Conclusions: Learning lessons from Implementing Sport Policy

This concluding chapter draws together insights from across the book. It begins by considering each of the aspects of the book’s guiding framework, namely: the positioning of organisations in sport policy implementation, consequences of sport policies for organisations, and recognisable sport policy outcomes as a consequence of implementation. The chapter then draws upon theoretical perspectives on top-down, bottom-up and principal-agent approaches to policy implementation and related conceptualisations of policy enactment to further interrogate and identify key issues in the implementation of sport policies. Both the highly challenging practical complexities of sport policy implementation and some of the limitations of theoretical analysis are identified, and the chapter concludes with a call for further consideration of these issues.