and%20Peace_APRIL%202009-ENG.pdf.
inveitine-rtt m manufacturing tsïïeiJï LO prtrtÊrl pi national n-□ mB devtîopment of imocttrri jocial, economic, and political institutions
Pic. 1. Rostow's five-stage model of sociological development (Source:)
Such approaches to sociological development, however, have drawn a number of criticisms, most notably that they are situated in Western European history and experience, and thus represent Eurocentric sociological development thinking [Bourdieu, Passeron, 1977]. Other critiques of these approaches include, but are not limited to, their assumption that sociological development is a linear process that all nations can follow in an unconstrained manner [Coakley, 2012]; the assumption that sociological development has an endpoint which suggests that, once achieved, a country is 'developed'; their strong focus on economic growth, with little consideration for the sociological development and cultural implications; and their focus on the entire state, rather than the needs of individual communities.
Concept of sociological development and its relation with sports
Similarly to most abstract and popular sociological concepts, the sociological development concept is contested. However, the purpose of this section is not to contribute to a general conceptual discussion [Burawoy, 2009], but to find a way to apply the social-capital concept productively for the specific topic of this article. The first step is to consider the two words making up the concept. First, 'capital' is something that might give a future benefit. Capital combined with 'social' then leaves us with social relations of a special kind — containing and, potentially, generating resources — which, in the future, might have implications for actions in and postures
Take-off
Development of л fina nufacLuri r«£ sicton
towards other social actors or arenas. In this context, the social relations will be those emerging from participation in voluntary sport organizations; the implications are social trust and political interests. Beyond this very basic understanding of what is implied by sociological development, some of the more consequential controversies in the conceptual debate indicate what is at stake. A first consideration is whether sociological development is an individual or a collective asset. Both possibilities are of potential sociological utility and interest, but in a context where the focus is on how individuals participating in one social arena differ — because of the social relations established within this arena — in their approach to other arenas (trust, interest), the most fruitful approach is to say that sociological development is an individual asset based in social relations. This does not imply that the instrumentalism inherent to much individualistic sociology is uncritically adopted: becoming a member of a voluntary organization might lead to certain effects later on, but the sociological development in question is not necessarily the result of intentional investments aimed at future benefits; they are, to a large extent probably the unintended consequences of instrumental, normative and/or expressive actions. A second issue is whether sociological development involves closing of social groups or opening up of new social relations (for Bourdieu, social stratification versus social mobility). Again, both approaches yield interesting analytical possibilities, but in this study it has been emphasized that the bridging effect, i. e. the question will mainly be how social relations within one context (i. e. sociological development) have implications for how members of voluntary sport organizations face specific external phenomena (whether they trust other people, whether they are interested in politics). This approach also implies a stance on a third issue. Both Coleman and Putnam are regularly accused of confusing causes and effects when it comes to analyses of sociological development, and the problem is that the concept readily takes on a tautological form: social capital (social relations) produces sociological development (trust) [Giddens, 2012]. The reason for these apparently enduring problems is that the sociological development concept often pretends to examine a rather restricted phenomenon, but actually describes a whole process. The crux of the phenomena is a (set of) social relation(s), but next, this relation depends on its consequences for passing as what it is; social relations turn out as sociological development when a manifestation of a latent resource potential is fulfilled. To meet this challenge, it has been considered that generalized trust, norms or political engagement, etc., not as sociological development, but as social phenomena that might be influenced — increase or decrease — by variations in types and amounts of sociological development.
In sketching a theoretical framework for how sociological development should be approached for sport sociological studies, I have chosen to focus on sociological development as an individual asset, as one sequence of a more extended social process and outwardly bridging rather than bonding. Furthermore, it has been emphasized that the need for breaking down what often appears as a tautological approach to manageable analytical components: sociological development (social relations) with an impending outcome (trust, political interest). Finally, I have also pointed out the necessity of identifying social mechanisms associated with these social processes. Yet,
this is still general theory at a rather abstract level, and to get closer to how members of voluntary sport organizations actually possess sociological development and how it eventually works, it has been attempted to see how different discourses more oriented to this specific issue have actually understood these processes.
