The role of the Swedish Sports Confederation in delivering sport in socioeconomically deprived areas

ABSTRACT

This study explores the role of the Swedish Sports Confederation (SSC) in its pursuit of supporting sports in socioeconomically deprived areas, specifically targeting ethnic minorities. This is no easy task, seeing as the SSC does so through ‘steering’ voluntary sport clubs towards social policy goals. Utilising multiple qualitative sources from 35 SSC representatives, this study examines the practices of the SSC according to Bronfenbrenner’s Process-Person-Context-Time approach. The results show that the SSC foreground their practices by initiating inter-sectoral collaborations to ensure sustainable funding to clubs and that the ‘principle of closeness’ permeates the practices; every link in the process is locally embedded and builds upon the strength of the clubs. The sport club consultant, acting as the direct link between exo-level directives and the clubs’ micro-setting becomes a key factor whose individual characteristics become a decisive factor. In conclusion, the SSC works in a complex collaborative sphere in which specific individuals become central in reaching the clubs. Importantly, the SSC adopts a bottom-up approach, recognising the strength and resourcefulness of the locals. The results have implications for federations that work under the governance of neoliberal result-oriented regimes – if sport clubs should carry out this work, the federations need to understand how they must accommodate and assist these sport clubs adequately.

KEYWORDS:

• Process-Person-Context-Time
• sport federation
• social inclusion
• ethnic minorities
• sport-for-all

This paper explores the role of the Swedish Sports Confederation (SSC) in their work of striving towards socially just and equal access to sport, with a particular emphasis on ethnic minorities in socioeconomically deprived areas. Strikingly similar to how social work(ers) contribute towards community development and empowerment, social inclusion, and a range of other social outcomes (Lawson 2005), the sport movement is now targeted as a capable actor to combat such issues. Early examples of this can be found in the US, where midnight basketball quickly gained prominence amongst stakeholders for its assumed efficiency to combat social ills, particularly amongst poor ethnic minority (youth) men in urban areas (Hartmann 2001). In contemporary times, these sport initiatives are found globally. For instance, in Sweden, drive-in sport emerged as a new alternative vis-à-vis traditional sport to address societal issues, and are constructed in socially deprived areas, mainly targeting male immigrant youths (Stenling 2015). Indeed, sports are increasingly prominent within social policies in the Nordic countries and serve as an alternative way of welfare provision (Ekholm 2017). As Ekholm (2017) notes, the public sector ‘mobilizes’ civic society, including the sport movement, through the allocation of resources and responsibility, thus enabling sport actors to become welfare providers. Naturally, the SSC becomes a key player in this equation that mediates this mobilisation from the government to the sport clubs.

The SSC holds an essential role in the support, maintenance, and development of Swedish sport. In the last decade, the SSC has gained an important role in supporting sport as a response to social issues in socioeconomically deprived areas, particularly directed at ethnic minorities. These areas are characterised by their ‘ … spatial, ethnocultural and socioeconomic segregation … ’ (Ekholm and Dahlstedt 2022, p. 1146) vis-à-vis other, more socioeconomically prosperous areas, and mostly contain underserved households of minority backgrounds. The SSC’s support is mediated through the voluntary sport clubs (VSCs) that carry out the actual work. Two central issues appear here. First, most VSCs are generally not interested in carrying out social policy goals (Stenling and Fahlén 2016). Secondly, complex collaborations with external actors are usually needed to sustain these initiatives, often characterised by short-term funding (Ekholm and Holmlid 2020). In turn, financial stakeholders may change their scope, implicitly forcing sport initiatives to reshape their organisation for the worse to sustain funding (Raw et al. 2019).

For the SSC, the so-called ‘refugee wave’ in 2015 served as a landmark point in history, where this responsibility increased, as Sweden (a country of 10 million inhabitants) received over 160,000 asylum seekers. Ensuring the well-being of these individuals became a central focus of the SSC. As discussed elsewhere, the practices, outcomes, and challenges that European sport movements faced due to the refugee wave have been largely unexplored (Tuchel et al., 2021).periods of trial-and-errors. As an indicator of the SSC’s progress, a series of initiatives were launched. These were at first aimed at ‘activating’ these individuals but later aimed at facilitating participation in organised sport (Anderson et al. 2019). This study emanates from the latest iteration of this process, namely that whole, socioeconomically deprived areas are being targeted, but still with largely the same target group: people with a migration background. It is also worthwhile to mention that, after 2015, immigration laws drastically changed to be more restrictive, and the rates of immigration dropped. The changing sentiment and direction of Swedish migration policies are but one example of how the Swedish political landscape has been gradually altered across the two recent decades (Dahlstedt and Neergaard 2019).

This paper fills an important gap in the literature, illuminating one example of how important meso- and exo-level bodies’ work set the stage for how VSCs can contribute towards social policy goals. To this end, Bronfenbrenner’s Process-Person-Context-Time (PPCT) framework was used to guide the study. The PPCT framework is useful here because it carefully conceptualises relationships that are deemed necessary for developmental outcomes. Accordingly, this study was not interested in the logics that drive organisations but rather what (proximal) processes enable the SSC to support the VSCs in this line of work. The research question that guided this study was: How do meso- and exo-level persons and processes within the SSC promote or hinder social policy goals of increasing access to sports in socioeconomically deprived areas?

The paper proceeds as follows. First, I introduce the theoretical framework guiding the study, the PPCT framework (Bronfenbrenner 2005). Secondly, I outline how European VSCs serve as the main deliverers of sport for social ends. Subsequently, I account for the Swedish context, including the role of the SSC and the complicated relationship they possess with the state and the VSCs. Third, I account for the method, including focus group interviews and an online conference. Fourth, I present the results according to the PPCT framework and finish with some concluding remarks.

