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- Alsarve, Daniel, 1976-
(författare)
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Is There a Need for a Violence Prevention Programme in Ice Hockey?
- 2019
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Ingår i: Book of Abstracts. - Seville : EASM. - 9788409140688 ; , s. 776-777
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Aim and Research Questions: Against a background of identified masculinity ideals and how they relate to norms of violence in Swedish ice hockey, the overall purpose of this paper is to identify preventive suggestions that can challenge violence-supportive masculinity ideals and norms. The specific research aim is to identify and discuss preventive measures from an individual (coach or player) perspective (i.e. a micro level), club or community perspective (a meso level) and a structural (e.g. rules) perspective (a macro level). The two research questions are: Which ideals have been appreciated in Swedish male ice hockey and what kinds of attitudes to violence in general can be identified? What, more specifically, can be considered as necessary to change in Swedish ice hockey in order to prevent violence and violent behaviour?Theoretical Background and Literature Review: By combining research on sport, masculinities (or gender), violence/aggression and prevention, a theoretical discussion is conducted about the link between masculinity and aggressiveness/violence in sport and how this affects and is associated with more general expressions of men’s violence in society and the adequacy of prevention. The point of departure is a ‘broad’ understanding of violence that includes physical, psychological, verbal and other non-physical aspects (Connell, 2005; Flood, 2019). Ice hockey has a long history of violence (Lorenz, 2016)and researchers have examined this culture from several perspectives. Rockerbie (2015)estimates the effect of ice hockey fights on attendance in the NHL and finds that although fighting perhaps was more popular in the early years of the NHL, there is no absolute association between average attendance and fights per game. Other research has shown that male team sports can nurture aggressive and sexist attitudes and behaviour (Messner and Sabo, 1994; Pappas, 2012). Flood’s (2019) work focuses on men and boys and violence prevention and helps us to understand such attitudes and behaviors as an initial step that could, if it escalates, result in men’s violence against women. Although there are strong arguments for male dominated team sports’ objectification of women and femininity and the social problems associated with this, there is a risk of simplification by only attributing such attitudes to participation in ice hockey or a team sport. Alcohol consumption, socialization in a sport, society at large and other factors also need to be taken into account.Research Design, Methodology and Data Analysis: Part of a larger project on masculinity ideals and violence norms in Swedish ice hockey from 1965 up until today, the presentation is primarily based on interviews with five Swedish ice hockey coaches. (The project also gathers data from interviews with players, observations from ice hockey games, excerpts from media, examination of the magazine Hockey and (auto)biographies). Taken together, all the coaches had experiences of playing ice hockey themselves from amateur to professional level in Sweden and abroad. The analytical process can be summarized in three steps. Firstly, a thematic analysis was carried out in which different ‘meaning units’ were transformed into ‘condensed meaning units’ and finally collected to ‘codes’. Secondly, the codes or ideals were placed within the theoretical frame and interpreted in terms of an eventual hegemonic, masculine and/or violence-supportive ideal. Lastly, given that some meaning units include norms related to aggression and violence, the discussion section is constructed around preventative suggestions emanating from the findings.Results/Findings and Discussion: The main result shows that some of the ice hockey milieu’s positive effects (e.g. community, loyalty, the sense of comfort) to some extent also form the basis as risk factors in developing violent behaviour, (e.g. sexist and derogative attitudes/language, exaggerated hard playing style, collective norms that trigger fights and alcohol consumption). One coach gave an example of the coaches of a junior team he played with (in the early 1990s) who drank alcohol and watched pornographic films in the bus home from away matches. The informant reflected that such behaviour affected the players’ values, their talk about and views of women and their attitudes towards alcohol. Another aspect, highlighted by another informant, is that violence (in a wide sense) can become part of the tactics in certain situations during a game, especially if players are encouraged to ‘provoke and get provoked!’ ie the same qualities that might make someone a successful player could also foster them in violent-supportive attitudes.Conclusion, Contribution and Implication: The paper shows how ice hockey, as a male team sport, can nurture and even encourage sexist and violent attitudes but the sport also has a huge preventative potential. The conclusion that can be drawn is that a successful, violence prevention programme in ice hockey (and perhaps also other male dominated team sports) should pay specific attention to such individual behaviour with the aim of minimizing the risk of players developing negative attitudes that in the end nurture patriarchy and enhance the inequalities between men and women.
