| 1. |
- Agergaard, Sine, et al.
(författare)
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Children's Rights to and in Sport : A Comparative Analysis of Organizational Policies in the Scandinavian Countries
- 2024
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Ingår i: Social Sciences. - : MDPI. - 2076-0760. ; 13:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- It has long been stated that children have the rights to protection from, e.g., abuse and to the provision of age-appropriate leisure, play, and recreational activities along with participation in all matters that concerns them. Yet, the full range of children's rights to and in sport has not yet been explored in detail. To do so, it is relevant to turn to the Scandinavian countries, which are praised for promoting children's rights and well-being, with organized sport forming part of the daily lives of many children and youths. In this paper, we examine the organizational policies in Scandinavian sport in order to develop foundational knowledge about how the range of children's rights to and in sport may be supported. Comparing key policy documents of the major sports confederations in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, these analyses identify great variety in the following: 1. when and how children's rights to and in sport have been made explicit in the three countries; 2. whether the emphasis is on protection and/or provision of sport to children and youths or their participation in shaping sporting activities; 3. the degree to and ways in which such rights are regulated. In sum, our findings reflect a disparity between organizational policies in the three countries, with a more liberal and individualistic approach to public policy in the Danish context, providing some explanation of the only recent development in and scattered enaction of regulations to support children's rights to and in sports. Furthermore, we identify that political attention has mainly been drawn to the protection and provision of sports to children and youths, while their participation in shaping sport is a shared challenge for sport confederations in the Scandinavian countries and beyond.
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| 2. |
- Buller, Daniel, et al.
(författare)
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Examining the Evolving Landscape of Youth Participation in Movement Culture in Sweden : Sociocultural Factors and Digital Dynamics
- 2024
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Ingår i: EASS24: Book of abstract.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Introduction: Youth participation in organized sport, a longstanding leisure-time activity in Sweden, is both popular and polarized. There are variations in levels of participation related to sociocultural aspects such as gender, socioeconomics, and demography. This ongoing doctoral project investigates young people's evolving engagement in different forms of movement culture, emphasizing and investigating young people’s taste for different forms of movement culture and their perceived reliance on digital technologies. Situated within the research school"School, sport, screens," the study primarily explores youth participation in movement culture. The project is, to some extent, a continuation of earlier studies regarding young people’s participation in movement culture (Larsson 2005, 2008, 2019; Nilsson 1998).Aim and Theoretical Framework: This research examines young people's participation in movement culture and how it is valued and perceived in the digital era. Drawing on sociocultural and pedagogical perspectives, the theoretical framework, inspired by Bourdieu and Engström, incorporates the contextual role of digital technologies. Movement culture, defined as socially formed physical activity outside daily obligations (Engström, 2013), is used as a foundation to describe different forms of organized physical activity and is analyzed using Bourdieu's concepts of practices, logics, habitus, and taste.Method and Selection: Using a mixed-method approach, the study combines interviews and a cross-sectional survey in four different Swedish regions. This enables a comprehensive exploration of participation influences and trends, including sociocultural factors and the participant’s own perceived reliance on digital technologies. Data collection spans from December 2023 to February 2024.Results, Discussions, and Conclusions: Preliminary findings will be presented at the conference.
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| 3. |
- Downing, Charlotte, et al.
(författare)
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A systematic review of quantitative studies concerning psychological aspects of early specialisation
- 2023
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Ingår i: International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology. - : Routledge. - 1612-197X .- 1557-251X.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Despite the intense and long-standing interest surrounding early sport specialisation, scholars still debate its nature and implications. Previous researchers have also identified the need for further research relating to the psychological aspects of early specialisation such as lower quality motivation, dropout and burnout. To help guide future research it is important to build upon the quantitative literature concerning such psychological aspects of early specialisation. The specific aims of this paper are to provide an overview of research results of quantitative studies that set out to explore relationships between early specialisation and psychological aspects, and to critically examine the designs of such studies. As such, study design characteristics including participant demographics, the psychological aspects represented, and the research questions and results are explored. Data searches were conducted in PubMed, SportDiscus, and PsychINFO using search terms such as "early sport speciali*". Twenty-one relevant papers met the inclusion criteria. The results highlight that the published papers in this area are broad in some respects (variety of sports, performance levels, and gender), but narrow in others (North American dominance, few psychological aspects explored, and few papers per psychological aspect). Many of the studies are based on cross-sectional and retrospective self-reports. Overall, this paper serves as a foundation on which to design future research studies in this area.
