Bridging, Bonding and Linking: Assessing a Running Club's Contribution to Social Capital and Community Participation

My conceptualization centres on community sports clubs as operators in the spread of social capital. Putnam’s Bowling Alone (1995) sparked these thoughts, linking the demise of team sports, in favour of individual ones,¹ with declining social capital, manifested through decreased civic participation. Using a West Belfast athletics team, this study examines the extent to which sport clubs build social capital, and how it is achieved. The essay first establishes the theoretical context of social capital and introduces the particular complexities of the region, the sport and the club through a short history. Discussions of access, ethics and methodology precede a review of research findings with reference to the social capital indicators and outcomes established by the literature. Concluding with an assessment of the successes and limitations of the study and, correspondingly, those of a sports club’s contribution to social capital, it reveals the club has accumulated social capital but is limited by resources. However, these limitations magnify the achievements, its impact suggestive of the privileged position enjoyed by athletics clubs as distributors of social capital. The club is in a period of transition and, while the study would doubtless have benefited from a longitudinal approach there were nonetheless illuminating discoveries relating to the potency of social networks.

Relevance of Literature, and Theoretical Development

Inspired by Putnam’s linkage of declining social capital and decreasing participation in sports teams², this study pursues explanations as to why and how sports clubs serve as sources of social capital. A running club seemed perfectly placed to probe this topic. A stereotypically individual sport, any popularity in running clubs belies the mythology of ‘The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner’  and implies that people pursue companionship, perhaps convinced that they function better with it. Social capital derived from membership in a running club is perfectly suited to demonstrating what social capital is considered instrumental in achieving; that is, expanding the relevance of individuals. It ‘refocuses analysis from individual behaviour to a matrix of relations…’³, ultimately transplanting the micro of individual values and familial bonds into the macro of cross-community governance and legislative institutions in order to more successfully identify and achieve shared goals.⁴

The club I chose appeared uniquely ideal. A running club founded in West Belfast during the Troubles (a strongly Republican community⁵, during the 1970s and 80s, at war) and capable of surviving could present a compelling case for the profundity of social capital and this argument: sports clubs serve as vital sources of social capital which strengthen cohesion in communities and individuals gravitate towards such sources, particularly during periods of stress and community isolation, because they recognise their necessity.

Having begun with Putnam, I will outline the literature platform employed to crystallize research questions and better inform and justify my methodology. My first challenge was reaching a satisfactory definition of social capital; there was an element of personal interpretation since a single definition was elusive. In the ‘Report on Research into Evaluating Community-Based and Voluntary Activity in Northern Ireland’ and ‘The Well-Being of Nations: The Role of Human and Social Capital’ I encountered four; those of anthropology, sociology, economics and political sciences.⁶⁷ I favoured the sociological definition that social capital is composed of ‘…features of social life – networks, norms, and trust - that enable participants to act together more effectively to pursue shared objectives… Social capital, in short, refers to social connections and the attendant norms.’⁸

Three components of social capital were further explicated in the aforementioned sources, synthesised with ‘Social Capital, Collectivism-Individualism and Community Background in Northern Ireland’⁹, ‘Revitalizing Civil Society through Social Capital Formation in Faith Based-Organizations: research findings from Northern Ireland’¹⁰ and ‘Toolkit to Measure Added Value of Voluntary and Community Based Activity’¹¹, to provide these summaries:

Bonding capital are networks present and institutionalized in one’s known community. Outcomes are ‘empowerment’, ‘infrastructure’ and ‘connectedness’.

Bridging capital are networks established with previously unknown communities. Outcomes are ‘engagement’, ‘accessibility’ and ‘innovation’.

Linking capital is the degree to which networks have scaled hierarchy and resource channels. Outcomes are ‘resources’ and ‘influence’¹².

Segregation alone doesn’t engender trust and solidarity within a community. Northern Ireland is a society of ‘individual strangers’.¹³

Despite being less explicitly social capital-related ‘Charity Begins at Home: How Socialization Experiences Influence Giving and Volunteering’¹⁴ developed perspectives on generational handover of social capital, educating the next generation in collectivist norms. ‘It’s All About Time: Volunteering in Northern Ireland’¹⁵ provided further relevant elaboration. Volunteering, which proved more central to my study than I had anticipated, was a common thread throughout the literature; indicative of conscientious civic responsibility it’s considered a preponderant indicator of social capital¹⁶ i.e. ‘the “bridging” work of voluntary and community organisations .’¹⁷