The Process-Person-Context-Time approach

Bronfenbrenner’s early work (Bronfenbrenner 1977, 1979) emphasised the interdependences between the nested structures that contain the individual. These structures included micro-level settings, such as children’s parents; meso-level settings, such as linkages between parents and coaches; exo-system settings, such as sport clubs’ negotiation with federations; macro-system settings, such as conditioning policies or (sub)cultures that permeate individuals’ way of life. The early version(s) have been used extensively within a sport and development context. For example, O’Driscoll et al. (2014) reviewed 72 papers on migrants’ sporting participation and conceptualised the findings according to the socioecological model, along the themes of demographics, psychosocial factors, and environmental and organisational factors. Later work with the socioecological model as its basis has, for instance, elicited expert opinions on how to leverage sport for refugees, including logistical factors such as transportation and facilities’ availability for sport programmes’ success (Anderson et al. 2019)

Bronfenbrenner expanded his framework for two central reasons. First, the early versions omitted the agency and characteristics of the person, thus failing to discern reciprocal effects between the individual and the environment. Bronfenbrenner (2005) distinguishes between three personal factors. First, demand factors are features such as sex, age, ethnicity, and physical appearance. Secondly, resource factors concern the resources an individual has at her or his disposal. Finally, force factors represent the person’s agency. Accordingly, the individual chooses whether to engage with the skills available. The person’s characteristics and agency become important to understand in the bridge between individual and context, that is, the proximal process.

Although his early version linked the structures to each other, it remained unclear how the developmental processes took place, how they were shaped and what the direction and strength of the processes looked like. This elaboration came to be his main contribution to the PPCT approach, namely the proximal processes. Bronfenbrenner (2005) conceptualises the proximal process as the interaction between a biopsychological human organism and the individuals, systems, and objects in the individual’s ecology. This interaction must occur with a certain degree of frequency, over time, and work reciprocally. The proximal process is the engine of development and has been emphasised as the core element of the PPCT framework (Tudge et al. 2009). This process occurs between the individual and the proximal setting. In this study, I conceptualise and identify particular positions within the SSC and their interactions with the sport movement that constitute this process.

The final addition of Bronfenbrenner was time. This can be further divided into micro-, meso-, and macro-time. The latter temporal aspect is the most important to the current study. Macro-time refers to history, that is, broader segments of time that witness critical events and responses that are shaped by several agents and institutions. In this sense, the temporal aspect elucidates the SSC’s intraorganizational evolution and the evolution of their implementation and governance of sport in Sweden.

The PPCT model has, to the author’s knowledge, been used only in one article that borders on the current study theme. Truskewycz et al. (2022) explored how refugee women negotiated football participation according to the PPCT model. Besides mapping out a set of barriers and facilitators according to the multilevel nature of the (old) socioecological model, some features derived from the PPCT model stand out as important in Truskewycz et al.’s (2022) work. First, the authors were able to (partially) explain the paths to sport participation as a result of pre-migration experiences, that is, a temporal factor. Secondly, the authors were able to conceptualise the agency of their participants more clearly, instead of being merely deterministically driven by their surroundings.

The ambiguous role of clubs and sport federations as policy implementers

European VSCs constitute a major share of the voluntary sector. This has several implications. First, since VSCs constitute a significant share of the voluntary sector, they have an immense potential to reach many individuals. This is why European governments increasingly rely on VSCs to address timely social issues (Waardenburg and Nagel 2019). Since sport is assumed to bring about a myriad of positive effects (e.g., crime-prevention, community building), it is not surprising that sport-initiatives are deployed in the most segregated and excluded areas. These areas are often plagued by high crime rates, poverty, poor infrastructure and social exclusion (Lawson 2005, Dahlstedt and Ekholm 2019). As such, the prospects of people who are raised in these areas are generally stifled, or made more difficult to achieve, by a range of permeating structural- and social issues. It is within these areas that sport can make an impact, for example through facilitating social integration and building strong communities (Höglund and Bruhn 2022). Notably, since segregation are characterised by spatial, socioeconomic and ethnocultural markers, it is often migrants who are subject for intervention (Stenling 2015). There has been an increase in scholarly attention paid to sport and migrants’ integration (for reviews, see Smith et al. 2019, Spaaij et al. 2019), with a particular emphasis on VSCs’ ability to address this issue (Stura 2019, Doidge et al. 2020, Chatzopoulos 2021). However, this research paints an ambivalent picture.

First, most VSCs do not engage with concrete implementations to ensure underrepresented groups’ inclusion. Out of 5170 German sport clubs, only 14% of the VSCs implemented concrete measures, such as reducing membership fees, or initiating sporting activities directed at underrepresented populations (Nowy et al. 2020). Meeting underrepresented groups’ needs seems even less prioritised in other contexts, such as Italy and Poland (Nowy and Breuer 2019). As Nowy and Breuer (2019, p. 727) note, VSCs ‘are originally founded to serve members – and not particularly obligated to function as governmental agents. Accordingly, their willingness to adhere to policy goals may differ.’ Notably, the SSC operates within this nexus, acting as the bridge between government directives and the VSCs.

Reminiscent of how early research reported that sport actually might reinforce inter-ethnic conflict (Krouwel et al. 2006), some findings in contemporary times are worthwhile mentioning. In her case study, Dowling (2020) found that sport clubs ‘self-helped’ by gaining project funding with the rationale of helping refugees integrate into mainstream society through sport. However, due to cultural differences, the majority population and the VSC viewed the refugees as the ‘others,’ including furthering narratives about the refugees’ inhumane character and implicitly excluding them. Other recent work corroborates that rigid frameworks in VSCs can indeed ‘push’ migrants away if they lack financial and cultural capital (Mickelsson Blomqvist, 2022). Specifically, many VSCs have clear ideas of how migrants need to adapt in a rather assimilatory way and adopt the customs of host society teams (Agergaard and Sørensen 2010) without taking into account the strength of migrants (Smith et al. 2019).

On the contrary, other researchers elucidate successful cases. In these cases, it is clear that organisations need to tailor their practices carefully according to migrants’ needs and consider how culturally sensitive they are (Doidge et al. 2020). In Doidge et al.’s (2020) study, the staff downplayed the value of competition and instead emphasised a social atmosphere. Other recent findings also indicate that VSCs adopt innovative ways that put heavy demands on their organisational capacity (Tuchel et al. 2021). Moreover, it is acknowledged that these social-justice agendas in VSCs are driven by highly passionate individuals (Michelini et al. 2018). These individuals work voluntarily and dedicate much energy and effort to the clubs. These extra efforts may include offering activities outside the club, arranging extra sessions in the club, or other practices intended to welcome underrepresented populations (Tuchel et al. 2021).

