607083

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IRS0010.1177/1012690215607083International Review for the Sociology of SportFahlén

Research Article

International Review for the

The corporal dimension of Sociology of Sport

2017, Vol. 52(4) 497­–517
© The Author(s) 2015
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Understanding the role of DOI: 10.1177/1012690215607083
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embedded expectations and
embodied knowledge in sport
policy implementation

Josef Fahlén
Umeå University, Sweden

Abstract
The aim of this paper is to show how the corporal character of activities commonly provided
in sports-based policy interventions has implications for the results of policy implementation.
By employing the theoretical concepts of embedded expectations and embodied knowledge,
this paper examines how expectations embedded in such activities interact with experiences
embodied by the participants and combine in availing or restricting the possibilities for
participation – thereby affecting the outcome of policies for increased participation in organised
sport. The paper builds on data from a case study of a sports-based intervention that aimed to
usher so-called un-associated youth in to participation in regular sport-club activities by offering
‘organised spontaneous sports’ in ‘drop-in’ sessions that focus on the intrinsic characteristics
of non-competitive sports and participants’ wishes. Findings from interviews, the intervention’s
internal documentation, and observations show how expectations embedded in these activities
require a very specific embodied knowledge of the individual participant. Instead of challenging
dominant notions of what sport ‘is’ and ‘can be’, the activities reproduce existing preconceptions
and, in extension, existing patterns of sport participation instead of supporting the formation
of new ones as aimed for by policy makers. The findings are discussed in relation to the wider
discussion about policy implementation in sport and highlight the necessity for understanding the
content of the activities offered in sports-based interventions relative to the previous experiences
of the pronounced recipients.

Keywords
sport for change, sport for development, social inclusion, sport participation, voluntary sport

Corresponding author:
Josef Fahlén, Department of Education, Umeå University, 901 87 Umeå, Sweden.
Email: josef.fahlen@umu.se
498 International Review for the Sociology of Sport 52(4)

Introduction
Following on an increased government interest in voluntary organised, non-profit, and
membership-based club sport worldwide (e.g. Coalter, 2010; Dóczi, 2012; Fahlén et al.,
2014; Green, 2009; Kang et al., 2015; Klostermann and Nagel, 2014; Skille, 2008),
implementation of government-initiated policies in the domain of sport has received a lot
of focus (e.g. Adams, 2011; Fahlén and Karp, 2010; May et al., 2013; Nichols et al.,
2012; O’Gorman, 2011; Skille, 2009; Stenling, 2013). As sport and other voluntary
organisations are increasingly being included in policies for welfare provision in a vari-
ety of national contexts and depicted as important resources in solving various social
problems, many scholars have directed attention to interventions, programmes, projects,
and activities targeting a wide range of social objectives such as public health (Thing and
Ottesen, 2010), equal opportunity (Wickman, 2011), ethnic integration (Theeboom et al.,
2012), social integration (Haudenhuyse et al., 2014), urban regeneration (Coaffee, 2008),
democracy (Morgan, 2013), criminality (Mutz and Baur, 2009), youth delinquency
(Stenling, 2014), peace (Hasselgård and Straume, 2015), national identity (Grix and
Carmichael, 2012), and individual identity (Thorpe, 2014). Taken together, these studies
and others have shown how policy implementation in general is contingent on a variety
of properties associated with the bodies responsible for issuing the policy in question
(Piggin et al., 2009), the cultural raw material of the policy (Stenling and Fahlén, 2014),
the implementation process (O’Gorman, 2011), and the organisations expected to imple-
ment it (Reid, 2012).
Certainly, there are numerous studies of effects among end-users involved in or tar-
geted by specific policy interventions, programmes, projects, and activities (e.g.
Agergaard et al., 2015), as well as of the distribution of effects connected to individual
characteristics such as gender (e.g. Skille and Waddington, 2006), age (e.g. Fahlén,
2011), socioeconomic background (e.g. Simard et al., 2014), and other background vari-
ables. There are also many examples of conceptual papers arguing for or against one
policy implementation model over another with reference to structural as well as more
individual barriers for the success of one programme theory or another (see Coalter,
2013, for a study of programme theories for sport-for-change programmes). Yet other
examples are studies focussing on different stakeholders of a particular policy interven-
tion, programme, or project (e.g. Donaldson et al., 2012). But a commonality among all
these approaches is that they do not seek explanations for or understanding of observed
phenomena in the actual activities carried out within the specific policy intervention,
programme, or project. Although valuable in furthering our understanding of the work-
ings of policy implementation, as called for by Houlihan in 2005, such studies fall short
of factoring in individual-level explanations as sought by Kay (2009) and others.
This, as I will argue in this paper, is a problematic oversight given the physical char-
acter of sport. Since any sports-based intervention by necessity carries a corporal
dimension, understandings of such interventions would benefit from the inclusion of
investigations of the very activities themselves as well as of the experiences of activity
participants (cf. Kay, 2009: 1178, call for ‘local voices’). This paper seeks to do so by,
first, introducing a theoretical framework built on insights provided by the Norwegian
sport sociologist Jan Ove Tangen and his studies of the expectations embedded in sport
Fahlén 499

facilities and the embodied knowledge demanded of users to meet them (2004a, 2004b)
and, second, drawing on empirical examples from a case study of a sports-based inter-
vention in Sweden. Two research questions are constructed to produce knowledge that
can inform an understanding of how individuals encounter social expectations and how
the abilities stored in their bodies affect their willingness, or unwillingness, to take part
in physical activities offered as part of a sports-based intervention: (1) What embedded
expectations are placed on the individual participant by the context of activities, the
activities themselves, leaders and other participants? 2) What embodied knowledge is
required of the participants to meet these expectations? The purpose of this design is to
argue that expectations embedded in activities commonly provided in sports-based
interventions and implicitly communicated by the context of the activities, the activi-
ties, leaders, and the group of participants partaking in the activities will interact with
the knowledge, skills, and ambitions of the participating individuals and combine in
availing or restricting the possibilities for individual participation. Thus, the purpose of
this paper is not primarily to add to the extensive literature on the sociology of the body,
but to show how the previously overlooked corporal character of activities commonly
provided in sports-based policy interventions has implications for the results of policy
implementation.

