Horses don't growl and lemons in the pockets at the Soccer World Cup : Child perspective and children's perspective on sports during the second half of the 20th century

• Abstract for oral presentation.

• Last year marked the 20th anniversary of the founding of the child convention in which a child perspective is underlined. Here I would like to stress the importance of using a child perspective (PP 2)when studying sports: today as well as in history. The child perspective has different meanings in childhood research, the first being recognizing and acknowledging children's efforts and accomplishments. This is of great importance to sports studies research, not the least from a historical perspective. Partly because there is not a whole lot of research about children and sports (there is some research about children at school, but little about younger children and organized sports). Secondly, a child perspective implies that every political and economic decision made should be considered from the point of view of how it would affect children and young people – this can of course be taken into consideration when we study children and sports politics historically. Thirdly, a child perspective emphasize children's agency and voice. The task of making children's voices heard is not easy for an historian. Fourthly, a child perspective has to recognize power structures in relation to age or generation. In this paper I will try to follow the first and third definition of a child perspective through analyzing a Swedish children’s magazine: Kamratposten 1950–1980. The title of this lecture, ”Horses don't growl and lemons in the pockets at the soccer world cup” come from this magazine.

Subject headings

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

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

Keyword

Children

Childhood

Gender

Sports

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kon (subject category)