Sport, social cohesion and meaningful monitoring and evaluation

Current approaches to monitoring and evaluation in sport for development tend to operate as if the intervention in question was conducted in a social vacuum. As such, there is little accounting for the influence of external variables on results, meaning that the complexities involved in sport for development practice, participation, and monitoring and evaluation are negated. A consequence of the ongoing desire for evidence-based policy in sport for development is the overreliance on quantifiable aspects of social cohesion. Meaningful monitoring and evaluation intend to address these issues by utilising a sociologically informed methodology which draws upon meaningfulness literature in sports participation (e.g., Breivik, 2021) and philosophical frameworks which forefront individuals’ understandings of their firsthand experiences (e.g., Merleau-Ponty’s [1968] existential-phenomenology). Previous application of an existential-phenomenological approach to monitoring and evaluation in sport for development shed light on participants’ meaningful experiences in sport for development, and how they related impacts from the programme to their everyday lives through their embodiment of confidence (Scott, 2020). Chapter 13 will discuss the theoretical background to meaningful monitoring and evaluation in further detail, as well as outline the co-constructed project with Dundee United Community Trust behind its development.