‘I guess it’s kind of elitist’: the formation and mobilisation of cultural, social and physical capital in youth sport volunteering

ABSTRACT

Policy and research portray sport volunteering as a means by which young people can develop skills and perform active citizenship. This paper draws on qualitative research with participants in a UK sport volunteering programme to critically examine young people’s volunteering journeys and how these are shaped by their formation and mobilisation of capital. The results show how programme structures and practices, such as selection criteria, privilege young people with higher levels of cultural and physical capital, and afford these youth additional opportunities to accumulate and mobilise cultural and social capital. The paper argues for a more critical understanding of youth sport volunteering; one that recognises that sport volunteering can reserve the practice of active citizenship for privileged youth.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural capital
• social capital
• physical capital
• volunteering
• active citizenship
• sport

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr Linda Allin and Dr Lindsay Findlay-King of Northumbria University for their early contributions in the design of the project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCiD

Ramón Spaaij http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1260-3111