The question thus remains as to how federations motivate clubs to fulfill social policy goals. A disappointing finding is that sport federations generally fail to reach and include underrepresented groups (Fitzgerald 2019). One criticism has been that sport federations must adapt to temporal trends and the current environment if they want to be able to promote sport for all (Skille 2011). Little research shows how federations adapt to these trends, with minor exceptions. For example, informed by institutional theory, De Bock et al. (2021) investigated 53 Flemish sport federations’ responses to these trends with a novel quantitative survey based on Greenwood et al.’s (2002) model of institutional change. About half of these federations responded actively to these trends. However, a generic limitation of the method of choice is the lacking knowledge of the intensity, variation, and spectrum of success and failure of these federations. De Bock et al. (2021) noted that it also remains unclear how sport federations have evolved their practices, which may favourably be explored through a qualitative method. This paper partially responds to this need for further research into the federations’ evolving work, focusing on the processes conducive to such ends.

The Swedish Context

Spatial, ethnic, and socioeconomic segregation in Sweden

It is imperative to gain an in-depth contextual understanding of where sport is being delivered since macro-level factors impinge upon sport delivery in a variety of ways (Holt et al., 2017). This can include, for instance, how policies shape priorities and funding opportunities for sport initiatives, which in turn impact their delivery. This study takes as its departure the context of Sweden – a nation historically renowned for its egalitarian and civic society, strong welfare, and inclusive migration policy. This has, however, changed during the last decades, as neoliberal forces have gradually remoulded the Swedish welfare regime (Dahlstedt and Neergaard 2019).

Although one of the most tangible government grants to the SSC’s were allocated as responses to 2015, the urban landscape in Sweden was already characterised by segregation prior to 2015. In Sweden, since the 1990s, this neoliberal current has forced a political shift from ‘equality to freedom of choice, from redistribution to activation, from collective rights to individual responsibilities’ (Dahlstedt and Ekholm 2019, p. 1). In their analysis of Swedish housing policy and urban forms, Grundström and Molina (2016) identify three shifts in Swedish history: a period between 1930 and 1974, where the state implemented the Folkhem model (‘the people’s home’), ensuring housing provision for all; a period between 1974 and 2006, where the model was deregulated, and increasing marketisation and gradual abolition of housing subsidies occurred. In this era, a ‘racialization process relegated immigrants to stigmatized urban fringe neighbourhoods’ (Grundström and Molina 2016, p. 318). Finally, from 2006 to the present, liberal housing policies continue to thrive and further spur this marketisation, where new housing is geared towards the middle and high classes while socioeconomically deprived areas face increased housing deficits.

This development has caused profound spatial, ethnic, and socioeconomic divides in Sweden, and now, Sweden’s urban cities are among some of Europe’s most socioeconomically segregated (Polanska 2020). As Fahlén et al. (2015) note, Sweden is an interesting but alarming case since Sweden’s liberalisation speed ‘outperforms’ other OECD countries. In summary, (Swedish) segregation is characterised by its multifaceted nature, including ethnicity, class, culture, and material resources. This is a reinforcing and downward spiral, where the segregation keeps feeding social exclusion through a variety of mechanisms (e.g., poor infrastructure and lower school quality, thus reducing chances for youths’ higher studies; Dahlstedt and Ekholm 2019).

Adding to the above, Sweden has seen several waves of migration. It is impossible to cover the extent of this aspect here, but some examples are warranted. In the 90s, during the ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, approximately 100,000 refugees sought asylum in Sweden. Naturally, many migrants who arrived in Sweden were accommodated in the urban peripheries because of low socioeconomic status, being a foreigner, and generally lacking the capital needed to acquire housing in more affluent areas. In contemporary times, the refugee wave in 2015 served as another distinctive landmark in history, as Sweden received more than 160,000 asylum seekers.

This escalating segregation and the neoliberalist current that further drives this phenomenon have implications for how the Swedish welfare regime approaches these issues. One approach has been to involve civic society and ease the burden on the welfare state (Stenling and Fahlén 2019). These shifts in responsibilities have situated the Swedish civic society in a peculiar position, where this sector, including sports, has become providers of welfare. In this regard, traditional structures between the public and private sectors have been eroded, and innovative collaborations enable the sport community to do social work (Sabbe 2019). As Ekholm (2017) notes, this is indicative of a shift from welfarism to a state of advanced liberalism and a kind of ‘de-professionalization’ of social work, where local role models, VSCs, and entrepreneurs take it upon them to contribute towards social policy goals. However, as we will see, they must be motivated and ‘mobilized’ (Ekholm 2017). It is against this backdrop that we must understand the SSC’s rather complex role in leveraging sport in socioeconomically deprived areas.

The Swedish Sports Confederation

The SSC is the governing body of sport in Sweden and is divided into several divisions. The national sport organisations exist under the umbrella of their separate special sport federation (SSF) (e.g., the soccer federation). In turn, the SSF exists under the umbrella of the districts, which answers to the central body of SSC. They are allocated an annual budget from the Swedish government for various objects. The budget is further allocated to the different divisions and districts within the SSC, which further moves the money to the SSFs, ultimately, to the VSCs. The VSCs’ funding is based on three primary sources: 1) membership fees, 2) commercial sources, and 3) public funding (Fahlén and Stenling 2016).

Notably, the SSC, as a supreme organ, has been given the mandate to act on behalf of the government (Fahlén et al. 2015). The government has historically been limited to deciding on the extent of funding, and the overarching aims of the funding, while the SSC has largely decided on how to reach these goals. Phrased as the ‘implicit contract,’ there are political expectations that the SSC contributes towards social goals such as integration (Hertting and Karlefors 2021), crime prevention (Ekholm 2013) and public health (Aggestål and Fahlén 2015). The most common way to steer the sport movement has been to offer financial incentives (Norberg 2011). However, this contract has gradually been renegotiated (Norberg 2011), and the state has imposed more monitoring, auditing, and increased demand on the sport movement to present evidence of their work (Österlind 2016). This is not without issues since the government cannot exert the same control over civic society organisations as they do in other sectors. Norberg (2011) elaborated on this tension; the sport movement is autonomous and an inherent part of civic society but simultaneously dependent on the substantial governmental support they receive, which calls into question the nature of the relationship between the state and the SSC. To further complicate the matter, the sport movement has been adamant in its pursuit of staying politically relevant. As shown by Stenling and Sam (2017), this contradictory tension is reflected in the SSC’s call for the government to stop treating them as a corporate with clear models for evaluation, but still provide them with substantial funding to address social issues.

