The corporal dimension of sports-based interventions: Understanding the role of embedded expectations and embodied knowledge in sport policy implementation

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to show how the corporal character of activities commonly provided in sports-based policy interventions has implications for the results of policy implementation. By employing the theoretical concepts of embedded expectations and embodied knowledge, this paper examines how expectations embedded in such activities interact with experiences embodied by the participants and combine in availing or restricting the possibilities for participation – thereby affecting the outcome of policies for increased participation in organised sport. The paper builds on data from a case study of a sports-based intervention that aimed to usher so-called un-associated youth in to participation in regular sport-club activities by offering ‘organised spontaneous sports’ in ‘drop-in’ sessions that focus on the intrinsic characteristics of non-competitive sports and participants’ wishes. Findings from interviews, the intervention’s internal documentation, and observations show how expectations embedded in these activities require a very specific embodied knowledge of the individual participant. Instead of challenging dominant notions of what sport ‘is’ and ‘can be’, the activities reproduce existing preconceptions and, in extension, existing patterns of sport participation instead of supporting the formation of new ones as aimed for by policy makers. The findings are discussed in relation to the wider discussion about policy implementation in sport and highlight the necessity for understanding the content of the activities offered in sports-based interventions relative to the previous experiences of the pronounced recipients.

Keywords

sport for change sport for development social inclusion sport participation voluntary sport

Introduction

Following on an increased government interest in voluntary organised, non-profit, and membership-based club sport worldwide (e.g. Coalter, 2010; Dóczi, 2012; Fahlén et al., 2014; Green, 2009; Kang et al., 2015; Klostermann and Nagel, 2014; Skille, 2008), implementation of government-initiated policies in the domain of sport has received a lot of focus (e.g. Adams, 2011; Fahlén and Karp, 2010; May et al., 2013; Nichols et al., 2012; O’Gorman, 2011; Skille, 2009; Stenling, 2013). As sport and other voluntary organisations are increasingly being included in policies for welfare provision in a variety of national contexts and depicted as important resources in solving various social problems, many scholars have directed attention to interventions, programmes, projects, and activities targeting a wide range of social objectives such as public health (Thing and Ottesen, 2010), equal opportunity (Wickman, 2011), ethnic integration (Theeboom et al., 2012), social integration (Haudenhuyse et al., 2014), urban regeneration (Coaffee, 2008), democracy (Morgan, 2013), criminality (Mutz and Baur, 2009), youth delinquency (Stenling, 2014), peace (Hasselgård and Straume, 2015), national identity (Grix and Carmichael, 2012), and individual identity (Thorpe, 2014). Taken together, these studies and others have shown how policy implementation in general is contingent on a variety of properties associated with the bodies responsible for issuing the policy in question (Piggin et al., 2009), the cultural raw material of the policy (Stenling and Fahlén, 2014), the implementation process (O’Gorman, 2011), and the organisations expected to implement it (Reid, 2012).

Certainly, there are numerous studies of effects among end-users involved in or targeted by specific policy interventions, programmes, projects, and activities (e.g. Agergaard et al., 2015), as well as of the distribution of effects connected to individual characteristics such as gender (e.g. Skille and Waddington, 2006), age (e.g. Fahlén, 2011), socioeconomic background (e.g. Simard et al., 2014), and other background variables. There are also many examples of conceptual papers arguing for or against one policy implementation model over another with reference to structural as well as more individual barriers for the success of one programme theory or another (see Coalter, 2013, for a study of programme theories for sport-for-change programmes). Yet other examples are studies focussing on different stakeholders of a particular policy intervention, programme, or project (e.g. Donaldson et al., 2012). But a commonality among all these approaches is that they do not seek explanations for or understanding of observed phenomena in the actual activities carried out within the specific policy intervention, programme, or project. Although valuable in furthering our understanding of the workings of policy implementation, as called for by Houlihan in 2005, such studies fall short of factoring in individual-level explanations as sought by Kay (2009) and others.

This, as I will argue in this paper, is a problematic oversight given the physical character of sport. Since any sports-based intervention by necessity carries a corporal dimension, understandings of such interventions would benefit from the inclusion of investigations of the very activities themselves as well as of the experiences of activity participants (cf. Kay, 2009: 1178, call for ‘local voices’). This paper seeks to do so by, first, introducing a theoretical framework built on insights provided by the Norwegian sport sociologist Jan Ove Tangen and his studies of the expectations embedded in sport facilities and the embodied knowledge demanded of users to meet them (2004a, 2004b) and, second, drawing on empirical examples from a case study of a sports-based intervention in Sweden. Two research questions are constructed to produce knowledge that can inform an understanding of how individuals encounter social expectations and how the abilities stored in their bodies affect their willingness, or unwillingness, to take part in physical activities offered as part of a sports-based intervention: (1) What embedded expectations are placed on the individual participant by the context of activities, the activities themselves, leaders and other participants? 2) What embodied knowledge is required of the participants to meet these expectations? The purpose of this design is to argue that expectations embedded in activities commonly provided in sports-based interventions and implicitly communicated by the context of the activities, the activities, leaders, and the group of participants partaking in the activities will interact with the knowledge, skills, and ambitions of the participating individuals and combine in availing or restricting the possibilities for individual participation. Thus, the purpose of this paper is not primarily to add to the extensive literature on the sociology of the body, but to show how the previously overlooked corporal character of activities commonly provided in sports-based policy interventions has implications for the results of policy implementation.