Case Study: Sociological development through sports in states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in India
While the top priority in the Sport and Recreation Policy of both the states is to 'establish a clear, integrated structure for the planning, coordination and delivery of sport and recreational opportunities at all levels' [Bourdieu, 2010], the reports concludes that the strategic objectives listed are highly elite focused but hidden in the broad-based programmes of 'sport for all'. It can be suggested that sports at the national level are tied closely to fulfil the needs at the political level such as building Indian country's reputation and economic justification [Coakley, 2001]. A research argues the phenomenon of sports in developing countries:
«They (the Indian Governments) assume that performance in international sport is a kind of conceptual measuring stick or critique of how far postcolonial cultures have or have not evolved as modern nations.» [Eitzen, Sage, 2013]
It is not surprising then, when the successes of UP and Bihar sportsmen in the international arena of sports are often referred as a 'short-cut' to international recognition and development. [Cagan, DeMause, 2008] observed that success in international sport (and the Olympics in particular) is highly visible and can offer quick returns for a relatively minimal expense. Ironically, found that in many nations, this pro-Olympic system had led to the failure of the Sport, Exercise and Physical Education (SEPE) professions to deliver on their promises to serve the masses and may argue that problems result when schools and sociological programmes are tied exclusively to pro-Olympic sports in developing countries.
Data Analysis and Results Introduction
According to [Thompson, Pascal, 2012], for a research to be accomplished, the researcher is required to collect and examine and interpret the data. This part of the study provides results obtained from the questionnaire survey as well as presents a discussion on findings. In this, I have collected the relevant data by means of interview and survey and the analysis and presentation of the collected data has been done using tables in Microsoft excel and related Pie charts. The final discussions and recommendations are built with reference to the gathered data. The data was collected from 750 respondents spread over the two States of Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) and Bihar.
Analysis of the Questionnaire Survey
A questionnaire which in the form of semi structured questions has been employed used by the researcher to obtain the primary data. The sample size of the research contains 750 respondents, 500 from Uttar Pradesh and 250 from Bihar. Initially the questionnaire contained 50 questions. But due to the viability and complexity of the topic, only 6 questions were answered by the respondents properly.
Responses Obtained from Questionnaire
Question 1: Sports as a Part of Social Development
The first theme of the question is «sports should be a part of the government's social development programs». This is theme was set to find out the number or ratio of the people responding whether they agree or disagree for that the sports is an excellent strategy to be used in the social development in an community. The results states that 80 % of the people say that sports strategy is a good option for the social development, while rest of them say that sports strategy is not to be considered as a part of social development strategy.
Responses No. of Respondents Percentage
Strongly Agree 240 32 %
Agree 375 50 %
Disagree 135 1B %
Sports as a part of Social development
No. of respondents
Strongly Agree
Agree
Disagree
Mean Standard Deviation
250 120.31209
Interpretation: Out of 750 respondents, 32 % of respondents strongly agree and 50 % of respondents agreed that sports should be a part of the social development. While 18 % of respondents did not agree that sports should be a part of the social development activity.
Question 2: Enhancement of general Physical fitness and social General physical fitness through Effective Sports
Another theme of question was set to find out the number or ratio of responses that general physical fitness and social skills can be improved through an effective sports strategy. The theme is «effective sports strategy helps in enhancing the social skills and general physical fitness of the people especially children». The analysis states that more than 80 % of the people agree that general physical fitness and the social skills can be improved through effective sports in any social development initiative.
Responses No. of Respondents Percentage
Extent (Great) 225 30 %
Extent (Some) 375 50 %
Extent (Not Much) 150 20 %
Enhancement of general Physical fitness and social General physical fitness through Effective Sports
No. of respondents
Extent (Great) Extent (Some) Extent (Not Much)
Mean Standard Deviation
250 114.56439
Interpretation: Out of 750 people, 50 % of respondents stated that sports helps in enhancing the general physical fitness and social skills to a great extent while 20 % of respondents stated that it is not a better technique to enhance general physical fitness and social skills.
Question 3: Change in the Sports System
When the satisfaction level Sports system which the organization is following is very low or few among the people then there is a need to change the Sports system. In order to find out the responses of the people that wanted a change in the Sports system of the organization, the theme of question is set as «change in the existing Sports system». This analysis was done in the form of YES and NO answers. More than 90 % responds to Yes, as they want the existing Sports system to be changed while only few among the people out of 750 states that they do not need a change in the Sports system.
