The impact of austerity on the London 2012 Summer Olympics participation legacy from a grassroots sports club perspective: an institutional logics approach

This study explores the impact of austerity on the London 2012 Summer
Olympics participation legacy from a grassroots sports club perspective,
utilising institutional theory. The study adopted a mixed methods approach
including semi-structured interviews with 11 stakeholders involved in grassroots
sport alongside a review of key policy documentation (n = 8) and
relevant literature. In keeping with the institutional logics perspective, these
data were analysed in order to understand the impact of austerity on the
sport participation legacy from the London 2012 Summer Olympics. The
main findings of this study evidence mechanisms by which austerity policies,
such as cuts in welfare and local government funding, have impacted
sports provision at the grassroots sports club level. A shift towards a market
logic at the society level induced, through the theorisation of austerity
and cuts in the resource environment, the development of institutional
contradictions at the field level that in turn, impacted operations at the
grassroots sports club level. This study demonstrates that there is
a fundamental contradiction between austerity and securing participation
objectives in relation to the hosting of mega-events such as the Olympic
Games, as mechanisms that support this increase (sport participation programmes, funding, etc.) are often reduced or eliminated.