Nevertheless, as a result, sport is increasingly instrumentally utilised to achieve social policy goals. Perhaps the best illustration of this increasing instrumentalization is reflected in the increased funding of the sport movement in 2015, particularly aimed at migrants’ social inclusion and integration (Government Offices, 2015) and the range of sport-based initiatives that have emerged (e.g., Flensner et al. 2021, Hertting and Karlefors 2021). Importantly, as the umbrella organisation of Swedish sport, the SSC does not deliver these initiatives themselves. The VSCs do. However, since VSCs are autonomous and managed by volunteers, they are not obligated to act as governmental agents (Nowy and Breuer 2019). The Swedish VSCs run as usual based on the aforementioned funds, regardless of whether they adhere to social policy objectives. In this regard, Swedish VSCs have a long tradition of enjoying state support, indicative of the government’s perception of Swedish sport’s presumed benefit (Norberg 2011). However, in the absence of willing policy implementers, project funding is usually offered on a one- to two-year basis. Despite this, the funding rarely materialises in the intended objectives, partially because of vague and ill-defined directives (Fahlén et al. 2015; Karp et al. 2014). Moreover, when targeted initiatives’ funding ends, such as in the case of the ‘integration’ of newly arrived persons, a range of VSCs also report that their activities eventually dissolve due to the lack of financial and organisational capacity (Molin 2019). What all of the above points to is that the SSC serves as an important intermediary that ‘mobilizes’ (Ekholm 2017) the sport community to be welfare providers, but that a range of issues exist.

Importantly, there is more to be gauged regarding federations’ practices and how they enable VSCs to carry out social policy objectives. In an overview of the efforts made post-2015, Arnoldsson et al. (2019) note that there has occurred a shift in perspectives and targeted efforts to include underrepresented groups but also contends that the SSC will need to continue to scrutinise themselves introspectively, and not only the VSCs. In a recent follow-up report, some conclusions are given based on extensive interviews with SSFs. According to Linderyd and Leon Rosales (2022), federations and VSCs must adopt explicit sentiments about social inclusion and be adamant in their pursuit of aligning their practices with such philosophies. Moreover, federations and VSCs must engage in collaborative endeavours with organisations that may reach the intended target groups and that can support them with additional resources. A potential key factor includes brobryggare (bridge-builders), individuals who have the capital to tie together the sport movement with significant others in their surroundings, whether it may be parents or organisations. Regarding significant individuals, Stenling and Fahlén (2021) followed the SSC’s sport club consultants who worked face-to-face with the VSCs. A main finding was that these sport club consultants operated in a contested space with vaguely defined goals. First, the sport club consultants had approximately 40–45 VSCs to work with and were supposed to induce ‘change’ in these organisations. As expressed in Stenling and Fahlén (2021) and later here, this is not a reasonable goal. Secondly, these vaguely defined goals caused frustration among these sport club consultants.

Method

Material and participants

The current study is part of a collaboration with the SSC, evaluating their current knowledge base in the aftermath of several intensive sport-for-all and integration projects as previously described. The current study adopted a qualitative approach, utilising two distinctive forms of data collection across multiple levels of sport actors in Sweden. The participants held several positions within the SSC, including four sport club consultants (working with the clubs at the grassroots level), 21 coordinators and project leaders (working with administrative tasks, such as monitoring and initiating projects), eight operations managers (serving as the consultants and coordinators closest supervisor), and two district heads (responsible for entire districts).It should be noted, however, that the titles at times fluctuate, and that the data collection followed local Swedish ethical standards, ensuring participant anonymity, consent, confidentiality, and the right to quit whenever without stating any purpose for the motivation to do so. No personal or sensitive information was collected at any time. I account for the data collection in chronological order to provide transparency and an understanding of the data-driven nature of the project.

The district sample was purposively selected in collaboration with the SSC. The study was grounded in a critical realist perspective (Collier 1994), understanding experiences and processes as latent, real forces that enable the SSC to pursue its mission in socioeconomically deprived areas. Accordingly, the sampling procedure was guided by the SSC’s expertise on who and which district had the most experience in dealing with these questions. This approach was necessary to ensure that the study contained participants with rich stories to share (Patton 2014).

Prior to the interviews, reports from the SSC were consulted where the districts had reported on their activities under the current project. These reports contained information on how the districts had allocated funding to VSCs, engaged with external collaborators, and the consequences of their work. With SSC representatives’ assistance, the four most experienced districts were chosen. Subsequently, the same documents served to inform an interview guide prior to the first interviews. In this interview guide, I was broadly interested in how the districts had worked with the initiatives, their insights on mechanisms, caveats, and issues, and how they could make these initiatives sustainable in the long run. All districts participated in (four) separate focus-group interviews, each lasting between one and one and a half hours. All interviews contained coordinators, managers of operations, sport club consultants, and the head of the districts.

Informed of these findings, the local institution and the SSC jointly invited voluntary coordinators to an online conference. Sixteen coordinators participated, and the conference was held over two days, each day consisting of six hours. It should be noted that, given the anonymity in the conference, it is likely that a few individuals from the group interviews also were present. As such, a very limited number of SSC representatives may have been present at two occasions in the data collection. These days were structured into four main blocks, where each block was the topic of group discussions. The conference proceeded with one moderator (an SSC representative) introducing the block and the questions at issue. The participants were subsequently divided into small groups (3–5 persons) and allowed to confer for approximately ten minutes. After that, each group presented their conclusions. Discussions followed among the participants, who largely steered the direction of conversations. On some occasions, when discussions ended, the moderator probed further with questions pertinent to the block’s topic.

The blocks were based on the previously collected material. The first block contained the work directed at the clubs. Respondents were asked to contemplate the implemented strategies, their success or failure, the mechanisms underpinning these outcomes, and inconsistencies between districts. We understood the vaguely defined concept of ‘success’ as the joint effort by the SSC and the VSCs to attract as many participants as possible to the VSC and to make sure the VSCs could operate sustainably. The second block contained the work directed against the targeted population. The same questions were applied. The third block considered the indirect job intended to build an enduring infrastructure around the initiatives. The same questions were applied. The fourth and final block considered the work done with external actors. Besides the same questions, I also asked whether some collaborations were more valuable than others and if collaboration with external actors always was beneficial. Moreover, we considered the role of alternative associations and modes of exerting sport. These examples include ethnic associations or spontaneous sport that did not directly fall under the jurisdiction of the SSC. Data from the conference was used, both from the small group discussions and when all coordinators were present and discussing.

