The bridge as playground: Organizing sport in public space

Abstract

This article deals with sport activities of youths on public playgrounds in the Netherlands and the organizing practices they are engaged in. In the evaluation of the social value of sport the metaphor of the bridge is widely used. Predominantly the bridge stands for ideals of connection and social inclusion through sport, while processes of separation and exclusion remain underexposed. In this article, I will argue that the real places where sport is organized are not functioning as bridges but as heterotopia. That is, sport sites are places of contrast and alternate orderings. I will use data from an ethnographic study of sport on public playgrounds in disadvantaged urban neighborhoods to make the argument that organizing sport is about (1) defining space, (2) playing with different orders, (3) making internal differences, and (4) contesting external boundaries.

Keywords:

• sport
• organizing
• bridge
• youth
• public space
• heterotopia

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments. Special thanks to my colleagues Marja Gastelaars, Jeroen Veldman, and Arnold Wilts for their remarks on earlier drafts on the paper. The end result profited from discussions on sport and organization with Martijn Koster, Maikel Waardenburg, Michel van Slobbe, and Marianne Dortants and, especially, Paul Verweel. Thanks go to former students Sanae Bittich, Alice Reichert, and Nienke van der Meij for their work in the research project. Finally, the cooperation of informants on the playgrounds and the support of the Richard Krajicek Foundation (notably Eric en Coen van Veen, Chris Kaper, and Sebastian Abdallah) made the study at all possible. Oranje Fonds, VSB Fonds, and ABN AMRO financially supported the research on RKF playgrounds.

Notes

1. Often these analyses draw on the work of Bourdieu and Wacquant about urban youth and inequality (e.g., Wacquant 2008).

2. See also Spicer, Alvesson, and Karreman (2009).

3. The photographs shown in the article were taken during the fieldwork for illustrative purposes only, i.e., with no methodical goal in mind.

4. Obviously, the establishing of urban places for children is not a recent phenomenon, nor exclusive for the Netherlands. Read, e.g., Kozlovsky (2008) on ‘adventure playgrounds’ in England and Denmark and their function in terms of social control and social regeneration after the Second World War.

5. On processes of making difference and organization in the city, see Bridge and Watson (2002) and a recent thematic issue of Culture and Organization (O’Doherty and Knox 2010).

6. The photograph in Figure 5 was taken with the permission of the kids on the playground. However, for reasons of privacy the faces of the kids have been slightly blurred using photoshop.

7. I thank Hadas Lieber for pointing out to me the value of distinction between the two roles of sport leaders.