Creating, Deploying and Resisting Meaning in New Zealand Public Sport Policy
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POWER, POLITICS AND POLICY: CREATING, DEPLOYING AND RESISTING MEANING IN NEW ZEALAND PUBLIC SPORT POLICY Joe Piggin A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy At the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS An enormous thank you must go to Prof. Steve Jackson and Dr. Malcolm Lewis for being consistently superb supervisors. Thank you for your guidance and support throughout. Malcolm, I hope it was not this thesis that inspired you to retire! Thank you to my friends and colleagues at Otago University for your intellectual stimulation and support over the years. In my undergraduate years (and this is the short list) thank you to Dan, Nic, Pete, Ash, Dean, Rob, Sam, Kim, Jo, Megan, Hannah, Jen, Maz, Susan, Miriam, Sue, and Matt. In the post-graduate years thanks to Tash, Claire, Farah, Mike, Jay, Scott, Paul, Brendan, Chris, Chris, Kyle, Alex for your own unique impact upon me. Thank you to my friends and colleagues at Unitec including Trev, Jude, Nicki, Tracey, Andy, Sue, Deb, Tracey, Anna, Margaret, Paul, Gray, Dan, Rob, Kat, Nikki, Lesley, Rex, and Sam for your collegiality, support and encouragement. Thank you to the various reviewers of journal articles produced from this thesis for their generous and constructive feedback. Thank you to all the research participants who took part in this research. Your input has been tremendously appreciated. Thank you to brothers and sisters Rach, Tess, Olly and Tim for being simultaneously proud of my undertaking of a PhD while having little to no idea what it was about. And of course Dad and Yvonne and Mum and David for all your support. Thank you to Mikki who helped in many, many ways. i ABSTRACT All policy involves the transmission of language and ideas and therefore power. Public sport and recreation policy, through which millions of tax dollars are allocated and which disseminates knowledge and understandings about sport and recreation, is one arena where power relations are constantly formed, reformed and challenged. To understand more about the exercise of power in New Zealand sport and recreation policy, this research examines the dissemination and challenge of policies written by Sparc (Sport and Recreation New Zealand), the organisation responsible for public sport and recreation policy in New Zealand. Three questions were used to understand the exercise of power in New Zealand public policy. These questions included: How is knowledge about sport and recreation produced and disseminated through public policy? How is ‘the truth’ about sport and recreation proclaimed and constructed in public policy? How can individuals affected by sport and recreation policy challenge existing relations of power? Theoretically, this research draws on Foucauldian conceptions about power, knowledge, truth and the self. Foucault argued that individuals and groups exercise power discursively, by promoting and deploying certain dominant discourses (or understandings) to the exclusion of other (subjugated) knowledges. As such, the way in which individuals within a society understand knowledge, truth and the self is governed by dominant discourses, and is continually formed discursively over time. Discourses are deployed through a variety of means, including the writing, implementation and resistance of public policy. Methodologically, the thesis merges Foucault’s archaeological and genealogical approaches to studying discourses. Further, it is guided by a critical discourse analysis, which enables the researcher to question the assumptions behind policy discourses. Data is gathered from various sources, including policy documents, public debate over policy, media articulations of policy and interviews with individuals involved in the writing and resistance of public policy. This research highlights four distinct practices (or techniques) that illustrate how power is exercised in public sport and recreation policy. These techniques include an ii analysis of bio-power, techniques used to analyse, control, and define the body; governmentality, which dictates the range of possible actions of individuals and citizens; games of truth, through which ‘the truth’ is part of a constant discursive debate; and parrhesia, a practice through which citizens can lessen the effect of dominant discourses on their lives. These practices are analysed through specific case studies within the discursive terrain of public sport and recreation policy. With each case study both theoretical considerations and practical suggestions for policy making are offered. Four findings are discussed. Firstly, public policy can discursively and problematically construct understandings of the world through policy goals and measurements. Secondly, the thesis suggests that