Thought-provoking and solid, but in need of decolonial reflection

Comfort Ankunda¹ and Robert Menge^2
1 Dept of Sport Sciences, Malmö University; ² Umeå University

We will open this review by asking a question: Does sport risk losing its “sportness” whilst pursuing non-sport roles? The hope and expectation that sport ought to offer much more than itself is held in most welfare states where neo-liberal governing technologies such as New Public Management are popular. In the face of growing social inequality, exclusion, segregation, and crime, the sports sector is being pressured to contribute towards tackling these social problems. As a result, several sport-based social initiatives have sprung up targeting different yet related social objectives. Ekholm and Dahlstedt (2023), in their book Sport as social policy: Midnight football and the governing of society offer various discourses surrounding such interventions by taking Sweden and specifically the “Midnight Football” sport-based interventions in two anonymized suburban neighborhoods as points of departure. The book relies on conceptual and theoretical frameworks by Foucault (1972) and Rose (1999), as well as social work concepts, to highlight the different discourses, rationalities, practices, and techniques governing Midnight Football.

Chapter 1 delves into the relationship between sports and social policy, highlighting the tensions between sports and social issues. It examines the historical and contemporary context of sports-based interventions, power dynamics, and discourses surrounding sports’ use in social policy, shedding light on the various perspectives and approaches in this field. Chapter 2 explores six sports-based interventions from different countries, focusing on their socio-political purposes, arrangements, objectives, and theoretical underpinnings. It examines the rationality and instrumentality of sport in these programs, their impact on disadvantaged youth, and their role in social reformation. The chapter also discusses institutionalization, stakeholders, practitioners, and the complexities of governing social policy through sports-based interventions.

Chapter 3 explores “Midnight Football,” a sport-based intervention in Sweden targeting immigrant youth, aiming to promote integration, social inclusion, crime prevention, and employment in the two anonymized cities of Västerort and Österort. These contexts and the sport-based intervention discussed here form the basis for all subsequent discussions. Chapter 4 explores the physical and discursive setting where Midnight Football and its participants and operators exist. The urban periphery is presented as socio-economically disadvantaged, geographically separated, with high crime rates and thus in need of integration and social reformation, hoped to be achieved through Midnight Football. Chapter 5 discusses civil society’s role in welfare states’ social policy, emphasizing cross-sector collaboration between civil society and the public sector. Civil society experiences ethical dilemmas and tensions between having control and maintaining autonomy in governing Midnight Football.

Midnight Football, a program targeting at-risk youth, aims to divert them from risky behaviors and promote social reformation.

Chapter 6 explores neo-philanthropy, focusing on support for Midnight Football by neo-philanthropists aiming to contribute positively to society. Christian imagery is used to portray financial support as guided by a strong will. Managers and coaches play a pastoral role as missionaries guiding vulnerable youth through football as a salvation path. Chapter 7 explores social control in open spaces, focusing on young people, coaches, and agencies. It highlights the shift from traditional to modern forms of control, emphasizing the involvement of multiple agencies. Midnight Football, a program targeting at-risk youth, aims to divert them from risky behaviors and promote social reformation. This decentralized form of social control involves police, social services, and schools involved in observing and influencing young people’s behavior. Visits and surveillance from these professions, unfortunately, achieve paradoxical results instead of fostering trustful relationships.

Chapter 8 discusses the complex topic of integration, highlighting that it has been largely associated with one-sided and normative notions of othering and negative portrayals of immigrants. The chapter analyzes integration within and beyond racialized social groups, in the urban periphery vis-a-vis Midnight Football. The football intervention is believed to foster the socialization and acculturation of immigrant youth, enabling them to form, and preferably, bridging social connections. Chapter 9 on modelling explores community relations, socio-pedagogy, and the influence of coaches and managers on young people involved in Midnight Football. It highlights the importance of authenticity, shared experiences, community relations, and male bonding in sports settings but seems to overlook concerns about coaches with criminal backgrounds being exemplary. Although they are perceived as reformed individuals who are best suited for guiding young people to make better choices, they may encounter challenges in establishing credibility and trust.

