A Clash of Cultures? Working with Socially Vulnerable Young People in Sports Clubs in Flanders (Belgium)

Introduction
Over the past two decades, sport has been increasingly regarded as a useful means of working with socially vulnerable groups in Flanders (the Dutch speaking Northern part of Belgium). Moreover, policy makers have high expectations of sports in bringing people from diverse (sub)cultural backgrounds in contact with each other on the one hand and in providing people with opportunities to strengthen their personal development and societal position on the other hand. However, sports are often uncritically assumed to fulfil these high expectations automatically, because of the belief that sport is 'inherently good'. But as indicated by Coalter (2007), if sport is to have the supposed impact, certain conditions need to be taken into account.
Looking at the Flemish context, there are more than 25,000 sports clubs making up for one and a half million members all together (Vanhoutte, 2007). Recent sports participation figures indicate that in Flanders three out of four youngsters (aged 10-17) are involved in at least one sport (Scheerder et al., 2011). Vanhoutte (2007) indicated that in comparison to most other socio-cultural practices (e.g., youth organisations and programmes), sport-based initiatives are more capable in reaching youngsters regardless of their socio-economic background. Sports seem to have an intrinsic attraction to youngsters, which offers a highly accessible opportunity to work with them. But despite limited available data on the sports participation degree of socially vulnerable youth, it is often stated that this youth is rarely involved in club organised sports.
But despite the prominent position of sports clubs in Flemish sports policy, the relationship between socially vulnerable youth and sports clubs in Flanders is hardly ever the subject of research. The 'sport for integration' discourse in Flanders often stays limited to roaring policy statements or abstract principles. It rarely looks at concrete experiences of the targeted youth, sports clubs representatives and those directly working with this youth in a sports context. For example, although one third of the sports clubs in Flanders has a specific youth policy (Scheerder, 2010), there is little attention for young people in socially vulnerable positions. As in youth work, there exist quite a few barriers relating to cost price, information, trust, feeling of belonging, enrolment policy, mobility, language, ... It seems that the organisational culture of most sports clubs collides with the identity and/or personal background of most of these socially vulnerable youngsters. While, as a result of these barriers, in most cases socially vulnerable youth is involved to a lesser extent in club organised sport compared to other youth, there are sports clubs in Flanders that do succeed in reaching these youngsters. Within these sports clubs we often find youth from diverse backgrounds (ethnic, religious, (sub)cultural, socio-economic, etc.). While this diversity provides youngsters opportunities to enlarge their social network, it can also lead to conflicts and tensions.
Consequently, these clubs are not only confronted with challenges related to financial and organisational aspects, they also face difficulties with regard to pedagogical/coaching approaches as most of them heavily rely on (untrained) volunteers with limited insight into the specific situation of socially vulnerable youth. As a result, this leads to misunderstandings, communication problems and hasty and/or even overheated reactions.

Purpose of the paper
The purpose of this paper is twofold.
First, it will focus on the question to what extent club organised sports is made accessible, available, affordable and understandable for socially vulnerable youngsters (Claeys et al., 2002). From the figures we can deduce that sports clubs have a certain attraction for young people, but for some groups cultural barriers seem to exist. In this regard, the paper investigates whether the 'club culture' clashes with the culture of socially vulnerable youth (is there indeed a 'cultural gap'; to what extent is the sport club culture adapted to the needs of these specific youngsters?).
Second, the paper also wants to look more closely at the encounters between socially vulnerable youngsters within sports clubs. Sports clubs that attract socially vulnerable youth often have of a mix of youngsters with diverse backgrounds. This paper examines how these socially vulnerable youngsters themselves experience various differences between each other. And how this relates to the guidance approaches within the sports club.

Method
The research method consists of two components: socially vulnerable youngsters and privileged witnesses (i.e., sport coaches and club managers). The youngsters were questioned face-to-face via semi-structured questionnaires. In total, 50 youngsters from 15 sports club settings were questioned. In addition, 13 privileged witnesses were questioned on club/organisation level.


References
Claeys, A., Van Duffel, K., Schillemans, L., Bouverne-De Bie, M. & Wildemeersch. D. (2002). Onderzoeksrapport 'Lokaal jeugdbeleid in ontwikkeling.' Gent/Leuven: UGent en KULeuven.
Coalter, F. (2007). A wider social role for sport. Who's keeping the score? London: Routledge.
Scheerder, J. (2010). Sport, sociale stratificatie en sociale mobiliteit. Beweging op de sportvelden. Sociologie Magazine, 18(2), 26-29.
Vanhoutte, B. (2007). Doe je mee? Jongeren en participatie aan het verenigingsleven. In N. Vettenburg, M. Elchardus & L. Walgrave (eds.), Jongeren in cijfers en letters. Bevindingen uit de JOP-monitor 1. (pp.175-187). Leuven: Lannoo.