Voluntary sports clubs as ‘schools of democracy’? Critique of German sports science

ABSTRACT

In Western societies, modern sports have always been subjected to diverse expectations of social benefits. One especially bold and frequently repeated claim is that voluntary sports clubs serve as ‘schools of democracy’. Based on a pragmatist framework of critique, the present study provides the first comprehensive map of evidence on this subject from German sports science, revealing limitations in the content, research methodologies, and democratic theories of past studies. Based on the shortcomings identified in the established concept of democracy underlying past research, an alternative theory is proposed, rooted in John Dewey's pragmatist philosophy of democracy. The final outcome is essentially alternative ‘schools of democracy’, basically prepared to be tested in further empirical studies.

KEYWORDS:

• Voluntary sport clubs
• Germany
• social benefit expectations
• democratic function
• review
• philosophical pragmatism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

David Jaitner http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7839-9643

Notes

1 Reflexive (sport) science, as it is understood here, is based on the idea that (scientific) knowledge is always bound to a specific perspective, and therefore offers a framework in which scientific tools can be used to address the dependence of knowledge on a specific point of view. In this context, reflexivity stands for a program of critical inquiry, in which self-referential relations between and among specific bodies of knowledge are just as central as their practical effectiveness and applicability (Körner & Schürmann, 2015).

2 Standard references to John Dewey's work are from the critical (print) edition, The Collected Works of John Dewey, 1882–1953 (edited by Jo Ann Boydston), published in three series as The Early Works (EW), The Middle Works (MW) and The Later Works (LW).