Reinhard Haudenhuyse

The potential of sports-based social interventions for vulnerable youth: implications for sport coaches and youth workers

Sports have long been viewed as an opportunity to actively engage young people in a leisure context and not just in terms of participation in sports activities, but across a range of issues including education, employment and training, community leadership and healthy lifestyles. Although there are some indications that when working towards broader outcomes with socially vulnerable youth a specific methodology is required, it remains unclear what constitutes this specificity within a sports context. For this, a Flemish (northern region of Belgium) sport project was selected in which data were gathered by means of in-depth and focus group interviews with participants, coaches and key witnesses. The purpose was to gain more insights into how sports are delivered for and experienced by youth who could be considered as socially vulnerable. At the level of coaching, the socio-pedagogical approach and the cultural capital are described as key elements in working towards broader outcomes for socially vulnerable youth. The aim of this study was to develop our understanding of how organised sports, as a series of social relationships and processes, can contribute in making socially vulnerable youth less vulnerable.

Sports-based interventions for socially vulnerable youth: Towards well-defined interventions with easy-to-follow outcomes?

In this paper, we critically examine the burgeoning scientific discourse about sports-based interventions for socially vulnerable or disadvantaged youth from a socio-pedagogical perspective. It is argued that the call for more well-defined sports-based social interventions with easier-to-follow outcomes may be at odds with the open-ended philosophy that is viewed as a fundamental principle when engaging with socially vulnerable youth in a leisure context (Smith, 2003), and could potentially undermine the effectiveness and value of such practices for young people. We examine the question if supporting young people in social vulnerable situations will be best served with well-defined sports-based interventions with easy-to-follow outcomes. We argue that if outcomes are to be formulated or analysed, such outcomes need to go beyond narrow conceptions of individual development, and need to be defined in consultation with young people. Adopting a socio-pedagogical perspective, we have proposed an alternative way to define (and evaluate) outcomes, in consultation with young people, in terms of biographical, institutional and political competences. Furthermore, it is argued that there is an acute need for re-socialising sports research regarding social interventions for socially vulnerable groups, and in particular youth.

Community sports development for socially deprived groups: a wider role for the commercial sports sector? A look at the Flemish situation

Since the early 1990s, specific community sports programmes have been set up in Flanders (Belgium) to stimulate participation among socially deprived groups. With only a limited involvement of the traditional sports sector, alternative providers (e.g. youth welfare sector) became active in organizing local initiatives, such as neighbourhood sports. However, despite the multiplicity of sports providers, to date, inequalities in sports participation still exist. The present paper investigates whether or not the commercial sports sector can contribute in developing a sustainable community sports offering for socially deprived youth. Based on examples regarding its involvement in so-called ‘street sports’, it is argued that the commercial sector entered the domain of community sports providers by using highly accessible activities for this youth. It is yet to be determined if, and under which circumstances, this involvement offers opportunities for a wider role of the commercial sports sector in community sports development.

Towards understanding the potential of sports-based practices for socially vulnerable youth

Many literatures can be found reporting on the association of organized youth sports with a range of positive health-related, educational and social outcomes. Specifically in relation to socially vulnerable youth, sports are viewed as an opportunity to engage young people in a leisure context, not only in terms of participation in sport activities but also across a range of positive alternatives including education, employment and training, community leadership and healthy lifestyles. By using the model of social vulnerability, as conceptualized by Vettenburg, we address the question: how socially vulnerable youth can become less vulnerable by doing sports?

Social change through an urban sport for development initiative? Investigating critical pedagogy through the voices of young people

ABSTRACT This article explores the pedagogy of an urban Sport for Development (SfD) initiative in Belgium through the voices of young people. We draw on the critical pedagogy of Paulo Freire, and use qualitative research methods (i.e. observations, informal conversations, in-depth interviews and sharing circles) over a three-year period, to analyse the initiative’s actual pedagogical practice with key Freirean concepts (i.e. ‘banking education’, ‘dialogue’ and ‘dialogical action’) and virtues (e.g. respect for people’s knowledge, rejection of discrimination, caring for people). The findings reveal the presence of several Freirean virtues, emerging dialogue and, for some, action thought. Still, the SfD initiative remains at considerable distance from fully-fledged critical pedagogy. The young people in the SfD initiative nonetheless experience it as a space where they can be themselves, feel at home, gain respect, can learn to reflect and form opinions, and are temporarily freed from daily struggles such as discrimination. We discuss several pathways that could foster the capacity to organise and deliver a programme beyond emerging dialogue and action.

Social inclusion for whom and towards what end? A critical discourse analysis of youth and sport policies in Turkey

ABSTRACT This article examines the social inclusion policy strategies of the Turkish Ministry of Youth and Sport (MYS). Using a critical discourse analysis, based on Norman Fairclough’s work (2012), the aim is to analyse the discourses used within policy-related documents regarding social inclusion, youth, and sport. In order to achieve this objective, we analysed 15 key documents, including annual activity reports, national youth and sport policy documents, and strategic plans produced by the Ministry. Findings revealed that the dominant discourses about young people seem to be embedded within neoliberal and neoconservative ideologies in which depoliticised notions of ‘employment/apprenticeship’ and ‘the family’ are put forward as solutions for the social inclusion of young people. However, such a discourse risks further sustaining the social exclusion of youth, denying their full citizenship.

The impact of austerity on poverty and sport participation: mind the knowledge gap

ABSTRACT This paper will try to address the question why, to this date, empirically we still know relatively little about the impact of austerity policies in relation to sport (non-)participation of people living in poverty. It is reasonable to assume that austerity measures spanning over many life and policy domains, such as, housing, energy costs, transport, employment, healthcare, social welfare, childcare, education, pension, public services, sport provisions, etc., might have had an impact on the leisure participation opportunities and outcomes of people in poverty. However, such assumptions remain under-researched. I will put forward the following potential reasons for the current knowledge gap: (1) the conceptual broadening and hollowing out of ‘poverty’; (2) the failure to situate sport participation within wider life and policy domains; (3) the difficulty to measure organised sport participation of people living in poverty through existing sport participation surveys; (4) the acute lack of systematic problem and policy analyses in terms of the impact of austerity measures on people living in poverty; and (5) the reluctance of sport and leisure academics to use critical political analyses of austerity policy measures. We need to develop a better understanding of the impact of austerity policies and a welfare state rollback on the general leisure opportunities and outcomes of people in poverty, to help inform policymakers about the (unintended) outcomes of austerity policies on multiple life domains, of which sport is just one of many.