Conceptual framework

Although the literature on the sociology of the body is extensive, starting out with seminal texts such as those by Heinemann (1980), Turner (1984), Frank (1990), Shilling (1991), Theberge (1991), Loy et al. (1993), Maguire (1993) and continuing with the reviews by Cole (2000), Gimlin (2007), and Markula (2015), work connecting to policy-related issues is more limited. Perhaps not that surprising, given the ‘internal’ nature of the body, but even so a shortcoming considering its argued importance in sport policies targeting the obese, inactive and unhealthy body. Exceptions can be found in the works of Hargreaves (1986), Gruneau (1993), King (1993) and Rail and Harvey (1995), who all in their different ways have paid more explicit attention to power and the political aspects of the body in a theoretical and macro-level perspective. However, not specifically concerned with sport policy or sports-based policy interventions, they have been able to shed light on issues very much connected to and embedded in policy. Other exceptions can be found in work employing Michel Foucault’s concepts of ‘biopolitics’ and ‘govermentality’ such as Haber (1996), Eichberg (2009), Fusco (2007), Darnell (2010), and Piggin (2015), however also concerned with the macropolitics and analyses of neo-liberal agendas governing populations.

Yet another exception, which has more specific bearing on the micro-level perspective guiding the research questions posed in this text, is provided by Jan Ove Tangen who, in his twin articles from 2004 (2004a, 2004b), outlined a systematic theoretical attempt to explain the use and non-use of sport facilities. Drawing on the works of the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann (1990), Tangen proposed that individuals’ inclination to take up on opportunities offered by sport facilities is not only contingent on their sociocultural characteristics such as gender, age, or socio-economic background, but also on the expectations embedded in sport facilities and knowledge embodied in the individuals faced with these expectations. In Tangen’s words, readiness to use sport facilities constitutes ‘a function of our observations of the embedded expectations in the facility and the tacit or embodied knowledge that is incorporated in our bodies as results of movements we earlier have performed in sport facilities’ (Tangen, 2004a: 9). Tangen argues that such considerations are vital in understanding use and non-use of sport facilities, which in extension ought to be a key concern for policy-makers engaged with the location and design of sport facilities. In the following, I will expand on how these notions also can be used in an understanding of children’s and young people’s engagement in activities offered within a sports-based intervention. Such an understanding is pressing, as I will argue in this paper, in the making of policies for increased participation in organised sport.

Embedded expectations

Tangen, following Luhmann’s lead, argues that all social interaction is governed by expectations (Luhmann, 1990; Tangen, 2004b). The distinguishing feature in Tangen’s proposal is that he separates explicit expectations from implicit or embedded expectations and connects the latter to space, place, and landscape. He argues that although some expectations are explicit, such as the coach’s loud exhortations to work harder, the spectators’ cheering for their teams, or the parents driving their kids to practice, others are implicit or embedded. He describes such embedded expectations as socially produced expectations in materialised forms (Luhmann, 1990), such as the planning of a sport facility with its measurements, lines, equipment, and specifications. For example, the lines of the running track materialise expectations on the way we are expected to run, and the long-jump pit communicates expectations on landing in it. In Tangen’s argumentation, when explicit expectations are lacking, such embedded expectations are more effective. For instance, when no coach is present calling out instructions from the sideline, the expectations materialised through the design of a sport facility will determine whether we are attracted to it and, in a longer perspective, whether we choose to use it. As such, the expectations materialised through the design of a sport facility communicates expectations of what can be done (such as playing football), who can participate (i.e. how much room there is for how many participants and who is allowed to participate), and when this can be done (opening hours or specified hours for practice).

Considering the specifics of the case studied in this paper and returning to Luhmann’s original reasoning, I want to study if similar expectations are embedded in activities – social interactions (regardless of space, place, or landscape) – commonly provided in sports-based interventions and implicitly, as well as explicitly, communicated by the context of the activities, the activities, leaders, and the group of participants taking part in such activities.

Embodied knowledge

Embodied knowledge is developed when individuals attempt to meet expectations, explicit or implicit, they are faced with. Tangen argues that by living up to expectations embedded in sport facilities, individuals develop their identity (as someone doing sports) and their ability to perform the activity the facility expects of them (as someone who is good at sports). Conversely, if the facility is not attractive to the extent required for someone to live up to its expectations, her or his identity and ability will develop in an opposite direction (as someone who does not do sports and whose chances to develop the knowledge and skills expected are smaller). Both of these processes operate when individuals observe and reflect on the consequences of their actions. When individuals reflect on possible differences between what they do (miss the goal) and what is expected of them (hitting the goal), their identity develops (towards becoming somebody good or not good at football).

Tangen argues that this type of knowledge is incorporated into our body and hidden from our consciousness. Thus, it is not only a matter of cognitive knowledge, but a knowledge stored in the body by repeated experiences. As such, embodied knowledge affects how individuals experience and feel about taking part in physical activities, even though they are most likely unable to verbalise or motivate their feelings. As these processes are repeated every time individuals are faced with social and situational expectations, their bodies are subjected to continuous learning, training, and embodiment. The more an individual is subjected to the experience of playing football, the greater is the chance that he/she will develop the specific knowledge and skills required for the task. An increase in knowledge and ability also increases his or her chances of meeting the expectations embedded in the phenomenon of playing football and consequently the chances of experiencing pleasure and satisfaction when practising it (cf. Jakobsson et al., 2012). Whenever an individual subsequently comes across a facility designed for playing football, her or his body will recall these emotions and affect the willingness to use the facility.

