The use of sport to promote social cohesion has grown rapidly in recent years. This includes the use of sport for social inclusion and the integration of refugees and migrants. Public, private and third sector organisations are using sport as a vehicle to advance social cohesion in various contexts.
However, there are various challenges which continue to limit our understanding as to how sport and social cohesion programmes can be most effectively designed, delivered, and measured.
As such the Sport and Social Cohesion Lab (SSCL) project, an Erasmus+ funded initiative, seeks to tackle these gaps in knowledge and implementation.
As part of this project, an exploratory study was conducted to identify common features, challenges and best practices in sport for social cohesion. This study involved a background literature review, a global survey targeted at organisations using sport for social cohesion, and in-depth questionnaires for the NGO partners in the SSCL project.
The study seeks to contribute to better understanding of social cohesion at the practitioner level, and the programmatic factors that may influence success.
Findings show that the use of sport for social cohesion has grown in recent times globally and in Europe. This is linked to the growth of the sport for development and peace (SDP) movement and changing demographic composition of European societies. Many actors and organisations across Europe are now using sport-based approaches to contribute to social cohesion goals and objectives.
However, despite this growth, there remain key limitations and discrepancies within current definitions and understandings of social cohesion. The use of sport for social cohesion exhibits a diversity of approaches, yet overall, there is a lack of evidence, transparency and understanding of these programmes. This is partly due to the fact that sport itself is a complex phenomenon, often undermined by idealistic notions of the ‘power of sport’. Further, actors using sport for social cohesion often lack the capacity needed to design, deliver, evaluate and improve their programmes.
Findings reveal that social cohesion is understood and applied in many different ways, with sport usually seen as a vehicle to enable such change. Programmes tend to target ‘vulnerable’ groups within society, including girls and women, refugees and migrants, and people with disabilities, with a particular focus on children and youth. Activities include sport-based volunteering, life skills sessions, workshops and trainings, all aimed at promoting inclusion, integration and mixing of groups.
Challenges and opportunities co-exist. This includes the need to build capacity among actors, especially around their ability to monitor and evaluate their work. There is a need to adopt more participatory approaches so that beneficiaries and other stakeholders are more involved throughout projects. Most interventions address individual and community issues, with limited engagement and understanding of the systemic and structural obstacles to social cohesion.
These findings will be used to strengthen the SSCL project, which aims to better understand and apply the use of sport for social cohesion across Europe. Project partners will adapt their grassroots initiatives based on these findings, and work with stakeholders to pilot a Living Lab approach in their settings. This approach will be tested, iterated and evaluated throughout, ultimately offering greater insights into the use of sport for social cohesion and implications of a Living Lab approach. Results will be shared publicly and disseminated widely, while further research is merited in this space.
You can find the full study here.
New Erasmus+ project "Virtual Reality Approach to Anti-Doping Learning" (VIRAL) aims to improve anti-doping education in a groundbreaking way.
As the COVID -19 pandemic has spread around the world, concepts such as social distancing are being put into practice in education as well as in our daily life. This has created many new challenges for education, especially in sport related issues. The pandemic situation has made apparent the need for the transformation of education from traditional to digital. Policy makers in the sport sector will be forced to adopt social distancing measures in the provision of education, hence replacing face to face teaching in traditional classrooms will become more important. Sport organizations will use new technologies to transfer their traditional teaching practices to virtual ones and develop appropriate pedagogical approaches. In order to do this it is necessary to embed digital technologies in ways that support deep and meaningful learning and build multifunctional online environments.
This is the vision of the VIRAL project. VIRAL project aims to promote innovative and impactful anti-doping education through a virtual reality game targeting competitive and recreational athletes. New technologies can greatly increase the acceptance and impact of anti-doping education among a variety of target groups. Through the development of a Virtual Reality program, VIRAL project recognizes the need to move forward and improve the way anti-doping education is developed, delivered, and assessed. The project seeks to produce a novel and impactful anti-doping educational intervention by combining:
a) updated research from the social and behavioral sciences on doping usage
b) state-of-the-art learning pedagogies
c) cutting-edge virtual reality game design and technology.
