Questioning policy, youth participation and lifestyle sports

Abstract

Young people have been identified as a key target group for whom participation in sport and physical activity could have important benefits to health and wellbeing and consequently have been the focus of several government policies to increase participation in the UK. Lifestyle sports represent one such strategy for encouraging and sustaining new engagements in sport and physical activity in youth groups, however, there is at present a lack of understanding of the use of these activities within policy contexts. This paper presents findings from a government initiative which sought to increase participation in sport for young people through provision of facilities for mountain biking in a forest in South East England. Findings from qualitative research with 40 young people who participated in mountain biking at the case study location highlight the importance of non-traditional sports as a means to experience the natural environments through forms of consumption which are healthy, active and appeal to their identities. In addition, however, the paper raises questions over the accessibility of schemes for some individuals and social groups, and the ability to incorporate sports which are inherently participant led into state managed schemes. Lifestyle sports such as mountain biking involve distinct forms of participation which present a challenge for policy makers who seek to create and maintain sustainable communities of youth participants.

Exploring Critical Alternatives for Youth Development through Lifestyle Sport: Surfing and Community Development in Aotearoa/New Zealand

“…These strategies include mixing teams (for example across talent, gender, age), downplaying competition, overlapping players and spectators and putting on various events in the same space. Academic research on activities including parkour [40][41][42], skateboarding [41,42] mountain-biking [12] and surfing [13,38] has demonstrated the potential of more informal, non-competitive and youth-led activities to engage those young people disenfranchised by traditional competitive team sports. In the UK, Hignett, et al [13] recently published work that found significant benefits in engaging in a surfing program among vulnerable school aged children, at risk of being excluded from school (see also [43]).…”

Satisfacción de las personas jóvenes con las actividades de ocio entre pares

“…Los resultados de distintas investigaciones sugieren que tales actividades se asocian con el desarrollo positivo en estas franjas de edad (Leversen, Danielsen, Birkeland y Oddrun, 2012;King y Church, 2015), entendiendo el desarrollo (social y emocional) como un proceso madurativo, de crecimiento e incremento de la autonomía. Sin embargo, la capacidad de participación y la autonomía no es un resultado garantizado que derive espontáneamente del trán-sito de la infancia a la adolescencia y juventud (Deci y Ryan, 2000).…”

Governing bodies or managing freedom? Subcultural struggles, national sport systems and the glocalised institutionalisation of parkour

“…The regulation and policy incorporation of lifestyle sports, if not managed properly, can deprive them of "the mimetic properties which make them so attractive to participants in the first instance" (Turner 2013, 1259), particularly to those who are alienated by more traditional and formalised sport provision (Tomlinson et al 2005, King andChurch 2015). xii It is therefore vital to enable participants' ownership and control over the institutionalisation of their practice (Gilchrist and Wheaton 2011).…”

“…policies entails important challenges with regard to defining safety regulations and providing suitable forms of governance for an activity that was born as an alternative to mainstream sports (Tomlinson et al 2005, King andChurch 2015). While the normalisation of the practice is partly achieved through its spatial containment within parkour-parks (Gilchrist and Osborne 2017) and other forms of indoorisation (Van Bottenburg and Salome 2010), a further measure to ensure its safety is the introduction of teaching/coaching qualifications Wheaton 2011, O'Loughlin 2012).…”

“…Moreover, the gradual incorporation of lifestyle sports into mainstream organisational structures tends to alter the nature of these activities and the experiences of their practitioners , Ojala 2014, King and Church 2015, fostering competing visions of the practice and exacerbating battles for control and power amongst different groups (Coates et al 2010). …”