Sport for Development and Olympic Movement Stakeholders: A Social Network Analysis

Background Information for Sport for Development and Olympic Movement organisations in Africa & Europe

Why are you conducting this research?

The Olympic Studies Centre (OSC) has funded a new project to map organisational relationships in the Sport for Development (SfD) sector in Africa and Europe. This project is being conducted in partnership with Loughborough University London (Dr Steve Swanson, Dr Holly Collison, and Professor James Skinner) and the University of Johannesburg (Professor Cora Burnett-Louw). This survey asks you to indicate your professional relationships and identify roles within the SfD sector.

The social network analysis (SNA) will focus on funders, facilitators, and implementers in the Sport for Development (SfD) and Olympic Movement (OM) networks in Africa and Europe.

SNA is a powerful tool that is used to identify and visually represent:

  1. The different types of relationships that exist between organisations in a network (in this case; SfD and OM funders, organisers and implementers).
  2. The resources that flow through a network (such as knowledge, funding and social capital).
  3. The overall structure of the network (showing whether organisations are denseley or loosely connected).
  4. The value of relationships between SfD and OM funders, organisers and implementers.
  5. The frequency of contact between SfD and OM funders, organisers and implementers.
  6. The duration of relationships between SfD and OM funders, organisers and implementers.

The most important initial step in this SNA study is to identify who the SfD and OM funders, organisers and implementers are.

LUL researchers aim to work closely with key stakeholders and influencers in SfD and the Olympic space in order to initially identify which SfD and OM funders, organisers and implementers they have worked with in the past 3 years in Africa & Europe.

How are you conducting the research?

Organisation will be asked to provide information on the types of relationships they have with SfD and OM funders, organisers and implementers via an online survey. Following the online survey results, the five organisations receiving the highest number of mentions in each category (funders, organisers and implementers) will be contacted by Loughborough University London researchers and sent the same online survey to identify their top 3 organisations.

During a second phase of data collection in 2020, once all of the SfD and OM funders, organisers and implementers have been identified, Louhborough University London researchers will conduct interviews to understand in more depth how relationships and developed and maintained.

Using the method of snowball sampling, the Institute aims to efficiently identify who the SfD and OM actors are in the network. All of the data collected from the online network survey will be input into SNA software, analysed and a visual map will be produced to show the SfD and OM network.

Why are you conducting this research?

The goal of this research is to understand traditional and emerging networks in the global SfD landscape, produce valuable insights on productive collaboration and alliances and understand how funding, knowledge, social capital and leadership effectiveness flows through the SfD network. The research is funded by the IOC and contributes to the IOC’s pledge to support Sustainable Development Goals through sport by energising and enhancing global partnerships (IOC, 2017). The research team aim to provide recommendations and strategies to the IOC on how to build stronger and more sustainable partnerships between OM stakeholders, UN Agencies, NGOs, Funders and Sponsors within the global network.

How can I find out more information?

If you have suggestions or comments on the research project, or just want to find out more, please contact Dr Steve Swanson. To find out more about the Olympic Studies Centre, please visit their website.