"you don't need legs to skate, you need friends!" importance of social relations in...

Mikkelin ammattikorkeakoulu / Mikkeli University of Applied Sciences / www.mamk.fiMikkelin ammattikorkeakoulu / Mikkeli University of Applied Sciences / www.mamk.fi

You don't need legs to skate, you need

friends! Importance of social relations in

young people’s alternative sports

Veli Liikanen

Mikkeli University of Applied Sciences

Northampton 2.9.2014

Mikkelin ammattikorkeakoulu / Mikkeli University of Applied Sciences / www.mamk.fi

Research focus

• We’re researching young practitioners of alternative or life-

style sports in Finland

• Selection of 10 different sports: capoeira, bouldering,

parkour, street dance, skateboarding, longboarding, roller

derby, freestyle scootering, contemporary circus, and inline

skating

• Focus on the changing spatial and social ‘landscapes’ of

youth sports culture

Images: Shutterstock


Wheaton’s (2013) descriptions of

life-style sports• Recent, post-1960s

• Consumption of new objects and technologies

• Investment in resources, style and identity

• Thrill, buzz, being at one with the environment

• Creativity, expression, presenting self to others

• Opposition (or ambivalence) to regulation or traditional

competition

• Middle-class, white and Western, not affiliated to national

attachments

• Activities are predominantly individualistic in form or attitude

• New or re-appropriated spaces with loose boundaries


Background and focus

• Wheaton (2013): Predominantly individualistic in form or

attitude(?)

• Maffesoli (1996), Lähteenmaa (2002): light memberships

• “Why do adolescents give up sport?” (Tiirikainen & Konu

2013): Importance of social relations

How do social relations affect alternative sports practise, its

motivation, organisation and social meanings?

Are the sports individualistic?


Research material

• Online survey targeting young people practising alternative

sports, n = 935 (end of 2012)

– Focus on the intensity of sport practise, the practitioners’

background, social differences, attitudes

• Participant observation and theme interviews on the field

(ongoing, from 2012 on)


How young people begin the sport?


With whom, where and how?


Friends and strangers in spaces

• The sports are practised in groups, including both close

friends and less familiar practitioners

• The respondents express respect, solidarity and

identification with other practitioners of the same sport

• Sport sessions commonly involve hanging-out, often in

larger part than the actual sport activities

• So the sport both tie unfamiliar young people together

around a common interest, and provide a context and an

excuse for leisure in public space and urban environments


”Everywhere in the world you can find street dancers

with the same passion and love, we’re all one big family”

(24-year-old street dancer)

”I start to chat with new faces in the park just because

they have inline skates on.”

(18-year-old inline skater)

”We get there in the afternoon and then skate there, eat

at some point, and skate more and talk shite. So the

place is also a social meeting spot. When the evening

darkens we go to the riverboats to drink soda.”

(24-year-old skateboarder)



Special relationships in the sport

practise• Friendships: often created along the lines of age, gender

and skill level inside the sport group

• Peer learning: friendly relations provide opportunities for

learning by example and safe competition

• Motivation: sustained by active participation and close

relations between practitioners

• Acceptance: respect from older or skillful practitioners may

be important, and may be gathered by developing skills and

volunteering for the sport


”You develop yourself, when you see, oh,

that one did that trick, I can’t do that one,

let’s do that now”

(22-year-old traceur)

Images: Maria Hopponen


Sport in the sphere of life

• Many informants say that the group and its social relations

are the most important thing in alternative sports practice

• Communities and mobility extend to other towns, to trips

and practitioners abroad, and to online spaces

• When the practitioners integrate into the sport community,

the sport starts to permeate all spheres of life

– …affects the way the practitioners see their environment

– …is more than a hobby

– …can be practised anywhere


”I’m open and helpful towards others. I

want to become a good derby player,

so I plan my life accordingly (diet and

other excercise, healthy life-style).”

(31-year-old roller derby player)

Images: Carlos Marko-Tapio Maria Hopponen


I: Can anyone skate? What do you think?

S: Of course, why couldn’t they?

I: There’s no limitations?

S: No. Well, not really. I’ve seen those videos,

where someone with no legs skates, it doesn’t

prohibit him/her at all. Can’t think of other

reasons, either. Except maybe, if there’s no

people, no mates who skate. It could be a

problem. If your friends stop skating, you would

have to skate alone, not everyone wants that.

(17 year old skateboarder, interview)



Conclusions

• Alternative sports may be individualistic athletically, but:

• Friends and peers are the key reason for young people to

begin practicing these lifestyle sports

• The sports are practised in groups and communities formed

around common interests

• The sports both bring strangers together and provide a

backdrop for hanging-out in public space

• Relations in the sport groups affects organisation,

motivation and hierarchies

• Deepening social relations are also a key factor in the

transformation of a sport into a lifestyle sport

Mikkelin ammattikorkeakoulu / Mikkeli University of Applied Sciences / www.mamk.fiMikkelin ammattikorkeakoulu / Mikkeli University of Applied Sciences / www.mamk.fiImages: Shutterstock, Wikipedia, Carlos Marko-Tapio

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