Responses No. of Respondents Percentage
Yes 63G 84 %
No 12G 16 %
Change in the Sports System
Interpretation: Out of 750 people, 84 % of respondents want the existing Sports system to be changed, while only 16 % of respondents are satisfied with the existing Sports system and does not want it to be changed
Question 4: Sports provide an opportunity to Grow as an Individual In order to boost the morale or to motivate an individual the government must give an opportunity to grow as an individual grow. Out of 750 people only few of them states that the government gives the Sports provide an opportunity to grow as an individual while others states that the government does not gives the Sports provide an opportunity to grow as an individual chance to the people to grow as an individual.
Responses No. of Respondents Percentage
Yes 180 24 %
No 570 76 %
Sports provide an opportunity to Grow as an
Individual
Yes No
Mean Standard Deviation
375 275.77164
Interpretation: Out of 750 people, only 24 % of respondents states that Sports provide an opportunity to grow as an individual for the individual growth, while 76 % of respondents stated that the sports does not gives an opportunity to grow as an individual.
Question 5: Sociological Changes in Activity and Sports
The activities regarding the sociological changes is given much importance in both the states but still some of the people state that there is less involvement of sports in the sociological change activities of government.
Responses No. of Respondents Percentage
Extent (Great) 225 30 %
Extent (Some) 375 50 %
Extent (Not Much) 150 20 %
Enhancement of general Physical fitness and social General physical fitness through Effective Sports
60% 50% & 40%
IB
S 30%
u
I 20% 10% 0%
Extent (Great) Extent (Some) Extent (Not Much)
Mean Standard Deviation
250 114.56439
Interpretation: Out of 750 people, 50 % of respondents stated that sports involvement in the sociological change activity is upto some extent, while 20 % of respondents stated that sports are not involved in such activities.
1
I No. of respondents
Question 6: Change in the Sports' role in social Development Out of 750 people more than half stated that there is a need the change in the role of sports in social development while only few are the satisfied with the existing role of sports as they need it to be changed.
Responses No. of Respondents Percentage
Yes 630 84 %
No 120 16 %
Sports provide an opportunity to Grow as an
Individual
Mean Standard Deviation
375 360.62446
Interpretation: Out of 750 people, 84 % of respondents stated that they want a change in the role of sports in social development while 16 % of respondents stated that they are satisfied with the existing role of sports in social development activities and does not want a change in it.
ANOVA Test
The one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) is used to determine whether there are any significant differences between the means of two or more independent (unrelated) groups (although you tend to only see it used when there are a minimum of three, rather than two groups). A One-Way Analysis of Variance is a way to test the equality of three or more means at one time by using variances.
Assumptions
The populations from which the samples were obtained must be normally or approximately normally distributed. The samples must be independent. The variances of the populations must be equal.
Hypotheses
The null hypothesis will be that all population means are equal, the alternative hypothesis is that at least one mean is different. In the following, lower case letters apply to the individual samples and capital letters apply to the entire set collectively. That is, n is one of many sample sizes, but N is the total sample size.
Grand Mean
The grand mean of a set of samples is the total of all the data values divided by the total sample size. This requires that you have all of the sample data available to you, which is usually the case, but not always. It turns out that all that is necessary to find perform a one-way analysis of variance are the number of samples, the sample means, the sample variances, and the sample sizes.
Another way to find the grand mean is to find the weighted average of the sample means. The weight applied is the sample size.
Total Variation
■GM'
The total variation (not variance) is comprised the sum of the squares of the differences of each mean with the grand mean.
There is the between group variation and the within group variation. The whole idea behind the analysis of variance is to compare the ratio of between group variance to within group variance. If the variance caused by the interaction between the samples is much larger when compared to the variance that appears within each group, then it is because the means aren't the same.
Between Group Variation
The variation due to the interaction between the samples is denoted SS(B) for Sum of Squares Between groups. If the sample means are close to each other (and therefore the Grand Mean) this will be small. There are k samples involved with one data value for each sample (the sample mean), so there are k-1 degrees of freedom.
The variance due to the interaction between the samples is denoted MS(B) for Mean Square Between groups. This is the between group variation divided by its degrees of
2
freedom. It is also denoted by . Within Group Variation
The variation due to differences within individual samples, denoted SS(W) for Sum of Squares Within groups. Each sample is considered independently, no interaction between samples is involved. The degrees of freedom is equal to the sum of the individual degrees of freedom for each sample. Since each sample has degrees of freedom equal to one less than their sample sizes, and there are k samples, the total degrees of freedom is k less than the total sample size: df = N — k. The variance due to the differences within individual samples is denoted MS(W) for Mean Square Within groups. This is the within group variation divided by its degrees of freedom. It
2
is also denoted by . It is the weighted average of the variances (weighted with the degrees of freedom).
