Sports are activities enjoyed by many across the globe, regardless of age. The existence and promotion of youth sports has often been based on various assumptions about its value and role in society. Sports participation is assumed to be fun and good and is assumed to contribute to the development of young people. As a result, sports are often seen as an essential part of life for youth. Participation in sports and physical activity is assumed to help young people to develop in a context in which they are able to learn important positive societal values (Fraser-Thomas et al., 2005; Holt, 2008). Although there is a widespread belief in the positive dimensions of sports participation for young people, there is a need for research and theory that identifies and critically looks at the processes through which sports participation by youth is experienced and shapes their lives (Coakley, 2011). I return to this critical perspective after I elaborate on the ways sports are viewed as important effective activities for positive youth development.
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The continuation of emotional abuse as a normalized practice in elite youth sport has received scholarly attention, often with the use of a Foucauldian framework. The use of sense-making, a theoretical framework that focuses on how meaning is created in ambiguous situations, may give additional insights into the continuation of emotionally abusive coaching practices. The purpose of this study was to apply the seven properties of sense-making to explore how athletes and parents made sense of coaching practices in elite women’s gymnastics. We interviewed 14 elite women gymnasts and their parents to examine how they made sense of what occurred during practices. The results show how the sense-making of athletes and parents was an ongoing activity that resulted in a code of silence and a normalization of abusive coaching practices.
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Various discourses construct youth sport as a site for pleasure and participation, for positive development, for performance and for protection/safeguarding. Elite youth sport however continues to be a site for emotionally abusive coaching behaviour. Little attention has been paid to how the institutional context may enable or sustain this behaviour. Specifically, how do coaches and directors involved in high-performance women’s gymnastics position themselves in relationship to these discourses to legitimize the ways they organize and coach it? We drew on a Foucauldian framework to analyse the technologies and rationalities used by directors and coaches of elite women’s gymnastics clubs to legitimize and challenge current coaching behaviours. The results of the 10 semi-structured interviews showed how coaches and directors legitimized coaching behaviour using discourses of pleasure, protection, performance and of coaching expertise and assigning responsibility for current coaching behaviour to athletes, parents, (other) coaches and global and national policies.
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Various discourses construct youth sport as a site for pleasure and participation, for positive development, for performance and for protection/safeguarding. Elite youth sport however continues to be a site for emotionally abusive coaching behaviour. Little attention has been paid to how the institutional context may enable or sustain this behaviour. Specifically, how do coaches and directors involved in high-performance women’s gymnastics position themselves in relationship to these discourses to legitimize the ways they organize and coach it? We drew on a Foucauldian framework to analyse the technologies and rationalities used by directors and coaches of elite women’s gymnastics clubs to legitimize and challenge current coaching behaviours. The results of the 10 semi-structured interviews showed how coaches and directors legitimized coaching behaviour using discourses of pleasure, protection, performance and of coaching expertise and assigning responsibility for current coaching behaviour to athletes, parents, (other) coaches and global and national policies.
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Throughout Europe, refugees must participate in civic integration programs aimed to improve language and to have them learn and adopt the ‘European’ way of life. These programmes have been criticized for being restrictive, discriminatory and as negatively impacting on the lives of refugees. Our study aims to explore the Dutch civic integration programme at the level of discourse.MethodThis three-part critical ethnography explores civic integration in the Netherlands by drawing on Foucauldian and decolonial theories. Firstly, a critical discourse analysis of practice texts (course books, exams) explored how they present integration and the Other. Secondly, observations during integration courses and focus groups with staff will further explore how these concepts are shaped. Lastly, a variety of creative methods will be offered to refugees, exploring how they demonstrate their integration through everyday doing.Impact/ResultsResults of the first study demonstrate that texts are actively constructing an image of the unmodern Other, attributing inherently unmodern values and ‘ways of doing’ to them. This image is reminiscent of previous historical depictions of the Other; suggesting that colonial classifications have their afterlife in programs today. It demonstrates that Othering is an indestructible practice across time and across multiple levels of integration, from policy to practice.Conclusions/OutcomesThe discourse we use shapes our understanding of who belongs and who not. These understandings impact on the treatment of groups and their occupational possibilities. Analyzing discourses creates spaces for new narratives and for new understandings of integration.
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This article uses a study of the life-story narratives of former classmates of Dutch and Moluccan descent to argue that the constructionist approach to intersectionality, with its account of identity as a narrative construction rather than a practice of naming, offers better tools for answering questions concerning intersectional identity formation than a more systemic intersectional approach. The case study also highlights the importance of the quest for origins in narratives. It demonstrates that theories of intersectionality are not justified in subsuming the issue of belonging under the identity marker of ethnicity, when all identities are performatively produced in and through narrative enactments that include the precarious achievement of belonging. The case study demonstrates that if narrative accounts of a (singular or collective) life fail to achieve narrative closure regarding roots, attempts to trace routes are seriously hampered.