Durlauf is sceptical; ‘In much of Bowling Alone social capital is defined functionally: when social groups exhibit ‘‘good behaviours,’’ social capital is present.’¹⁸ He highlights potentially negative implications of social capital, from which I extrapolated relevance to Northern Ireland, ‘Identification with one’s country, and the attendant loyalties it induces towards other citizens, can act to bridge different ethnic groups within a country while in the same way bonding citizens in a way that increases hostility to foreigners.’¹⁹ This theme is present in Social Capital, Collectivism-Individualism, which fears one interpretation of social capital enables consolidation of existing power groups, an issue that would harden community divides.²⁰ Indeed, ‘defining what is ‘good’ social capital at a community level in Northern Ireland, for instance, could be problematic in the context of our ethnically divided society.’²¹ Social capital must be a progressive concept and today aid cross-community bridging and linking capital, the broad-based interests of the communities. All three sources assert that social capital indicators are guidelines. In Northern Ireland variables such as trust in governance need to be weighted against history.²² The literature convinced me that flexibility in any application of social capital is necessary.

Useful from a comparative and methodological standpoint was ‘Social Positioning and the Construction of a Youth Sports Club’. The two authors spent a year studying a UK athletics club. The organizational contrasts between our respective clubs were stark but we both recognized the need for ethnographic methodologies, including participant observation, interviews, and ‘thick description’ fleshing out rigorous write-ups²³. As an informative guideline, their research also established the following normative membership stereotypes:

Athletes are either ‘Samplers’ (emphasis on non-competitive playing) or ‘Beginning Specializers’ (around 13 it is suggested that drivers of participation shift to competition).

Parents are Non-attenders, Spectators, Helpers or Committed Members.

While quantitative analysis can provide supportive figures, the only way to explain and understand the ambiguous processes underlying the formation of social capital is to see the processes in action, locate their genesis, and trace their evolution while discerning the meanings ascribed²⁴ by actors. Fundamental reliance on qualitative methods, therefore, underscores my research. It is stressed:

‘The use of this scale needs to be fleshed out with other, more qualitative methods, such as the use of case studies and “thick descriptions, ”and reference to macro-social indicators…’ ²⁵

Methods

Context and Background

Gap AC has its roots in the Gap Leisure Centre in the Lower Falls, a deprived area of West Belfast.  Ciaran, former international bronze medallist, explained the club now identifies itself more with a Leisure Centre in the Upper Falls (less deprived, but the same political profile as Gap). The Upper and Lower Falls are bridged by two graveyards, home to numerous Republican martyrs, including the Hunger Strikers. The club relocated in the 1990s owing to anti-social behaviour threatening the youth team. Like every other club in Belfast, though, it trains at Mary Peters Track²⁶, Northern Ireland’s athletics Mecca. Located in the more affluent South Belfast area, Mary Peters is a neutral space in Northern Ireland terms i.e. accessible to both communities.

Gap AC emerged from an amicable split with a pre-existing club – Trident - a club founded in the 1970s by teachers in a local Catholic secondary school in Upper Falls, who recruited colleagues and friends. Trident was limited in geographic scope but massively successful at short-term recruiting of a concentrated crop of talent. A tight-knit network was formed, but with no effort to recruit a second generation Trident lasted little more than a decade. During 1982-1983 Arthur decided to start a club in his own particular area i.e. Gap AC. Gap was healthy through the mid-80s, an enthusiastic and vigorous community presence, even going so far as to distribute a newsletter to local homes. From the 1990s to mid-2000s Gap survived largely through the efforts of one committed individual, Anthony.

The club was sustained in this period by associations established with local schools, notably an all-girls comprehensive in the Andersonstown area of West Belfast. Ciaran, a teenager in the 1990s, noted how turnouts at the outset were massive, a task planted exclusively on Anthony’s shoulders. It couldn’t last. Ciaran admits that, owing to a combination of ‘laziness and injuries’, even he, a future international medallist, drifted away. Describing this era, Ciaran echoes Stephen, another adult member: ‘Anthony is Gap’. But, exclusive reliance on this ‘committed volunteer’²⁷ ensured that the club’s existence was by the end of the 90s, in Ciaran’s own words, ‘hanging by a piece of string’.

The club evidently has strong associations with the area. When the Belfast Marathon was recently re-routed to exclude West Belfast, Gap’s Stephen was the local track-man that newspapers turned to for comment. The athlete and coach claimed to speak for the local community when he expressed his disgust at the decision.

Two stories I heard were particularly powerful in illustrating the fractious, turbulent nature of both the period and the area that the club grew out of. Characteristically soft-spoken, Frank, parent of two of the children, who has since taken on a role as supervisor/trainer for the youngest kids, explained that, at 21, he was burning cars. Things changed when he took up boxing, and his new-found focus culminated in a spot at a major international games. He doesn’t run (‘I’ve had enough pain’) and began helping out once his kids joined.