Finally, one last focus-group interview was held with the SSC’s managers of operations across all districts beyond the four initially sampled. Here, I asked the districts to fill in with their key insights related to the abovementioned questions of issue. As part of these individuals’ limited time, the interview took place as part of a bi-monthly SSC meeting (all other data collection was made exclusively as part of the research project). The interview lasted one hour and contained seven actively contributing managers of operation. I considered this final interview vital for detecting contradictions or irregularities beyond the initially sampled districts.

Data analysis

The data were analysed with respect to the PPCT framework to elucidate what mechanisms underpinned the practices of the SSC and how this was negotiated between levels. As previously mentioned, the ontological underpinning of the analysis can be said to be a critical realist-inspired one, assuming a mind-independent reality but where knowledge is socially, culturally, and historically mediated (Collier 1994). A core consideration here was how the different positions within the SSC negotiated and translated directives into practices and what outcomes resulted from these practices. Moreover, according to the PPCT framework, a key point in the analysis was to understand how practices have evolved because of experience, successes, and failures. At each separate organisational level, the data from each interview were analysed one by one. This included how superior positions related to lower positions and the interactions between them. Nascent themes were noted in detailed categories. Subsequent transcriptions were deductively analysed, where themes both corroborated and contradicted previous themes. For example, it became clear early into the study that certain external collaborators served to condition the success of the VSCs in their local areas. I systematically mapped the link between the SSC and collaborators deductively, noting differences and similarities in how relationships had evolved and were maintained and the consequences. This collaboration formed one major theme of the study and was subsequently linked to particular individuals (and the individual’s characteristics). The coding scheme followed the guidelines by Wiltshire and Ronkainen (2021), in which I systematically mapped out how latent forces (e.g., long-term collaborations with solid funding) relied on particular individuals’ work within the SSC and subsequently manifested in the VSCs’ success.

Results and Discussion

This section is structured into four categories interpreted by the PPCT framework. Firstly, the section starts from the ‘top’, illuminating how the SSC representatives set the stage for sport-for-all projects in socioeconomically deprived areas. Here, the SSC can be viewed as an (active) contextual factor that encapsulates and supports the VSCs through various measures. Subsequently, I highlight one crucial position within the SSC concerning the personal characteristics in the PPCT framework and illuminate this position’s significance. The two following sections focus on the factors that are perceived as critical for the well-being of the proximal processes between the SSC and the VSCs: the local embeddedness of both SSC representatives and VSC representatives, and finally, the conditioning factors of the VSC in terms of experience and ability to materialise the funding into sustainable projects.

The SSC as a supportive meso- and exo-level agent for the VSCs

The study situates the SSC as an agent that, in the PPCT framework, moves in-between the exo- and the meso-level, that is, a contextual factor that encapsulates the VSCs. In this regard, the SSC mediates directives down to lower levels and serves as a supportive function for the VSCs. A crucial part of this interaction is how the SSC ensures that the VSCs can have a meaningful impact in their areas. Again, this partially occurs as practices between the exo- and meso-level that entail setting up collaborations that can benefit the VSCs. As one coordinator (1) made note of, the SSC works as ‘the glue between different actors,’ which reflects the SSC’s position as an agent in the aforementioned levels that aim to ensure that VSCs surroundings (e.g., collaborations) will support the VSCs’ work.

Across the data, the SSC representatives displayed great insights into the limited organisational and financial capacity of their districts’ VSCs. Most informants acknowledged that all VSCs usually reduce their fees or engage in other time- and resource-consuming strategies to include minorities, as seen elsewhere (Stura 2019, Tuchel et al. 2021). Considering this, a range of SSC representatives also agreed that the funding from the SSC was unreliable from a sustainability perspective. Since project funding lasted one to two years, these clubs’ financial situation was fragile at best. To cover these expenses in a sustainable way, it was imperative for the clubs to have parallel collaborations beyond the SSC. This financial insecurity was clearly expressed through one coordinator (1) in the initial focus-group interviews:

So, if a club is supposed to think economically sustainable, we usually say that they should not turn to us, because here the funding may run out. It depends on political shifts in the government and what they decide. So, we are an unsafe card to play. We can be there in the start but after that we think they should reach out to companies and show what they do or seek funding amongst foundations.

In this regard, the political pressure from the state (Norberg 2011) was omnipresent in the material; in the same group, other coordinators also expressed frustration with the funding given to them and the political expectations of quick fixes. The underlying reason for their incentive to promote a sort of commercialisation approach to the clubs was primarily rooted in their tiredness with short-term funding, hence why they ‘tried to convey this uncertainty to the clubs,’ as stated by another manager of operations (2). This feature, emanating from the exo-level (governmental), served as a stressor for the SSC representatives at large, which limited their space of operations. The feature also reflects a changing political landscape in Sweden, illustrating how the increasing focus on ‘quick fixes’ and instrumentality is gradually becoming a part of the societal macro-blueprint. It was thus necessary to inform clubs of their needs to seek financial alternatives; it was necessary to motivate them. As noted by Lawson (2005), in a time where sport is gradually being perceived as contributing towards social work-related goals, the sport movement must be able to prove and establish causal connections between their practices and outcomes. Throughout the material, it was stated that, without the external financial resources, most clubs would not satisfy either policy makers’ goals or satisfy the general claims about sport’s benefits (Coalter 2013).

In presenting a summarising note at the conference, a key concern for the SSC representatives at the administrative level was the municipality of the VSCs. A key aspect resided in the municipality’s ability to grant financial reliefs for clubs. This occurred, for example, through grants but also through access to cheap municipality-owned facilities. However, these relationships with the municipality were of a different character based on the municipality´s conditions, such as their geographical and financial situation. One coordinator (3) noted that, while urban municipalities have the stronger infrastructure and more time allocated to sport-related matters, rural municipalities have lesser experience and may have more pressing priorities. For instance, in Stockholm, some municipalities have hired ‘sport strategists/developers,’ making it more intuitive for collaborations to take place between the municipality and the SSC.

