Speaker
Description
Objectives
Over the last 20 years, European policies and programmes have increasingly focused on promoting social cohesion. Often presented as a multi-dimensional concept, social cohesion is considered the ‘glue’ that holds societies together and is seen as essential to address common challenges.
In sport, extensive literature and programmes focus on social cohesion. However, the term remains muddled and contested, and it is not always clear how programmes conceptualise or support social cohesion. For this presentation, I explore how three European sport programmes conceptualise and foster social cohesion and discuss opportunities and limitations associated with their approaches.
Methods
Findings are generated from 20 interviews and four focus group discussions with implementers and stakeholders involved with three different European sport for social cohesion programmes. Thematic analysis is used to organise and code the data.
Findings
Tolerance, social relations and mutual help are seen as essential components of social cohesion. To promote this, programmes use sport to foster occasions for groups to mix and for individuals to develop life skills. However, they do not challenge structural factors inhibiting social cohesion. Instead, beneficiaries are expected to independently translate new relationships or skills into greater social cohesion in their communities.
Discussion/conclusion
Programmes place the onus for improvement on beneficiaries, many of whom come from so-called 'marginalised' groups. This places the responsibility for greater social cohesion on already supposedly vulnerable groups and ignores the privileged groups or institutions that could further contribute to greater social cohesion.