Conceptual framework
Although the literature on the sociology of the body is extensive, starting out with semi-
nal texts such as those by Heinemann (1980), Turner (1984), Frank (1990), Shilling
(1991), Theberge (1991), Loy et al. (1993), Maguire (1993) and continuing with the
reviews by Cole (2000), Gimlin (2007), and Markula (2015), work connecting to policy-
related issues is more limited. Perhaps not that surprising, given the ‘internal’ nature of
the body, but even so a shortcoming considering its argued importance in sport policies
targeting the obese, inactive and unhealthy body. Exceptions can be found in the works
of Hargreaves (1986), Gruneau (1993), King (1993) and Rail and Harvey (1995), who all
in their different ways have paid more explicit attention to power and the political aspects
of the body in a theoretical and macro-level perspective. However, not specifically con-
cerned with sport policy or sports-based policy interventions, they have been able to shed
light on issues very much connected to and embedded in policy. Other exceptions can be
found in work employing Michel Foucault’s concepts of ‘biopolitics’ and ‘govermental-
ity’ such as Haber (1996), Eichberg (2009), Fusco (2007), Darnell (2010), and Piggin
(2015), however also concerned with the macropolitics and analyses of neo-liberal agen-
das governing populations.
Yet another exception, which has more specific bearing on the micro-level perspec-
tive guiding the research questions posed in this text, is provided by Jan Ove Tangen
who, in his twin articles from 2004 (2004a, 2004b), outlined a systematic theoretical
attempt to explain the use and non-use of sport facilities. Drawing on the works of the
German sociologist Niklas Luhmann (1990), Tangen proposed that individuals’ inclina-
tion to take up on opportunities offered by sport facilities is not only contingent on their
sociocultural characteristics such as gender, age, or socio-economic background, but
also on the expectations embedded in sport facilities and knowledge embodied in the
500 International Review for the Sociology of Sport 52(4)

individuals faced with these expectations. In Tangen’s words, readiness to use sport
facilities constitutes ‘a function of our observations of the embedded expectations in the
facility and the tacit or embodied knowledge that is incorporated in our bodies as results
of movements we earlier have performed in sport facilities’ (Tangen, 2004a: 9). Tangen
argues that such considerations are vital in understanding use and non-use of sport
facilities, which in extension ought to be a key concern for policy-makers engaged with
the location and design of sport facilities. In the following, I will expand on how these
notions also can be used in an understanding of children’s and young people’s engage-
ment in activities offered within a sports-based intervention. Such an understanding is
pressing, as I will argue in this paper, in the making of policies for increased participa-
tion in organised sport.

Embedded expectations
Tangen, following Luhmann’s lead, argues that all social interaction is governed by
expectations (Luhmann, 1990; Tangen, 2004b). The distinguishing feature in Tangen’s
proposal is that he separates explicit expectations from implicit or embedded expecta-
tions and connects the latter to space, place, and landscape. He argues that although some
expectations are explicit, such as the coach’s loud exhortations to work harder, the spec-
tators’ cheering for their teams, or the parents driving their kids to practice, others are
implicit or embedded. He describes such embedded expectations as socially produced
expectations in materialised forms (Luhmann, 1990), such as the planning of a sport
facility with its measurements, lines, equipment, and specifications. For example, the
lines of the running track materialise expectations on the way we are expected to run, and
the long-jump pit communicates expectations on landing in it. In Tangen’s argumenta-
tion, when explicit expectations are lacking, such embedded expectations are more effec-
tive. For instance, when no coach is present calling out instructions from the sideline, the
expectations materialised through the design of a sport facility will determine whether
we are attracted to it and, in a longer perspective, whether we choose to use it. As such,
the expectations materialised through the design of a sport facility communicates expec-
tations of what can be done (such as playing football), who can participate (i.e. how
much room there is for how many participants and who is allowed to participate), and
when this can be done (opening hours or specified hours for practice).
Considering the specifics of the case studied in this paper and returning to Luhmann’s
original reasoning, I want to study if similar expectations are embedded in activities –
social interactions (regardless of space, place, or landscape) – commonly provided in
sports-based interventions and implicitly, as well as explicitly, communicated by the
context of the activities, the activities, leaders, and the group of participants taking part
in such activities.

Embodied knowledge
Embodied knowledge is developed when individuals attempt to meet expectations,
explicit or implicit, they are faced with. Tangen argues that by living up to expectations
embedded in sport facilities, individuals develop their identity (as someone doing sports)
Fahlén 501

and their ability to perform the activity the facility expects of them (as someone who is
good at sports). Conversely, if the facility is not attractive to the extent required for
someone to live up to its expectations, her or his identity and ability will develop in an
opposite direction (as someone who does not do sports and whose chances to develop the
knowledge and skills expected are smaller). Both of these processes operate when indi-
viduals observe and reflect on the consequences of their actions. When individuals reflect
on possible differences between what they do (miss the goal) and what is expected of
them (hitting the goal), their identity develops (towards becoming somebody good or not
good at football).
Tangen argues that this type of knowledge is incorporated into our body and hidden
from our consciousness. Thus, it is not only a matter of cognitive knowledge, but a
knowledge stored in the body by repeated experiences. As such, embodied knowledge
affects how individuals experience and feel about taking part in physical activities, even
though they are most likely unable to verbalise or motivate their feelings. As these pro-
cesses are repeated every time individuals are faced with social and situational expecta-
tions, their bodies are subjected to continuous learning, training, and embodiment. The
more an individual is subjected to the experience of playing football, the greater is the
chance that he/she will develop the specific knowledge and skills required for the task.
An increase in knowledge and ability also increases his or her chances of meeting the
expectations embedded in the phenomenon of playing football and consequently the
chances of experiencing pleasure and satisfaction when practising it (cf. Jakobsson
et al., 2012). Whenever an individual subsequently comes across a facility designed for
playing football, her or his body will recall these emotions and affect the willingness to
use the facility.
Arguably, these processes are similar when Tangen’s spatial dimension is omitted
from the equation. Following Luhmann (1990), I will argue that they are equally strong
if not stronger when adding a social aspect such as explicit cheering from teammates
when a goal is scored or more implicit expressions of disappointment when the opposing
team scores. That is, the processes are reinforced in a social context where, in addition to
a comparison between a facility’s expectations and individual ability, feedback (implicit
and explicit) is provided from other individuals on how the ability of a certain individual
lives up to their expectations (cf. Karp, 2010). In the context of this paper, this line of
argumentation can inform an understanding of how individuals encounter social expecta-
tions and how the abilities stored in their bodies affect their willingness, or unwilling-
ness, to participate in a physical activity, and by extension to take part in activities offered
as part of a sports-based intervention. Such an understanding is, as I will argue in this
paper, key in designing potentially successful sports-based policy interventions aiming
for increased participation in organised sport.