Chapter 10 on discipline discusses the importance of clear rules and norms in fostering discipline among young individuals in Midnight Football. It highlights the use of repressive power through sanctions to maintain order and guide behavior, promoting rule internalization and self-regulation, thus shaping young people’s conduct. Chapter 11 discusses empowerment, which involves Midnight Football participants being facilitated by coaches and managers in achieving personal responsibility, self-awareness, making informed choices, and taking control of their own lives. Chapter 12 on Desire explores the motivations behind young people’s participation in Midnight Football. These motivations are two-fold, focusing on the intrinsic value and social benefits of football anticipated to spill-over to non-football contexts. Some researchers (Koopmans & Doidge, 2022) have warned against overlooking the intrinsic value of sport while overfocusing on its instrumental utility which involves “exploiting” the participants’ love for the game to achieve non-sport goals, a defining characteristic of Sport for Development interventions (Coalter, 2013; Hayhurst, 2014a; McSweeney, 2023).

Chapter 13 offers conclusions where the authors summarize and harmonize the main discourses highlighted in the book. The chapter re-emphasizes the instrumentality of sport and the analysis of Midnight Football as a social intervention, focusing on its governmental rationality and impact on urban peripheries, particularly on (racialized) young people. The chapter re-emphasizes the complexities of problem structuring, the moral dimensions of governance, and the role of sport in social policy. Midnight Football is summatively analyzed as targeting various problematizations framed around an interplay between the self, the community, and the urban periphery.

The book contributes to the link between sport, social work, and social policy, addressing contemporary issues and discourses, particularly in the context of heightened immigration and nativism. It is also relevant for international audiences although those from Global South contexts could have related more to the book had it referred to the Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) and social entrepreneurship perspectives (Hayhurst, 2014; McSweeney, 2023; Peterson et al., 2024). The book suggests that Midnight Football and similar sport-based interventions exhibit characteristics of social entrepreneurship, such as inter-sectoral collaboration and a focus beyond the intrinsic value of sport, which is a defining feature of SDP programs. However, the authors only occasionally reference these concepts in the book. A more in-depth analysis of Midnight Football using the SDP and social entrepreneurship frameworks could have made the analyses more relatable for international readers. Additionally, including examples of sport-based interventions from less-developed contexts in Africa and Asia would have been beneficial. Also, a more comprehensive reflection throughout the book on the sport-based social interventions discussed at the beginning of the book would have provided broader insights and comparisons of related interventions in different social contexts.

Also, the authors’ overreliance on Foucault (1972) and Rose (1993) possibly limited their reference to alternative relevant theoretical and conceptual frameworks – as also noted by Ugolotti (2024) in his review of this book. Ugolotti also commented on the book’s lack of discussion of neo-liberal reforms that characterize social policy and welfare governance in developed countries like Sweden. We similarly think that a discussion of for instance New Public Management (NPM) would have offered a broader placement and understanding of the instrumental use of sport as a tool for governing social policy and welfare. Some of the interventions presented in the book, including Midnight Football and the Vencer program in Brazil point to sport as a tool for harnessing social capital. Reference to social capital theories in analyzing the usefulness and contributions of these programs would have offered more nuanced perspectives.

Could there be a risk of over-focusing on the social benefit of sport (Sport for Development) at the expense of its intrinsic value (Sport Development)?

Nevertheless, the book’s ethnographic methodologies provide a clear understanding of the discussed project, making it accessible even to readers unfamiliar with football or Swedish society. The detailed descriptions and use of field notes offer a vivid picture of the Midnight Football activities, making the book valuable for teaching research methods. However, the methodology may have limitations, particularly regarding the researchers’ position as outsiders (white Swedish men) in an immigrant-dominated neighborhood. The authors did not reflect on their role and risked being interpreted as a form of surveillance and control, thus highlighting power dynamics in the research and practice of Midnight Football. To address this, we suggest decolonial and participatory methods in future research on sport-based projects to facilitate power redistribution among researchers and study participants.

