Coordinator(s): Lone Friis Thing (National School of Sports Sciences, Norway), Ørnulf Seippel (National School of Sports Sciences, Norway) and Nils Asle Bergsgaard (University of South-Eastern Norway)
In the Nordic countries, sports for all has been a dominant policy for a long time. But, even though we see a physical active population in the Nordic welfare states, we do also face some very nonequal activity patterns challenging the success of these dominant sport policies. Global transformations do also influence on local manifestations in sports activities.
In the session “Facing inequalities in Sports”, we will focus on different conflicts and problems in sports, mainly for children and youth, but also adults and elder people. The Nordic welfare states have traditionally secured a certain form of cultural and economic capital in the civil sphere in form of voluntary sports systems with low payments and open memberships. But gender, ethnicity and class still matter for participation in sports. How can we face, manage and perhaps change the possibilities for doing sports among children & youth? And shall we? Who should be responsible for organizing sports? What are the best policy tools for reaching aims as sports for all? What about elite sports versus grassroot sports?
Sustainability is not only about the environment, but also related to human rights, communities and daily living conditions. Unequal pathways to sport are not sustainable for societies in the long run and can also be very costly. We open the session for a broad variety of papers.