The case of ‘Drive-In Sport’

The sports-based intervention used as an empirical example in this paper is in many ways
similar to the ones noted in the introduction of this paper, to the ‘Sports City Programme’
in Norway as reported on by Skille (2004, 2006, 2009), the ‘Sport Policy Idea Programme
in Denmark as reported on by Ibsen (2002), the ‘Sporting Future for All’ and ‘Charter
502 International Review for the Sociology of Sport 52(4)

Standard Scheme’ in England as described by Garrett (2004) and O’Gorman (2011)

respectively. As such, it is constructed as part of a larger government-financed sport
policy programme found in many liberal welfare states concerned with the ill health of
their populations stemming from lack of physical activity or with youth delinquency and
criminality, both seen as causing costs in the government balance sheet. With the ulti-
mate aim of constructing healthy and democratically engaged citizens (Aggestål and
Fahlén, 2015), voluntary organised, non-profit, and membership-based club sport is
employed as vehicle in engaging and activating the population in order to address the
origins of those costs.
In Sweden, the empirical setting of the sports-based intervention under study, volun-
tary organised, non-profit, and membership-based club sport is made up of 20,164 sport
clubs (Riksidrottsförbundet, 2012) with 3,147,000 individual memberships out of a pop-
ulation of 9.6 million. The majority of Swedish sport clubs are described as being
focussed on the ‘preparation for and participation in institutionalised competitive sports
systems’ (Stenling and Fahlén, 2014: 12) and as such are often referred to as ‘conven-
tional’ sport clubs that offer ‘conventional’ sport activities (practising sport-specific
tasks such as game tactics and techniques and competing on a regular basis in leagues,
cups and tournaments). The Swedish Sports Confederation (SSC) [Riksidrottsförbundet],
affiliating all Swedish sport clubs, is appointed by the state to act towards the govern-
ment objectives of physical activity and public health, and has since the 1970 mandate to
distribute government funds to sport organisations (Norberg, 2002). These funds amount
to SEK 1.8 billion annually and are supplemented by SEK 4.8 billion in annual support
from local authorities (Centrum för idrottsforskning, 2014).
The majority of these funds are distributed through block funding but have since 2003
been supplemented by two large-scale, time-limited, and project-based developmental
programmes. Currently, approximately one-third of the funds are distributed in this way.
Originating in reforms of the overall performance management principles that took place
in the general government administration at the beginning of the 1990s, these pro-
grammes were launched to explicate sport’s contribution to wider social responsibilities
but also to prompt more detailed monitoring and evaluation (Norberg, 2011). The first of
the two programmes commissioned the SSC to open the doors to sports for more children
and youth, reduce participation fees, invest in girls’ sports activities, participate in the
battle against drugs, and intensify the cooperation with schools. For this purpose, the
government allocated SEK 250 million per year 2003–2007. Immediately following this
programme, another was launched in 2007, doubling the funds for another 4-year period
with the purpose of supporting sport in its continued effort to develop activities that
facilitate recruitment and retention of more children and youth.
Within this programme still ongoing, a project labelled Drive-In Sport, was launched
in 2010 (Riksidrottsförbundet, 2009). Resonating with the overall ambitions of the larger
programme, the project aimed to open the doors to sport for more children and youth
(13–20 years old) and serve as a means to recruit participants and leaders for regular club
activities. Described as an antithesis to conventional club sport activities (Stenling,
2014), the project urged sport clubs choosing to participate in the project to aid youth,
primarily so-called un-associated, in deprived residential areas to find alternatives, in
terms of physical activities, to rowdy behaviour during evenings and weekends. Under
Fahlén 503

the catch-phrase ‘organised spontaneous sports’ and the slogan ‘come as you are – when-
ever you feel like – do what you want – at no cost’, the participating clubs were meant to
arrange ‘drop-in’ sessions which require neither membership, pre-registration, nor regu-
lar participation. Additionally, the activities were meant to focus on what is conceived as
the intrinsic characteristics of non-competitive sports such as the joy of exercise and the
fun of playing games. Finally, the activities should prioritise participants’ wishes.
One of the clubs answering the call, mediated by one of the SSC’s regional exten-
sions, received SEK 200,000 in funding from the SSC and was supported by the local
authorities with SEK 1 million to finance a project coordinator. In the project description
formulated by officials within the local authority administration, the project was designed
to work towards risk areas with large ethnic and social segregation, low sport-participa-
tion rates, and youth-related weekend problems. The activities were meant to be attrac-
tive to as many youths as possible, both girls and boys, implying a wide variety of
activities allowing for great liberty of choice. The explicit goals of the activities were to:
create routines and working methods for sport clubs to continue the activities after the
project; increase the number of sport club members (ages 13–20) in the area; stimulate
girls and boys to continue their engagement in sport within or outside organised club
sport; develop the club’s regular activities; and decrease norm-breaking behaviour
among the participants. The project coordinator was expected to recruit and train young
local activity leaders to which prospective participants can relate. Importantly, project
activities were not supposed to compete with regular sport club activities; instead, they
were supposed to encourage participants to engage in such activities.

