Sports cultures of young people with disabilities as challenges to the ideals of ability
Main Article Content
Keywords
young people, disabilities, ableism, youth sports cultures, adapted sports
Abstract
Exercise has remained one of the most popular hobbies for young people for decades, and the range of sports practiced today is very diverse. Some sports cultures are hybrids of youth culture, as they also include rules for listening to music and dressing, for example. Although hierarchies related to the sport's technical competence, ability and physical strength are typical in sporting communities, young people's cultures may be very flexible with these requirements. With regard to the physical activity of young people with disabilities, these questions are important, as the standards of physical fitness vary greatly in the physical activity of young people. The article examines the physical activity of young people with disabilities in the light of qualitative data from two research projects. The article asks how the prerequisites for the necessary technical skills and physical strength appear in young people's sports hobbies, and what significance they have in young people's sports cultures. The ethnographic observation and interview data will be analysed intersectionally, taking into account the characteristics of the sports hobbies of young people with mild intellectual disabilities and severe disabilities. Based on the theoretical discussion on ableism, the results of the analysis are considered from the point of view of the level of meanings at which physical ability determines young people's sports and physical activity, and what kind of position the sports cultures of young people with disabilities are formed in different assumptions of ability – or in spite of them. At the end of the article, the article offers a space to open up a discussion about alternative, anti-ableistic ways of thinking and acting, through which young people equally make their sports cultures meaningful.
References
Alasuutari, P. (2004). Social theory and human reality. Sage.
Armila, P., Rannikko, A., & Torvinen, P. (2017). Young people with intellectual disabilities and sport as a leisure activity: Notions from the Finnish welfare society. Leisure Studies, 37(3), 295–306. https://doi.org/10.1080/02614367.2017.1397184
Bakhtin, M. M. (1981). The dialogic imagination: Four essays. (M. Holquist, Ed., Trans., & C. Emerson, Trans.). University of Texas Press.
Campbell, F. K. (2009). Contours of ableism: The production of disability and abledness. Palgrave Macmillan.
Campbell, F. K. (2012). Stalking ableism: Using disability to expose “abled” narcissism. In D. Goodley, B. Hughes, & L. Davies (Eds.), Disability and social theory: New developments and directions (pp. 212–231. Palgrave Macmillan.
Eriksson, S. (2018): “Se on mulle tosi fiilisjuttu” – liikuntaharrastusten kulttuuriset ulottuvuudet” [“It's a real cool thing for me”—the cultural dimensions of physical activities]. In S. Eriksson, P. Armila, & A. Rannikko (Eds.), Vammaiset nuoret ja liikunta [Young people with disabilities and sports] (pp. 85–97). Publications on physical activities and public health 356. Jyväskylä: Finnish Foundation for the Promotion of Physical Activities and Public Health (LIKES).
Eriksson, S. (2023). Impact of art and sensory experiences in the physical activities of young people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities. In S. Prideaux, M. Sheikh, & A. Formby (Eds.), Crime, criminality and injustice: An interdisciplinary collection of revelations (pp. 135–50). Anthem Press.
Eriksson, S., Armila. P., & Rannikko, A. (2018). Vammaiset nuoret ja liikunta [Young people with disabilities and sports]. Publications on physical activities and public health 356. Jyväskylä: Finnish Foundation for the Promotion of Physical Activities and Public Health (LIKES).
Eriksson, S., & Saukkonen, E. (2021). Rehabilitation or leisure? Physical exercise in the practice of physiotherapy with young persons with profound and multiple disabilities. Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research, 23(1), 295–304. https://doi.org/10.16993/sjdr.795
Eriksson, S. & Saukkonen, E. (2022). Vaikeimmin vammaisten nuorten liikunnallinen osallisuus. [Young people with profound and multiple disabilities and participation in sports]. Finnish Youth Research Society/Finnish Youth Research Network, Publications 241. Finnish Youth Research Society.
Fairclough, N., (1992). Discourse and social change. Wiley-Blackwell.
Foucault, M., (1975). The birth of the clinic. An archaeology of medical perception. Vintage/Random House.
Hakanen, T., Myllyniemi, S., & Salasuo, M. (2019). Takuulla liikuntaa. Kyselytutkimus toimintarajoitteisten lasten ja nuorten vapaa-ajasta ja liikunnasta. [Physical activity guaranteed. Survey of participation in physical activity and sport and the leisure time of children and young people with disabilities.] Finnish Youth Research Society/Youth Research Network 142. Finnish Youth Research Society. https://www.liikuntaneuvosto.fi/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Takuulla_liikuntaa_Verkkojulkaisu_020619.pdf
Hall, S., Herkman, J., & Lehtonen, M. (1999). Identiteetti / Stuart Hall; transl. and eds. Mikko Lehtonen and Juha Herkman. Vastapaino.
https://helka.helsinki.fi/permalink/358UOH_INST/1a9ac4k/alma9913570323506253
Itkonen, H., & Salmikangas, A.-K. (2015). The changing roles of public, civic and private sectors in Finnish sports culture. Viesoji politika ir administravimas, 14(4), 545–556. https://doi.org/10.13165/VPA-15-14-4-04
Jokinen, A., Huttunen, L., & Kulmala, A. (2004). Puhua vastaan ja vaieta. Neuvottelu kulttuurisista marginaaleista. [To speak counter and be silenced. Negotiation of cultural margins]. Gaudeamus.
Jokinen, A., Juhila, K., & Suoninen, E. (2016). Diskurssianalyysi: Teoria, keskeiset käsitteet ja käyttö. [Discourse analysis: Theories, basic concepts and use.] Vastapaino.
Kuppers, P. (2011). Disability culture and community performance. Find a strange and twisted shape. Palgrave Macmillan.
Latour, B. (1993). We have never been modern. (C. Porter, Trans.). Harvard University Press. (Original work published 1991).
LTS: Applied physical education. (n.d.). Applied physical activities - Finnish Society of Sport Sciences.
Salasuo, M., Piispa, M., & Huhta, H. (2016). Exceptional life-courses – elite athletes and successful artists in 2000s Finland. Finnish Youth Research Society's Publications 177, internet publications 97. Finnish Youth Research Society. https://nuorisotutkimus.fi/julkaisut/nuorisotutkimusseuran-julkaisut/exceptional-life-courses/
Sandahl, C. & Auslander, P. (2005). Introduction: Disability studies in commotion with performance studies. In C. Sandahl & P. Auslander (Eds.). Bodies in commotion: Disability and performance (pp. 1-11). University of Michigan Press.
Article Sidebar
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
RDS Journal is an open-access journal, create a free account to read full articles and to submit a proposal. For visual arts and multimedia, submission will be considered evidence that you are offering RDS the right to display your work without penalty, compensation or royalties.
Susan Eriksson, South Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences
Susan Eriksson is PhD in social sciences and works as a senior researcher at Juvenia Youth Research and Development Unit in South Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences. Her main fields of expertise are youth, disability, working-life, and cultural and leisure studies.