Informed by previous initiatives, one central Swedish district chief (4) corroborated and emphasised that the local municipality plays a critical part; they can be invaluable collaborators through their allocation of funding, spaces, and general guidance. However, they can also become obstacles, where slow bureaucracy, poor flexibility, and disinterest severely hampers the SSC and the clubs’ agenda. The same head of the district illuminated one poor example:

And he [municipality boss] never really understood why we picked [municipality]. In contrast to [another municipality’s senior civil servant] he took it bad: “Why do you choose [municipality]? Don’t you think it’s good here? Don’t you think we in the municipality have done enough?” So, he took it bad

The outcomes of the collaboration were characterised by inflexibility and an unwillingness to cooperate to the extent where sport clubs managed to thrive and survive. In contrast, other municipalities became invaluable collaborators:

They were totally open with booking meeting times, allowing space in facilities, for different sports to be included, that was something that made organizations run quickly in [municipality], in other chosen municipalities it took a year […] but in [municipality] they were completely goal-oriented. (coordinator 5)

As noted by another manager of operations (6), their collaboration with the municipal had been running for approximately seven years; it had been built upon trust and results. It was a key factor in leveraging sport for ethnic minorities in these areas. A coordinator (3) belonging to the same district as the above manager added that municipalities usually think long-term and have the financial ‘muscles’ to leverage long-term plans but that they do not waste their time on fragile projects. In this regard, many SSC representatives agreed that a certain level of trust, accompanied by results, was necessary to build a decent collaboration with the municipality.

A temporal aspect also fluctuated in the discussions of the financial collaborations with external actors. As several coordinators illuminated, historically, there had been a radiant misfit between the districts’ knowledge and how to utilise the funds and the actual funding. What this meant, in reality, was that the initial burst of funding had been ‘dropped in our laps’ (head of district 4) at the initial stages after 2015, but it was generally agreed that the SSC was largely unprepared for how to distribute and invest the funding. As both the head of one district (4) and a manager of operations (11) noted, a myriad of errors and failed attempts had preceded and contributed to their contemporary knowledge base. However, this also meant a slow but steadily decreased budget; they suddenly had more knowledge and less funding to materialise certain ideas and initiatives. Overall, this translated into an even greater emphasis on the collaboration with external actors, notably the municipality.

Succinctly put, this meso-level link seemed to foreground the conditions of the actual sport clubs, but it was evident across the material that the districts had varying entrances in, and success with, their respective municipality. However, one common theme in the cases of success boiled down to the individual character of the sport club consultant and her link to the collaborators and clubs.

The significance of the individual

The sport club consultants had a complex task as they worked in the nexus between the SSC, the municipalities, and the VSCs. The sport club consultants’ entire work occurred in the direct interaction with all actors. They mediated the policy initiatives and directly tried to steer clubs in policy-friendly directions. As the introduction should tell, this is no easy task. The opening phrase of one coordinator (7) at the conference was telling, as he stated that the sport club consultants ‘have to burn for the area itself to make a good job and to have this desire to do something good, and that’s where we saw that the collaboration with the municipality also is affected.’ This notion was magnified by the head of one district (4), who argued that the entire methodology of their work had been developed by their sport club consultant (9). This sport club consultant (9) was coined ‘the big brother’ of his area. He was a local, raised in the Swedish sport movement, and possessed profound local knowledge. He had previously been working voluntarily to promote sport for minorities in his area. According to this consultant (9), upon being employed by the SSC, he had already established networks within the municipality through his previous work. As he had visited other districts, he contemplated his own relationship with the municipality and the difficulty of other sport club consultants’ work:

I’ve built a relationship with the municipal for the last 15 years, whatever I want, they say “go” […] this collaboration is so important, everything from facilities to gaining access to other channels and networks […] that’s why the results are different in different regions, I can’t even imagine coming in without the previous experience.

The character of this sport club consultant was corroborated by the other consultants (10, 11). They were all heavily locally embedded and shared a clear social justice perspective. In this regard, their relationships with the collaborators and clubs were very personal. A range of person-related characteristics could be discerned when consultants elaborated on specific necessities for success in their work. Similar to how local coaches are perceived to be reliable, understanding the challenges of the local area and being ‘in for the long haul’ (Jeanes et al. 2019, p. 440), the consultant (9) voiced how their profession was contingent on ‘how relationships developed as a function of their [VSCs’] belief in your authenticity and understanding of the area’. Accordingly, consultants had a local background and embeddedness (demand factor); they possessed the knowledge necessary to understand the local area and preferably the connections (resources) to make a difference, and perhaps most importantly; they were all highly motivated and driven by a great degree of agency in their work (force).

This was not to say that their work was easy – as illuminated elsewhere (Stenling and Fahlén 2021). The consultants faced several difficult decisions. As one coordinator (10) stated, both at the administrative and operational levels, the SSC representatives must make several decisions about whom to target and how to do it. At the consultant level, they threaded carefully so as not to annoy or disrupt the clubs’ usual business. They had to interact with the clubs based on the club’s agenda and conditions, not vice versa, while still trying to push for policy-friendly objectives. The consultants thus had to draw from their social networks, interpersonal skills, and local embeddedness to make the most out of this interaction. In this sense, the consultants became the main agents in the proximal process (Bronfenbrenner 2005) of moulding a trusting relationship with the VSCs. An ‘inverse’ proximal process could also be detected (Merçon‐Vargas et al., 2020) in illustrative cases where consultants came in with a top-down mentality and attempted to micro-manage clubs without considering the clubs’ needs and preferences (sport club consultant 9).

Building proximal processes through local voices and the ‘principle of closeness’

While the sport club consultant became a central link in the proximal process on behalf of the SSC, other factors were perceived as important on behalf of the VSCs to facilitate such processes. One insight that emanated from the previous projects was how sport was launched in socioeconomically deprived areas. At first, many districts launched their own initiatives where SSC representatives and ‘outside’ collaborators established clubs and informal forums for sport. As the previous section indicates, these initiatives were poorly received by the locals and had abrupt endings as the funding ran out. For example, one manager of operations (11) illuminated how they had struggled to implement soccer in a socioeconomically deprived area without existing VSCs, only to fall short repeatedly. Interestingly, they failed even when strongly locally anchored individuals were recruited to deliver these top-down programmes. The key concern here seemed to be that no pre-existing structure, that is, local clubs, could keep the interest alive.

