Volunteering for the Commonwealth Games: what can realist synthesis contribute to health policy making?

H Social Sciences (General)

Cunningham, Anna P. ; Mackenzie, Mhairi

University:University of Glasgow

Department:School of Social and Political Sciences

关键词: H Social Sciences (General);   

Others  :  http://theses.gla.ac.uk/7305/1/2015CunninghamPhD01.pdf

来源: University of Glasgow

【 摘 要 】

The aim of this thesis was to investigate, using the real-time test case of the 2014Commonwealth Games, whether the realist synthesis methodology could contributeto the making of health policy in a meaningful way. This was done by looking attwo distinct research questions: first, whether realist synthesis could contributenew insights to the health policymaking process, and second, whether the 2014Commonwealth Games volunteer programme was likely to have any significant,measurable, impact on health inequalities experienced by large sections of thehost population.The 2014 Commonwealth Games legacy laid out ambitious plans for the event, inwhich it was anticipated that it would provide explicit opportunities to impactpositively on health inequalities. By using realist synthesis to unpick the theoriesunderpinning the volunteer programme, the review identifies the population subgroupsfor whom the programme was likely to be successful, how this could beachieved and in what contexts.In answer to the first research question, the review found that while realistmethods were able to provide a more nuanced exposition of the impacts of theGames volunteer programme on health inequalities than previous traditionalreviews had been able to provide, there were several drawbacks to using themethod. It was found to be resource-intensive and complex, encouraging theexploration of a much wider set of literatures at the expense of an in-depth graspof the complexities of those literatures.In answer to the second research question, the review found that the Games were, if anything, likely to exacerbate health inequalities because the programme wasdesigned in such a way that individuals recruited to it were most likely to be thosein least need of the additional mental and physical health benefits that Gamesvolunteering was designed to provide. The following thesis details the approachtaken to investigate both the realist approach to evidence synthesis and thelikelihood that the 2014 Games volunteer programme would yield the expectedresults.