Title: Institutional changes and transformations in an organisational field: the case of the public/private 'model' of French sport

Authors: Emmanuel Bayle

Addresses: Lyon 1 Universite CRIS (EA 647), 27/29 boulevard du 11 novembre 1918, 69 622 Villeurbanne cedex, France

Abstract: Using a neo-institutional lens, this paper analyses the formation and evolution of the procedures, norms and conventions – both official and unofficial – of the French approach to managing sport. In the 1960s and 1970s, a centralising model for the public service was hegemonic, implying government direction of national sport governing bodies (private entities with a voluntary status) and guaranteeing the institutional stability necessary for the implementation of government policies. In the 1980s and 1990s – in the context of the decentralisation of public policy, European Union policy developments and the globalisation and commercialisation of sport and leisure – the arrival of new actors with different values in the organisational field of French sport entailed a crisis of regulation. A new institutional balance has emerged around the idea of co-regulation. This has led to the implementation of multi-level and multi-polar governance, but has not been transformational for the French sport model itself.

Keywords: organisational change; control; delegation; public service mission; legitimacy; neo-institutional approach; new public management; non-profit organisations; NPOs; regulation; co-regulation; sport management; strategy; France; public policy; public-private partnerships; cross-sector collaboration; voluntary sector; governance; decision making.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPP.2005.007798

International Journal of Public Policy, 2005 Vol.1 No.1/2, pp.185 - 211

Published online: 19 Sep 2005 *

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