Exploring the Contested Notion of Social Inclusion and Gender Inclusivity within eSport Spaces

With an emphasis on virtual engagement, creativity, and diverse competitive platforms, eSport is being explored as a new activity to achieve development outcomes within the Sport for Development (SfD) movement (Kidd, 2008). Research has shown the potential of eSport to provide opportunities for social interaction, bonding, and building social capital (Trepte, Reinecke, & Juechems, 2012). This exploratory research, conducted in 2019, examines the current eSport landscape and utility of eSport as a space to enact social inclusion and more specifically, in-line with SfD agendas and goals, positive experiences for women and girls. Three interactive focus groups were conducted in the UK and USA (N = 65) involving key stakeholders, including game publishers, SfD organisations, eSport teams, tournament organisers, and gamers. Supplementary interviews (N = 16) were conducted to allow for richer accounts and perspectives to be examined. Findings exposed the contested notion of social inclusion within online gaming communities as evidenced by the dominant masculine dynamics of digital spaces. Consistently those engaged in eSport claimed social inclusion and inclusivity were the most significant features and offering to the SfD movement. Yet, simultaneously the same voices exposed toxicity in the form of gender inequality and discrimination as the challenge embedded within eSport among its rapidly growing participants and spectators. This article empirically examines gender dynamics within eSport spaces, using Bailey’s social inclusion theory and Lefebvre’s spatial theory, and critically presents new opportunities to the field of SfD

The Impact of London 2012 Olympic games on Community Based Sport in the UK: The role of NGBS in leveraging a participation legacy

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of a Sports Mega Event (SME), the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympics Games, and the specific legacy objective that was set to increase grass-root sports participation. This research aimed to investigate the leveraging processes that were used to try to achieve this objective, through National Governing Bodies (NGBs) who were outlined by Sport England (SE) as the main delivery agent to support the participation initiatives associated to the London 2012 Games (Sport England, 2008). Through the community sports delivery system, NGBs have a network of Voluntary Sports Clubs (VSCs) that were utilised as the main delivery agents across the country. The theory of policy implementation was applied to investigate the processes and practices involved for these organisations both 'top down' (NGBs) and 'bottom up' (VSCs), to better understand their attitudes and experiences surrounding the London 2012 Games. Governance of sports organisations is highly correlated to the process of policy implementation within NGBs and their associated networks. The top-down and bottom-up implementation processes, mirror the modification within the governance literature, through an attrition of governmental power, policy delivery and governance shifted towards a bottom-up approach through partnerships and networks (Bevir and Rhodes, 2006; Grix, 2010). This was investigated through two main studies, firstly through a multi case study design, with four non-popular English sports. This study took a bottom-up approach, in which 32 interviews were undertaken primarily with the VSCs (n=25), the delivery agents of the participation objective, then additionally with NGB head office staff (n=7) to investigate their opinions of the legacy implementation process within their sport surrounding the legacy objectives. The significance of investigating these non-popular sports, related to the distinctive opportunity that a home Olympic and Paralympic Games provided them. The second study involved a top-down analysis with NGB senior managers, to gain an insight into how they perceive SMEs and the impact this had on leveraging and implementation strategies, which aimed to increase sports participation. An exploratory, in-depth, mixed method online survey was conducted post London 2012 and 105 responses were received from NGB senior and regional managers. These responses accounted for 37 out of 46 Sport England funded sports producing an extensive representative sample within the sector. This provided a more comprehensive understanding of the sports delivery system and the elements that are involved in legacy production. Results provided new insights into the specific attitudes and significant role that these key stakeholders involved with the legacy production process have, which up to this point has been missing within the academic discourse. Across both studies issues surrounding communication, VSC engagement and attitudes were noted, relating to the importance of building partnerships at both a national and local level and the benefits of social media as a leveraging strategy. Principally, NGBs need to ensure they involve Voluntary Sports Clubs (VSCs) in the SMEs planning stages and the current top-down implementation process is leading to a fragmented delivery system. To limit this, NGBs need to develop a clearer understanding of their VSCs characteristics across their network, as findings highlighted the negative feelings and misuse of some clubs, reducing the efficiency of legacy creation. Thus, by allowing flexibility for informal legacies to emerge and by providing support to VSC stakeholders that may need up-skilling, the SMEs can be capitalised on effectively. Results highlighted that external media had a greater impact on participation and interest, than individual participation programmes for VSCs. Valuable findings emerged throughout the thesis and resulted in beneficial recommendations for future SMEs hosts. Critical Realism (CR) was used as a guiding philosophical perspective to aid understanding and analysis of leveraging and legacy conceptualisation