Arguably, these processes are similar when Tangen’s spatial dimension is omitted from the equation. Following Luhmann (1990), I will argue that they are equally strong if not stronger when adding a social aspect such as explicit cheering from teammates when a goal is scored or more implicit expressions of disappointment when the opposing team scores. That is, the processes are reinforced in a social context where, in addition to a comparison between a facility’s expectations and individual ability, feedback (implicit and explicit) is provided from other individuals on how the ability of a certain individual lives up to their expectations (cf. Karp, 2010). In the context of this paper, this line of argumentation can inform an understanding of how individuals encounter social expectations and how the abilities stored in their bodies affect their willingness, or unwillingness, to participate in a physical activity, and by extension to take part in activities offered as part of a sports-based intervention. Such an understanding is, as I will argue in this paper, key in designing potentially successful sports-based policy interventions aiming for increased participation in organised sport.

The case of ‘Drive-In Sport’

The sports-based intervention used as an empirical example in this paper is in many ways similar to the ones noted in the introduction of this paper, to the ‘Sports City Programme’ in Norway as reported on by Skille (2004, 2006, 2009), the ‘Sport Policy Idea Programme in Denmark as reported on by Ibsen (2002), the ‘Sporting Future for All’ and ‘Charter Standard Scheme’ in England as described by Garrett (2004) and O’Gorman (2011) respectively. As such, it is constructed as part of a larger government-financed sport policy programme found in many liberal welfare states concerned with the ill health of their populations stemming from lack of physical activity or with youth delinquency and criminality, both seen as causing costs in the government balance sheet. With the ultimate aim of constructing healthy and democratically engaged citizens (Aggestål and Fahlén, 2015), voluntary organised, non-profit, and membership-based club sport is employed as vehicle in engaging and activating the population in order to address the origins of those costs.

In Sweden, the empirical setting of the sports-based intervention under study, voluntary organised, non-profit, and membership-based club sport is made up of 20,164 sport clubs (Riksidrottsförbundet, 2012) with 3,147,000 individual memberships out of a population of 9.6 million. The majority of Swedish sport clubs are described as being focussed on the ‘preparation for and participation in institutionalised competitive sports systems’ (Stenling and Fahlén, 2014: 12) and as such are often referred to as ‘conventional’ sport clubs that offer ‘conventional’ sport activities (practising sport-specific tasks such as game tactics and techniques and competing on a regular basis in leagues, cups and tournaments). The Swedish Sports Confederation (SSC) [Riksidrottsförbundet], affiliating all Swedish sport clubs, is appointed by the state to act towards the government objectives of physical activity and public health, and has since the 1970 mandate to distribute government funds to sport organisations (Norberg, 2002). These funds amount to SEK 1.8 billion annually and are supplemented by SEK 4.8 billion in annual support from local authorities (Centrum för idrottsforskning, 2014).

The majority of these funds are distributed through block funding but have since 2003 been supplemented by two large-scale, time-limited, and project-based developmental programmes. Currently, approximately one-third of the funds are distributed in this way. Originating in reforms of the overall performance management principles that took place in the general government administration at the beginning of the 1990s, these programmes were launched to explicate sport’s contribution to wider social responsibilities but also to prompt more detailed monitoring and evaluation (Norberg, 2011). The first of the two programmes commissioned the SSC to open the doors to sports for more children and youth, reduce participation fees, invest in girls’ sports activities, participate in the battle against drugs, and intensify the cooperation with schools. For this purpose, the government allocated SEK 250 million per year 2003–2007. Immediately following this programme, another was launched in 2007, doubling the funds for another 4-year period with the purpose of supporting sport in its continued effort to develop activities that facilitate recruitment and retention of more children and youth.

Within this programme still ongoing, a project labelled Drive-In Sport, was launched in 2010 (Riksidrottsförbundet, 2009). Resonating with the overall ambitions of the larger programme, the project aimed to open the doors to sport for more children and youth (13–20 years old) and serve as a means to recruit participants and leaders for regular club activities. Described as an antithesis to conventional club sport activities (Stenling, 2014), the project urged sport clubs choosing to participate in the project to aid youth, primarily so-called un-associated, in deprived residential areas to find alternatives, in terms of physical activities, to rowdy behaviour during evenings and weekends. Under the catch-phrase ‘organised spontaneous sports’ and the slogan ‘come as you are – whenever you feel like – do what you want – at no cost’, the participating clubs were meant to arrange ‘drop-in’ sessions which require neither membership, pre-registration, nor regular participation. Additionally, the activities were meant to focus on what is conceived as the intrinsic characteristics of non-competitive sports such as the joy of exercise and the fun of playing games. Finally, the activities should prioritise participants’ wishes.

One of the clubs answering the call, mediated by one of the SSC’s regional extensions, received SEK 200,000 in funding from the SSC and was supported by the local authorities with SEK 1 million to finance a project coordinator. In the project description formulated by officials within the local authority administration, the project was designed to work towards risk areas with large ethnic and social segregation, low sport-participation rates, and youth-related weekend problems. The activities were meant to be attractive to as many youths as possible, both girls and boys, implying a wide variety of activities allowing for great liberty of choice. The explicit goals of the activities were to: create routines and working methods for sport clubs to continue the activities after the project; increase the number of sport club members (ages 13–20) in the area; stimulate girls and boys to continue their engagement in sport within or outside organised club sport; develop the club’s regular activities; and decrease norm-breaking behaviour among the participants. The project coordinator was expected to recruit and train young local activity leaders to which prospective participants can relate. Importantly, project activities were not supposed to compete with regular sport club activities; instead, they were supposed to encourage participants to engage in such activities.

