Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH

Introduction: Youth participation in organized sport, a longstanding leisure-time activity in Sweden, is both popular and polarized. There are variations in levels of participation related to sociocultural aspects such as gender, socioeconomics, and demography. This ongoing doctoral project investigates young people's evolving engagement in different forms of movement culture, emphasizing and investigating young people’s taste for different forms of movement culture and their perceived reliance on digital technologies. Situated within the research school"School, sport, screens," the study primarily explores youth participation in movement culture. The project is, to some extent, a continuation of earlier studies regarding young people’s participation in movement culture (Larsson 2005, 2008, 2019; Nilsson 1998).

Aim and Theoretical Framework: This research examines young people's participation in movement culture and how it is valued and perceived in the digital era. Drawing on sociocultural and pedagogical perspectives, the theoretical framework, inspired by Bourdieu and Engström, incorporates the contextual role of digital technologies. Movement culture, defined as socially formed physical activity outside daily obligations (Engström, 2013), is used as a foundation to describe different forms of organized physical activity and is analyzed using Bourdieu's concepts of practices, logics, habitus, and taste.

Method and Selection: Using a mixed-method approach, the study combines interviews and a cross-sectional survey in four different Swedish regions. This enables a comprehensive exploration of participation influences and trends, including sociocultural factors and the participant’s own perceived reliance on digital technologies. Data collection spans from December 2023 to February 2024.

Results, Discussions, and Conclusions: Preliminary findings will be presented at the conference.

Introduction

Participation in different forms of movement culture has historically been a very popular leisure-time activity for young people in Sweden (Engström, 2013; Engström et al., 2018; Larsson, 2008, 2019; Nilsson, 1998) and considered an important part of its democratic fostering (Redelius, 2020). It is also considered important for a physically active and healthy lifestyle (Ekblom-Bak et al., 2018). In the last couple of decades there has been an ongoing process of digitization which has changed the way young people live their lives and how they relate to society in general. Has that had an impact on how young people participate in and relate to movement culture? And, if so, how? Those questions are important in this ongoing PhD-project. The thesis is part of the research school “School, sport, screens”, a collaboration between The Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences (GIH), Uppsala University, and Södertörn University.

Aim and theoretical framework

The overall aim is to study to what extent young people participate and engage in movement culture, and how they relate and value movement culture. The aim is also to study the contextual role of digital technologies in relation to their participation in movement culture. The study is, to some extent, a continuation of, and contemporary contribution towards, earlier studies regarding social, cultural, and socioeconomic factors conditioning and impacting participation in organized sport and other forms of movement culture in four different geographic regions in Sweden (Larsson, 2005, 2008, 2019; Nilsson, 1998). Additionally, this study will widen the usage of the term ‘movement culture’ to include Physical education and health as well as include the contextual role of digital technologies.  This thesis will take on a sociological and a pedagogical perspective with a theoretical framework and terminology inspired by Pierre Bourdieu and Lars-Magnus Engström. Movement culture is defined as “a socially formed and arranged physical activity, that is not part of the day job or household chores” (Engström, 2013, pp. 89). This term is relevant because of the interest in the value and norm-laden nature of the socially formed physical activities that this thesis aims to investigate. The theoretical framework for this term is influenced by Bourdieu and his thoughts regarding practices, logics, and habitus (Bourdieu, 2010; Bourdieu & Wacquant, 2007; Engström, 2013)

Method and selection

This study has a mixed-method approach using two different data collection method: interviews with 20-30 participants, aged 15-16 years, selected based on their level of participation in movement culture, and a cross-sectional survey with approximately 800-1000 participants, aged 15-16 years. Both studies will be conducted in four different geographic regions in Sweden. This mixed-method approach is chosen due to the complex and multifaceted nature of participation in movement culture, both connected to socioeconomic factors and mechanisms, as well as the relation towards digital technologies. The data collections will take place during the October to December of 2023 and in January to February of 2024 respectively.  

Results, discussions, and conclusions

The study is ongoing and has no results, discussions, and conclusions to present yet.