Methods
This paper utilises data from an evaluation (performed by the author) of the project
described in the preceding. Thus, no purposeful sampling was involved in selecting a
case for the purpose of this paper. However, by providing thick descriptions of the con-
text surrounding the activities under study, I hope to achieve transferability (Lincoln
and Guba, 1999) of the findings in this study to other contexts similar to the one
described in this paper. In addition, by providing detailed descriptions of the theoretical
points of departure employed and of the interpretations of data made, I hope to equip the
reader with analyses aiding interpretations of phenomena other than those presented in
this paper through pattern recognition (Larsson, 2009). As described in the case descrip-
tion and as will be shown throughout the paper, the project and activities under study
are very similar to the ones referred to in the introduction (Agergaard et al., 2015;
Donaldson et al., 2012; Hasselgård and Straume, 2015; Haudenhuyse et al., 2014; Kelly,
2011; May et al., 2013; Mutz and Baur, 2009; Reid, 2012; Simard et al., 2014; Skille,
2004, 2005, 2008, 2009; Skille and Waddington, 2006; Spaaij, 2009; Theeboom et al.,
2012; Thorpe, 2014) in the sense that are part of a national or local government initia-
tive to drive up participation in organised club sport by offering low threshold activities.
As such, it has potential to provide bases for analyses valid in other contexts (Afghanistan,
Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, England, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand,
Norway, Palestine, Scotland, United States, Wales and Zimbabwe) than the one under
study in this paper.
504 International Review for the Sociology of Sport 52(4)

The evaluation was commissioned to review the project vis-a-vis its goals (to open the
doors to sport for more children and youth (13–20 years old) and serve as a means to
recruit participants and leaders for regular club activities; to aid youth, primarily so-
called un-associated, in deprived residential areas to find alternatives, in terms of physi-
cal activities, to rowdy behaviour during evenings and weekends). For this purpose, data
were collected from three main sources: interviews with stakeholders, activity-leaders,
project coordinator, and participants; the project’s internal documentation; and observa-
tions of project activities. In order to avail for a sociological analysis of the data, the
overall research design was guided by previous findings in sport policy implementation
research pointing to the need for a focus on the actual activities carried out within the
project and on the experiences of the activity participants (as opposed to a focus on
the bodies responsible for issuing the policy in question, the cultural raw material of the
policy, the implementation process, or the organisations expected to implement it). More
specifically, it was guided by the theoretical ambition to understand the meaning of the
expectations placed on the individual participants by the context of the activities, the
activities themselves, leaders and other participants in relation to the embodied knowl-
edge required of the participants to meet them.

Data collection
In total, 14 interviews were conducted: 1 with the senior official at the SSC’s regional
extension mediating the project from SSC to the sport club; 1 with the senior official at
the local authority administration contributing the bulk of the project funds; 1 with the
senior official at the sport club being the official owner of the project; 1 with the senior
official at an adjacent youth recreation centre; 1 with the project coordinator; 4 with
activity leaders; and 5 with participants. The first four of these were chosen because they
represent the primary stakeholders of the project. Each of these representatives were
selected on their merits of being the senior official and as such were assumed to be the
ones with the most insight about and influence on the project. Activity leaders and par-
ticipants were randomly selected. The interviews were based on an interview guide
developed from project aims and slightly adjusted depending on the role of the respond-
ent in question. Thus the focus of each interview was in part affected by each respond-
ent’s own interest. For example, the interviews with participants were mostly geared
towards their motives for and experiences of participating, whereas the interviews with
senior officials at the local authority administration and youth recreation centre tended to
be more focussed on the context of the project. But they all had in common a specific
focus on explicit as well as more implicit or embedded expectations placed on the par-
ticipants in the sense that all respondents were asked questions about how they justified
or perceived (depending on type of respondent) the project’s marketing material, the
venues for activities chosen, the equipment brought to the sessions, the procedure for
deciding what activity to exercise, the climate permeating the sessions, the interplay
between participants and between participants and activity leaders. The interviews
ranged from 30 to 45 minutes, were digitally recorded, and were transcribed verbatim.
The documentation analysed was furnished by the project manager and consisted of the
project group’s minutes of meetings, marketing material, activity leaders’ job descriptions,
Fahlén 505

monthly activity reports, and attendance lists. The first three were analysed to discern the
context of the activities, whereas the last two corresponded to the purpose of constructing
data on the actual activities and the participants. Similar to the approach taken in the inter-
views, questions ‘asked’ to the written material were related to possible expectations on the
participants as ‘expressed’ in and by the project group’s minutes of meetings, marketing
material, activity leaders’ job descriptions. To the monthly activity reports, and attendance
lists specifically, questions were also asked in relation to possible embodied knowledge
required of the participants to meet the expectations communicated.
Project activities were observed on 10 occasions, each lasting approximately two
hours. The observations were guided by a protocol developed by Fahlén (2011), borrow-
ing from McKenzie and Cohen (2006) and McKenzie et al. (2006). Again, the approach
taken during the interviews and document analysis was employed in terms of ‘asking’
questions to the observation data relating to embedded expectations and embodied
knowledge. In particular, focus was directed at expectations – embedded as well as
explicit – mediated by the venue, the equipment, the procedure for deciding what activity
to exercise, the climate, the interplay between participants and between participants and
activity leaders. The main purpose of the observations, however, was to interrogate what
embodied knowledge that appeared to be required of the participants to meet the expecta-
tions. All participants were informed about the purpose of the observation and agreed to
participate. They were also informed about their right to interrupt their participation at
any time (Vetenskapsrådet, 1996).

