Conference Agenda

During the last decades there has been a growing interest in issues concerning children’s rights in sport, and problems that concern the welfare and well-being of youth in sport have been addressed. Research acknowledges for example the role of overtraining, sexual and emotional abuse, burnout and dropout (David, 2005; Donnelly, 2008; UNICEF, 2010). One aspect that is less studied but nevertheless has been pointed out as an important factor that may prevent many violations, is to secure that youth always have a voice i.e., to guarantee that they can exercise their participation right This endeavor is tantamount to the intentions in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). It concerns the child's right to express his or her views in all matters that concern them. A child is regarded a person up to 18 years of age which means that the convention also covers those we usually call youth.

In this study, we are inspired by Elvstrand (2009) who acknowledges that participation is part of the concept of democracy and thereby has a broad meaning that includes both the right to influence and the right to be included. In that sense, we assume that it is possible to distinguish between different forms of participation – a political form and a social form. Political participation is about the right to influence, to have "a voice", and to be part of decision-makings. For this to be possible, young people need information, be asked, and encouraged to comment and be listened to. In other words, young people should be included in such a way that the practice can be designed to suit their needs and desires). Social participation is about the right to be included and part of a community, for example to be part of sporting activities carried out in a club. We are thus seeing the concept of participation both as a social right (to be a part of a group, such as a gymnastic or ice hockey club) and as a political right (to have an impact and the power to influence decisions).

One premise for this study is that having something to say about one’s participation is closely related to whether the participants are primarily constructed as subjects of experience and willingness, or as objects of external forces and demands, and this is in turn affected by norms and values that dominate different sporting practices. We are thus interested in illuminating young peoples’ chances to be subjects in their own thinking and acting when participating in movement cultures of various kinds. Consequently, both young participants and adult coaches are regarded as socio-culturally situated.

The aim of this study is to examine young athletes' perspectives on different forms of participation and to analyse the conditions for competitive sports participation in club sport. Central questions are: What experiences do young athletes have of social and political participation in club sport? What are the possibilities in general for young athletes to have something to say about central matters, such as goal settings, training frequency, training content, selections, tactics, and team rules?

The Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is fundamental to the well-being and development of children and youth. One of the essential parts of the UNCRC is article 12 that stipulates: "All children shall have the opportunity to make their voices heard on matters relating to them, taking into account age and maturity" (UN, 1989). Article 12 requires that the child should have the possibility to take an active part in the exercise of the rights and participation is therefore a fundamental issue even if the word itself is not explicitly used. In sport, which is an important part of life for many young people, almost no attention has been given to youth voices and participation rights. Although the implementation of human rights issues in general is a growing field within sport (David, 2005; Donnelly, 2008; Sinohara, 2020), Lang (2022) points out that hardly anything is known about the views of young athletes or whether their voices are genuinely incorporated into sporting practice. In fact, the voices of young athletes are still largely unheard (Lang, 2022; UNICEF, 2011).

Equestrian sport is one of the largest youth sports in Sweden and according to the Swedish Equestrian Federation is more than half of the members of the country's equestrian clubs under the age of 26 years. As many as 150,000 young people ride at some point every year (Swedish Equestrian Federation, 2020). The context within equestrian sport provides opportunities to interact with others and take care of horses which have proved to cultivate several leadership-skills (Forsberg & Tebelius, 2011). In connection with #metoo, however, negative experiences from young equestrian girls have become public. This has included stories of exploitation by adults who had the power to decide who would gain advantages in the stable, such as riding the best horse, take part in competitions or receiving other sought-after benefits (#visparkarbakut, 2017). Today, five years later, such stories are still being told and spread (Aftonbladet, 2022; Dagens Nyheter, 2022). Both emotional and sexual abuse are voiced. The situation is thus paradoxical: equestrianism seems to provide a sporting environment that is empowering and fosters young girls to become leaders, but it is also a place where hierarchies and a culture of silence seem to prevail. More knowledge is needed about the conditions that enable young equestrians to exercise their participation rights and have a voice within the sport.

The objectives in this presentation are to describe how young equestrians perceive their possibilities to have a voice. The theoretical frame to analyze this is from a sociocultural perspective and the notion that participation is not either or but exists on a continuum (Hart, 1992; 2008). We see human actions as situated in social practices and consider that young equestrians as well as riding instructors and coaches act on the basis of their own knowledge and experience and according to what they consciously or unconsciously perceive is required, permitted or possible (Säljö, 2014). The participation can be seen both from a social (the right to take part and be included) and a political (the right to influence and have ‘a voice’) perspective (Thomas, 2007; Elvstrand, 2009; Redelius & Eliasson, 2022).

Research has been showing the importance of sport in society, stressing its role in promoting citizenship (ActiveVoice, 2008), volunteering, and social values (Health Promotion & Improvement Department of the HSE, 2012; Sport and Citizenship, 2018). In this vein, the integration of children and young people in sports contexts has been increasing, not only due to its potential of enhancing health and well-being, but also of fostering personal and social development connected to civic participation. Concretely, sports practice has been widely associated with the development of psychosocial and educational competences that often translate into civic behaviors attitudes: cooperation, leadership, critical awareness, responsibility, decision-making (Hellison & Martinek, 2009; Torralba, 2017). Existing studies report changes at (i) the individual level (eg, collaborative work and interpersonal skills); (ii) the pedagogy practices (teaching/training programs designed to instigate e.g., self-efficacy, leadership, and teamwork); and (iii) the social dimensions (interventions with groups at risk of socio-educational exclusion, related to e.g., absenteeism, school dropout, and addictive behaviors) (Lerner et al., 2006). Despite the range of evidence relating sports with psychological, social and educational competences, research remains rather opaque concerning the collective and political effects of youth involvement in sports. In other words, a community-level perspective and a link between individual competences and democratic citizenship practices are lacking. These are shortcomings that this presentation aims at address. Even though the development of programs based on sport reinforce the idea that integration in sports teams and contexts promotes individual and collective empowerment (García-Arjona, 2017; Lerner et al., 2006), these benefits have not been yet recognized, neither in research, not in public policies (Fernández Marrón, 2017; Hellison & Martinek, 2009). Therefore, drawing on studies emphasizing the importance of educational and community synergies in fostering political involvement and democratic citizenship (Lawy & Biesta, 2006), it is crucial a close-up investigation exploring how the dynamics of sports contexts promote democratic and participatory experiences for each young athlete (Schaillée et al., 2019), and how the development of these skills can be related to civic and political participation in the community, namely when referring to the sense of belonging and inclusion of all citizens (García-Arjona, 2017). This is even more relevant if we consider, on the one hand, the political pleas for promoting youth democratic engagement as remedy to avoid the expansion of populist and radicalist agendas, and, on the other hand, the adultist trends that still pervade many international projects that are neither led by youth nor anchored in true partnership between children and young athletes.

The fundamental role of youth civic and political participation for healthy democracies has been repeatedly stressed and vastly explored, reporting the emergence of unconventional forms of participation, more fluid and less institutional (Malafaia et al., 2021). Sport has been included in these new forms of participation, as evidenced by the growing number of youth development interventions based on sport and grinded on principles of inclusion and participation (Petitpas et al., 2005).

The central purpose of our study is to understand how sports can be a catalyst context of activism by contributing to the development of young athletes as citizens committed to build inclusive societies. In particular, the study seeks to: a) explore the potential of sport to promote socio-educational outcomes linked to the development of civic/political skills and democratic citizenship; b) instigate the participation of athletes in the development of actions in/with the community by increasing their sense of belonging and levels of participation; c) equip youth with activist tools to promote social and political change in their communities.