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
20
CitationBlommaert, 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, CitationPortes, ‘Social Capital’; Morrow, ‘Conceptualising Social Capital’; and in the context of sport and leisure studies, CitationBlackshaw and Long, ‘What's the Big Idea?’
38
CitationWalseth, ‘Young Muslim Women and Sport’. The author analysed the identity work of young immigrant Muslims in Norwegian sport clubs.
40 The playgrounds in our research are established, designed and maintained in cooperation with the Richard Krajicek Foundation, see www.krajicek.nl.
42 For similar findings, see Cevaal et al., Mijn favoriete plek in de wijk; CitationBakker et al.
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