Such an approach allows building an innovative anti-doping training resource that will be appealing to young athletes and trainers. Using existing evidence of anti-doping, VIRAL project will
a) utilize cutting-edge behavioral science research on the risk and protective factors against doping use in amateur and grassroots sports to inform the development of an anti-doping virtual reality program
b) use the 'Open Innovation' framework to code-sign anti-doping virtual reality programs through active collaboration among anti-doping experts, VR designers and young athletes in amateur and grassroots sports
c) promote a more positive mentality about drug-free and health-enhancing physical activity and sports.
ENSE is thrilled to be part of the project together with its coordinator, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, as well as Sheffield Hallam University (UK), University of Leipzig (Germany), Aalborg University and the Southern Denmark University (both Denmark).
We are requesting organisations using sport for social cohesion to complete our short survey, in order to inform future programming and best practice.
The use of sport to promote social cohesion has grown rapidly in recent years. This includes the use of sport for social inclusion and the integration of refugees and migrants. Public, private and third sector organisations are using sport as a vehicle to advance social cohesion in various contexts.
However, there are various challenges which continue to limit our understanding as to how sport and social cohesion programmes can be most effectively designed, delivered, and measured.
As such, sportanddev, the German Sport University and Sport and Social Cohesion Lab project partners, are conducting a survey to identify common features, challenges, and best practices in the use of sport for social cohesion.
The survey is part of a broader mapping exercise which seeks to contribute to better understanding of social cohesion at the practitioner level, and the programmatic factors that may influence success.
There is great diversity of programmes and approaches to sport and social cohesion, including measurement tools. While this is to be celebrated, it poses challenges in identifying standards, common features, and best practices. Further, evangelical notions of sport and top-down approaches remain common, resulting in a gap between theory, policy, and local practices.
Grassroots practitioners voices are often marginalized and crucial factors such as the type of sport, duration of participation, frequency of participation and non-sporting activities are under-reported and analysed. This makes it difficult to identify factors which enable interventions to be effective.
This survey and mapping exercise is part of the Sport and Social Cohesion Lab, an Erasmus+ funded project. The project adopts a highly participatory Living Lab approach to tackle the gaps in knowledge and implementation.
This approach will directly engage programme participants, generate understanding of the elements that advance sport for social cohesion and develop relevant tools for the exploration, measurement and improvement of programmes and outcomes in highly diverse urban neighbourhoods.
This survey will help us identify the assets, needs and challenges experienced by organisations in the use of sport for social cohesion. This will include shaping activities in the above-mentioned project. Findings will be shared publicly and used to inform policy and practice.
On February 24 and March 5th, partners from the Sport and Social Cohesion Lab (SSCL) gathered online to officially kick-off this new, innovative, pan-European project.
Given the increasing change and diversity in European cities, encouraging social cohesion is of the utmost importance for stability, growth and solidarity. In particular, we see that sport and physical activity have become increasingly recognized and implemented as tools to foster social cohesion in communities around Europe.
However, despite this boom in sport and social cohesion, there remain some “wicked problems” to be addressed. Most pressingly, current definitions and understandings of social cohesion rarely take into account the needs, expectations or understanding of practitioners and participants on the ground. In turn, this leads to programmes, approaches and evaluations that do not reflect the needs and realities on the ground.
To address this, a collaborative, participatory approach is needed. As such, the Sport for Social Cohesion Lab will implement a Living Lab approach through NGO-University partnerships in four different countries. These Living Labs will directly engage programme participants, generate understanding of the elements that promote social cohesion in a sport setting and to develop relevant tools to allow for the exploration, measurement and improvement of social cohesion outcomes in highly diverse urban neighbourhoods.
Through this, the SSCL project aims to increase social cohesion and support practitioners in delivering high-quality sport for social cohesion programmes.
Moving forward, we will first conduct an in-depth analysis of the situation in the four partner NGOs and also conduct a broader European mapping exercise. This information will allow us to tailor the Living Lab approach to each unique setting.
This project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme, and features ten partners from six different European countries. As part of the project, ENSE will support the development of the living lab approach and take a leading role in dissemination activities. More detailed information about the project and the partners can be found here.