Enacting youth sport policy: Towards a micro-political and emotional understanding of community sports coaching work

There has been a tendency for governments to become increasingly interventionist in setting the sport policy agenda and the sport development work that subsequently arises from it (Bloyce and Smith, 2010). Indeed, state agencies in many Western nations have utilised sport and physical activity as a vehicle for achieving a variety of sporting and, especially, non-sporting policy objectives (Houlihan and Green, 2008). These have included reducing crime, developing prosocial behaviour, overcoming social isolation and exclusion, rebuilding communities, developing healthy lifestyles and raising educational aspirations and attainment (Bergsgard et al., 2007; Bloyce and Smith, 2010; Coalter, 2013). Examples of this provision include diversionary schemes for youth from remote Aboriginal communities in Australia (Senior et al., 2012) and Midnight Basketball leagues in the United States (Hartmann and Depro, 2006). Similarly, Green (2008, p. 130) highlighted how the United Nations (UN) also subscribes to the view that sport is a positive and effective socialising agent. In this regard, the UN has emphasised the convening role that sport and physical activity has to play in enhancing ‘economic and social development, improved health, and a culture of peace and tolerance’.