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Commercialization processes within Swedish child and youth sport - a Deleuzioguttarian perspective
Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, GIH, Department of Movement, Culture and Society.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-9841-2788
Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, GIH, Department of Movement, Culture and Society.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-1230-3415
Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, GIH, Department of Movement, Culture and Society.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-9965-0123
2022 (English)In: Sport in Society: Cultures, Media, Politics, Commerce, ISSN 1743-0437, E-ISSN 1743-0445, Vol. 25, no 12, p. 2397-2414Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

In the Nordic countries sport has a particular connection to civic society, and this is reflected in the Nordic governments 'sport for all' policies. The region also includes large voluntary non-profit sport organizations with an implicit monopoly on competitive sport. During the last decade scholars in Sweden have noted that commercial entrepreneurs have emerged in the child and youth sports landscape. However, empirical research on this phenomenon is scarce. Hence, in this article the aim is to map different commercial businesses and the services they offer on their websites. We make use of a Deleuzioguttarian inspired theory and method and a post-qualitative research practice, which is informed by an ontological (re)turn to realism(s) in social theory. We present four different commercial de-territorialization processes and discuss how they affect the Swedish Sport Confederation in different ways.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Taylor & Francis, 2022. Vol. 25, no 12, p. 2397-2414
Keywords [en]
Child and youth sports, commercialization entrepreneurialization, desire, de-territorialization, PHYSICAL-EDUCATION, POLICY
National Category
Sport and Fitness Sciences
Research subject
Social Sciences/Humanities
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:gih:diva-6771DOI: 10.1080/17430437.2021.1944114ISI: 000669143900001OAI: oai:DiVA.org:gih-6771DiVA, id: diva2:1586280
Available from: 2021-08-19 Created: 2021-08-19 Last updated: 2022-12-02
In thesis
1. Barn- och ungdomsidrott till salu: Om begär, immateriellt arbete och kommersialisering
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Barn- och ungdomsidrott till salu: Om begär, immateriellt arbete och kommersialisering
2022 (Swedish)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Alternative title[en]
Child and youth sport for sale
Abstract [en]

In recent decades scholars have noted a trend in Swedish child and youth sport, namely that businesses are emerging parallel to the Swedish Sports Confederation (SSC), Sweden’s leading ideally driven sports organisation. Despite this recent trend of businesses starting to organise child and youth sport, research on the phenomenon is as yet scarce. This is also true for the overarching research area of the commercialisation of youth sport. Thus, the aim of this thesis is to analyse how commercially driven child and youth sport in Sweden functions and how leading representatives from child and youth sport businesses perceive Swedish child and youth sport.

The thesis consists of four sub-studies. Three of the studies are based on data from different child and youth sport business websites, while the other is based on data from interviews with leading representatives from different child and youth sport businesses.

The results identify four different commercial de-territorialisation processes that have been established, or territorialised, in Sweden. These four de-territorialisation processes consist of businesses that target their services to different potential customers groups. They also identify how the different businesses produce immaterial values regarding child and youth sport in order to attract potential customers. These values are enunciated differently depending on the kind of de-territorialisation processes the businesses stem from. Furthermore, the thesis illustrates that in their website images the businesses often visually represent their ideal customers as white boys and girls who are actively pursuing some kind of sport. It also shows that the leading business representatives position themselves and their services as passionate sport enthusiasts, child and youth sport actors and actors in a changing society.

The conclusion is that the commercialisation of child and youth sport functions in four different ways and creates boundaries between ideally- and commercially driven sport. The challenge for ideally driven sport is to keep control over sport as a social and cultural product. This is especially important in a post-industrial society, where businesses aspire to take control of the social and cultural content of sport and make it profitable

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Stockholm: Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH, 2022. p. 106
Series
Avhandlingsserie för Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan ; 26
National Category
Economics and Business Sport and Fitness Sciences
Research subject
Social Sciences/Humanities
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:gih:diva-7152 (URN)978-91-986490-8-6 (ISBN)
Public defence
2022-11-11, Aulan, Lidingövägen 1, Stockholm, 13:00 (Swedish)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2022-10-14 Created: 2022-10-14 Last updated: 2022-11-11Bibliographically approved

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Bäckström, ÅsaRedelius, Karin

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