Methods

This paper utilises data from an evaluation (performed by the author) of the project described in the preceding. Thus, no purposeful sampling was involved in selecting a case for the purpose of this paper. However, by providing thick descriptions of the context surrounding the activities under study, I hope to achieve transferability (Lincoln and Guba, 1999) of the findings in this study to other contexts similar to the one described in this paper. In addition, by providing detailed descriptions of the theoretical points of departure employed and of the interpretations of data made, I hope to equip the reader with analyses aiding interpretations of phenomena other than those presented in this paper through pattern recognition (Larsson, 2009). As described in the case description and as will be shown throughout the paper, the project and activities under study are very similar to the ones referred to in the introduction (Agergaard et al., 2015; Donaldson et al., 2012; Hasselgård and Straume, 2015; Haudenhuyse et al., 2014; Kelly, 2011; May et al., 2013; Mutz and Baur, 2009; Reid, 2012; Simard et al., 2014; Skille, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009; Skille and Waddington, 2006; Spaaij, 2009; Theeboom et al., 2012; Thorpe, 2014) in the sense that are part of a national or local government initiative to drive up participation in organised club sport by offering low threshold activities. As such, it has potential to provide bases for analyses valid in other contexts (Afghanistan, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, England, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Palestine, Scotland, United States, Wales and Zimbabwe) than the one under study in this paper.

The evaluation was commissioned to review the project vis-a-vis its goals (to open the doors to sport for more children and youth (13–20 years old) and serve as a means to recruit participants and leaders for regular club activities; to aid youth, primarily so-called un-associated, in deprived residential areas to find alternatives, in terms of physical activities, to rowdy behaviour during evenings and weekends). For this purpose, data were collected from three main sources: interviews with stakeholders, activity-leaders, project coordinator, and participants; the project’s internal documentation; and observations of project activities. In order to avail for a sociological analysis of the data, the overall research design was guided by previous findings in sport policy implementation research pointing to the need for a focus on the actual activities carried out within the project and on the experiences of the activity participants (as opposed to a focus on the bodies responsible for issuing the policy in question, the cultural raw material of the policy, the implementation process, or the organisations expected to implement it). More specifically, it was guided by the theoretical ambition to understand the meaning of the expectations placed on the individual participants by the context of the activities, the activities themselves, leaders and other participants in relation to the embodied knowledge required of the participants to meet them.

Data collection

In total, 14 interviews were conducted: 1 with the senior official at the SSC’s regional extension mediating the project from SSC to the sport club; 1 with the senior official at the local authority administration contributing the bulk of the project funds; 1 with the senior official at the sport club being the official owner of the project; 1 with the senior official at an adjacent youth recreation centre; 1 with the project coordinator; 4 with activity leaders; and 5 with participants. The first four of these were chosen because they represent the primary stakeholders of the project. Each of these representatives were selected on their merits of being the senior official and as such were assumed to be the ones with the most insight about and influence on the project. Activity leaders and participants were randomly selected. The interviews were based on an interview guide developed from project aims and slightly adjusted depending on the role of the respondent in question. Thus the focus of each interview was in part affected by each respondent’s own interest. For example, the interviews with participants were mostly geared towards their motives for and experiences of participating, whereas the interviews with senior officials at the local authority administration and youth recreation centre tended to be more focussed on the context of the project. But they all had in common a specific focus on explicit as well as more implicit or embedded expectations placed on the participants in the sense that all respondents were asked questions about how they justified or perceived (depending on type of respondent) the project’s marketing material, the venues for activities chosen, the equipment brought to the sessions, the procedure for deciding what activity to exercise, the climate permeating the sessions, the interplay between participants and between participants and activity leaders. The interviews ranged from 30 to 45 minutes, were digitally recorded, and were transcribed verbatim.

The documentation analysed was furnished by the project manager and consisted of the project group’s minutes of meetings, marketing material, activity leaders’ job descriptions, monthly activity reports, and attendance lists. The first three were analysed to discern the context of the activities, whereas the last two corresponded to the purpose of constructing data on the actual activities and the participants. Similar to the approach taken in the interviews, questions ‘asked’ to the written material were related to possible expectations on the participants as ‘expressed’ in and by the project group’s minutes of meetings, marketing material, activity leaders’ job descriptions. To the monthly activity reports, and attendance lists specifically, questions were also asked in relation to possible embodied knowledge required of the participants to meet the expectations communicated.

Project activities were observed on 10 occasions, each lasting approximately two hours. The observations were guided by a protocol developed by Fahlén (2011), borrowing from McKenzie and Cohen (2006) and McKenzie et al. (2006). Again, the approach taken during the interviews and document analysis was employed in terms of ‘asking’ questions to the observation data relating to embedded expectations and embodied knowledge. In particular, focus was directed at expectations – embedded as well as explicit – mediated by the venue, the equipment, the procedure for deciding what activity to exercise, the climate, the interplay between participants and between participants and activity leaders. The main purpose of the observations, however, was to interrogate what embodied knowledge that appeared to be required of the participants to meet the expectations. All participants were informed about the purpose of the observation and agreed to participate. They were also informed about their right to interrupt their participation at any time (Vetenskapsrådet, 1996).