Declan entered athletics at 21, when he found a girlfriend and wanted to build fitness and self-confidence. Until that point he considered his lifestyle best expressed through an anecdote wherein himself and friends antagonized the local squad cars that used to stake out the area by throwing rocks, culminating with him being shot in the forehead with a plastic bullet. Taking to athletics with vigour, he ran five miles in 24 minutes. He, too, has children in the club and helps out. West Belfast has a natural association with religion and republicanism. But maybe sport offered an alternative, more progressive form of civic participation.

Access

My participant observation commenced just before returning to Warwick for spring term. I knew Anthony from my running days²⁸; then Gap consisted of 3 males and about 6 girls; Anthony was the only adult we saw. Nervously I looked up Anthony’s number and phoned. To account for nerves I wrote a script so that I could make it clear what I was looking for. While I mentioned social capital, I stressed to Anthony that I wanted to ‘tell the story of the club’. He sounded flattered, offering to arrange for 5 or 6 people to speak to me when I returned. He gave me his e-mail address and, shortly after, I followed up with an e-mail outlining my research goals which Anthony promised to distribute so that interviewees could prepare (Appendix A). As explained below, henceforth interviews were not scripted.

Data Collection

I attended spring trainings and learned the club schedule. Training was on Tuesday evenings and Saturday mornings at the track. Thursday evenings the Leisure centre is the starting point for a run around the local area. There was no fixed racing pattern, with the exception of several prestigious events during the Cross-Country and Track seasons, both of which were winding down during the respective time-periods of my study.

The first Tuesday evening I noticed numbers had multiplied beyond recognition; there were 25-30 kids at the track, and four adult co-ordinators on hand. Anthony, spotting Stephen and Anne, quickly offered me the chance to arrange interviews. Stephen runs for Gap but creams off the best talent as a multi-affiliated coach.  Anne has been running with Gap from age twelve. She is now nineteen or twenty, and trains with Stephen’s group, having grown out of people to run with in Gap.

With no adults for company and keen to ensure that, down the line, I would be able to hold pace, I set off for my own run. The scale of my participation would have been limited by any inability to keep up. I have run on-off, and unstructured, for two years.  In the lead-up to my return to Belfast I had been running a little with Warwick Athletics and a friend to get in shape. I heard the best subjects have something to keep you engaged; that something was the motivation necessary to get back in racing shape again.

Saturday morning interviews were arranged for 9.30 before 10am training. A youth meet was in progress on the track and I wandered awkwardly until 9.50 when I noticed Stephen surrounded by 3 or 4 young female athletes. He was amiable, explaining he had forgotten about our meeting. I found him intimidating, and thought he’d find me inconvenient but, having told him I was looking for an informal chat about his role, he was happy to talk. I knew what topics I wanted to cover. I wanted the conversation to be organic, with only subtle guidance. I scrawled short-hand notes. Part of my anxiety stemmed from my belief that Stephen had his own operation, was busy and didn’t want the bother. But he gave me his phone number and, as a bonus, he spotted Ciaran and introduced us. As a favour Ciaran and two other runners were supervising the track. We chatted over tea.

The summer phase of my study differed on account of developing a training partner in Alan. Owing to Alan’s unreliability, I often found myself with time to tag along on runs with Treebeard, who supervises the youth team. With July taking its toll on the turnout, he was free to accompany me. Long runs, often conducted at ‘conversational pace’, were ideal. However, I relied on memory for these encounters-maybe for an hour or two before I had an opportunity to write them up. Recording devices would have felt obtrusive, formal and inappropriate. As a result field-notes and journal merged. The Mary Peters track was a blessing, offering opportunities to chat to runners during warm-ups, warm-downs etc, the whole Northern Irish track world situated within 400m.

This phase also placed greater emphasis on participant observation - informal interactions rather than scheduled sit-downs. I found that often people would start talking about fascinating, totally relevant details, relaying the story of the club without any prompting, making me feel guilty, compelling me to say, ‘This is so fascinating. Has Anthony told you about this sociology project I am doing? This would be really useful information’. And Anthony had. But I tried not to take informed consent for granted. On another occasion, David ran past me during a workout and said ‘Anthony told me about that project you are working on. Get my number off him and we can talk about it’. Others, like Alan, would talk at length about anything and everything, and could occasionally be re-directed to more relevant topics. My natural interest in the glory years permeated discussions with the older members, encouraging nostalgic story-telling.

Through these personal narratives, I established a club narrative, supplemented with web research - surprisingly fertile ground, including: blogs, results, news articles and sites for administrative bodies. Gap’s absence from official listing coupled with the informal nature of the networks displayed proved the participant observation more valid.

By summer I realised that the important people were those who maintained active ties with the club and with the sport; if they didn’t show up, they were of limited interest. I knew there to be tangential members with a strong connection to Gap who rarely appeared. These tangential members are an expansion of the roles explored by the Social Positioning study. It refers to members who maintain ties with the club and intersect at key moments. Many had their own schedules to keep, with participation confined to wearing the Gap vest on the rare occasions they competed. One such occasion was the marathon relay, the week after I returned to Warwick. During the course of my study Peter left, at his wife’s behest. The only concrete, ever-present component of the club was thus the youth team. Although my focus was on the motivations of the senior club members, I gained an appreciation that, these days, everything was an offshoot of youth membership.