The book also features an analytical but not highly critical discussion, with the authors maintaining a neutral voice throughout the chapters. Moreover, the language used in certain parts of the book may risk reinforcing exclusion, vulnerability, and disadvantage. For example, when describing the urban periphery and the benefits of football participation, there is a biased assumption that immigrant youth have no prior value systems or knowledge of human rights but “learn to cooperate, to be social, empathetic and emotional” (p.130-131) from their participation in Midnight Football. The authors repeat interview quotations without reflecting on the language used. The book could therefore perhaps have benefited from a decolonial praxis and critical discourse (see for example Mashreghi, 2021; Spencer & Charlsey, 2021). The book also inadequately addresses the gender imbalance within sport-based interventions like Midnight Football. Although the authors briefly mention the lower participation of girls in Chapter 3, this discussion is not continued elsewhere in the book. Additionally, the objectification of girls during male bonding conversations between male coaches and participating boys is overlooked. Future researchers are encouraged to explore the underrepresentation of girls and women in sport-based interventions and engage in critical discussions about this gender imbalance prevalent in the sporting world in Sweden and other countries (Centrum för Idrottsforskning, 2019). The book also overlooks important issues such as competition in Midnight Football. Exploring how competition affects group dynamics and the formation of social relationships in sport-based interventions would be a valuable area for further investigation.

The authors’ somewhat neutral style of analysis left us with various unanswered questions. Returning to the issue we raised at the beginning of this review about sport risking losing itself while trying to solve non-sport issues, we raise the question: How much non-sport work should sport do? Football is portrayed as playing a twofold role in the chapter on Desire and in the significant part of the book, namely the intrinsic value and the social benefits of football. Could there be a risk of over-focusing on the social benefit of sport (Sport for Development) at the expense of its intrinsic value (Sport Development)? Will over-instrumentalization of sport cost or is it already costing it? What then needs to be done to maximize both the intrinsic and the social value of sport?  More critical discussions on such issues and practical suggestions for solving this theoretical and methodological quandary are still necessary.

We applaud the author’s effort in writing this book and especially their contribution to the relationship between social work and sport, which we are keenly interested in. Mickelsson (2023) also contributes to this relationship. Overall, the book offers a thought-provoking analysis and a solid point of reference for social policy discourse, practice, research, and teaching at different academic levels, thanks to its easy readability, clear structure, extensive reference to previous related literature and multidisciplinary placement. Further language simplification and using less academic jargon would make the book more digestible to a wider audience.

Copyright © Comfort Ankunda & Robert Menge 2024

References

Centrum för idrottsforskning. (2019). Idrotten och (o)jämlikheten – I medlemmarnas eller samhällets intresse?

Hayhurst, L. M. (2014). The ‘Girl Effect’ and martial arts: Social entrepreneurship and sport, gender, and development in Uganda. Gender, place & culture, 21(3), 297-315.

Koopmans, B., & Doidge, M. (2022). ‘They play together, they laugh together’: Sport, play and fun in refugee sport projects. Sport in Society, 25(3), 537-550.

Mickelsson, T, B. (2023). A Nordic Social Work in the context of refugee reception. Södertörn Doctoral Dissertations.

McSweeney, M. (2023). Sport and social entrepreneurship in the base-of-the-pyramid: The institutional work of refugees and a refugee-led organization in Uganda. Sport Management Review, 26(4), 582-606.

Nicola De Martini Ugolotti (2024) Sport as social policy: Midnight Football and the governing of society, International Journal of Cultural Policy, 30:1, 137-140, DOI: 10.1080/10286632.2023.2282449

Peterson, T., Bjärsholm, D., Linnér, S., & Schenker, K (2024). På hemmaplan. idrottsforum.org(https://idrottsforum.org/petersonetal240304/).

Spencer, S., & Charsley, K. (2021). Reframing ‘integration’: Acknowledging and addressing five core critiques. Comparative migration studies, 9(1), 18.