Data analysis

Data from all sources were analysed in three steps. In the first step, data from interview transcripts, documentation, and observation protocols were sorted according to their relation to the research questions. Thus, owing to the theoretically driven character of the research questions, the conceptual framework served as the first broad analytic frame in the first step of the analysis (Miles and Huberman, 1994). In order to make data more manageable and available for a general view, the concentration of meaning technique was employed in a second step of the analysis (Kvale and Brinkmann, 2009). In a third step, those concentrations were used to construct emergent codes within each of the theoretically themes/research questions. This procedure allowed me to distinguish implicit expectations from explicit expectations, expectations from knowledge, the origins of the expectations and if they were conveyed by several sources, the character of the knowledge required and in what sense it appeared to relate to individual characteristics such as gender, age, socio-economic background, and technical skills.

Results

The results of the case study are presented as follows. First, results related to the expectations placed on the individual participant by the context of activities, the activities themselves, leaders, and other participants (RQ1) are presented. Second, results related to the embodied knowledge required of the participants to meet these expectations (RQ2) are presented.

Expectations of participation in club sport activities

Data indicate that the expectations placed on the participant by the context of the activities, are that he or she should be a non-member, represent an underrepresented social group, be willing to be ushered in to a sport club membership, and participate in regular sport club activities. This is particularly evident in the marketing material: ‘join the movement’ (the sports movement, my remark) and ‘try out the sport of your choice’. The locations of the posters were also limited to areas labelled as risk areas. From the project’s internal documentation, it is apparent that although the activities arranged within the project should focus on the intrinsic characteristics of non-competitive sports such as the joy of exercise and the fun of playing games (as opposed to the alleged focus on skill improvement, competition and ranking in conventional sport activities), the ultimate aim of the project is to stimulate participation in regular sport club activities. This aim is reflected in the project group’s minutes of meeting, in which discussions about returns and dividends are frequent. It is evident that some kind of tangible results are expected, preferably a high number of participants with no or little previous experience of regular club sport activities – recruited from social groups underrepresented in club sport statistics – finding their way to regular club sport activities. Otherwise, it is claimed by the senior official at the local authority administration, ‘there is no point in arranging these kinds of activities’. Since the project is temporary by definition, with temporary funding, the argument made is that the sport club acting as the official owner of the project and neighbouring sport clubs must find ways of continuing the project activities after the end of the project. But since it is thought of as unfair to expect new and specific activities targeting non-members of sport clubs (straining sport clubs’ already strained leader and facility resources), it is more reasonable to expect of them to welcome new participants (recruited from the Drive-In Sport activities) to their existing activities. The senior official of the sport club explains: ‘it is difficult to justify to our existing members that club resources are being poured into activities for non-members’.

Although the slogan of the project ‘come as you are – whenever you feel like – do what you want – at no cost’ announces activities allowing for spontaneous engagement, observations of the activities render a slightly different impression. As such, they create an impression of Drive-In Sport activities as being more than just a gateway to regular club sport activities – they appear very similar to actual club sport activities. First of all, it appears difficult to attend ‘whenever you feel like’ when the realisation of activities is conditioned by the number of participants showing up on time for the announced start of the activities. Since a number of the scheduled occasions observed were cancelled with references made to a lack of a sufficient number of participants, expectations on more regular attendance and less ‘drive-in’ attendance are conveyed. Many prospective participants were observed turning up some 30 minutes after the announced starting time, only to find a locked door. When asking one of the activity leaders about the basis of the decision to cancel one of the sessions, the answer given was: ‘the participants usually attending the activities have not shown up…it is no use just sitting around waiting when it is obvious that they have made other plans tonight’.

Data also suggest that the expectations placed on the participant by the actual activities, are that he or she should be familiar with the organising principles of club sport: participation on a regular basis, on set times, preferably coordinated with other participants in order to gather a group large enough for division into two opposing teams in playing matches. This is evident from the quotation above but also from observation data showing how the activity leaders have difficulties starting activities when few participants have showed up. One of the activity leaders explains: ‘it is not so easy to get them to do anything else than playing matches and as long as the group is too small to divide into two teams they usually just fool around’.

To ‘do what you want’ appears difficult, at least for younger participants, less skilled participants, and female participants. According to the monthly activity reports, activities are characterised by ball games in general and football in particular. Only a few exceptions are mentioned, and given the fact that all 10 observed sessions contained ‘playing football’ exclusively, the impression is that the exceptions were in fact exceptions. The observed activities were dominated by more or less proper football matches between teams made up of mainly teenage boys who were seemingly very proficient at the game judging by their technical skills (passing, shooting, handling the ball), jargon (loud appeals to team mates to ‘widen the defence’, go deep’ and ‘support XXX’), and clothing (team jerseys, shin guards, proper football shoes).

The room for participant wishes, highlighted in the project description, seems to be limited to choosing between participating or not, and in terms of choosing what activity to do, to a very specific group of participants – the older teenage boys seemingly very proficient at the game. Younger attendees, less skilled individuals, and girls in general were observed participating on the outskirts of the ‘matches’ and in a more haphazard manner, or as spectators. One of the participants makes a reflection on that procedure during the interview: ‘You know that is it going to be football because XXX and XXX are there and they always chose football’.

The impression of Drive-In Sport being almost identical to a conventional training session is reinforced by the observation data showing the activity leaders’ occasional exhortations (‘keep up the pressure’), tactical advice (‘show yourselves to the goalkeeper’), and technical guidance (‘use the open spaces’). The impression of watching a regular football practice is additionally reinforced by the equipment brought by the activity leaders – on all observed occasions more or less limited to a sack of footballs – which in turn probably also has some implications for the participants’ possibilities to choose from a wide variety of activities allowing for great liberty of choice. On a few occasions, attempts were made by the activity leaders to differentiate activities in general and specifically for girls. However, since the number of female participants was deemed to be too low, the attempted differentiation was abandoned. One of the activity leaders explains the decision, ‘it is no use having two or three girls in a separate session or premise…you can’t do anything in that small numbers. It is no fun for them either…it is better to include them with the rest’.

