Abstract
In Britain, within the contemporary drive of using sport to tackle the isolation of socially excluded groups, association football (football) fandom has been implicated in many policy documents as a possible site for learning-disabled people to become more socially included. However, whilst there is some evidence of the benefits of playing football for learning-disabled people, there is little evidence to support these claims. Drawing on empirical data, this paper aims to provide a critical analysis of the opportunities to tackle social exclusion that football fandom provides to learning-disabled people. Evidence suggests that whilst football fandom offers social benefits to learning-disabled people – including a sense of belonging and a shared social identity – that go some way towards tackling their social exclusion, football fandom is unlikely to result in the ‘social inclusion’ characterized by the government.
Notes
71.CitationHall, ‘Social Geographies of Learning Disability’; ‘Spaces of Social Inclusion’.
90.CitationStebbins, Amateurs, Professionals, and Serious Leisure; ‘Serious Leisure’; ‘Serious Leisure for People’.
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