The societal impact of elite sport development and large-scale sport events for people in disadvantaged positions: critical perspectives for setting a renewed research agenda

Policy makers often view elite sports as a vehicle for generating a range of societal benefits. Advocates of international large-scale events and elite sport ‘development’ tend to emphasize the non-economic gains such as boosted mass sport participation, social cohesion, civic engagement and national pride. But substantiated proof that legitimizes the public investments in elite sport development and the hosting of largescale events remains largely absent (e.g., Coalter, 2004; Grix & Carmichael, 2012). The purpose of our study was to review the most popular used concepts, assumptions and mainstream theoretical foundations sport researchers have utilized to investigate any presumed relationship or impact for that matter. We put the focus on the assumed societal impact or return of elite sport development and large-scale sport events for people and communities in socio-economic and cultural disadvantaged situations. Such groups have received limited attention by the research community. We critically discuss three themes related to the alleged societal impact: (1) mass participation and health related outcomes, (2) social/community cohesion, and (3) social mobility. All in all, the answer as to why societies, in relation to people in socio-economic and cultural disadvantaged situations, should invest in elite sports development and large-scale sport events remain largely unanswered. The inability of answering this question is perhaps due to the fact that the focus has been traditionally on measuring outcomes, using conceptually weak instruments and overly simplistic and often hazy theoretical constructs that are hoped to shed some light on changes in participation rates or social cohesive and social capital-like effects regarding people in disadvantaged situations.