Data from the interviews also propose that the expectations placed on the participant by the activity leaders are that he or she should be prepared to take part in activities very similar to a conventional football practice where the elements of competition, improvements of skills, and complying with majority resolutions are vital components. In the interviews, the activity leaders were given an opportunity to reflect on their role in availing for participants’ wishes, and all four agreed that it was difficult to simultaneously allow for majority resolutions and for individual choice. The most common result of such a balancing act, they unanimously claimed, was that participants previously or still engaged in club sport activities seemed to possess the strongest voices when deciding on the activity of the day. The problem is, as one of the activity leaders put it: ‘I feel the activities become defined in a way that can be very unattractive or downright frightening for those not familiar with club sport activities’. However, when observing the activities, it was evident how the activity leaders themselves also contributed to the definition of activities by often being the ones deciding on the activity of the day, initiating matches, and dividing teams.

Judging by the observations of the drive-in activities, the competitive and match-oriented climate is intensified further by the composition of the group of participants attending the activities, particularly by the group within the group dictating the character of the activities. Since the bulk of participants are very homogenous, it appears difficult for attendees not belonging to the majority to have a place, voice opinions, and influence the climate. The attendance lists (which were kept to measure the project’s goal attainment, in spite of the seemingly paradoxical idea of keeping attendance for drop-in activities) show that 96% of the attendees are boys, 68% are active sport club members and have been so for 4 or 5 years on average. Of these, 69% are members of a football club. Only 2% have never been a member of a sport club. Nearly half of the attendees (44%) participate in sport club activities 2–3 times a week and 24% do so on a daily basis. Besides sport club activities, 87% of the attendees are sport club members engaged in self-organised sport activities. Almost half of them (44%) do so on a daily basis, 23% do so 4-5 times a week, and 33% do so 2-3 times a week. The age of the attendees spans from 10 to 22, with a mean age of 14,5. In sum, the expectations placed on the participant by the group of participants are that he or she should be a teenage boy who actively and frequently participates in sport club organised as well as self-organised sport activities.

The embodied knowledge needed to meet the expectations

From the data presented, it is evident that most of the participants display the embodied knowledge needed to meet the expectations conveyed by the context of activities (such as the location and equipment), the activities themselves (mimicking regular football practices), leaders (acting as regular football coaches), and other participants (acting as team mates). For them, the activities provide almost a perfect match with their previous experiences in club sport. The facilities used are similar to (if not the same as) those used for the regular football practice in which many of them participate. The activities are almost exclusively the same as those they participate in through their memberships in sport clubs. In addition, the leaders act as coaches; the climate is competitive and focussed on skill improvement; and most of the fellow participants appear to have similar experiences, wishes, skills, and ambitions, judging by the observation data. The exception is the presence of expectations emanating from the context of the activities (marketing material, the project group’s minutes of meetings and the activity leader’s job descriptions) in which the participant was expected to be someone displaying characteristics quite opposite to the ones shown by the majority of participants actually participating in the activities. As such, the majority of the participants did not belong to the target group of the project.

For those participants seemingly belonging to the pronounced target group – judging by their technical skills (little or no awareness of basic technical operations such as a throw-in or a kick-off), jargon (little or no awareness of the conventions and rules of the game in question), and clothing (everyday clothes such as jeans and shirts, playing barefoot owing to lack of appropriate shoes) – and thereby meeting the expectations conveyed by the context of the activities, it appears more difficult to meet the expectations placed on them by the actual activities, leaders, and other participants. For someone previously not exposed to the organising principles of club sport activities, it appears to be somewhat confusing to be faced with those in activities marketed as spontaneous, based on individual choice, demanding no regular attendance, and focussing on the joy of exercise and the fun of playing games. Observation data indicate that it is difficult for them to match their embodied knowledge (or lack thereof) developed from assumed non- or little participation in regular club sport activities with expectations demanding embodied knowledge developed from sustained and active participation in both club-organised and self-organised sport activities. One of the participants, eventually discontinuing his participation in the activities, makes a reflection during the interview: ‘I thought it was going to be more like just playing in the yard…not like a practice or a match…it is just the same as when I played in XXX’ (a local football club, my remark).

As shown in the monthly activity reports and attendance lists, the minority of participants with little or no previous experiences from club sport activities decreases in size over the two-year time frame of the project. Therefore, its possibilities to influence choice of activities, level of ambition, and overall climate also seem to decrease since the choice of activities, for example, is decided by majority vote. Over time, this in turn appears to result in a homogenisation of the variety of activities, level of ambition, and overall climate offered within the project. In the end, this homogenisation seems to further decrease the possibilities for participants with less (or at least different) experiences of participation in club sport activities to match their embodied knowledge with the collected expectations conveyed by the project activities. The observed homogenisation also appears to be influenced by the rather homogenous group of activity leaders. Almost all activity leaders seem very familiar in the role of the traditional sport club coach and act accordingly during the observations. In one of the interviews with activity leaders the respondent describes how he was recruited to the project: ‘I have been assistant to the coach in my team for two years so XXX (the project manager, my remark), who I knew previously, asked me if I was interested in taking on more responsibility and lead some drive-in sessions’.