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| 2. |
- Fahlén, Josef, 1974-, et al.
(författare)
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Legitimizing Transformational Change : Shadowing Regional Sport Consultants In The Grassroots Implementation Of Strategy 2025
- 2019
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Ingår i: Book of Abstracts for the 27<sup>th</sup> European Sport Management Conference. - 9788409140688 ; , s. 187-188
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Aim of the researchIn 2017, the Swedish Sports Confederation set in motion a profound transformation of Swedish voluntary sport by adopting a new strategic plan: Strategy 2025 (RF, 2017). The purpose of the project this abstract reports on is to create knowledge on the workings and intended and unintended consequences of the ‘internal sport policy advocacy’ performed to usher sport clubs in the direction set out in this strategy: the delivery of more fun, healthy and developing activities. This implied a study of the system-internal legitimizing accounts and strategies used to gain acceptance for the strategy and the change associated with it. In order to capture these accounts and strategies, we focused on the system-wide consultancy structures that many systems have in place to support club development – regionally based sport consultants whose task is to be the interface between clubs’ needs and wishes and top-down policies. The project’s empirical base is data on such consultants’ club-directed legitimizing claims and strategies connected to the internal legitimation of the implementation of Strategy 2025.Theoretical background and literature reviewNonprofit public policy advocacy is normally understood in terms of civil society organizations’ attempts to influence public policy on behalf of a collective interest (Jenkins, 2006). Initial analyses in a project undertaken by the second author (Stenling & Sam, 2019) clearly show how such external advocacy conducted by Regional Sport Federations (RSFs), has created a gap between the claims and promises made in external advocacy and sport clubs’ recognition of the value of the strategy. Importantly, the data also shows that it is the ascribed task of RSF sport consultants to conduct what we here term internal advocacy, i.e., to close this gap by legitimizing Strategy 2025 in the eyes of clubs. To theoretically base our project, we use Creed et al.’s (2002) conceptualization of advocacy as the production of legitimization accounts.Research design, methodology and data analysisAnalyzing the construction and use of both legitimizing claims and strategies, requires data that reveal both cultural content and ‘legitimation in action’ (Barley, 2017, p. 354). Since our focus is on how a specific function conduct internal sport policy advocacy, we employed a method that allowed us to focus on the work of individuals that fulfil this function: shadowing (Czarniawska, 2007). Shadowing essentially involves following an individual during her/his daily (work) life, and it is therefore a way of studying the situated work of people who move often and from place to place. Since shadowing generates large amounts data, we chose to shadow few individuals but at many points in time. Employing these points of departure, we selected eleven shadowees from two regional sports federations (the regional extension of the Swedish Sports Confederation, divided by geographical location into 19 regions, responsible for providing administrative support to and representing all sports within a specific region). The actual shadowing was performed when consultants met with sport clubs (n=11) to discuss the implementation of Strategy 2025. The actual shadowing implied sitting in on these meetings and asking follow-up questions afterwards. Transcribed recordings (approximately 27 hours) and field notes were analysed using a mixture of predetermined and emergent codes, all the while using the constant contrasting/comparing tactic (e.g., Charmaz, 2014). The material was thereafter subjected to theoretical coding wherein we sought to establish relationships between codes.Results/findings and discussionAs per abstract submission deadline, data are being analysed to be presented at the time of the conference. However, initial analyses indicate that much of the sport consultants’ work is devoted to make sport clubs understand the strategic importance of the new strategy vis-à-vis external stakeholders and the surrounding society. In doing so, consultants employ system-internal legitimizing accounts and strategies emphasizing how the external resources directed towards sport are dependent on sport clubs acting and appearing legitimate.Conclusions, contribution and implicationsAt the conference, these results will be discussed in relation to ongoing modernization trends well documented in the contemporary sport policy literature. We envision possible contributions to consist of the unintended consequences of the consultants’ efforts to legitimize Strategy 2025 and, more specifically, of club- and policy-related consequences of consultants’ interpretations of the ‘gap’ between the strategy and clubs’ needs and wishes, and their efforts to close this gap.
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| 3. |
- Skirstad, Berit, et al.