F test statistic
2 2
Recall that a F variable is the ratio of two independent chi-square variables divided by their respective degrees of freedom. Also recall that the F test statistic is the ratio of two sample variances, well, it turns out that's exactly what we have here. The F test statistic is found by dividing the between group variance by the within group variance. The degrees of freedom for the numerator are the degrees of freedom for the between group (k-1) and the degrees of freedom for the denominator are the degrees of freedom for the within group (N-k).
Data Summary Table
Group Name N (Count) Mean Std. Dev.
Question 1 750 250 120.31209
Question 2 750 250 114.56439
Question 3 750 375 360.62446
Question 4 750 375 275.77164
Question 5 750 250 114.56439
Question 6 750 375 360.62446
Desired confidence level for post-hoc confidence intervals: 95
ANOVA Table
Source of Variation Sum of Squares d.f. Variance F p
Between Groups: 17578125.0000 5 3515625.0000 55.9701 0.0000
Within Groups: 282279373.2332 4494 62812.4996 — —
Total: 299857498.2332 4499 — — —
Analysis of the Interviews
The interview of 6 participants was personally conducted and marked necessary points and also recorded the interview for analysis with the help of a video recorder. Major findings from the interview are as follows:
How does the political economy of the state interact with this dominant model of social development and what influences the ways development through sports can be constituted in the state. What are the partnership practices when the sport sector actors are small-scale social developers? I have compared the viability and situation of development through sports in two States and the ways each State views the project. I have examined the factors which stand out as shaping key differences in how development through sports can be constituted in practice. In this regard interviews were conducted with government officials and officials of various sports boards in UP and Bihar. Furthermore an interview with citizens from both the states was also conducted. It was observed that though there were huge differences in opinions and beliefs of officials the citizens from both the states expressed similar views and interview findings of citizens from both the states was placed under a common heading. The interviews are divided into two three separate groups: Interviews with government officials and officials of various sports board in Bihar Interviews with government officials and officials of various sports board in Uttar Pradesh (UP)
Interviews with citizens of the both the states.
Interview Theme
The theme of the interviews was:
«The prospects and ways of social development through sports in the state» Interview participants Details:
Interviews with government officials in Bihar
Name Designation
BG1 Officer in state government
BG2 Official in a state level sports board
BG3 Official in a state level sports association
BG4 Officer in state government
BG5 Official in a state level sports board
BG6 Officer in state government
BG7 Officer in state government
BG8 Official in a state level sports association and also an entrepreneur/private investor in sports
BG9 Head of an NGO
BG10 Head of an NGO
Interviews with government officials in UP
UG1 Officer in state government
UG2 Official in a state level sports board
UG3 Official in a state level sports association and also an entrepreneur/private investor in sports
UG4 Officer in state government
UG5 Official in a state level sports board also an entrepreneur/private investor in sports
UG6 Officer in state government
UG7 Officer in state government
UG8 Official in a state level sports association also an entrepreneur/private investor in sports
UG9 Head of an NGO
Interviews with citizens in the UP and Bihar
Name Designation
C 1 A painter in UP
C 2 A call center employee in UP
C 3 A bank officer in UP
C 4 A government teacher in UP
C 5 A college going student from UP
C 6 A farmer in Bihar
C 7 A PWD engineer in Bihar
C 8 A college student in Bihar
C 9 A businessman from Bihar
C 10 A housewife from Bihar
Interviews with government officials in Bihar
In my conversations with government officials in Bihar, it became evident that development through sports is a model that has awareness as being a way for social development delivery in the state. But there seemed to be debate about the value and motivations underlying these methods.
On one side there was a strong belief in the synergies and effectiveness of the public and people through these projects. Government officials indicated that development through sports were becoming more commonplace as the solution to inefficiencies in social development delivery, constrained government health budgets, and as important tools to capitalize on the benefits of sports in providing better health, social harmony and for urban regeneration. Amidst the praise for this concept, however, others revealed a quiet skepticism about the «underlying intent of development through sports for the state.
According to BG1 «eventually market mechanisms are critical. Government policy and support are also critical. We need development through sports which create an innovative combination of structured environment in which both government and people can work together to deliver on people's aspirations.»