The interviews with the participants provide support for that observation in that the respondents assessed as belonging to the majority group of experienced participants expressed wishes for more sessions, and more specifically designated football sessions. One of them claims: ‘everyone wants to play football…I can’t understand why we have to do this other stuff. Let those interested in floorball have their own sessions’. One of the respondents assessed to belong to the minority group of less-experienced participants, on the other hand, expressed concerns for the uneven distribution of boys and girls, the lack of more playful and less-structured activities, and the difficulties in exercising influence over the choice of activities. She explicates: ‘I think it would be easier and more fun if more girls took part…it is hard being the only girl’.

Understanding the content of a sports-based intervention relative to the previous experiences of the pronounced recipients

Taken together, these observations suggest that expectations embedded in the context of activities offered in sports-based interventions, the activities themselves, leaders, and other participants seem to require a very specific embodied knowledge of the individual participant. Arguably, this specific knowledge very much resembles the one expected of participants in conventional club sport activities (cf. Stenling and Fahlén, 2014). Quite similar to the findings provided by Skille (2005), the results thereby indicate that although the project was designed to entice new groups to participate in sport, it rather provided yet another venue for those already involved. Thereby it has, instead of challenging dominant notions (cf. Kelly, 2011, and her discussion about ‘range of meanings’: 127) of what sport ‘is’ and ‘can be’, contributed to the reproduction of preconceptions and, by extension, of existing patterns of sport participation instead of supporting the formation of new ones as aimed for. Importantly, dissociation from such activities is not to be understood on an individual level but, as Tangen (2004b: 26) argues, on the basis of ‘social structures and processes that produce and maintain’ activities and interactions (sport facility in Tangen’s paper).

With the purpose of producing knowledge that can inform an understanding of how individuals encounter social expectations and how the abilities stored in their bodies affect their willingness, or unwillingness, to take part in physical activities offered as part of a sports-based intervention, the results presented in the preceding have shown how results of efforts made to increase participation in organised sport not only ‘comes down to the people who actually implement it’ (Lipsky, 1980: 8) but is also affected by a combination of the expectations embedded in a sports-based intervention (in this case) and the embodied knowledge of the pronounced recipients of that content (cf. Stenling and Fahlén, 2014, for a similar discussion on the necessity of alignment between a policy’s cultural material and a sport club’s organisational identity). But, as Tangen (2004b: 28) notes, the context of the activities (markings, equipment and shelters in Tangen’s text) ‘indicate selectivity (original italics) with respect to which actions a particular sport allows and demands’. As shown in the results, this selectivity is at work in the venues selected for the sessions, the equipment brought, and the behaviour of the activity leaders. ‘By means of communication “this” (football in this case, my remark) is actualised, “that” (almost every other possible activity, my remark) is left out as a “possibility’”. By selecting a specific venue for the activities and bringing a sack of footballs only, project initiators and activity leaders create a differentiated and very specific social sub-system in which certain behaviours are prescribed and other are more or less proscribed. In that sense, the ‘hands of the implementers’ argument made by Lipsky (1980) is also valid.

It would seem that the previous experiences, or ‘embodied knowledge’ in Tangen’s (2004a) words, of the participants of Drive-In Sport activities are key to the (non-)success of the intervention vis-a-vis its ambitions to recruit un-associated youth to become sport club members. However, as shown in the results, the experiences must be understood in relation to the expectations conveyed by the activities designed to fulfil the ambitions. It is in this respect that Tangen’s reasoning becomes particularly potent. By directing focus at socially produced expectations in materialised forms (Luhmann, 1990) and contextualising them in a sport setting, he makes it possible to zoom in on the very essence of sport – that it is always contested and contingent on the preconceptions attached to it. Regarding Drive-In Sport, this comes to the fore when comparing the various expectations conveyed in the project on what sport is and should be with the possibilities of the end-user to meet them. For example, as shown in the results when attempts were made to differentiate the activities according to gender, sport is communicated as not possible – or meaningful as Tangen (2004b) points out – if not a sufficient number of participants is present. It does not matter if two or three girls (as in this case) are willing to take part in a Drive-In Sport activity, since ‘the first distinction is drawn, ‘this is sport’” (p. 31). Thus, playing football with only two or three people, as in this case, is ‘different’, ‘impossible’, and ‘outside the boundaries of the social system’ created by the ‘expectations’ generated by the ‘autopoietic system’ of football (Tangen, 2004b: 30).

All parties involved in the project exhibit, more or less explicitly, preconceptions connected to their previous experiences of participating (or not) in sport activities. For some of them, it seems as if these have developed when being faced with the expectations conveyed in conventional club sport activities, whereas for others the preconceptions seem to have been developed from never being faced with such activities or from dissociating from activities where such expectations are conveyed. It is in this instance when contrasts appear. Arguably, the group of participants with more experience and the activity leaders have through their previous experiences in club sport developed their identity into individuals doing sports. By continuous participation, they have developed their skills and abilities – their embodied knowledge – and become good at sports. They have been fostered to attach meaning to the binary code of the subsystem of sport: ‘winning/losing’; to the secondary code ‘improvement/recession’; and to the operations of ‘quantification’, ‘calculation’, ‘verticalisation’, ‘standardisation’ and ‘disciplinisation’ (Tangen, 2004b: 37). Being good at sports seems to have increased their chances of meeting the continuously increased expectations (verticalisation) associated with the organising principles of club sport activities, and they thereby appear to have come to enjoy not only sport but the very specific version of sport exercised in sport clubs via practices, matches, cups, and tournaments. That is what sport seems to be to them, and those are the preconceptions they seemingly bring to the Drive-In Sport sessions.