(författare)
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Unpacking Sport Managers' Future Preferred Competences
- 2019
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Ingår i: The 27th European Sport Management Conference, Sevilla, Spain, September 3-6, 2019. - : European Association for Sport Management. - 9788409140688 ; , s. 726-728
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Aim and research questions: In 2017, an ERASMUS+ project was launched in order to improve the match between obtained skills through sport management education and demand in the labour marketin nine European countries: Denmark, Finland, Czech Republic, Norway, Germany, France, Spain, Greece and Lithuania. This research is a follow-up of a previous AEHSIS(Aligning a European Higher Education Structure in Sport Sciences) study done in 2004 where only six countries participated (AEHESIS, 2006). Findings from Norway are the subject for this presentation. One focus of the research project aims at answering the following question: Which trends will affect the future competencies of sport managersand which competences are preferred in future?Literature Review:Few previous studies show the relationship between competences acquired in sport management education (Dunkel, Wohlfart & Wendeborn, 2018) and what is preferred by the labour market (Schlesinger, Studer & Nagel, 2015,2016). A recent study analyzed the context specific competencies from a sport management alumni perspective (Fahrner &Schüttoff, 2019). We have focused on competencies required by those having sport management positions in the different sectors as explained by Schlesinger, Studer andNagel (2016). These competences are: social competence, methodological competence, subject specific competence and self-competence.Research design, methodology and data analysis:A combination of quantitative surveyand qualitative interview data were used. In early January 2018, 63 persons working assport managers answered a questionnaire sent out by e-mail. The response rate was 72per cent (63 of 88). The respondents came from four sectors in the sport industry: 1)non-profit and professional sport clubs 2) a city or municipality (public sector), 3)regional and national sport organizations, and 4) private enterprises. 68 per cent of therespondents were male and 32 per cent female. Age varied from 25 to 69 years. Importance-Performance analysis (Martilla & James, 1977) was used to identify competences important in the future. On bases of the results from this survey, interviews with ten experts (key informants) followed in the beginning of 2019. None of the experts has been involved in the previous survey. Several of the experts had own experience from several sectors, and that is why they were chosen for interview. Six were females and four men. The interviews lasted on average one hour, and they were recorded and transcribed verbatim. The interview transcripts were analyzed in four steps. The last step was to compare the findings from the survey with the findings from the qualitative data. All authors participated in the data analysis.Results/findings and discussion:Similar to the previous AEHSIS study, the trends of commercialization, digitalization and internationalization were confirmed as the most significant factors for change. Almost 90 per cent of the respondents claimed that commercialization would affect their future work and especially the costs for sports for children. Commercialization, which is defined to be mean that sport has become a comodity, will lead to more cooperation with sponsors, increased sums for media rights and selling/buying of athletes. This will again influence that taking part in sport becomes more expensive. Competences that will be needed for sport managers are creative work, B2B, B2C, marketing and entrepreneurship. More than half of the respondents thought internationalization of sport would have an effect and result in more professionalized sport clubs and international requirements. Internationalization refers to the increasing importance of international cooperation, international relations, agreements, alliances, etc. Only people in small local clubs did not agree to this development. Information technology will have impact on work tasks, competences as well as future positions, 97 per cent answered. All respondents highlighted the importance of a new digital age within the sport industry. High demands for specialists on social media, (digital) marketing, information technology and communication are the result.Conclusion, Contribution and Implication:The competences, which are preferred by sport managers in the future, are more various and specific than previously, because the sport industry has changed due to commercialization, internationalization and digitalization. The various sectors have different needs. For the sport clubs the most preferred competences are financial management, leading volunteers, event management and political knowledge. For the sport organizations digital communication, organizational knowledge, political knowledge, leadership skill and financial management top the list. The public sector demands networking, applying knowledge in practice, political knowledge, cooperation across different sectors and teamwork, organizational skills and oral communication. The private sector asks for digital marketing and communication, B2B, networking, capacityto learn and strategic planning and development. Already for the academic year, 2019-2020 changes have been done. A course in "Sportand media" has been included for all sport management students at bachelor level. The head of sport management will recommend that this course will include digital media, social media and digital content. A comprehensive sport-marketing seminar is includedat master level and more courses are planned to be taught online from 2020.
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