Associative commitment by social investment : when local sports clubs reinforce the ability to think the world

In Switzerland, voluntary commitment in sport associations is considerably widespread. Moreover, it proves to be particularly necessary to the two sports we put our focus on in this inquiry, namely baton twirling and women's football, both suffering a lack of legitimacy at the social and sports level.

In this paper, which reports an ethnography of six clubs showing no elitist aspiration, we observe that their members struggle to obtain acknowledgement for their work and progress. Assuming that these associative commitment constitute a significant modality of social investment, we demonstrate that they enable minority groups not only to remain in an organised sport activité, but also, and mainly, allow them to construct a critical look to their social environment, according to the standpoint theory developed by Dorothy Smith.

Auteur·e·s
Zannin Thomas
Ly Shia Manh
Jaccoud Christophe
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Zannin, T., Ly S. M., Malatesta, D. & Jaccoud C. (2018). Associative commitment by social investment : when local sports clubs reinforce the ability to think the world. Problemy Polityki Spolecznej, 39(4), 27-39.