Supportitive environments for young leaders

• SUPPORTIVE ENVIRONMENTS FOR YOUNG LEADERS Jane Meckbach1, Lena Larsson1,2 The Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, Stockholm1 , Linnaeus University2  Introduction: Sport is a very popular recreational activity for young people in Sweden and more than 80 % have at some time been a member of a sports club. Without the many leaders (over 600,000), it would be impossible to run an organization of this size. Despite many people being involved in leadership roles, the sports movement in Sweden continually wrestles with the issues of a shortage of leaders and how to encourage more people to become involved (Eriksson, 2006). To support sporting activities for children and young people, the Swedish Parliament decided in 2007 to invest SEK 2 billion over a four-year period. This initiative was given the name Idrottslyftet and one of its goals was to recruit and retain young leaders.  Method: The aim of the study is to examine the investment made in young leaders, the questions are: i) How have the various projects been structured and what were the desired objectives? ii) What is meant by the term ‘a supportive environment’? iii) Which young leaders is the project aimed at and who is the ‘right’ kind of leader? The data consists of development plans and project descriptions for the initiatives taken to recruit leaders. Using qualitative text analysis, the texts were subjected to various questions with the aim of contextualizing the actual descriptions. The study has a cultural-sociological perspective based on Bourdieu’s theories and concepts for understanding which types of leaders and leadership initiatives are feasible in the social context which constitutes the Swedish sports movement. (Bourdieu, 1977, 1990).  Discussion: The analysis shows that investments have consisted mainly of training programmes to recruit new leaders, in which the belief in the sports movement as an educational environment has functioned as the underlying value structure of the content of the training programmes. The supportive environments are a priority, but are viewed primarily as the responsibility of each individual club. The master–pupil relationship appears to be a given model. Young leaders and older adult leaders are described as opposites. Male leaders are interested in sport-specific knowledge, while female leaders want to learn about diet and health. In conclusion, the findings indicate that within the Swedish sports movement there is a belief that a re-examination of the traditionally prominent values is required if young people are to be recruited as leaders. References Bourdieu, Pierre (1977), Outline of a Theory of Practice (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). —— (1990), The Logic of Practise (Cambridge: Polity Press). Eriksson, Sten (2006), Idrottsrörelsens ideella kraft [The Voluntary Power of the Sports Movement], The National Sports Confederation.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Idrottsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Sport and Fitness Sciences (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

supportitive environments

Bourdieu

young leaders

Sports

Idrott

Samhällsvetenskap/Humaniora

Social Sciences/Humanities

Idrottsvetenskap

Publikations- och innehållstyp

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