Exploring the somatic dimension for sport-based interventions: a refugee’s autoethnography

Abstract

Heeding the call for more research into the sensory experiences of refugees and forced migrants, this study describes the sensory experiences of a refugee-turned-martial artist using autoethnography. Through sharing a personal story, the author first identifies the senses which have shaped her life experiences and then moves to describing the ways in which those senses have influenced her training in traditional karate, a highly sensorial martial practice which affords a safe space. The discussion moves to how embodied sensory-based experiences may help to better conceptualize and cultivate safe spaces in relation to how creative risk and tension can be encouraged, facilitated, and/or managed in sport-based interventions.

Keywords:

• Somatic
• senses
• safe spaces
• conflict
• experimental dimension
• refugees
• sport
• forced migrants
• traditional karate
• martial arts

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Recognized refugees are those who have been granted the right to permanently stay in the country while asylum seekers are those whose applications have yet to be approved and therefore may face deportation at any moment (Ley et al. 2020). However, it is important to note that countries in the Global North (e.g. Sweden, Denmark, UK, etc.) have made changes to asylum policies which make the leave to remain for those with refugee status temporary instead of permanent.

2 The term (recognized) refugee, forced migrant, and asylum seeker will be used inclusively throughout this discussion to refer to people at all levels of the asylum process. Such flexible terminology ‘highlights the slipperiness and complexity of people’s migration trajectories as they move between statuses through time, either “agentically” or because of shifting structural barriers such as increasingly restrictive legislation and policies’ (Ugolotti and Caudwell 2022, 12).

3 Sport for Change (SfC) efforts ‘captures change that occurs both in and through sport’ (Welty Peachey, Schulenkorf, and Spaaij 2019, 361).

4 Amann (2003) offers a model on somatic learning that illustrates four main areas: sensory, kinesthetic, affective, and spiritual.

5 Such differences as well as whether one style is more effective than another is outside the scope of this article.

6 Paan is a popular South Asian snack which includes betel nut, herbs, spices and often tobacco, wrapped in a betel leaf. In Bangladesh, people would often chew on one betel leaf for an entire day.