University of Tasmania, Australia

Mr Paul Muller

Graduate Research Candidate

Contact Details

Project title: The Value of Sport and Recreation

Abstract
Sport and recreation is now more than a business it is an industry. For that reason, the economic consequences of such activity is an ever expanding field of commercial, public and academic enquiry. If this research is to be criticised, however, it is for its narrow focus. Sport and physical recreation intuitively provides benefits that exceed pure economic gain.

Nevertheless, there is a tendency in academia to consider any benefit of sport and recreation than is not directly economic to be a social capital gain. This has the unfortunate practical consequence of either glossing over potential indirect or tertiary economic consequences of activity, or making the value of sport argument too philosophical to have significant policy application. Moreover, stand alone research into, for example, the medium-term health advantages to society of sport and physical recreation, while highly valued, is not properly integrated into the policy debate.

It appears, then, that a cohesive appreciation of the value of sport and physical recreation is frustrated by the missing link conundrum. The essential question asked by this research is how can the gap between runaway economic imperative and social synergy be bridged and for whose profit?

Keywords
Sport, recreation, value, social capital, policy, innovation.