while public sport and recreation policy is often defended by policy makers as scientific and rational, its writing and implementation is formed by a number of other understandings which cannot be reconciled with the espoused, positivist logic. Thirdly, the thesis suggests that because policy writing is an ongoing process, and because of changing social conditions, ‘the truth’ about particular policies is also susceptible to change. Fourthly, despite protestors of public policy often believing their resistance is in vain, this study suggests that their efforts do appear to influence the subsequent writing of policy. The research concludes with reflections about the problematic discursive effects of public policy as well as a consideration of the potential for groups and individuals to challenge or resist understandings about sport and recreation which they do not agree with. In turn, it offers recommendations about the future development of sport public policy, as well as a reflection of this particular type of research approach used. Finally, using this research as a pivot point, sites for future research are considered. In particular, an examination of the effect of public policy on individuals’ lived experiences (as distinct from communities or nations) might be of interest, as would an investigation of effects of global discourses about sport, recreation and physical activity on national public policy. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ABSTRACT ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 Background: Sport and Recreation New Zealand 1 Purpose 4 Research Questions 6 Thesis Plan 7 Key concepts / terms 8 CHAPTER 2: THE NEW ZEALAND SPORT POLICY CONTEXT 10 What is Policy? 10 The Discursive Terrain of New Zealand Sport Policy 12 Debating Sport Policy 13 The (Difficult) Birth of Sparc 16 Uses of Sport in Public Policy 22 Neo-liberalism and New Zealand 23 Neo-liberalism and New Zealand Sport Policy 25 Selling the change 29 Resistance / Protest 33 CHAPTER 3: THEORETICAL GROUNDING 34 Studying Power Relations 34 The Various Meanings and Analyses of ‘Discourse’ 38 A Foucauldian Approach to Discourse 40 A Critical Approach to Policy Analysis 44 Reconciling ‘Critical’ Analysis and Foucault 48 Policy discourse research 48 iv CHAPTER 4: METHODS 53 Archaeology 54 Genealogy 56 Methodological Considerations 57 Critical Discourse Analysis 58 Uniting Texts and Power Relations 59 Data Collection and Analysis 61 Guiding Questions for Analysis 64 Data Collection Techniques 65 Policy Analysis 65 Interviews 65 Observations 66 Media Analysis 66 Reflexive Journal 67 CHAPTER 5: CLASSIFY, DIVIDE AND CONQUER: SHAPING PHYSICAL ACTIVITY DISCOURSE THROUGH NATIONAL SPORT POLICY 69 Chapter Purpose 72 Theoretical Approach: Classifying and Dividing Practices 72 Research Approach 73 Nationalism as Biopower 75 Constructing the Nation 76 Analysis 78 Classifying in National Public Policy 78 Dividing in National Public Policy 80 Conquering: The International Physical Activity Questionnaire 81 Discussion 85 Conclusion 86 Postscript 86 v CHAPTER 6: PROBLEMS WITH POSITIVISM: TURNING ‘EVIDENCE- BASED’ RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE 88 Chapter Purpose 89 Theoretical framework: Governmentality 90 The State and Governmentality 90 Sources of Knowledge in Public Policy 94 Research approach 95 Analysis 96 Policy Informed by Evidence. 96 Understanding Through Market Research 97 Problems with Positivism 99 Managing the Problems: Ignoring the Data 101 Deference to Sporting Knowledge 102 Uncontrollable understandings 104 Discussion 107 Conclusion 110 CHAPTER 7: GAMES OF TRUTH AT THE GAMES OF WOE: A FOUCAULDIAN ANALYSIS OF TRUTH CONSTRUCTION AT THE COMMONWEALTH GAMES 112 Chapter Purpose 113 Theoretical Approach 114 Games of Truth 114 Historicising Truth 116 Transparency 119 Research Approach 121 Analysis 122 Sites of Truth Games 122 Agency 123 Measurement Systems 125 Roles 127 vi Goals 130 Voices 133 Discussion 137 Conclusion 141 Postscript 142 CHAPTER 8: DISCOURSE OF DISSENT 143 Chapter Purpose 144 Theoretical Framework 145 Technologies of the Self 141 The Insurrection of Subjugated Knowledges 147 Parrhesia as a Practice of the Self 150 Research Approach 151 Analysis 153 The Parrhesiastic Context: A Climate of Fear 153 Parrhesiatic Protestors of Public Policy - Their Own Discourse Analysis 158 The Effect of Public Protest: Is Resistance Futile? 163 Sparc’s Response 164 The Effects of Public Protest: The Toll on the Individual 168 Discussion 169 Conclusion 172 CHAPTER 9: CONCLUSION 173 Setting Sport Policy Today 174 Reflections on the Research Process 177 Sites for Future Research 178 Applying the Research 179 REFERENCES 182 APPENDICES 201 vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Those who exercise power through language must constantly be involved in struggle with others to defend their position.