Rethinking Sports and Integration by Sine Agergaard

Author:Sine Agergaard [Agergaard, Sine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, General, Sports & Recreation, Cultural & Social Aspects
ISBN: 9781351969086
Google: eRdWDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2018-04-17T03:37:09+00:00

5.1. Governmental funding

Among the policy tools available to promote sports-related integration are funding schemes, which have been identified as a central ‘method through which collective action is structured to address a public problem’ (Salamon, 2002, cited in Skille, 2008, p. 186). Currently there are numerous programmes running to address sports-related integration. A report from the European Commission–funded Sport Inclusion Network describes how sports programmes for migrants in European countries are run as national/governmental, regional and local programmes (SPIN, 2012). Many of these programmes are run in collaboration between local clubs, municipalities, regions and national governing bodies in what have been dubbed public-private partnerships (Wettenhall, 2003). Still, as identified in another report published by the European Commission, governmental funding is also often instrumental for sports-related integration programmes (Ecorys, 2016).

In Denmark, there is a long tradition of state support for sports and a close cooperation between the state and the major umbrella organizations for sports clubs in Denmark (Kaspersen & Ottesen, 2001; Thing & Ottesen, 2010). From the 1970s, however, there has been increasing political interest and involvement in the management of sports in Denmark (Ibsen & Eichberg, 2006). And from the early 1980s Danish politicians began to take an active interest in involving civil society organizations, such as sports clubs, in solving welfare tasks – integration, among others.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, a number of government grants and experimental programmes became available to clubs that were interested in running politically supported sports programmes. In the years around 2000 and during the first decade of the 2000s, the general technique of opening governmental funds were replaced by more specific, limited and goal-oriented funds. For instance, the Danish Ministry of Refugee, Immigration and Integration Affairs created two grants in 2003 to promote ‘Participation of young “new Danes” in sports and club life’ (€2,285,000 in 2003–2006 and €8,856,000 in 2006–2009) and ‘Integration through participation in sports and club life’ (€538,000 in 2006). In addition, a number of inter-ministerial grants have been awarded in Denmark, including ‘Club life arrangement for children of disadvantaged parents’ supported by the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of Integration (€538,000 in 2004–2005), and a grant to support sports for disadvantaged children from the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Social Affairs (€1,344,000 in 2005–2008).

Studies of policy texts for the specific funding schemes and programmes run in Denmark show that sports clubs are described as central arenas for integrating migrants and descendants into Danish society (Agergaard, 2011). The reason for this goes beyond the sheer number of sports clubs in Denmark and their current influence. Through history, sports clubs have come to appear as ideal arenas for socialization, and they have been linked with the public good, such as keeping youth away from criminality or other socially undesired pastimes, as well as keeping the national population fit and engaged in healthy activities. Yet, despite acknowledging the close cooperation between the state and sports organizations in Denmark, researchers have arrived at the conclusion that ‘it

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