Abstract:
From a public perspective, sport activities appear to hold a natural or universal ability to bring people together and make strangers feel welcome. The image of sport as a global medium of understanding is widespread. For example, sport is often assumed to be a universal vehicle to assist in the integration of immigrants and/or post-migrants. However, after careful analysis of the practices involved in sport, one has to recognize that hopes for integration in, and through, sport and claims that sport can be delivered to all do not always conform with reality. Considering the political rhetoric and its preference for positive effects, phenomena like exclusion, practices of discrimination, racism and demarcation, as well as feelings of not-belonging and otherness should not exist in sport. Numerous cases, however, have revealed experiences of otherness, resulting in indifference and antagonism. For this reason, the purpose of the thesis is to examine barriers and elements leading to otherness in sport. The research calls for explanatory models and characteristics related to the phenomena of otherness in sport.
In order to achieve this purpose, the thesis was divided into five chapters. In the first chapter, relevant scientific discourses and research traditions since the 1950s in Germany are reviewed. This review demonstrates the fact that there are very few studies that explicitly address the phenomena of otherness in sport. Based on a constructivist perspective, the second chapter reflects otherness as a social construction of reality. Considering classical and current sociological approaches and characterizations, the third chapter identifies general characteristics, emergent conditions, and generative mechanisms of otherness. As a result of this process, an explanatory model is developed. This model classifies otherness as a construction of interaction, experience, and as regulatory and symbolic.
The fourth chapter represents the core of the thesis. It aims at localizing otherness in the field of sport. For this reason, three points of reference for otherness in sport are uncovered: physicalness, lifestyle, and sport Organization. Based on the assumption that experiences of difference and otherness in sport are always associated with physical appearance, the chapter focuses on the body as a central point of reference in sport. Moreover, the body in sport and its function as an object and subject of experience appear to be a symbolic platform for many (stereotyped) attributions and allegations.
A sociological discussion of lifestyles and their meanings for sport explores another important perspective. Consequently, limits of integration are also the result of individual preferences and priorities. This perception is very important for the field of sport. As sport has become a stage for various (life)styles and expressive models, there is a high risk of incompatibility. Although sport offers opportunities for multiple preferences, this does not mean, that sport cannot (re)produce experiences of contradiction as well as practices of (self-)exclusion. The study shows that phenomena of otherness are always associated with the organizational setting of sport. On a level of social responsibility and political involvement, the integration of migrants or post-migrants has been identified as one objective of sport and sport organizations. Although sport clubs are formally accessible to everyone, they operate on an informal level on the basis of their club culture. This club culture can have a huge impact on constructions of otherness and affiliation. This culture has the potential to include and to exclude people on an informal level. As such, the more sport clubs refer to club culture and traditions, the harder it becomes for new members who are perceived as being different.
Finally, the fifth chapter discusses pedagogical implications and consequences. Referring to the diversity-approach and to the intercultural education-approach, productive options of dealing with otherness and diversity in sport are identified and reflected.