We started from zero, no relationships, no trust, and the locals in [municipality] were already disappointed […] and then these fantastic [local] profiles enter and create magic, the whole [municipality] becomes alive […] I mean we beat some kind of record, we had about 200 girls attending one evening to talk self-esteem and such […] but the reason why there is no trace of this initiative is that there were no clubs. (Coordinator 5)

Many SSC representatives uniformly agreed that the disruption and lack of continuity that occurs in these short-lived projects could be detrimental, not in the least with regard to the moral spirit of the locals. At the micro level, the issue of continuity and staff dropout has been highlighted in sport-for-development programmes (Raw et al., 2021) and can severely impinge on the sport programme delivery. This issue becomes magnified at the project level, where initiatives dissolve completely due to financial reasons. The failures of these projects illuminated a collectively shared insight across the SSC representatives that was clearly expressed by the head of one district (2): ‘To think we could build an enduring infrastructure for the sport movement … no, we can’t do that, we can’t do that on our own.’ Instead, all districts involved in the study utilised and strengthened the existing VSCs in the areas. To make the most of this collaboration, one factor became salient.

The main theme echoed through a range of informants was the ‘principle of closeness,’ as one manager of operations (12) stated: ‘One key insight is the principle of closeness. We need to be close to the actors in these areas, and the clubs and the municipality. We need the local knowledge, and we need to build these relationships.’ In following up on this statement, another fellow manager (11) argued that “instead of flying in people all across town […] they [the locals] need to feel like ‘these people live here. These are the people we meet in the local grocery store, they know the kids.’ Accordingly, not only did the principle of closeness serve as a permeating philosophy through all SSC representatives’ work, but there was an intended aim to connect to individuals in the areas who had immense local knowledge and familiarity with the surroundings. In this link, the sport club consultant mediated exo-level directives into the micro settings of the VSCs and was further facilitated by the local coaches who could reach the target group and turn social policy goals into reality, mainly through their local capital. This constituted the core of the proximal process. Accordingly, the entire process seemed contingent on deeply contextualised and local knowledge that initiated cross-level interactions between the administrative and operational SSC representatives and the VSCs. The foundation of trust was uniformly built upon this insight of local embeddedness across levels.

The evolution of the SSC’s approaches to making sport more accessible for ethnic minorities went from a rather standard ‘top-down’ perspective to pay more attention to the local voices and organisations. However, similar to how the sport club consultants were required to possess a range of high-quality intrinsic factors and resources, many SSC representatives also acknowledged that VSCs that carry out social policy objectives without exception are run by (local) passionate enthusiasts. The question thus remained: Who and how do we target in the local area, and what support may best facilitate the SSC’s objectives?

Proximal processes as contingent on VSCs’ knowledge, willingness, and capital

The quality, or even existence, of proximal processes could also be traced to VSCs’ readiness and ability to deal with social inclusion-projects, and the SSC’s subsequent decision in who to work with. Across the material, it became evident that the choice of sport club was not unproblematic. As one coordinator (13) stated:

We had a martial arts club in [district] where we had a dialogue and talked and wanted to start a project. Then he said to me “But we already accept everyone. We don’t need projects. Just send them here.” It just struck me […] they don’t follow exactly what we’re doing.

Most coordinators and consultants echoed this sentiment; their work was not well-known to many VSCs, and it was difficult to penetrate the traditional clubs’ agenda. Both coordinators and consultants contemplated the decision-making process in which they approached VSCs. Previous work has elucidated the workload of sport club consultants (Stenling and Fahlén 2021). This workload does not match the political or internal goals of quantitatively reaching enough clubs and simultaneously, qualitatively, causing enough change. One consultant (14) contemplated this:

So, it’s perhaps easy to implicitly not prioritize weaker clubs because you don’t have the time […] on the other hand, the possibility … in some cases, we had consultants with a lot more time to spend on the weaker clubs and especially in the startup. The results have been greater there.

This decision-making procedure was framed in a more radical and perhaps more straightforward manner by a senior manager (15) who postulated that it was a waste of time attempting to satisfy the quantitative outcome and instead focusing on a few qualitatively good VSCs. Most of the SSC representatives agreed that it was a more efficient way of approaching the problem rather than attempting to ‘force’ traditional clubs into policy directives. According to another coordinator (16), the decision to engage with a VSC was contingent on their proven experience and ability to handle funding:

Does this VSC have the experience with social inclusion? If they have, then absolutely, you can support with resources. But sometimes that is not the case […] maybe they have the geographical anchoring, the knowledge about the locals living there, that we on a district level don’t have. […] But finding this right person can be vital, and that is something some VSCs don’t know how to do. […] then, maybe they’ll make guesses like “this will work.” It might work and give small effects in the moment, but we notice, again, that there is rarely a long-term effect, and then the money might run out.

The core idea of this coordinator was corroborated by a range of SSC representatives, who stressed that the sport movement needs VSCs that have the ‘muscles’ to contribute and not merely waste the SSC’s time and resources. In this regard, several SSC representatives expressed frustration about the flawed attempts of VSCs that had received funding but failed to deliver. As the above quote illustrates, without the VSCs’ knowledge of managing funding and understanding how to leverage sport for underrepresented populations, the local embeddedness may never be utilised to achieve social policy goals. This constitutes an inhibiting factor in the proximal process, where lacking one component within the VSC may be detrimental to the intended aims. As already noted in the previous result section, there were examples in the early stages of the SSC’s work where strong local profiles engaged in SSC-steered sport initiatives, but where the structural features and, ironically, poor handling of resources on behalf of the SSC, left no bearing mark on the sport infrastructure in the target area.

Conclusions

This study set out to understand the persons and practices through which the SSC mobilises (Ekholm 2017) VSCs to be welfare providers in socioeconomically deprived areas. While much has been written on the VSC level, this paper adds to the literature by exploring how SSC, as an important mediator for this mobilisation, responds to political pressure and adopts several strategies related to the VSCs. Four take-aways of this paper is provided below.

