Club academy and football talent development in South Africa: a contextual perspective

Based on bioecological and cultural historical approaches, the aims of this study were to identify and explore ecological factors influencing the environment’s success in developing talented male football players, to identify and explore ecological conditions associated with becoming a professional football player, and to present a qualitatively derived ecological framework of the environmental conditions associated with becoming a professional football player. It followed a shift in research attention from the individual athlete to the environment in which he or she develops. A cultural praxis framework was adopted as a guiding principle and a single case study was used as a methodological approach. A successful talent development environment was the case under study, from which 17 participants were approached for data collection. The participants numbered ten young talented footballers, five of their parents and two of their coaches. Data was collected via individual open-ended and semi-structured interviews which were supplemented through unstructured observations, transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis with the focus on positive factors congruent with successful developmental outcomes. The results revealed how the developing players as active participants in their talent development process interacted with contextual factors associated with successful talent development and outline. Based on the data analysis, an empirical conceptual framework of factors playing a role in talent development is proposed.

Building male communities for better health through The Sons of the West.

Men in the western regions of Victoria have some of the poorest health metrics (social, physical, mental) in the state. Contemporary research attributes this gap to a lack of appealing programs to engage certain men who consider health promotion initiatives as unpalatable. Hard to reach men are theorised to highly conform to masculine norms resulting in an aversion to health promotion as it conflicts with cultural ideals.
The Sons of the West (SOTW) is a health program delivered under the brand of a professional football club. The Western Bulldogs Community Foundation collaborate with local communities and councils to deliver a 10-week program consisting of a one-hour health seminar and one-hour physical activity session. Using a pre-post design, health behaviour change in 450 SOTW participants was evaluated. Questionnaires were completed by diverse groups of men across the western regions of Victoria. Additionally, focus groups were conducted to explore the complex phenomenon of men’s health behaviour change and how men negotiate their masculine identity to engage in positive health behaviours.
Results indicated the SOTW program significantly increased physical activity, exercising in the community, and accessing health services. Confidence to engage in a wide variety of health behaviours significantly increased. These include nutrition, exercise, health check-ups, seeing a psychologist, socialising, emotional expression, self-care, and engaging in community activities. Anxiety and depression had also significantly decreased. Finally, several aspects of men’s conformity to masculine norms had significantly decreased and were further explored through focus group interviews. These norms include emotional inexpression, control and self-reliance.
The SOTW program helps men to socially connect and engage in the community, to renegotiate health beliefs, and engage in positive health behaviours; it provides an effective tool to challenge male isolation and conformity to masculine norms.

Sport as a pathway to Māori sovereignty

For Māori, as the indigenous peoples of New Zealand, sport is one of those few spaces in settler society where success can be found. For Māori however, engaging these sporting environments often means assimilating into the dominant settler society ideologies and norms of the dominant Pākehā (British/European) culture. The cultural norms of sporting organizations can unconsciously and consciously compromise the Māori sense of self and flourishing. This presentation will reflect upon findings from my Masters’ thesis which is explores how whānau (Māori families) are reinterpreting mainstream sports like rugby league, to achieve mana motuhake (Māori self-determination). I will discuss how participation in rugby league, as a mainstream sport, can be culturally reoriented to reflect Māori ways of being and knowing, to allow Māori cultural aspirations to come to fruition, as a pathway to health and wellbeing. My Masters thesis is situated within a Māori organization, Tātai Ora, who works alongside Māori whānau (families) within sporting environments. I am using narrative inquiry, participant observation, photo voice/elicitation, and auto-ethnography, all informed by a kaupapa Māori research theory.

Sports spaces as sites for multiculturalism

Multiculturalism and the management of diversity are of growing personal and political importance due to changing demographic urban settings. This presentation discusses ethnographic data and describes how people in the City of Maribyrnong, Melbourne, engage with ethnic and cultural diversity through sports participation. The neighbourhood (semi)public sites selected for this research represent the wide range of sports activities organised in this area: community clubs, gyms/boxing clubs, local city council activities, and informal/self-organised sport activities. The aim of this study is twofold. Firstly, following a human geography approach, I ask who uses which sports spaces and how potential intercultural encounters play out. Secondly, using an everyday multiculturalism approach, I explore how and to what extent everyday face-to-face interactions in sports spaces form a basis for identity construction and experiences of (local) belonging. This research ultimately aims at further developing the sociology of the spatiality of sporting bodies in highly diverse urban areas.