Data analysis
Data from all sources were analysed in three steps. In the first step, data from interview
transcripts, documentation, and observation protocols were sorted according to their
relation to the research questions. Thus, owing to the theoretically driven character of the
research questions, the conceptual framework served as the first broad analytic frame in
the first step of the analysis (Miles and Huberman, 1994). In order to make data more
manageable and available for a general view, the concentration of meaning technique
was employed in a second step of the analysis (Kvale and Brinkmann, 2009). In a third
step, those concentrations were used to construct emergent codes within each of the theo-
retically themes/research questions. This procedure allowed me to distinguish implicit
expectations from explicit expectations, expectations from knowledge, the origins of the
expectations and if they were conveyed by several sources, the character of the knowl-
edge required and in what sense it appeared to relate to individual characteristics such as
gender, age, socio-economic background, and technical skills.

Results
The results of the case study are presented as follows. First, results related to the expecta-
tions placed on the individual participant by the context of activities, the activities them-
selves, leaders, and other participants (RQ1) are presented. Second, results related to the
embodied knowledge required of the participants to meet these expectations (RQ2) are
presented.
506 International Review for the Sociology of Sport 52(4)

Expectations of participation in club sport activities

Data indicate that the expectations placed on the participant by the context of the activi-
ties, are that he or she should be a non-member, represent an underrepresented social
group, be willing to be ushered in to a sport club membership, and participate in regular
sport club activities. This is particularly evident in the marketing material: ‘join the move-
ment’ (the sports movement, my remark) and ‘try out the sport of your choice’. The loca-
tions of the posters were also limited to areas labelled as risk areas. From the project’s
internal documentation, it is apparent that although the activities arranged within the pro-
ject should focus on the intrinsic characteristics of non-competitive sports such as the joy
of exercise and the fun of playing games (as opposed to the alleged focus on skill improve-
ment, competition and ranking in conventional sport activities), the ultimate aim of the
project is to stimulate participation in regular sport club activities. This aim is reflected in
the project group’s minutes of meeting, in which discussions about returns and dividends
are frequent. It is evident that some kind of tangible results are expected, preferably a high
number of participants with no or little previous experience of regular club sport activities
– recruited from social groups underrepresented in club sport statistics – finding their way
to regular club sport activities. Otherwise, it is claimed by the senior official at the local
authority administration, ‘there is no point in arranging these kinds of activities’. Since the
project is temporary by definition, with temporary funding, the argument made is that the
sport club acting as the official owner of the project and neighbouring sport clubs must
find ways of continuing the project activities after the end of the project. But since it is
thought of as unfair to expect new and specific activities targeting non-members of sport
clubs (straining sport clubs’ already strained leader and facility resources), it is more rea-
sonable to expect of them to welcome new participants (recruited from the Drive-In Sport
activities) to their existing activities. The senior official of the sport club explains: ‘it is
difficult to justify to our existing members that club resources are being poured into activ-
ities for non-members’.
Although the slogan of the project ‘come as you are – whenever you feel like – do
what you want – at no cost’ announces activities allowing for spontaneous engagement,
observations of the activities render a slightly different impression. As such, they create
an impression of Drive-In Sport activities as being more than just a gateway to regular
club sport activities – they appear very similar to actual club sport activities. First of all,
it appears difficult to attend ‘whenever you feel like’ when the realisation of activities is
conditioned by the number of participants showing up on time for the announced start of
the activities. Since a number of the scheduled occasions observed were cancelled with
references made to a lack of a sufficient number of participants, expectations on more
regular attendance and less ‘drive-in’ attendance are conveyed. Many prospective par-
ticipants were observed turning up some 30 minutes after the announced starting time,
only to find a locked door. When asking one of the activity leaders about the basis of the
decision to cancel one of the sessions, the answer given was: ‘the participants usually
attending the activities have not shown up…it is no use just sitting around waiting when
it is obvious that they have made other plans tonight’.
Data also suggest that the expectations placed on the participant by the actual activi-
ties, are that he or she should be familiar with the organising principles of club sport:
Fahlén 507

participation on a regular basis, on set times, preferably coordinated with other partici-
pants in order to gather a group large enough for division into two opposing teams in
playing matches. This is evident from the quotation above but also from observation data
showing how the activity leaders have difficulties starting activities when few partici-
pants have showed up. One of the activity leaders explains: ‘it is not so easy to get them
to do anything else than playing matches and as long as the group is too small to divide
into two teams they usually just fool around’.
To ‘do what you want’ appears difficult, at least for younger participants, less skilled
participants, and female participants. According to the monthly activity reports, activities
are characterised by ball games in general and football in particular. Only a few excep-
tions are mentioned, and given the fact that all 10 observed sessions contained ‘playing
football’ exclusively, the impression is that the exceptions were in fact exceptions. The
observed activities were dominated by more or less proper football matches between
teams made up of mainly teenage boys who were seemingly very proficient at the game
judging by their technical skills (passing, shooting, handling the ball), jargon (loud
appeals to team mates to ‘widen the defence’, go deep’ and ‘support XXX’), and clothing
(team jerseys, shin guards, proper football shoes).
The room for participant wishes, highlighted in the project description, seems to be
limited to choosing between participating or not, and in terms of choosing what activity
to do, to a very specific group of participants – the older teenage boys seemingly very
proficient at the game. Younger attendees, less skilled individuals, and girls in general
were observed participating on the outskirts of the ‘matches’ and in a more haphazard
manner, or as spectators. One of the participants makes a reflection on that procedure
during the interview: ‘You know that is it going to be football because XXX and XXX
are there and they always chose football’.
The impression of Drive-In Sport being almost identical to a conventional training
session is reinforced by the observation data showing the activity leaders’ occasional
exhortations (‘keep up the pressure’), tactical advice (‘show yourselves to the goal-
keeper’), and technical guidance (‘use the open spaces’). The impression of watching a
regular football practice is additionally reinforced by the equipment brought by the activ-
ity leaders – on all observed occasions more or less limited to a sack of footballs – which
in turn probably also has some implications for the participants’ possibilities to choose
from a wide variety of activities allowing for great liberty of choice. On a few occasions,
attempts were made by the activity leaders to differentiate activities in general and spe-
cifically for girls. However, since the number of female participants was deemed to be
too low, the attempted differentiation was abandoned. One of the activity leaders explains
the decision, ‘it is no use having two or three girls in a separate session or premise…you
can’t do anything in that small numbers. It is no fun for them either…it is better to
include them with the rest’.
Data from the interviews also propose that the expectations placed on the participant
by the activity leaders are that he or she should be prepared to take part in activities very
similar to a conventional football practice where the elements of competition, improve-
ments of skills, and complying with majority resolutions are vital components. In the
interviews, the activity leaders were given an opportunity to reflect on their role in avail-
ing for participants’ wishes, and all four agreed that it was difficult to simultaneously
508 International Review for the Sociology of Sport 52(4)