Analysis

Ahead of the write-up I collated my journal entries into a narrative, which I colour-coded to develop conceptual threads that could be assessed in tandem with my thematically arranged literature reviews. This method was similar to that employed in the Youth Sports Club study:

‘…labels were attached to the segments and all text segments that related to a specific category or theme were sorted accordingly. Similar to the constant comparative method of generating grounded theory…the data were reviewed repeatedly and continually coded, and similarities and differences, groupings, patterns and items of particular significance were sought…’²⁹

Reflections

Concerns identified:

Delays in writing up material caused by inability to write while running may have compromised accuracy of accounts.

Proximity to gatekeeper may have enabled preconceptions.

Athletics background may have enabled preconceptions.

Oral narratives may introduce bias and/or selective memory.

Role of gatekeeper in defining club may have skewed emphasis on youth aspect.

Risk Management:

Sought permission, outlined purpose of research. Achieved informed consent.

Clarification was pursued when uncertain about accuracy.

Efforts to ensure anonymity, includes use of pseudonyms.

Withheld interpretations that could not be satisfactorily vetted within time-frame.

Did not interview youth members.

Research Findings

Bonding, Bridging and Linking

Religion and politics may be a driving force of the past; only twice did members mention religion. On both occasions the topic was dismissed by the group, and suggestions of extremism ridiculed. Segregation and subsequent geographic isolation likely influenced earliest club uptake, exclusively centred on West Belfast  and emerging from a Catholic school. Religion was therefore indirectly influential. Rebuttal of significance of religion suggests innovation and progressive group understanding of bridging precepts. ‘Bad’ social capital is rightly being eroded. Stephen has a strong affiliation with another local club who are noted for their inclusive, progressive attitude. There were no rivalries on religious grounds. No club was even identified in such terms. Indeed, athletes compete in both the Northern Irish and the Irish Championships. Political participation is crucial to Putnam’s conception of social capital outcomes³⁰, but politics was mentioned only once, a cynical reference to backhanders financing a bridge in rural Donegal.

Gap developed because a local runner, well-established within his network, wanted a club situated within his own community. Ciaran generally competed for Ireland, but competed for Northern Ireland at certain meets. Yet, when talking of his international bronze he always referred to having won it as a Gap athlete. Identity was therefore found to ally more definitively with community rather than religious or political affiliation. Moreover, the construction of non-linear, flexible identities is indicative of club facilitation of bridging capital.

The success of previous incarnations ensured the club left an imprint across Ireland and beyond. Races are scattered throughout the country, and even on a continental level. Gap’s presence therefore transcended immediate community and introduced bridging capital. One athlete that Treebeard mentioned was a multiple-winner of the Marrakesh Marathon. Stephen is coaching an international games contender.

Gap has moved almost exclusively and pro-actively in the direction of youth recruitment. Affiliation with local schools was the first stage in this, and continues to be the primary source of accessibility. New membership arrived and multiplied from Southside Grammar School. Among these members, a mother who is a local primary school teacher has contributed heavily to youth teams by promoting Gap. Treebeard, who joined along with three of his children, shared the load and re-energized the project. At the same time, allegiance with local all-girls comprehensive was revived, in part due to Anne.

Participation in the athletics network has, for some, been empowering. Having joined through the supervisor of his apprenticeship, Stephen has increasingly treated athletics as a full-time job. Ciaran is a physiotherapist and personal trainer with strong ties to the sports institute and a client list formed primarily from contacts made over the course of his athletics career. When Alan developed an injury he went to Ciaran for physiotherapy, who seemed to provide the service for free, or at least a token fee. Networks have leveraged resources and skill sets across the generations, feeding back into the present club. Similarly, Anne has gone on to university to study sports sciences, as is the case with many of the top local athletes, some of whom have been able to obtain performance-related scholarships to the UK and America. More subtly, affiliated schools highlight epicentre expansion and socio-economic bridging, cracking into prosperous South Belfast. Some older members have also relocated, all the way to Donegal in two instances. Treebeard and David provided accommodation in their Donegal holiday homes. A joint project was proposed. The club is accumulating resources.

Anthony, recently retired, worked for the local council. A source of linking capital, his contacts lever use of a mini-van for travel. Very few people in West Belfast went to university in Anthony’s era, but he put himself through night classes and ascended the ladder, working for the council for his entire career. All the other adults who mentioned occupation were tradesmen. Treebeard’s plumbers’ van was also used for transport. Alan, in contrast, having just become self-employed, experienced difficulties finding work. On one occasion, however, he received employment from someone familiar to Paul and himself through running.