Here, I examine development through sports by drawing on the cases of development through sports concept in Bihar. According to BG6, a government official in sports department «Development through sports is a dominant ideological model for social development but is often implemented as non-political, technocratic strategies with universal understandings of sports as an entertainment and recreation tool, Sport sector actors as individuals with talent and civil society as audiences. Despite the extensive acceptance of development through sports as the structural model for social development projects, the social & economic impacts of these partnerships are yet to be understood in the state.»
As described earlier, the development sports relationships in these projects were highly varied in the ways they were structured. This paper argues that this variation reflected the specific histories of sports, market and civil society relations within the sports in which they are implemented.
Although UP and Bihar both followed a Government-centred approach to development through sports, the sports in Bihar built in a large role for itself in the implementation process.
Interview with government employees and NGO officers in UP
According to a retired government officer in the sports ministry «encounters with the developmental sports build up a dynamic picture of 'it', both as an idealized set of values and practices (the sports as it should work) and also as its flawed but more commonly experienced counterpart (the sports as it does works».
Traditionally, local government offices are where the majority of north Indians comes into contact with the government and the location where many of the images of the government are formed.
A NGO head C 9 argued that «sports-citizen interactions were based on flows of power, money, commodities and information. State people exchanges occur across a variety of interconnected spheres. The people in north India form their understandings of the sports through watching the on Televison at their homes or playing some kind of outdoor games sometimes for recreation.»
My research indicated that the north population had developed new images of the sports through their encounters with project entrepreneurs. They interpreted these experiences against their previous and possibly negative encounters with the sports and its development projects.
A Officer from UP, UG2 argued that rather than look at the local-level or grassroots conception of the sports as its own reality, it was critical to also pay attention to the «translocality of sports institutions». This required conceptualizing the sports as «constituted by the local, regional, national, and transnational phenomena». According to UG5, «These images of the sports were created and constituted by the intersection of local histories of UP and Bihar and previous encounters between the sports and citizens. Additionally, the national emphases on sports; political acceptability of economic profits of sports; and discourses of India as an emerging force in sports sphere influenced the types of images the sports tried to portray to its citizens.» Thus, there is a growing acceptance of social development through sports even in states like UP with historical caution with respect to the private sector. The push for decentralized service delivery and good governance encourages the sports bureaucracy to imbue itself with professionalism similar to the private sector.
Discussion on Results and Findings
There are complex interactions between sports and civil society in the context of sports and the delivery of sports connected to social development services. Understanding these interactions highlighted the complexity and changing images of the sports. It revealed how the sports came to be constructed by citizens in the context of governance and economic reforms in India. The good governance agenda became a powerful symbol of the idealized representation of the modern sports based on business principles. One way the good governance agenda was operationalized in practice was through the implementation of social development. With government service delivery via projects, the government was not privatized or withdrawn as the
critics of the neoliberal governance agenda suggested, but played a critical role in managing and constructing its image to citizens. Citizens' institutional trust in and simultaneous disillusionment with government created a space for the sports to renegotiate its role and image in service delivery through these projects.
It has been clear that the government officials also face struggles in negotiating a particular idealized representation of the sports and at the same time in achieving their individual business objectives in practice. In the research in UP and Bihar, three factors stood out as shaping how development through sports is constituted and how they influence actual outcomes of development through sports projects:
(1) Sports strategies for development through sports promotion, particularly the differences in the roles of the private and public actors;
(2) Relative emphasis on the social development versus financial goals of the project; and
(3) Relative power of the sports for development versus the private sector in the development projects.
Conclusion
The research work has indicated that sport is a useful tool, in various ways, to build sociological development, foster community development, and build sustainability. That is, many positive outcomes have been achieved by using sport in this manner, even if most of this is reported anecdotally and these follow new neoliberal's principles and practices. This still begs the question of directionality (sport builds sociological development, sociological development aids sport, or reciprocity exists). The case of both states also indicates an issue saliently identified by review of past studies. Past studies have discussed such government based initiatives or involvements as being top down, not clearly dealing with the issues in those localities, wasteful of human resources in the target communities, being ideologically-driven, and promoting current social inequalities (i. e., perpetuating the status quo). Such programs do not connect with the communities for which they are identified. This also provides a strong argument against older state welfare policies and programs, even though ideology is also central in this new approach.