allow for majority resolutions and for individual choice. The most common result of
such a balancing act, they unanimously claimed, was that participants previously or still
engaged in club sport activities seemed to possess the strongest voices when deciding on
the activity of the day. The problem is, as one of the activity leaders put it: ‘I feel the
activities become defined in a way that can be very unattractive or downright frightening
for those not familiar with club sport activities’. However, when observing the activities,
it was evident how the activity leaders themselves also contributed to the definition of
activities by often being the ones deciding on the activity of the day, initiating matches,
and dividing teams.
Judging by the observations of the drive-in activities, the competitive and match-
oriented climate is intensified further by the composition of the group of participants
attending the activities, particularly by the group within the group dictating the char-
acter of the activities. Since the bulk of participants are very homogenous, it appears
difficult for attendees not belonging to the majority to have a place, voice opinions,
and influence the climate. The attendance lists (which were kept to measure the pro-
ject’s goal attainment, in spite of the seemingly paradoxical idea of keeping attendance
for drop-in activities) show that 96% of the attendees are boys, 68% are active sport
club members and have been so for 4 or 5 years on average. Of these, 69% are mem-
bers of a football club. Only 2% have never been a member of a sport club. Nearly half
of the attendees (44%) participate in sport club activities 2–3 times a week and 24% do
so on a daily basis. Besides sport club activities, 87% of the attendees are sport club
members engaged in self-organised sport activities. Almost half of them (44%) do so
on a daily basis, 23% do so 4-5 times a week, and 33% do so 2-3 times a week. The age
of the attendees spans from 10 to 22, with a mean age of 14,5. In sum, the expectations
placed on the participant by the group of participants are that he or she should be a
teenage boy who actively and frequently participates in sport club organised as well as
self-organised sport activities.

The embodied knowledge needed to meet the expectations

From the data presented, it is evident that most of the participants display the embodied
knowledge needed to meet the expectations conveyed by the context of activities (such
as the location and equipment), the activities themselves (mimicking regular football
practices), leaders (acting as regular football coaches), and other participants (acting as
team mates). For them, the activities provide almost a perfect match with their previous
experiences in club sport. The facilities used are similar to (if not the same as) those
used for the regular football practice in which many of them participate. The activities
are almost exclusively the same as those they participate in through their memberships
in sport clubs. In addition, the leaders act as coaches; the climate is competitive and
focussed on skill improvement; and most of the fellow participants appear to have simi-
lar experiences, wishes, skills, and ambitions, judging by the observation data. The
exception is the presence of expectations emanating from the context of the activities
(marketing material, the project group’s minutes of meetings and the activity leader’s
job descriptions) in which the participant was expected to be someone displaying char-
acteristics quite opposite to the ones shown by the majority of participants actually
Fahlén 509

participating in the activities. As such, the majority of the participants did not belong to
the target group of the project.
For those participants seemingly belonging to the pronounced target group – judging
by their technical skills (little or no awareness of basic technical operations such as a
throw-in or a kick-off), jargon (little or no awareness of the conventions and rules of the
game in question), and clothing (everyday clothes such as jeans and shirts, playing bare-
foot owing to lack of appropriate shoes) – and thereby meeting the expectations con-
veyed by the context of the activities, it appears more difficult to meet the expectations
placed on them by the actual activities, leaders, and other participants. For someone
previously not exposed to the organising principles of club sport activities, it appears to
be somewhat confusing to be faced with those in activities marketed as spontaneous,
based on individual choice, demanding no regular attendance, and focussing on the joy
of exercise and the fun of playing games. Observation data indicate that it is difficult for
them to match their embodied knowledge (or lack thereof) developed from assumed non-
or little participation in regular club sport activities with expectations demanding embod-
ied knowledge developed from sustained and active participation in both club-organised
and self-organised sport activities. One of the participants, eventually discontinuing his
participation in the activities, makes a reflection during the interview: ‘I thought it was
going to be more like just playing in the yard…not like a practice or a match…it is just
the same as when I played in XXX’ (a local football club, my remark).
As shown in the monthly activity reports and attendance lists, the minority of partici-
pants with little or no previous experiences from club sport activities decreases in size
over the two-year time frame of the project. Therefore, its possibilities to influence
choice of activities, level of ambition, and overall climate also seem to decrease since the
choice of activities, for example, is decided by majority vote. Over time, this in turn
appears to result in a homogenisation of the variety of activities, level of ambition, and
overall climate offered within the project. In the end, this homogenisation seems to fur-
ther decrease the possibilities for participants with less (or at least different) experiences
of participation in club sport activities to match their embodied knowledge with the col-
lected expectations conveyed by the project activities. The observed homogenisation
also appears to be influenced by the rather homogenous group of activity leaders. Almost
all activity leaders seem very familiar in the role of the traditional sport club coach and
act accordingly during the observations. In one of the interviews with activity leaders the
respondent describes how he was recruited to the project: ‘I have been assistant to the
coach in my team for two years so XXX (the project manager, my remark), who I knew
previously, asked me if I was interested in taking on more responsibility and lead some
drive-in sessions’.
The interviews with the participants provide support for that observation in that the
respondents assessed as belonging to the majority group of experienced participants
expressed wishes for more sessions, and more specifically designated football sessions.
One of them claims: ‘everyone wants to play football…I can’t understand why we have
to do this other stuff. Let those interested in floorball have their own sessions’. One of
the respondents assessed to belong to the minority group of less-experienced partici-
pants, on the other hand, expressed concerns for the uneven distribution of boys and
girls, the lack of more playful and less-structured activities, and the difficulties in
510 International Review for the Sociology of Sport 52(4)

exercising influence over the choice of activities. She explicates: ‘I think it would be
easier and more fun if more girls took part…it is hard being the only girl’.