Northern Ireland doesn’t have a big-enough running scene to ensure top runners have people at their level to train with. Consequently, devolved groups have developed, such as that fronted by Stephen. Ciaran explained that he was always a Gap athlete, but the best athletes have to train together, irrespective of club allegiances and networking always has, and likely always will, work this way. When his sprinting potential was realized, Anthony relayed him to the more sprint-specific coach of another team, while still competing for Gap.

Mary Peter’s track therefore has a decisive sphere of influence. Due to this centralization Mary Peter’s increases scale of networks and bonding capital. This was in evidence when Ciaran and two other non-Gap athletes voluntarily supervised the track. Moreover the track is microcosmic, with role definition and diversity emerging to increase access to resources. One day, Treebeard had a nasty reaction to a bee sting. Fortunately, the club knew two doctors who were at the track and provided medical counsel.

Competition and the Pursuit of Collectivism: Belying ‘Individual Strangers’

Beginning with the Marathon relay I noticed a desire among the membership to construct teams. There was a gravitational pull; teams attract even the strays. In the run-up to the Donegal race, discussion revolved around the opportunity to enter teams and whether Gap had the numbers. Earlier Alan had asked me if I had any interest in running a 10k relay as his team-mate³¹. On another occasion, Alan attempted to race in secret because he wasn’t in shape. The secret was blown when he wore the free t-shirt from his race at the next training session. He didn’t even run that day; he just came for the company. Often, efforts were made to co-ordinate workouts as team by exchanging pace-making duties and streaming abilities.

In contrast, Treebeard, whose name derives from a youth spent running cross-country, talked about the intensity of his old training groups. Their workouts were designed by the coach to ensure that running through the pain barrier was something you took for granted week-in week-out. Each weekend you raced. Hard. Alan had discussed Treebeard’s old times with awe, including his 30-minute-flat 10k. Darren didn’t even think it was possible for a human to break 30 and was incredulous when I told him the world record was 26. It suggested that running needn’t be an all-consuming obsession, he evidently didn’t follow it closely or gauge performance benchmarks; it was just something to get you out of the house. And better do that with a team than by yourself.

Gap raced once during the course of my study and it was more a weekend break than competition, to the extent that it coincided with a local festival. So much pre-departure discussion focussed on the prospect of fairgrounds. Tellingly, for this Donegal race, Darren elected to run with the seniors rather than an under-age category where he probably would have won a prize. Participation trumped competition.

Anthony’s last competitive race was approximately 20 years ago. A group of senior males who were short a member asked him to fill out their relay team for the 4*400. Clearly, Anthony’s persistence with the club stems not from competitiveness.

Bureaucratic Presence, Informal Social Networks Mediate Micro and Macro

Gap is not like most clubs; it has no website, is not listed on the Athletics Northern Ireland website of certified clubs, and doesn’t collect membership fees. It raises funds through bag-packs at local supermarkets, social events and voluntary contributions. Despite not being certified, putting Gap AC down on a race-entry form or track membership entitles you to a discounted rate. Gap survives on name-recognition, social networks accumulated in the past and obstinate member loyalty, irrespective of their present-day involvement. Despite lack of certification, the local marathon appointed one club-member a pace-maker, with his club affiliation billed a qualification. But exclusively social networks are limited and temporal; modernisation and formalisation is necessary. The club issued consent forms for parents to sign before the trip and I also heard discussions about insurance and registration.

Trust

Trust is central to any conception of social capital³². The potency with which athlete-coach relationships can develop is evidenced by the story of one former athlete. Tim had no-one of his ability or dedication to train with. Another Gap athlete, Patrick, an amateur sports masseuse and coach of two fairly high-calibre senior females (one of whom runs for Gap) occasionally coached the youth squad. Tim took to him with reverent, unflinching loyalty, principally because Patrick liked more demanding training sessions. Looking for people to run with, Tim and Anthony contacted St. Leopold’s, a powerhouse athletics club derived from the eponymous boys Catholic grammar and situated in inner-city North Belfast. Tim was assured that he could run with them and was guaranteed a spot on their tour to America. But he had to entrust all coaching responsibility to St. Leopold’s. Unwilling to leave Patrick, the arrangement fell through.

Normalizing Social Responsibility

More than most clubs, and owing to its lack of bureaucratic infrastructure, Gap relies on trust. It is intrinsically linked to the consistent fulfilment of attendant norms in social responsibility. That club values have for so long been defined almost entirely by one person ensures that, in this case, they are more crystallized than might otherwise be the case.