A new conceptualization of mega sports event legacy delivery: Wicked problems and critical realist solution

The authors present a new conceptualization of mega sport event legacy delivery, which accounts for the problematic nature of legacy by viewing it as a wicked problem. Research on mega sport event legacy has focused on establishing typologies of legacy, investigating outcomes, and consequences, with limited attention to legacy delivery. The conceptualization of legacy delivery has largely relied on a positive, utopian legacy rhetoric. In contrast, the authors advance the understanding of legacy by proposing a conceptual approach of the legacy delivery process, to enable empirical studies in different contexts to be conducted. Specifically, the authors examine the wicked problem of mega sport event legacy delivery from a Critical Realist perspective, which serves to give meaning and order to this complex process. This conceptualization reveals that legacy delivery is inclusive of deep social structures which underpin different stakeholders’ interpretations and interactions, which produce or limit legacy delivery. The role of social, generative structures as causal mechanisms has not been considered as a way to understand legacy delivery previously. Implications for teaching, research, and practice are discussed to demonstrate the value of this new approach. Importantly, this conceptualization focuses on processes rather than outcomes and encourages the identification of unexpected or unanticipated components of legacy delivery beyond the formal policies and plans designed to create or leverage legacy

Leveraging the sport participation legacy of the London 2012 Olympics: Senior managers’ perceptions

The purpose of this study was to understand how a sports mega event (SME) was leveraged to try and increase participation, through the investigation of national governing bodies (NGBs) opinions and atti- tudes. Critical realism (CR) was used as a tool to aid understanding of leveraging and legacy conceptualisation, through an empirical investiga- tion. An extensive, mixed method online survey was conducted post London 2012 with senior staff members of NGBs, the main delivery agent chosen to support the participation initiatives associated with the London 2012 Olympics. This research provides valuable findings surrounding the use of CR as a tool to investigate legacy creation, whilst at the same time offering insights to enhance the policy implementation process within the sports development sector. The importance of com- munication, competitive nature of sports system, media, club engage- ment, organisational capacity and monitoring and evaluation were highlighted, which provided useful insights into the multidimensional constructs that can aid future leveraging strategies prior to hosting SMEs

The Role of Voluntary Sport Organisations in Leveraging the London 2012 Sport Participation Legacy

This study aimed to understand the perceptions of national Voluntary Sport Organisations (VSOs) managers towards a mega sports event and identify the components they felt enhanced or inhibited their organisations capacity to implement a sport participation legacy. London 2012 was the first Olympic Games to explicitly attempt to deliver this type of legacy, and an exploratory, online mixed-method survey examined the perceptions of 105 senior managers from 37 VSOs, post-event. Principal Component Analysis identified four distinct factors: ‘objectives, standards & resources’, ‘event capitalisation & opportunities’, ‘monitoring & evaluation’ and ‘club engagement & implementation’, explaining 51.5% of the variance. Also, relevant organisational characteristics such as sport type, funding and sport size were examined to investigate the influence this had on their capacity. From these findings, the main recommendations are that future mega sport event hosts should: 1) Engage and consult with multiple stakeholders to engender sustained sport participation. 2) Set clear and monitorable objectives. 3) Establish funding and support mechanisms relevant to each sport. 4) Engage non-competing sports in the leveraging process. 5) Finally, event organisers should try to ensure personnel consistency

Multiorgan MRI findings after hospitalisation with COVID-19 in the UK (C-MORE): a prospective, multicentre, observational cohort study

