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Description
While increasing attention within studies of sports and physical activity is directed towards social groups that are described as vulnerable in one sense or the other, less attention has been given to the sports and health care professionals (and volunteers) who work with such groups. This paper aims to contribute to fill this research gap in examining a task unit of health professionals’ ways of approaching and working with the vulnerability of their target group. Using Michael Lipsky’s theoretical perspectives on ‘street-level bureaucrats’, the paper will explore the ways in which health professionals negotiate the cross-pressure between meeting political expectations for their work and dealing with the specific needs of the groups and individuals with whom they work. Drawing on ethnographic field work and interviews with 12 health care professionals employed in a municipal institution that initiates active recreation and health promotion programmes, the paper identifies a great deal of dilemmas in working with vulnerable groups and individuals. This leads to a discussion of aspects of programmes that promote sports, leisure time physical activity, and health care that are often left unnoticed. Further, we conclude that in future research and in sports and health programmes as well, vulnerability may not be presupposed but examined and challenged.