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Despite the notable strides that have been made in terms of participation in sport, women continue to be underrepresented in sport leadership roles such as coaching and officiating. The 2014 United Nations (UN) International Working Group on Women’s Sport (IWG) noted that: ‘Women are significantly under-represented in management, administration, coaching and officiating, particularly at the higher levels’ (IWG, 2014 p. 6). This statement, part of the Helsinki Declaration, was made in the context of how sport can support the UN Millennium Development Goals. Across today’s sporting landscape, women’s sport experiences typically occur in male-dominated contexts, which favour men and masculinity (Norman, 2016). Recent data indicates the men to women ratio in high-performance coaching over the last four consecutive Olympic cycles has been approximately 10:1. Among US high school sporting officials, only 11% are women, and even a greater disparity exists with officiating sports traditionally played by men (Nordstrom, Warner, & Barnes, 2016). This data highlights a systemic absence of women in coaching and officiating leadership roles across sport. In this chapter we will discuss the impact this has on developing sport for women and girls. Specifically, this chapter aims to: - Provide an understanding of the roles and responsibilities of coaches and officials in women and girls sport delivery. - Explore career development pathways for improving opportunities for women in coaching and officiating. - Present a critical reflection of the differences and similarities between athlete development and coach/official development (systems and structures) for women and girls. We begin by discussing the gendered nature of coaching before turning our attention to women’s experiences in sport officiating. We draw on relevant literature throughout the chapter and identify issues and opportunities for further research. We conclude by providing practical actions and recommendations to help facilitate coaching and officiating development for women and girls LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donna-de-haan/
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Background and Objective: To develop a health care value framework for physical therapy primary health care organizations including a definition. Method: A scoping review was performed. First, relevant studies were identified in 4 databases (n = 74). Independent reviewers selected eligible studies. Numerical and thematic analyses were performed to draft a preliminary framework including a definition. Next, the feasibility of the framework and definition was explored by physical therapy primary health care organization experts. Results: Numerical and thematic data on health care quality and context-specific performance resulted in a health care value framework for physical therapy primary health care organizations—including a definition of health care value, namely “to continuously attain physical therapy primary health care organization-centered outcomes in coherence with patient- and stakeholder-centered outcomes, leveraged by an organization’s capacity for change.” Conclusion: Prior literature mainly discussed health care quality and context-specific performance for primary health care organizations separately. The current study met the need for a value-based framework, feasible for physical therapy primary health care organizations, which are for a large part micro or small. It also solves the omissions of incoherent literature and existing frameworks on continuous health care quality and context-specific performance. Future research is recommended on longitudinal exploration of the HV (health care value) framework.
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This article traces the emergence of one particular genre of discourse, the genre of "new realism" in the Dutch public debates on multicultural society from the early 1990s till Spring 2002. The focus upon different "genres" implies an interest in the performative power of discourse, i.e. the way in which any discourse, in or by its descriptions of reality, (co)produces that reality. Four distinctive characteristics of "new realism" are detected in three subsequent public debates, culminating in the genre of "hyper-realism", of which the immensely successful and recently murdered politician Pim Fortuyn proved to be the consummate champion. Cet article explique le développement d'un genre particulier de discours, le "nouveau réalisme", au sein du débat public sur la société multiculturelle aux Pays Bas. La période étudidée s'étale du début des années 1990 jusqu'au printemps 2002. L'importance attribuée aux différents "genres" reflète un intérêt pour le pouvoir performatif du discours, notamment la facon dont le discours (co)produit la réalité qu'il décrit. On décèle quatre traits distinctifs du "nouveau réalisme" dans trois débats publics qui débouchent sur le "hyper-réalisme" genre dont Pim Fortuyn, homme politique ayant connu un grand succès et victime récente d'un meurtre,s'était fait le champion attitré.
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This chapter addresses environmental education as an important subject of anthropological inquiry and demonstrates how ethnographic research can contribute to our understanding of environmental learning both in formal and informal settings. Anthropology of environmental education is rich in ethnographies of indigenous knowledge of plants and animals, as well as emotional and religious engagement with nature passed on through generations. Aside from these ethnographies of informal environmental education, anthropological studies can offer a critical reflection on the formal practice of education, especially as it is linked to development in non-Western countries. Ethnographic and critical studies of environmental education will be discussed as one of the most challenging directions of environmental anthropology of the future. This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge/CRC Press in "Environmental Anthropology: Future Directions" on 7/18/13 available online: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203403341 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
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