Abstract

The title of this paper – pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will – recalls Gramsci's advice to radicals. It also expresses the author's relationship with sport-for-development. The author has strong intellectual reservations about many of the claims made by the protagonists of sport-for-development, most of which are not supported by research evidence (which goes much wider than the narrow range of sources used by the relatively isolated field of sport-for-development). In fact, many of the assertions seem to be based on the unexamined – optimism of the will – provides impressive motivation for many practitioners who deliver programmes in the most difficult of circumstances with a strong belief that they are contributing to 'development'. It is this tension between intellect and faith that underpins this paper. The author will address the following issues in this paper: What is 'sport'? How is it supposed to 'work'? What is the presumed programme theory underpinning such claims? The author will illustrate this with a programme theory developed to explore UK sports-based programmes for at-risk youth. What assumptions do we make about participants? Is the implicit deficit model always accurate? Is change uni-directional? Will participation in sport-for-development programmes always lead to positive outcomes? The author will illustrate this by looking at the issue of self-efficacy. More generally, what is the relationship between a highly individualised definition of 'development' and more general processes of development? Aus der Einleitung (geändert)