(Dis)Abled bodies, gender, and citizenship in the Swedish sports movement

Abstract

The aim of this article is to examine how the Swedish Sports Organization for the Disabled (SHIF) portrays disabled people. A text analysis of two policy documents, ‘Disability Sports Policy Programme’ and ‘Sports Objectives – A Summary of Aims and Guidelines for the Sports Movement’, examines ways in which sports are supposed to affect people’s bodies and contribute to society. Counter to its own aim to integrate disabled people, SHIF constructs such people as different and subordinated to able-bodied people, setting up an insurmountable boundary between the two groups.

Keywords:

• disability
• sport
• gender
• citizenship
• body
• difference

Notes

1. The document analysis in this article is part of the author’s dissertation, which deals with how young women with physical impairments relate to their own bodies and to the field of sport. The analysis is embedded in a critical dialogue with the informants, through interviews, video diaries, and participating observations.

2. All translations are by the author.