The extent to which normalized club values are entrenched was pivotal in a recent schism arising over a young athlete’s future recounted by Treebeard. One young member demonstrated potential in primary school meets and her family pursued more intense sessions through Patrick. Cautious about over-training, Anthony was insistent that she was doing too much, too soon. Breakaway AC was formed. Having since fallen off the radar, partly due to injuries, they are occasionally referenced, generally with a mischievous tone. Vindicated, Gap’s reflections are nonetheless bitter-sweet. Through competitiveness, Breakaway pursued a single-objective approach rather than the philosophy of all-embracing participation adopted by Gap. The former proved difficult to maintain. The latter helps explain Gap’s survival.

A further example of cohesive club values; the adult members agreed with immediate unanimity to supplement their entry fees with a club donation towards the Donegal race organizers.

Diversity

Girls have always outnumbered boys because, according to Ciaran, boys are lured away by Gaelic Games and football. Girls don’t have such stereotypical niches. However, the original school being all-male, the demographic make-up of the adult team remains overwhelmingly male. Anthony’s ties with local girls’ school have been augmented by more recent associations with mixed-gender schools. However, the trend of female participation is not reflected among the supervisors, all of whom are male. So, on the away trip, one female parent accompanied the group. Diversity among authority is identified as a feature of social capital. Its neglect owes much I suspect to generational discrepancies and societal stereotypes. Lack of female coaching was a feature of the track generally. However, the club has increased accessibility and empowerment by enlisting older youth-team members in coaching programmes. Longer-term, the club seems set for proportional representation.

Generational Discrepancies

The youth club is the only one with tangible infrastructure and is easy to join; it would be very difficult for a senior individual to join without prior involvement. If you only attended training sessions it would be easy to assume there was no senior team. On one occasion, I trained with David. Joining along with his son, the onus was on him to find training partners. This was easier through club networks but when I ran with his training group it was a mish-mash of ages, genders, abilities and club affiliations. The group was centred around David, the other athletes being predominantly personal networks. I didn’t talk much to them, and the majority neither lingered nor were especially well-known to Anthony, Treebeard or any of the Gap supervisors present.

Social aspects were evidently instrumental in attracting membership from the outset. Stephen cited it as his primary reason for participation, while Treebeard fondly recalled that they were ‘a crowd of drunks’ post-race. At the Donegal prize-giving Treebeard, David and myself did indeed visit a bar, with Treebeard buying a round and refusing to take my money. We talked to the winner who was promoting an upcoming race. Treebeard had mentioned how last year he had been delegated supervisor while the other adults went to a pub. This year the social lives of adult and youth membership converged.

Everyone had brought multiple outfits, and post-race got kitted out for a night on the town. The night was largely spent eating sweets, toasties and speculating on burgeoning romances between young athletes. The club is defined by the youth team so completely that adult membership, serving principally as volunteers, is merely a byproduct of it. The club also organises exclusively social events for youth members e.g. activity days. I learned that the club enjoyed another trip to Donegal shortly after. These reinforce connectedness.

The Future

Treebeard said he vowed at the outset to commit to five years of volunteering with the club and has recognized the club’s need to retain athletes within the setup and within the sport through the late-teens, the make-or-break age when participation is most precarious. He is anxious to develop stable training groups that would ensure athletes at this stage had something for them beyond adolescence. Having established himself as an equally-active partner to Anthony (who he described as being ‘set in his ways’) and being responsible for much of the club’s re-invigoration I questioned whether Treebeard would be able to step back, and where it would leave the club if he did.

Conclusions

These past two decades cannot provide any real gauge on what the club’s future holds; Gap’s progress has been limited by only having one pro-active steward. Now that there are several hands-on volunteers, exponential growth would be expected. Further, persistence and the loyalties demonstrated towards a club so lacking in infrastructure were striking. Especially considering that participation in sport is limited by age and physical capacity. So, the extent to which members have remained involved over such long, tumultuous periods illustrate that, though limited in resources, the club is succeeding in its primary objectives.

Ironically, this sports club’s participation in social capital has been facilitated by the club’s lack of competitiveness and a focus on social aspects. Being less formal and regimented demonstrates its desire to focus on strengthening aspects of participants’ social experiences through the medium of sport. The key to consolidation has been identified as friendship. Competition can be a barrier to participation - prospective members may feel intimidated or inadequate, and the time commitment in highly competitive clubs is intense. Exclusively competitive racing demonstrates strain on both parent and child. Dropping a sport is easy, but dropping friends is harder. In this way, my findings are more nuanced than those of the Social Positioning study. The study demonstrates that hard-and-fast labelling of membership adopted by the Social Positioning study may demand a re-assessment³³. Given more time I would like to have investigated channels of consent to pursue a youth-based study oriented around dissecting ‘samplers’ and ‘specializers’ to substantiate the observed group dynamic.