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| 4. |
- Downing, Charlotte
(författare)
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Early specialising aesthetic performers : An investigation of conceptualisation, motivation, and context
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This doctoral research project is situated within the wider debate of talent development in so-called early sports, where early specialisation is often normalised. The overarching aim is to investigate early specialisation within the context of Swedish aesthetic activities. Two research questions guided this research: 1) what characterises early specialisation, and 2) in what ways are aspects of early specialisation related to motivation?This doctoral research project includes four individual papers. The first paper is a systematic review that investigated the contextual underpinnings of recommendations regarding early specialisation and psychological aspects (e.g., motivation, burnout). The second paper outlines the development of a measurement tool for capturing degrees of early specialisation within the context of Swedish aesthetic activities. The third paper is a cross-sectional questionnaire-based study which used this measurement tool to explore the relationship between degrees of early specialisation and motivation (autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and dropout intentions), and explored perceptions of parental influence as a moderator. The fourth paper is a qualitative interview-based study that investigated reflections on motivation throughout the training history of high-level gymnasts and figure skaters who specialised early. Additional data regarding perfectionism and parental participation in sport, collected in relation to this research but not included within the four papers, is also outlined and discussed in this thesis. Results highlight the complexity of early specialisation in terms of how it is defined, measured, and conceptualised, as well as the possible relationship to psychological aspects (e.g., motivation, perfectionism). Overall, the results do not align with the notion that early specialisation leads to lower quality motivation and an increased risk of dropout. While this research has made methodological, theoretical and empirical contributions to this research area, it is also clear that more research is needed to better understand and explain the possible outcomes often associated with early specialisation.
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| 5. |
- Downing, Charlotte, et al.
(författare)
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Why did they continue? Female gymnasts’ reflections on early specialisation
- 2022
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Ingår i: 16th European Congress of Sport & Exercise Psychology.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Previous research largely advises against early specialisation, due to possible physical and psychological risks (Côté, Lidor, & Hackfort,2009). For this study, we are interested in exploring gymnasts’ reflections of early specialisation in relation to motivation and autonomy.Despite limited empirical evidence, early specialisation is commonly considered necessary for high-level performance in aestheticactivities, such as gymnastics (Kliethermes et al., 2021). This study is one of the first to present qualitative data concerning experiencesof early specialisation, and the first known study to collect such data within female gymnasts.The research questions for this study are, 1) What motivated female gymnasts to remain in early specialised training? 2) How do theyreflect upon key specialisation milestones in relation to motivation and autonomy? and 3) How do they reflect upon the necessity of earlyspecialisation? The study is underway, with semi-structured interviews being conducted with female gymnasts aged 15-24 who selfreported a high degree of early specialisation. Specifically, those who reported reaching specialisation milestones at the youngest ageswere recruited from a database of 115 high-level gymnasts. The data will be analysed using abductive thematic analysis, where selfdetermination theory provides a framework to explore the interplay between early specialisation and motivation towards continuedparticipation in gymnastics.It is anticipated that the results will contribute valuable data regarding experiences of early specialisation, and how these experiencesmight influence motivation towards continued training. Such data also has the potential to shed light on the often-inconsistent quantitativeresults exploring motivational correlates of early specialisation.
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| 6. |
- Fagrell, Birgitta, 1945-, et al.
(författare)
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The game within the game: Girls' underperforming position in Physical Education
- 2012
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Ingår i: Gender and Education. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0954-0253 .- 1360-0516. ; 24:1, s. 101-118
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Since 1980 the Swedish compulsory school curriculum has stipulated that Physical Education (PE) should be taught co-ed and schools are legally required to promote gender equality. The latest evaluation of PE in Sweden shows that more boys than girls ranked the subject highly and that they had a higher level of activity during the PE lessons. Drawing on a case study, the aim of this article is to illuminate how games placed girls and boys in different subject positions. The logic governing the observed lessons was ‘proper game’, i.e. playing according to the official rules. Combined with hegemonic masculinity and the passivity of the teacher, this kind of logic resulted in the game being dominated by several dominant boys and by the ball-playing girls either being positioned or allowing themselves to be placed in situations in which they consistently underperformed. A gender category in late modernity, resting on hegemonic masculinity, can be seen as a cultural flashpoint that reflects problems in society rather than problems in the gym.
