Participation in sport: bonding and bridging as identity work

Abstract

Nowadays sport is assigned a crucial role in solving social problems, especially those relating to social cohesion. Participation in sport is assumed to build relevant bonding and bridging social capital that generates reciprocal contacts and trust in others. In this essay we will present findings of two, mainly qualitative studies on participation in sport in the Netherlands. We argue that while sport indeed makes contributions to the development of social capital, bonding and bridging are much more complex and differentiated processes than is usually assumed in both social policies and social capital theory. An argument is made to view bonding and bridging as identity work.

Notes

¹ Breedveld, Kamphuis and Tiessen-Raaphorst, Rapportage sport; Verweel, Janssens and Roques, ‘Kleurrijke zuilen’; Bailey, ‘Evaluating the Relationship’.

² Blackshaw and Long, ‘What's the Big Idea?’

³ Putnam, Bowling Alone.

⁴ Etzioni, The Spirit of Community, 128.

⁵ Coakley, Sports in Society, 21ff.

⁶ Cf. Elling, De Knop and Knoppers, ‘The Social Integrative Meaning of Sport’.

⁷ Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, Time for Sport.

⁸ Breedveld, Kamphuis and Tiessen-Raaphorst, Rapportage sport.

⁹ Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, Time for Sport.

¹⁰ Cf. Coalter, ‘Sport Clubs’; Crabbe, ‘Reaching the “Hard to Reach”’.

¹¹ See for instance, Boessenkool, Van Eekeren and Lucassen, ‘Moderniseringsambities’. The authors describe their study of sport clubs in transition in the Netherlands.

¹² Sharpe, ‘Resources at the Grassroots of Recreation’.

¹³ Skinner, Zakus and Cowell, ‘Development through Sport’.

¹⁴ Craig, ‘Community Capacity-Building’, 340.

¹⁵ E.g. Putnam, Bowling Alone.

¹⁶ See Morrow, ‘Conceptualising Social Capital’.

¹⁷ See Blackshaw and Long, ‘What's the Big Idea?’

¹⁸ E.g. Yanow, How does a Policy Mean?; Stone, Policy Paradox.

¹⁹ E.g. Blommaert and Verschueren, Debating Diversity; Blommaert, Discourse.

²⁰ Blommaert, Discourse, 185–201. Read the author's analysis of the concept of ‘integration’ in policy texts.

²¹ For extensive and critical reviews of the concept of social capital see, for instance, Portes, ‘Social Capital’; Morrow, ‘Conceptualising Social Capital’; and in the context of sport and leisure studies, Blackshaw and Long, ‘What's the Big Idea?’

²² Cf. Putnam, Bowling Alone; Bailey, ‘Evaluating the Relationship’.

²³ Blackshaw and Long, ‘What's the Big Idea?’, 244.

²⁴ For instance, Bourdieu, ‘The Forms of Capital’.

²⁵ DeFilippis, ‘The Myth of Social Capital’, 790.

²⁶ Cf. Skinner, Zakus and Cowell, ‘Development through Sport’; Elling and Claringbould, ‘Mechanisms of Inclusion’.

²⁷ Bailey, ‘Evaluating the Relationship’, 76.

²⁸ Cf. Blommaert, Discourse; Bucholtz and Hall, ‘Identity and Interaction’.

²⁹ Cf. Verweel, Janssens and Roques, ‘Kleurrijke zuilen’.

³⁰ Cf. Breedveld and van der Meulen, ‘Vertrouwen in de sport’.

³¹ Ramsahai, Thuiswedstrijd in een vreemd land, 201.

³² Verweel, Janssens and Roques, ‘Kleurrijke zuilen’.

³³ Ramsahai, Thuiswedstrijd in een vreemd land.

³⁴ Ramsahai, Thuiswedstrijd in een vreemd land

³⁵ Blackshaw and Long, ‘What's the Big Idea?’, 245.

³⁶ Anthonissen and Sterkenburg, Battles om aanzien en respect.

³⁷ De Ruijter, De multiculturele arena.

³⁸ Walseth, ‘Young Muslim Women and Sport’. The author analysed the identity work of young immigrant Muslims in Norwegian sport clubs.

³⁹ Vermeulen, Het kapitaal van de playground; Verweel, Respect in en door sport.

⁴⁰ The playgrounds in our research are established, designed and maintained in cooperation with the Richard Krajicek Foundation, see www.krajicek.nl.

⁴¹ Blommaert, Collins and Slembrouck, ‘Polycentricity and Interactional Regimes’.

⁴² For similar findings, see Cevaal et al., Mijn favoriete plek in de wijk; Bakker et al. , Playground van de toekomst.

⁴³ Verweel, Respect in en door sport.

⁴⁴ See Cevaal et al. , Mijn favoriete plek in de wijk.

⁴⁵ Cf. Verweel, Respect in en door sport, 36ff.

⁴⁶ Van der Meij, Buitenspel.

⁴⁷ See also Blommaert, Discourse, 209.

⁴⁸ See also Blommaert, Discourse, 75.

⁴⁹ Krouwel et al. , ‘A Good Sport?’, 177.

⁵⁰ Krouwel et al. , ‘A Good Sport?’, 176.

⁵¹ Krouwel et al. , ‘A Good Sport?’

⁵² Krouwel et al. , ‘A Good Sport?’, 173.

⁵³ Krouwel et al. , ‘A Good Sport?’

⁵⁴ Krouwel et al. , ‘A Good Sport?’, 176.

⁵⁵ Krouwel et al. , ‘A Good Sport?’

⁵⁶ Bucholtz and Hall, ‘Identity and Interaction’.

⁵⁷ Bucholtz and Hall, ‘Identity and Interaction’, 15. The authors use the term ‘adequation’ here.

⁵⁸ Cf. Coakley, Sports in Society.

⁵⁹ Blommaert, Discourse, 209.