Perhaps as a consequence formal, bureaucratic aspects have been neglected, over-ridden by an accumulation of trust and goodwill. These are temporal, and increasingly being subjugated by legislative necessities. I doubt I could have achieved the access I did in more formal associations. The club’s linking capital remains precarious, unconsolidated, but recent progress has sought to redress these concerns; heart-screening for athletes, coaching badges, first aid courses, pursuit of funding. The bonds of membership for the new generation of supervisors are strong, built on family. If, as Bekkers suggested, volunteering parents do embed civic participation in their children then the long-term future of the club should be stable.³⁴ But, there are question marks over how long Anthony (now retired) and Treebeard, the club’s frontrunners, will stay active. Consequently, this study would have benefited from a more longitudinal approach, most pertinently to examine how a club evolves into a formal structure and consolidates a resource base that truly facilitates self-determination and establishes itself within a macro infrastructure. Moreover, for a more rounded picture, I would have liked to observe the club during racing season.

But, what the study has demonstrated is that sports clubs are far from individualistic and, perhaps more importantly, even a sports club with such limited resource capital can nonetheless succeed in introducing participants to immersive social networks. Irrespective of scale they have the capacity to produce profound, enduring impacts. The centrality of Mary Peter’s Track is one reason why, I suspect, athletics clubs in Northern Ireland have shirked religious affiliations³⁵ and why, whatever, the community background, the sport can serve as a cultural melting pot.³⁶ The original Gap had the social capital to span the entirety of West Belfast. In a fresh context, from a fresh start, and with more fluid community boundaries ³⁷ it now has the platform to bridge indiscriminate social networks across a much wider area.

Bibliography

Bacon, Derek, ‘Revitalizing Civil Society through Social Capital Formation in Faith Based-Organizations: research findings from Northern Ireland’, Fifth Conference of the International Society for Third Sector Research, July 2002, Cape Town.

Bekkers, René, ‘Charity begins at home How socialization experiences influence giving and volunteering’, 34th Arnova Annual Conference, 17th-20th November 2005, Washington DC

Cairns, E., van Til, J., and Williamson, A., (2003) Social Capital, Collectivism-Individualism and Community Background in Northern Ireland.  A report to the Office of the Deputy First Minister and the Head of the Voluntary and Community Unit of the Department for Social Development.  Consulted at: http://www.ofmdfmni.gov.uk/socialcapital.pdf

Department for Social Development, (2006) Toolkit to Measure the Added-Value of Voluntary and Community-Based Activity.  Consulted at: http://www.dsdni.gov.uk/index/voluntary_and_community/vc-publications/vc-guidance.htm.

Durlauf, Stephen N., (2000) Bowling Alone: A Review Essay, Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organization, p.3. Consulted at: http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/econ/archive/wp2029.pdf

Franke, Sandra, (2005) Measurement of Social Capital: Reference Document for Public Policy Research, Development, and Evaluation.

Healy, T., and Côté, S., (2001) The Well-Being of Nations: The Role of Human and Social Capital.  Paris: OECD.

Kirk, David and Macphail, Ann, (2003) ‘Social Positioning and the Construction of a Youth Sports Club’, International Review for the Sociology of Sport Vol. 38, No.23.

Morrissey, M., McGinn, P., and McDonnell, B., (2002) Evaluating Community-Based and Voluntary Activity in Northern Ireland. A report commissioned by the Voluntary and Community Unit, DSD.  Consulted at: http://www.dsdni.gov.uk/index/voluntary_and_community/vc-publications/vc-guidance.htm.

Morrissey, M., McGinn, P., and McDonnell, B., (2002) Evaluating Community-Based and Voluntary Activity in Northern Ireland Summary Report.

Putnam, Robert D., (1995) Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital, Journal of Democracy, Vol. 6, No.1, pp. 65-78  Consulted at: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/assoc/bowling.html

Volunteer Development Agency, (2007) It’s All About Time, Volunteering in Northern Ireland Summary Report.

Wolcott, Harry F., (1999) Ethnography: A Way of Seeing, Sage Publications Ltd.

1. Putnam, Robert D., (1995) Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital, Journal of Democracy, Vol. 6, No.1, pp. 65-78  Consulted at: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/assoc/bowling.html ↩︎

2. Ibid. ↩︎

3. Morrissey, M., McGinn, P., and McDonnell, B., (2002) Evaluating Community-Based and Voluntary Activity in Northern Ireland, p.29. A report commissioned by the Voluntary and Community Unit, DSD.  Consulted at: http://www.dsdni.gov.uk/index/voluntary_and_community/vc-publications/vc-guidance.htm. ↩︎

4. See also illustrative diagram. Ibid, p.29. ↩︎

5. See Appendix B ↩︎

6. Morrissey, M., McGinn, P., and McDonnell, B., (2002) Evaluating Community-Based and Voluntary Activity in Northern Ireland, p. 28 ↩︎

