Sammendrag
This thesis examines the interactions between various actors participating in community development initiatives run by the local level branch of a government organisation dealing with sport and recreation. It examines the relations between these people, objects and spaces from the perspective of sport-for-development. The concept of performativity is used to analyse the relationships in terms of their inherent tensions between policies and practices of using sport and recreation to address issues of empowerment of people in disadvantaged communities. The thesis is based upon a fieldwork that took place in Cape Town, South Africa where I followed various members of a local Recreation Unit of the Sport, Recreation and Amenities department from the Cape Town municipality. As an intern I accompanied these sport-for-development practitioners as they visited parks, organized festivals, and conducted youth development programmes for impoverished communities on the Cape Flats.