Social Capital and Social Responsibility in Denmark More than Gaining Public Trust

Strong focus on the promotion of health and social integration aspects in society means the state has increased pressure on sport associations to deliver its social policy agenda. The building of (corporate) social responsibility and the proposed merger between the NOC and Sport Confederation of Denmark and the Danish Gymnastics and Sport Associations are offered as possible progressive responses to changes in Danish state sport policy and as a way to increase its social capital. A correlation between (corporate) social responsibility and social capital is established and visualized in the official stand on social responsibility of individual and umbrella sport governing bodies, and Danish state policy. Ness’s definition of corporate social responsibility – as the necessity and the duty of companies to behave responsibly, ethically and sustainably, and to be transparently accountable to their stakeholders – is transferred to sport associations. Social capital is defined as the relational resources that we as individuals or as part of a collective, such as a sport association, inherit or intentionally construct to achieve our own goals. Depending on the structural and normative characteristics of the social system in which it operates, it can facilitate but also limit individual and collective action. Development of a contemporary grounded social responsibility by the sport governing bodies suggests a gain in social capital, new memberships and future assurance of financial and social support