Introduction: The multiorgan impact of moderate to severe coronavirus infections in the post-acute phase is still poorly understood. We aimed to evaluate the excess burden of multiorgan abnormalities after hospitalisation with COVID-19, evaluate their determinants, and explore associations with patient-related outcome measures. Methods: In a prospective, UK-wide, multicentre MRI follow-up study (C-MORE), adults (aged ≥18 years) discharged from hospital following COVID-19 who were included in Tier 2 of the Post-hospitalisation COVID-19 study (PHOSP-COVID) and contemporary controls with no evidence of previous COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid antibody negative) underwent multiorgan MRI (lungs, heart, brain, liver, and kidneys) with quantitative and qualitative assessment of images and clinical adjudication when relevant. Individuals with end-stage renal failure or contraindications to MRI were excluded. Participants also underwent detailed recording of symptoms, and physiological and biochemical tests. The primary outcome was the excess burden of multiorgan abnormalities (two or more organs) relative to controls, with further adjustments for potential confounders. The C-MORE study is ongoing and is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04510025. Findings: Of 2710 participants in Tier 2 of PHOSP-COVID, 531 were recruited across 13 UK-wide C-MORE sites. After exclusions, 259 C-MORE patients (mean age 57 years [SD 12]; 158 [61%] male and 101 [39%] female) who were discharged from hospital with PCR-confirmed or clinically diagnosed COVID-19 between March 1, 2020, and Nov 1, 2021, and 52 non-COVID-19 controls from the community (mean age 49 years [SD 14]; 30 [58%] male and 22 [42%] female) were included in the analysis. Patients were assessed at a median of 5·0 months (IQR 4·2–6·3) after hospital discharge. Compared with non-COVID-19 controls, patients were older, living with more obesity, and had more comorbidities. Multiorgan abnormalities on MRI were more frequent in patients than in controls (157 [61%] of 259 vs 14 [27%] of 52; p<0·0001) and independently associated with COVID-19 status (odds ratio [OR] 2·9 [95% CI 1·5–5·8]; padjusted=0·0023) after adjusting for relevant confounders. Compared with controls, patients were more likely to have MRI evidence of lung abnormalities (p=0·0001; parenchymal abnormalities), brain abnormalities (p<0·0001; more white matter hyperintensities and regional brain volume reduction), and kidney abnormalities (p=0·014; lower medullary T1 and loss of corticomedullary differentiation), whereas cardiac and liver MRI abnormalities were similar between patients and controls. Patients with multiorgan abnormalities were older (difference in mean age 7 years [95% CI 4–10]; mean age of 59·8 years [SD 11·7] with multiorgan abnormalities vs mean age of 52·8 years [11·9] without multiorgan abnormalities; p<0·0001), more likely to have three or more comorbidities (OR 2·47 [1·32–4·82]; padjusted=0·0059), and more likely to have a more severe acute infection (acute CRP >5mg/L, OR 3·55 [1·23–11·88]; padjusted=0·025) than those without multiorgan abnormalities. Presence of lung MRI abnormalities was associated with a two-fold higher risk of chest tightness, and multiorgan MRI abnormalities were associated with severe and very severe persistent physical and mental health impairment (PHOSP-COVID symptom clusters) after hospitalisation. Interpretation: After hospitalisation for COVID-19, people are at risk of multiorgan abnormalities in the medium term. Our findings emphasise the need for proactive multidisciplinary care pathways, with the potential for imaging to guide surveillance frequency and therapeutic stratification

Landscapes of tension, tribalism and toxicity: configuring a spatial politics of esport communities

Proliferation of esport has created a complex landscape of participants, communities, organisations and investors. With alluring lucrative economic, social and political incentives, the crowded esport commons have become a site of rich resource for varied interests, yet also a locale of idea sharing, community production, and collective action. Notwithstanding advantageous outcomes for some stakeholders, esport has also become a space of turbulent tribal relations, exclusion, marginalisation, and inequalities. Such issues precipitate the need for closer examination of esport spaces, relations within these communities, and the underlying ideological and moral conditions thereof. Drawing on spatial theory, and utilising data from 16 semi-structured interviews and 3 focus groups (n = 65) with key esport stakeholders, this research explored current experiences of identity and esport community membership. Our investigation focussed on esport and explored the ideological grounding, current practices and tensions present within esport communities

Managing sport and leisure in the era of Covid-19 [Editorial]

Managing sport and leisure in the era of Covid-1