How girls' sports programs build community and inclusion from the ground up
A Swedish study shows that sports-based interventions create social cohesion not through top-down rules, but through active participation in shared moral values. The finding matters for policymakers designing programs to reach disadvantaged youth: community isn't inherited—it's built through intentional leadership and peer engagement.
Originaltitel: Establishing a sense of community: Moral socialization in girls-only football for inclusion
<p>This article explores the establishment of a sense of com-munity within a girls-only sports-based interventiontargeting social inclusion in a socially disadvantagedarea of Sweden. Employing an ethnographic approachinvolving participant observations and interviews, thestudy shows how moral socialization, through practicesof discipline, teaching and care, fosters a sense of com-munity. Through detailed observations, the study illus-trates that community formation is an active, relationalconstruct rather than a pre-existing entity, shaped sig-nificantly by both leaders and participants. Our findingsreveal that the girls, through reflective engagement withnorms and moral values, co-create a community thatpromotes social inclusion.</p>