7. Healy, T., and Côté, S., (2001) The Well-Being of Nations: The Role of Human and Social Capital.  Paris: OECD, p.41. ↩︎

8. Putnam (1995) cited in Morrissey, M., McGinn, P., and McDonnell, B., (2002) Evaluating Community-Based and Voluntary Activity in Northern Ireland, p.28 ↩︎

9. Cairns, E., van Til, J., and Williamson, A., (2003) Social Capital, Collectivism-Individualism and Community Background in Northern Ireland.  A report to the Office of the Deputy First Minister and the Head of the Voluntary and Community Unit of the Department for Social Development.  Consulted at: http://www.ofmdfmni.gov.uk/socialcapital.pdf ↩︎

10. Bacon, Derek, ‘Revitalizing Civil Society through Social Capital Formation in Faith Based-Organizations: research findings from Northern Ireland’, Fifth Conference of the International Society for Third Sector Research, July 2002, Cape Town. ↩︎

11. Department for Social Development, (2006) Toolkit to Measure the Added-Value of    Voluntary and Community-Based Activity.  Consulted at: http://www.dsdni.gov.uk/index/voluntary_and_community/vc-publications/vc-guidance.htm. ↩︎

12. See table 1 of Morrissey, M., McGinn, P., and McDonnell, B., (2002) Evaluating Community-Based and Voluntary Activity in Northern Ireland Summary Report, p.13. ↩︎

13. Morrissey, M., McGinn, P., and McDonnell, B., (2002) Evaluating Community-Based and Voluntary Activity in Northern Ireland, pp. 27-31 ↩︎

14. Bekkers, René, ‘Charity begins at home How socialization experiences influence giving and volunteering’, 34th Arnova Annual Conference, 17th-20th November 2005, Washington DC ↩︎

15. Volunteer Development Agency, (2007) It’s All About Time, Volunteering in Northern Ireland Summary Report. ↩︎

16. Healy, T., and Côté, S., (2001) The Well-Being of Nations: The Role of Human and Social Capital.  Paris: OECD, p.44. ↩︎

17. Cairns, E., van Til, J., and Williamson, A., (2003) Social Capital, Collectivism-Individualism and Community Background in Northern Ireland, p.9. ↩︎

18. Durlauf, Stephen N., (2000) Bowling Alone: A Review Essay, Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organization, p.3. Consulted at: http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/econ/archive/wp2029.pdf ↩︎

19. Ibid, p.3. ↩︎

20. Cairns, E., van Til, J., and Williamson, A., (2003) Social Capital, Collectivism-Individualism and Community Background in Northern Ireland, p.52. ↩︎

21. Morrissey, M., McGinn, P., and McDonnell, B., 2002. Evaluating Community-Based and Voluntary Activity in Northern Ireland, p.29. A report commissioned by the Voluntary and Community Unit, DSD, p.34. ↩︎

22. Ibid p.34. ↩︎

23. See methodological discussion in Kirk, David and Macphail, Ann, (2003) ‘Social Positioning and the Construction of a Youth Sports Club’, International Review for the Sociology of Sport Vol. 38, No.23. pp.26-29. ↩︎

24. Wolcott, Harry F., (1999) Ethnography: A Way of Seeing, Sage Publications Ltd, p68 ↩︎

25. Franke, Sandra, (2005) Measurement of Social Capital: Reference Document for Public Policy Research, Development, and Evaluation, p.59. ↩︎

26. See Appendix C ↩︎

27. ↩︎

28. I ran between the ages of 14 and 16. ↩︎

29. Kirk, David and Macphail, Ann, (2003) ‘Social Positioning and the Construction of a Youth Sports Club’, International Review for the Sociology of Sport Vol. 38, No.23. p.29. ↩︎

30. Putnam, Robert D., (1995) Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital, Journal of Democracy, Vol. 6, No.1, pp. 65-78  Consulted at: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/assoc/bowling.html ↩︎

31. With attentions focused on Donegal, it failed to materialize. ↩︎

32. Morrissey, M., McGinn, P., and McDonnell, B., (2002) Evaluating Community-Based and Voluntary Activity in Northern Ireland, p.30. ↩︎

33. Kirk, David and Macphail, Ann, (2003) ‘Social Positioning and the Construction of a Youth Sports Club’, International Review for the Sociology of Sport Vol. 38, No.23. ↩︎

34. Bekkers, René, ‘Charity begins at home How socialization experiences influence giving and volunteering’, 34th Arnova Annual Conference, 17th-20th November 2005, Washington DC ↩︎

35. Unlike other sports such as soccer. ↩︎

36. This is evidenced by North Belfast AC who, despite serving a predominantly Catholic area have succeeded in striking a balance. This was the subject of a local news report. ↩︎

37. As evidenced by new affiliations with schools and by the development of non-denominational schools in the area. ↩︎