Civil Sociality: Children, Sport, and Cultural Policy in Denmark

Routledge eBooks, 2020

This paper examines the key elements within the relationships of sport and civil society in the Nordic region. The analysis combines a focus on broad themes and developments in Nordic sport and civil society, such as the role of the welfare state and the impacts of neoliberalism, with consideration of specific national experiences, notably the case of Finland. The discussion has four main parts. First, we set out the principal features of the 'Nordic model' of society, and how it shapes sport and civil society relations. Second, we advance a Finnish case-study of Nordic sport and civil society, examining the historical connections of three sectors-civil, public and privateto the national sport culture. Third, we briefly consider how, in recent decades, the Nordic model has encountered and sought to respond to neoliberalism and globalization processes. Finally, we explore how Nordic societies have sought to influence globalization processes and 'global civil society' through sport, specifically through taking lead roles within the transnational 'sport for development and peace' sector.

2019

Since 2010 Denmark has seen a significant increase in immigration and the topic has become a significant political issue linked to the rise of far-right political parties that advocate not only a more restrictive immigration policy but also the assimilation strategy for those migrants currently resident in the country. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the development of sport policies in two Danish cities in relation to migration since 2010. The research analyses changes in national level policy and in the policies of Copenhagen and Aarhus, in which three sports projects are examined to explore the impact on policy of the interaction between national, municipal and sports club policy actors. Data were collected through a combination of semi-structured interviews with municipal civil servants, administrative and coaching staff of sports clubs and a review of material derived from official municipal and sports club documents and media reports. The data were subject to thematic con...

International Journal of Sport Policy, 2011

To answer why sports clubs have been ascribed a central role in resolving integration issues in Denmark, this article refers to the anthropology of policy. First, policy is defined as what Mauss has called ‘a total social fact’. In other words, policy is a social phenomenon that reflects the history and culture of the society in which it is created. Second, policy is seen as discourses that are articulated by specific institutions, and third, the anthropological perspective focuses on the ways in which policy is applied and interpreted in practice. The first part of this article therefore explores Danish immigration history and the development of an integration policy that currently focuses on adaptation of the cultural values and norms of immigrants. The second part of this article looks at current state funds that aim to promote this kind of adaptation through sports. It becomes clear that sports clubs are seen as organizations that distribute social capital, promote equality in society and facilitate informal learning. The third part of this article refers to a number of studies that highlight the ways in which club leaders, coaches and members (with ethnic Danish as well as non-Danish ethnic background) appropriate these political assumptions.

2015

The purpose of this article is to study children and engaged adults’ experiences of participating in a Sport for All Programme in school (SAP). Fifteen individual interviews were conducted with one programme manager, three schoolteachers, two sport club leaders, and nine children (five girls and four boys aged 9-10). Bourdieu’s (1990) as well as Lave and Wenger’s (1991) theoretical models were used as the analytic tools to study the SAP. The analysis reveals that the organization and the practice of the activities are noticeably related to conventionally organized sport. The analysis also shows that the SAP is a new way of organizing and practicing children’s sport – with its own logic. The absence of organized competition, the less intensive activities, the greater flexibility and variation in the SAP appear to challenge the conscious and unconscious idea of the meaning and function of competitive sport, especially in children’s sport. Thus, the SAP concept calls for a new way of a...

International Journal of Cultural Policy, 2019

The role of sport and cultural practices in policy initiatives tends to be assessed in both cases in terms of their assumed social benefits. However, the areas of sport and culture are often understood separately in research. Through an analysis of interviews with key local policy-makers and civil servants in two Swedish municipalities, the aim of this article is to explore how sport and culture are formed as means to promote social policy objectives regarding young people. In addition, we reflect on the political significance of this in relation to the development of local policy. The analysis demonstrates how a discourse of urban segregation and unequal opportunities underpins actions to mobilise non-participant and at-risk youth. This is achieved by establishing centres for sport and culture, and by enabling an educational approach which focuses on participation, empowerment and good citizenship. Reasons for mobilising practices involving culture and sport overlap, though each area of policy appears to be differently underpinned by discourses of enlightenment and conformity. Differences in emphasis between the discourses on sport and culture are discussed in relation to scientific discourse on the social utility of each policy area. ARTICLE HISTORY

International Society for Third-Sector Research Conference Working Papers Series, Volume X, Twelfth International Conference, Stockholm, Sweden, June 28-July 3, 2016

Sport practices have been emphasized in social policy as a means of responding to social problems. In this paper we analyse a sport-based social intervention performed in a “socially vulnerable” area in Sweden. We examine the formation of includable citizens in this project, based on interviews with representatives involved in the project as well as observations on site. The material is analysed from a governmentality perspective focusing on how problems and solutions are constructed as constitutive of each other. The focus of the analysis is on social solidarity and integration as contemporary challenges and how sport, specifically football, is highlighted as a way of creating social solidarity, through a pedagogic rationality – football as a means of fostering citizens according to specific ideals of solidarity and inclusion. The formation of solidarity appears not as a mutual process whereby an integrated social collective is created, but rather as a process whereby those affected by exclusion are given the opportunity to individually adapt to a set of Swedish norms, linguistic and cultural skills, as a means of reaching the “inside”. Integration appear as possible as long as the “excluded” adapt to the “inside”, which is made possible by the sports-based pedagogy. In conclusion, social problems and tensions are spatially located in the Area, and the social policy of which the intervention is part, maintain rather than reform the social order creating these very tensions.

They come when they feel like it and they come in groups, always the same ones together. They show up once, and then they don't come the next two times, and then suddenly they show up again; [they] can't seem to figure out that they need to come every time so there can be some development. (Project coordinator)

Sports practices have been emphasised in social policy as a means of responding to social problems. In this article we analyse a sports-based social intervention performed in a “socially vulnerable” area in Sweden. We examine the formation of includable citizens in this project, based on interviews with representatives involved in the project. The material is analysed from a governmentality perspective, focusing on how problems and solutions are constructed as being constitutive of each other. The focus of the analysis is on social solidarity and inclusion as contemporary challenges, and how sport, specifically football, is highlighted as a way of creating social solidarity through a pedagogic rationality—football as a means of fostering citizens according to specific ideals of solidarity and inclusion. The formation of solidarity appears not as a mutual process whereby an integrated social collective is created, but rather as a process whereby those affected by exclusion are given the opportunity to individually adapt to a set of Swedish norms, and to linguistic and cultural skills, as a means of reaching the “inside”. Inclusion seems to be possible as long as the “excluded” adapt to the “inside”, which is made possible by the sports-based pedagogy. In conclusion, social problems and social tensions are spatially located in “the Area” of “the City”, whose social policy, of which this sports-based intervention is a part, maintains rather than reforms the social order that creates these very tensions.

Sport, Education and Society, 2012

All over the westernised world, sport has been promoted as a 'solution' to many of the social 'problems' and challenges that face modern societies. This study draw on Foucault's concept of governmentality to examine the ways in which Swedish Government Official Reports on sport, from 1922 to 1998, define social problems and legitimate governing, and sport as a solution, in the name of benefiting Swedish society. The analysis shows that citizens' 'good' and 'healthy' behaviour and bodies are in focus of problematisation throughout the studied period. In relation to this, sport is seen as an important tool and solution. Parallel with increased critique of sport in contemporary times, a neo-liberal governmentality is embraced which in turn affect how 'problems' and 'solutions' are thought of in individualistic and rational ways.