The primary research conducted in the research work by means of interviews and questionnaire also emphasizes the points raised past studies and additionally offers two different types of sociological development through sport process. The researcher in the present research has argued that a sustainable sport-based community development initiative requires four core components: community selection (community's «readiness» and capacity to change); the need for a community catalyst(s)/ champion(s) to provide process leadership (not de facto hierarchical leadership); the need to build a cadre of collaborative group/community partnerships (from a wide cross section of people and organizations who share a vision and have the capacity to achieve that vision through true collaboration and true shared decision-making); and the need to promote sustainability through community development processes. These elements are variously evident in the examples provided above, but not in a holistic way. This research has argued against the traditional, status quo «sports programming» approach, where programs are dropped-into settings without proper needs assessment in the community, the use of off the shelf programs and marketing,
and delivering programs in short-term episodes without ensuring the people and other community-based resources are properly developed. That is, they often miss matters of sport sustainability and true community development.
Here we confront several issues for current and incipient sport managers. One could reasonably critique many current sport management programs and practices. Do current sport managers, or do current sport management education programs, really understand and employ community development models? Is sufficient emphasis placed on community development and the role of sport can play in that development. If sport policy and programs are imposed on communities without the elements emphasized by this research sport managers need to consider what the implications are for creating sustainable effective sporting opportunities that may result in positive sociological development outcomes. This critique indicates that sport managers and future sport managers require ongoing education to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to provide sport programs (i. e., deliver properly targeted policy) that can facilitate community development and bring about positive social change in diverse communities. Education programs for incipient sport managers should help students work to employ a community development perspective and develop and deliver sustainable sport interventions, based on the real needs of the communities and on sustainable community development models.
While there is currently little direct evidence that sport contributes to sociological development through fostering social inclusion and community development, sport does have substantial social value. This is particularly so in India, as sport particularly cricket is widely recognized as a core component of the social and cultural fabric of Indian communities.
It provides an excellent «hook «for engaging people who may be suffering from disadvantage and providing a supportive environment to encourage and assist those individuals in their social development, learning, and connection through related programs and services.
These approaches are at the heart of the neoliberals agenda to improve individual freedom and opportunity. Sport and Recreation practitioners are passionate about the impacts their programs have on individuals and their social development. While this is largely anecdotal, new evaluation tools are attempting to capture meaningful data to contribute to the evidence base for this claim.
Long-term viability or sustainability in delivering social outcomes is central to the success of these developments through sport programs. Modern society demands more flexibility and choice and this should also be true of how communities and individuals access range of opportunities. A one size fits all approach will not meet all community needs. The challenge for the traditional sport sector in UP is to move beyond current sport delivery practices to provide a range of products including low cost locally developed grass roots opportunities and extended public/private/third sector linking sociological development programs. There is a danger however, in relying on this predominantly volunteer based sector to deliver social outcomes.
In Bihar on the other hand, the opportunity exists for NGOs, with government support, to establish long-term viable programs that use sport to engage with communities to deliver social outcomes. Partnerships between the traditional sport sector and NGOs could be forged to support participation in sport across the
continuum from outreach to mainstream participation. Suffice to say, this could potentially open the way.
For the development of a «third way «in Bihar where community-based organizations provide local grass-root sports participation opportunities for their communities, with strong linkages, collaborations, shared decision-making capacities, and partnerships with community groups and organizations, including mainstream sport. Donnelly (2007) provides the following summation:
All sport and recreation provision should be based on long term, established funding; should be continually monitored and evaluated in light of ongoing research, and should, for the most part, be offered for the purposes of social opportunity and social development.
From the above literature and examples, we note the following criteria to effectively use sport in social development and as a vehicle to contribute to development of sociological development/social inclusion within disadvantaged communities. First, programs should be designed with regard to the local assets (e. g., infrastructure, people, revenues, networks) available in the target communities. Second, sport-based social inclusion programs should be local area based and address and respond to individual community needs utilizing asocial development approach. Third, monitoring and evaluation should form an integral component of the program from conception to implementation and should contribute to the evidence base. Finally, development of «third way «sports programs should be explored by all sectors with a view to mainstream or long-term funding ensuring sustainability.
A broad array of positive community networks and relationships can be developed through engagement with sport. This engagement can create opportunities that can foster social inclusion and community development, which in turn, can assist in building high levels of positive sociological development. Importantly, future research, specifically in the arena of Sports Sociology and education programs should seek to develop the tangible means by which to facilitate these processes.
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