Understanding the content of a sports-based intervention

relative to the previous experiences of the pronounced
recipients
Taken together, these observations suggest that expectations embedded in the context of
activities offered in sports-based interventions, the activities themselves, leaders, and
other participants seem to require a very specific embodied knowledge of the individual
participant. Arguably, this specific knowledge very much resembles the one expected of
participants in conventional club sport activities (cf. Stenling and Fahlén, 2014). Quite
similar to the findings provided by Skille (2005), the results thereby indicate that although
the project was designed to entice new groups to participate in sport, it rather provided
yet another venue for those already involved. Thereby it has, instead of challenging
dominant notions (cf. Kelly, 2011, and her discussion about ‘range of meanings’: 127) of
what sport ‘is’ and ‘can be’, contributed to the reproduction of preconceptions and, by
extension, of existing patterns of sport participation instead of supporting the formation
of new ones as aimed for. Importantly, dissociation from such activities is not to be
understood on an individual level but, as Tangen (2004b: 26) argues, on the basis of
‘social structures and processes that produce and maintain’ activities and interactions
(sport facility in Tangen’s paper).
With the purpose of producing knowledge that can inform an understanding of how
individuals encounter social expectations and how the abilities stored in their bodies
affect their willingness, or unwillingness, to take part in physical activities offered as part
of a sports-based intervention, the results presented in the preceding have shown how
results of efforts made to increase participation in organised sport not only ‘comes down
to the people who actually implement it’ (Lipsky, 1980: 8) but is also affected by a com-
bination of the expectations embedded in a sports-based intervention (in this case) and
the embodied knowledge of the pronounced recipients of that content (cf. Stenling and
Fahlén, 2014, for a similar discussion on the necessity of alignment between a policy’s
cultural material and a sport club’s organisational identity). But, as Tangen (2004b: 28)
notes, the context of the activities (markings, equipment and shelters in Tangen’s text)
‘indicate selectivity (original italics) with respect to which actions a particular sport
allows and demands’. As shown in the results, this selectivity is at work in the venues
selected for the sessions, the equipment brought, and the behaviour of the activity lead-
ers. ‘By means of communication “this” (football in this case, my remark) is actualised,
“that” (almost every other possible activity, my remark) is left out as a “possibility’”. By
selecting a specific venue for the activities and bringing a sack of footballs only, project
initiators and activity leaders create a differentiated and very specific social sub-system
in which certain behaviours are prescribed and other are more or less proscribed. In that
sense, the ‘hands of the implementers’ argument made by Lipsky (1980) is also valid.
It would seem that the previous experiences, or ‘embodied knowledge’ in Tangen’s
(2004a) words, of the participants of Drive-In Sport activities are key to the (non-)suc-
cess of the intervention vis-a-vis its ambitions to recruit un-associated youth to become
Fahlén 511

sport club members. However, as shown in the results, the experiences must be under-
stood in relation to the expectations conveyed by the activities designed to fulfil the
ambitions. It is in this respect that Tangen’s reasoning becomes particularly potent. By
directing focus at socially produced expectations in materialised forms (Luhmann, 1990)
and contextualising them in a sport setting, he makes it possible to zoom in on the very
essence of sport – that it is always contested and contingent on the preconceptions
attached to it. Regarding Drive-In Sport, this comes to the fore when comparing the vari-
ous expectations conveyed in the project on what sport is and should be with the possi-
bilities of the end-user to meet them. For example, as shown in the results when attempts
were made to differentiate the activities according to gender, sport is communicated as
not possible – or meaningful as Tangen (2004b) points out – if not a sufficient number of
participants is present. It does not matter if two or three girls (as in this case) are willing
to take part in a Drive-In Sport activity, since ‘the first distinction is drawn, ‘this is
sport’” (p. 31). Thus, playing football with only two or three people, as in this case, is
‘different’, ‘impossible’, and ‘outside the boundaries of the social system’ created by the
‘expectations’ generated by the ‘autopoietic system’ of football (Tangen, 2004b: 30).
All parties involved in the project exhibit, more or less explicitly, preconceptions con-
nected to their previous experiences of participating (or not) in sport activities. For some
of them, it seems as if these have developed when being faced with the expectations
conveyed in conventional club sport activities, whereas for others the preconceptions
seem to have been developed from never being faced with such activities or from dis-
sociating from activities where such expectations are conveyed. It is in this instance
when contrasts appear. Arguably, the group of participants with more experience and the
activity leaders have through their previous experiences in club sport developed their
identity into individuals doing sports. By continuous participation, they have developed
their skills and abilities – their embodied knowledge – and become good at sports. They
have been fostered to attach meaning to the binary code of the subsystem of sport: ‘win-
ning/losing’; to the secondary code ‘improvement/recession’; and to the operations of
‘quantification’, ‘calculation’, ‘verticalisation’, ‘standardisation’ and ‘disciplinisation’
(Tangen, 2004b: 37). Being good at sports seems to have increased their chances of
meeting the continuously increased expectations (verticalisation) associated with the
organising principles of club sport activities, and they thereby appear to have come to
enjoy not only sport but the very specific version of sport exercised in sport clubs via
practices, matches, cups, and tournaments. That is what sport seems to be to them, and
those are the preconceptions they seemingly bring to the Drive-In Sport sessions.
By contrast, it would seem that the group of participants with less or no experience –
the target group – have in a similar manner through their non-participation or discontin-
ued participation in sports developed their identity into individuals not doing sports.
Consequently, they have most probably not been able to develop the skills and abilities
– their embodied knowledge – necessary for meeting the expectations conveyed in the
version of sport exercised in Drive-In Sport. Apparently, despite their previous experi-
ences, they still seem to have the interest necessary for trying out Drive-In Sport (at least
sufficient for a few initial visits). Perhaps urged by the slogans and watchwords articu-
lated in the marketing material, they brought a very different preconception of what sport
could be to the Drive-In Sport sessions – at least it would seem so. As the latter group is
512 International Review for the Sociology of Sport 52(4)

