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Sport as a Vehicle for Social Mobility and Regulation of Disadvantaged Urban Youth

Lessons from Rotterdam

La Trobe University, Australia and University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, r.spaaij{at}latrobe.edu.au

This article addresses sport's contribution to social mobility of disadvantaged urban youth through an analysis of the Sport Steward Program in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Sport-based social intervention programs are conceptualized as potential vehicles for the creation of different forms of capital from which certain benefits can be derived that enable social agents to improve their social position. While the Sport Steward Program has contributed to objective and subjective social mobility of some participants, in most cases it is more suitable to highlight the relatively modest increases in participants' cultural, social and/or economic capital. However, rather than simply enhancing individual freedom and opportunity, sport-based intervention programs also serve as a form of social control and regulation. Sport is increasingly becoming a substantial aspect of the neoliberal policy repertoire of cities like Rotterdam aimed at generating social order in disadvantaged inner-city neighbourhoods.

Key Words: disadvantaged youth • regulation • social mobility • the Netherlands • urban regeneration

International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Vol. 44, No. 2-3, 247-264 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1012690209338415


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