By contrast, it would seem that the group of participants with less or no experience – the target group – have in a similar manner through their non-participation or discontinued participation in sports developed their identity into individuals not doing sports. Consequently, they have most probably not been able to develop the skills and abilities – their embodied knowledge – necessary for meeting the expectations conveyed in the version of sport exercised in Drive-In Sport. Apparently, despite their previous experiences, they still seem to have the interest necessary for trying out Drive-In Sport (at least sufficient for a few initial visits). Perhaps urged by the slogans and watchwords articulated in the marketing material, they brought a very different preconception of what sport could be to the Drive-In Sport sessions – at least it would seem so. As the latter group is in the minority, it appears to be more difficult for them to claim priority for their preconceptions, especially when the activity leaders by majority vote or by authority give precedence to the majority’s preconceptions. In this example, the activity leaders appear as intermediaries of meaning, between the larger social system of sport and its sub-system Drive-In/drop-in, low-threshold sport, in the sense that they act as ‘Ego’ expecting ‘Alter’ (the participants) to reciprocate in order to constitute the sub-system according to the codes structuring the larger social system of sport (Tangen, 2004b: 29).

By that, traditional patterns of participation – such as the underrepresentation of girls and the dominance of skilled participants – seem to be reproduced and supported by the physical and gendered character of the activities predominant in conventional club sport activities (cf., Messner, 2002, and Kay, 2003). As noted by Skille and Waddington (2006), borrowing from Dunning (1999), (conventional) sport is an arena in which the expression of masculine aggression, prowess, and physical power is legitimate. By emphasising the participants’ liberty of choice in Drive-In Sport activities, common in many sports-based interventions as noted by Kelly (2010), physical skills and power appear to leave an even more preferential right of interpretation than in conventional sport activities where leaders and more formal regulations are expected to regulate the group’s relative strengths.

Fahlén (2011) makes a similar observation and notes that the often sought-after element of liberty of choice tends to favour skilled and physically powerful participants at the expense of their counterparts. In Drive-In Sport activities, this mechanism gives the impression of excluding participants with little or no previous experience of club sport activities – namely, younger participants and girls – and of not offering any substantial alternative to the power relations associated with conventional sport. Thus, owing to the corporal character of activities often offered in sports-based interventions, the non-organised, participant-driven, and drop-in character of the activities can be counterproductive for the group that is often made a target in such ventures.

Spaaij (2009) claims that the character of football, in particular, adds to this effect owing – to its elements of division, conflict, and aggression, and that as a result the activities need to be modulated in terms of team compositions, rules, and general setup to create an inclusive environment ‘in which both males and females, and both talented and less talented players, ha[ve] the opportunity to develop social skills and relationships’ (p. 92). Since no such efforts were observed in Drive-In Sport, it is inappropriate to speculate about possible effects in this case. However, it points to the need for investigations of leader behaviour specifically. The results of this study, as those reported on by Haudenhuyse et al. (2014) show that activity leaders are significant as intermediaries and producers of implicit as well as explicit expectations, which future studies of sports-based interventions need to consider.

Conclusion

Coming back to the initial aim of this paper – to show how the corporal character of activities commonly provided in sports-based policy interventions has implications for the results of policy implementation – the analyses have shown how expectations embedded in such activities interact with experiences embodied by the participants and combine in availing or restricting the possibilities for participation – thereby affecting the outcome of policies for increased participation in organised sport.

In pursuing a more diversified understanding of the role of expectations and embodied knowledge in sport participation in general and sports-based policy interventions in particular future research would need to address one of the shortcomings of this study. This shortcoming stems from a phenomenon similar to the one observed by Spaaij (2009) and points to the importance of studying different types of sport activities. As argued by Stenling and Fahlén (2014), generalising all sports as ‘sport’ has implications for our understanding of sport policy implementation in general. Their argument is based on observations of how one type of sport club can be very apt to respond to one specific type of policy, while being neither ready, able, nor willing to deliver against the targets of another type of policy. Transferred to the context of this paper, this would mean that we cannot expect the same results from all types of sport activities in terms of their capacity to recruit the so-called ‘previously un-associated youth’. In their study of socially vulnerable young people in Flemish sport clubs, Haudenhuyse et al. (2014) sampled sports on the basis of their ‘reputation of working with socially vulnerable youth’ (p. 183), which resulted in less traditional sports such as jujitsu, Thai boxing, taekwondo, wushu, and combat sambo. Although not drawing any specific conclusions connected to the specifics of these sports, their study suggests that some sports more than others might be better equipped to create the conditions called for by Spaaij (2009).

Although Luhmann would argue that all sports operate according to the binary code of win/lose and that all regulating expectations – embedded and explicit – structure activities and behaviour accordingly, it can be argued – also with support from Luhmann – that each and every specific form of sport require its own specific embodied knowledge of the individual participant. Therefore, I urge future studies of sports-based interventions to investigate the specific (if any) expectations embedded in different types of activities and what possible specific embodied knowledge they require of the individual participant. It might be helpful to think of different types of activities in terms of ‘parallel competition’ sport activities (such as swimming, weight-lifting and figure skating which can be performed without opponents) versus ‘opposition competition’ sport activities (such as football, wrestling and tennis which require an opponent) in order to discern similar as well as dissimilar results (Hjelm, 2010).

Footnotes

Funding

The author received financial support from the Swedish Sports Confederation; The Swedish National Centre for Research in Sports; the local authority in which the project took place; and the Umeå School of Sport Sciences, Umeå University for the research, authorship, and publication of this article.

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