Some essential features emanated from specific levels within the PPCT framework that sparked cross-level interactions in the pursuit of providing equal access to sport. First, as a blend of an exo- and meso-level factor, the collaboration between the SSC, municipalities, and VSCs was central to ensuring proper conditions. However, how these collaborations looked varied tremendously. As shown elsewhere, these collaborations are complex and deeply contextualised in Sweden (Ekholm and Holmlid 2020). Moreover, in the end and regardless of the collaboration’s setup, it is almost always VSCs that carry out the work. In this regard, while Sweden shares many commonalities with neighbouring European countries in how sport is constructed and leveraged, there are also differences worthy of elucidation. For example, in Flanders, perhaps more emphasis has been given to how non-sport actors leverage (community) sport as means of social work (Theeboom et al. 2013, Sabbe 2019). Within the concept of community sports, the aims and practices become less blurred by the competing logics and traditions that VSCs negotiate when faced with questions about social inclusion. In Sweden, however, VSCs are still positioned as the intended main deliverers of sport for social work despite the difficulties associated with motivating Swedish VSCs (Stenling and Fahlén 2016). Given the VSCs’ profound position in Sweden, it is thus imperative to understand how they are mobilised, and what support is required for them to contribute to social policy goals.

What above effectively captures is the essence of what Lawson (2005, p. 156) called a ‘ … new SEPE [sport, exercise, and physical education] social work … ’ which is situated within the sport movement, but also ‘ … empowerment-oriented, collaborative and comprehensive’ and highly contingent on collaborations with other professions, notably social work. One crucial question that Lawson (2005) asks is whether ‘SEPE’ professionals will join social workers in the pursuit of combating social issues, or whether they will remain an isolated isle. In the paper’s context, it is clear that the SSC understands that the quality of their work, and the VSCs’ ability to deliver sport for social work, will be highly contingent on the quality of their collaborations with external actors. Considering the strength of civil society in Sweden, and the eroded barriers between civil society and professional social work (Ekholm 2017), Lawson’s (2005) emphasis on collaboration might be especially profound in the Swedish context. The results also suggest that many of the SSC representatives adopt a very typical social work lens, the ‘person-in-the-environment’ (Lawson 2005), acknowledging that there is a multifaceted ecology that can inhibit or enable sport for social work. However, some caution is warranted. Lawson (2005) delineates a range of social policy goals; some of which Swedish sport, and social work, researchers have been hesitant to (Ekholm 2016). Koopmans and Doidge (2022) argue that sport and development initiatives perhaps should dismiss more instrumental goals and be more foregrounded in having fun. In a similar vein, Ekholm and Dahlstedt (2022) found that youths in a sport-based initiative, indeed, primarily talk about having fun and enjoying time with friends, and less so about the intervention’s instrumental utility. These findings call for a more realistic understanding of sport’s utility, and a delimitation of how we should approach sport and social work. It is, perhaps, more probable that, through fun and healthy relationships, a strong community with collective identities will emerge. As such, it might be through the mediation of having fun and enjoying time with friends that at least one of Lawson’s (2005) points (community building) can be reached.

The second main takeaway from this article is the individualisation of certain positions within the SSC. While certainly all positions within the SSC requires personal characteristics of some sort, the material made salient the sport club consultant. Working at the interface between external collaborators, the SSC and the VSC, this individual mediated exo-level directives into the micro-settings of the VSC, directives which we know are rarely straightforward and cause frustration (Stenling and Fahlén 2021). In this process, the individual’s characteristics were profoundly important. This downward-spiralling transfer of responsibility is characteristic of neoliberalism. Since sport federations serve as the backbone for how sport is conducted and delivered (De Bock et al. 2021), it is important to take stock of how neoliberalism moulds practices within the federations. This may be so, with particular regard to countries such as Sweden, where neoliberalism is rapidly affecting many societal spheres. It is also interesting to note that the very phenomena underpinned by neoliberalism that the SSC attempts to combat, unequal access to sport and its associated outcomes, is partially addressed by means of neoliberal practices.

Thirdly, a salient notion was to push for the (few) VSCs that were already experienced and interested. While this may be efficient, it may also result in uneven distributions of ‘willing’ policy implementers across Sweden. Stenling and Fahlén (2021) noted that this strategy might ironically be counterproductive to the current policies that seek to motivate more VSCs to be inclusive. In conclusion, the SSC operates in a complex and intersectoral sphere. The implications for the SSC and the Swedish sport movement at large are that, while VSCs may contribute towards the inclusion of underserved minorities in socioeconomically deprived areas, there is a need to consider the structural conditions that precede the launching of sport-initiatives. Moreover, since the sport club consultants function as the link to the clubs, thus constituting a significant factor in the proximal process of steering clubs towards social policy goals, there is a need to consider the support of this person.

The final contribution of this paper is theoretical. Ecological theory has been proposed as a viable addition to understanding sporting participation for sport management scholars (Rowe et al. 2013, Anderson et al. 2019) and have increasingly found its way into sport management curriculum (Cox et al. 2021). Very much aligned with this paper, Cox et al. (2021) borrow ecological theory from social work, however, a main caveat exists from the above cited works: the omission of Bronfenbrenner’s developed models. Trajectories must be understood as synergistic cross-level interactions, and involve individuals’ own agency, power, and characteristics in addition to the environmental influences – this is perhaps best illustrated through the sport club consultant in this paper, and further implementation of ecological theory within sports (in general) should look to the developed versions of ecological theory (e.g., DiSanti and Erickson 2020, Dickson and Darcy 2021).

Some limitations should be mentioned. First, no in-depth case study was made (e.g., Ekholm and Holmlid), hence why more deeply contextualised narratives and findings were absent. On the other hand, this was not the scope of the study, but instead to provide a general framework for how the SSC operates and discerning general themes that connected the districts. Secondly, the format of data collection was prone to ‘dominant voices,’ specifically regarding the online conference. While actions were taken to prevent this, it may nevertheless have been the case that information was left out because of internal hierarchies or reluctance to question colleagues.

Ethics

The study followed all local ethical guidelines.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the participants, the Swedish Sports Confederation and Delmos. I also want to thank the reviewers for helping me improve the manuscript substantially.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

A grant from the Delegation against Segregation (Delmos) funded this article.