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| 7. |
- Karlsson, Jesper
(författare)
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Barn- och ungdomsidrott till salu : Om begär, immateriellt arbete och kommersialisering
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In recent decades scholars have noted a trend in Swedish child and youth sport, namely that businesses are emerging parallel to the Swedish Sports Confederation (SSC), Sweden’s leading ideally driven sports organisation. Despite this recent trend of businesses starting to organise child and youth sport, research on the phenomenon is as yet scarce. This is also true for the overarching research area of the commercialisation of youth sport. Thus, the aim of this thesis is to analyse how commercially driven child and youth sport in Sweden functions and how leading representatives from child and youth sport businesses perceive Swedish child and youth sport.The thesis consists of four sub-studies. Three of the studies are based on data from different child and youth sport business websites, while the other is based on data from interviews with leading representatives from different child and youth sport businesses.The results identify four different commercial de-territorialisation processes that have been established, or territorialised, in Sweden. These four de-territorialisation processes consist of businesses that target their services to different potential customers groups. They also identify how the different businesses produce immaterial values regarding child and youth sport in order to attract potential customers. These values are enunciated differently depending on the kind of de-territorialisation processes the businesses stem from. Furthermore, the thesis illustrates that in their website images the businesses often visually represent their ideal customers as white boys and girls who are actively pursuing some kind of sport. It also shows that the leading business representatives position themselves and their services as passionate sport enthusiasts, child and youth sport actors and actors in a changing society.The conclusion is that the commercialisation of child and youth sport functions in four different ways and creates boundaries between ideally- and commercially driven sport. The challenge for ideally driven sport is to keep control over sport as a social and cultural product. This is especially important in a post-industrial society, where businesses aspire to take control of the social and cultural content of sport and make it profitable
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| 8. |
- Karlsson, Jesper, et al.
(författare)
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Barn- och ungdomsidrottens entreprenörer på en kommersiell spelplan – en positioneringsanalys
- 2023
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Ingår i: Scandinavian Sport Studies Forum. - : Malmö University. - 2000-088X. ; 14, s. 75-98
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Den här artikeln undersöker hur kommersiella idrottsentreprenörer inom barn- och ungdomsidrott positionerar sig själva och sina verksamheter i förhållande till den svenska föreningsidrotten. Studien undersöker olika positioner som entreprenörer intar i relation till barn- och ungdomsidrotten och diskurserna som omgärdar den utifrån entreprenörers perspektiv. I resultatet lyfts tre olika positioner fram: (1) Den vanliga, passionerade barn- och ungdomsidrottsentusiasten; (2) entreprenörer som kompletterande aktörer i relation till föreningsidrott; och (3) företagarnas position i relation till det omgivande samhället. Sammanfattningsvis positionerar entreprenörerna sig inte som ett hot mot den svenska idrottsrörelsen. Men samtidigt hävdar de på olika sätt att deras verksamhet överträffar idrottsklubbarnas när det gäller att tillhandahålla idrott för barn och ungdomar. Dessutom tycks de positionera sina tjänster gentemot utvalda familjer framför andra, och verka inom en ram där barn- och ungdomsidrott i allt högre grad behandlas som en kommodifierbar enhet i det nutida samhället.
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| 9. |
- Karlsson, Jesper, et al.
(författare)
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Looks, Liveliness, and Laughter : Visual Representations in Commercial Sports for Children
- 2023
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Ingår i: International Journal of Sport Communication. - : Human Kinetics. - 1936-3915 .- 1936-3907. ; 16:2, s. 178-186
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In contemporary society, visual information is influential, not least when businesses are communicating with potential customers. It represents and influences how people understand phenomena. In sports, much attention is directed toward how media represent elite sports and sport stars. Less attention is directed toward children’s sports. The aim of this article is to explore and analyze visual representations of children on sport businesses’ websites. The sample contained 697 images of sporting children, on which an interpretative content and discourse analysis was conducted. The study shows that the ideal customer emerging on these sites is a White, physically active, able, and slim boy or girl. Consumer culture seems to reproduce and preserve existing normative frameworks rather than producing alternative norms and ideas in children’s sport. Moreover, dilemmatic images of children both as competent and as innocent develop, displaying a childhood that should be both joyful and active but also safeguarded.
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| 10. |
- Karlsson, Jesper, et al.
(författare)
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Selling youth sport : the production and promotion of immaterial values in commercialised child and youth sport
- 2023
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Ingår i: Sport, Education and Society. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1357-3322 .- 1470-1243. ; , s. 565-578
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The contexts in which young people participate in sport are diverse. In Scandinavia, as in many other countries, child and youth sport is mainly organised in non-profit, membership-based and voluntary driven sports clubs. In Sweden, this model is now challenged by commercial businesses providing child and youth sport services. The overall aim of this article is to provide empirically based knowledge about these ongoing and largely unexplored commercialisation processes. The focus of the article is to illuminate how commercial businesses produce immaterial values through the promotion of sport services. In this article, we have explored the cultural and social values produced and promoted by commercial businesses in youth sport. Drawing on the website communications of eight commercial businesses from four different commercial strands, we use the concept of immaterial labour to consider the values produced when child and youth sport is turned into a desirable product on the market. The values generated from the texts on the selected websites are the immaterial values of (i) competence, (ii) individually adjusted training and, (iii) happiness. These values are enunciated differently by the businesses in the different strands. We situate the findings in relation to western social and cultural values and discuss the potential consequences of these value productions for contemporary ideas about youth sport and the way it should be organised.
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