in the minority, it appears to be more difficult for them to claim priority for their precon-
ceptions, especially when the activity leaders by majority vote or by authority give prec-
edence to the majority’s preconceptions. In this example, the activity leaders appear as
intermediaries of meaning, between the larger social system of sport and its sub-system
Drive-In/drop-in, low-threshold sport, in the sense that they act as ‘Ego’ expecting
‘Alter’ (the participants) to reciprocate in order to constitute the sub-system according to
the codes structuring the larger social system of sport (Tangen, 2004b: 29).
By that, traditional patterns of participation – such as the underrepresentation of girls
and the dominance of skilled participants – seem to be reproduced and supported by the
physical and gendered character of the activities predominant in conventional club sport
activities (cf., Messner, 2002, and Kay, 2003). As noted by Skille and Waddington
(2006), borrowing from Dunning (1999), (conventional) sport is an arena in which the
expression of masculine aggression, prowess, and physical power is legitimate. By
emphasising the participants’ liberty of choice in Drive-In Sport activities, common in
many sports-based interventions as noted by Kelly (2010), physical skills and power
appear to leave an even more preferential right of interpretation than in conventional
sport activities where leaders and more formal regulations are expected to regulate the
group’s relative strengths.
Fahlén (2011) makes a similar observation and notes that the often sought-after ele-
ment of liberty of choice tends to favour skilled and physically powerful participants at
the expense of their counterparts. In Drive-In Sport activities, this mechanism gives the
impression of excluding participants with little or no previous experience of club sport
activities – namely, younger participants and girls – and of not offering any substantial
alternative to the power relations associated with conventional sport. Thus, owing to the
corporal character of activities often offered in sports-based interventions, the non-
organised, participant-driven, and drop-in character of the activities can be counterpro-
ductive for the group that is often made a target in such ventures.
Spaaij (2009) claims that the character of football, in particular, adds to this effect
owing – to its elements of division, conflict, and aggression, and that as a result the
activities need to be modulated in terms of team compositions, rules, and general setup
to create an inclusive environment ‘in which both males and females, and both talented
and less talented players, ha[ve] the opportunity to develop social skills and relation-
ships’ (p. 92). Since no such efforts were observed in Drive-In Sport, it is inappropriate
to speculate about possible effects in this case. However, it points to the need for inves-
tigations of leader behaviour specifically. The results of this study, as those reported on
by Haudenhuyse et al. (2014) show that activity leaders are significant as intermediaries
and producers of implicit as well as explicit expectations, which future studies of sports-
based interventions need to consider.

Conclusion
Coming back to the initial aim of this paper – to show how the corporal character of
activities commonly provided in sports-based policy interventions has implications for
the results of policy implementation – the analyses have shown how expectations embed-
ded in such activities interact with experiences embodied by the participants and
Fahlén 513

combine in availing or restricting the possibilities for participation – thereby affecting

the outcome of policies for increased participation in organised sport.
In pursuing a more diversified understanding of the role of expectations and embod-
ied knowledge in sport participation in general and sports-based policy interventions in
particular future research would need to address one of the shortcomings of this study.
This shortcoming stems from a phenomenon similar to the one observed by Spaaij (2009)
and points to the importance of studying different types of sport activities. As argued by
Stenling and Fahlén (2014), generalising all sports as ‘sport’ has implications for our
understanding of sport policy implementation in general. Their argument is based on
observations of how one type of sport club can be very apt to respond to one specific type
of policy, while being neither ready, able, nor willing to deliver against the targets of
another type of policy. Transferred to the context of this paper, this would mean that we
cannot expect the same results from all types of sport activities in terms of their capacity
to recruit the so-called ‘previously un-associated youth’. In their study of socially vulner-
able young people in Flemish sport clubs, Haudenhuyse et al. (2014) sampled sports on
the basis of their ‘reputation of working with socially vulnerable youth’ (p. 183), which
resulted in less traditional sports such as jujitsu, Thai boxing, taekwondo, wushu, and
combat sambo. Although not drawing any specific conclusions connected to the specifics
of these sports, their study suggests that some sports more than others might be better
equipped to create the conditions called for by Spaaij (2009).
Although Luhmann would argue that all sports operate according to the binary code
of win/lose and that all regulating expectations – embedded and explicit – structure activ-
ities and behaviour accordingly, it can be argued – also with support from Luhmann –
that each and every specific form of sport require its own specific embodied knowledge
of the individual participant. Therefore, I urge future studies of sports-based interven-
tions to investigate the specific (if any) expectations embedded in different types of
activities and what possible specific embodied knowledge they require of the individual
participant. It might be helpful to think of different types of activities in terms of ‘parallel
competition’ sport activities (such as swimming, weight-lifting and figure skating which
can be performed without opponents) versus ‘opposition competition’ sport activities
(such as football, wrestling and tennis which require an opponent) in order to discern
similar as well as dissimilar results (Hjelm, 2010).

Funding
The author received financial support from the Swedish Sports Confederation; The Swedish
National Centre for Research in Sports; the local authority in which the project took place; and the
Umeå School of Sport Sciences, Umeå University for the research, authorship, and publication of
this article.

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