Scandinavian Women's Football Goes Global – a Cross-National Study Of
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Scandinavian women’s football goes global – A cross-national study of sport labour migration as challenge and opportunity for Nordic civil society Project relevance Women‟s football stands out as an important subject for sports studies as well as social sciences for various reasons. First of all women‟s football is an important social phenomenon that has seen steady growth in all Nordic countries.1 Historically, the Scandinavian countries have been pioneers for women‟s football, and today Scandinavia forms a centre for women‟s football globally.2 During the last decades an increasing number of female players from various countries have migrated to Scandinavian football clubs. Secondly the novel development of immigration into Scandinavian women‟s football is an intriguing example of the ways in which processes of globalization, professionalization and commercialization provide new challenges and opportunities for the Nordic civil society model of sports. According to this model sports are organised in local clubs, driven by volunteers, and built on ideals such as contributing to social cohesion in society.3 The question is now whether this civil society model is simply disappearing, or there are interesting lessons to be drawn from the ways in which local football clubs enter the global market, combine voluntarism and professionalism, idealism and commercialism and integrate new groups in the clubs? Thirdly, even if migrant players stay only temporarily in Scandinavian women‟s football clubs, their stay can create new challenges with regard to their integration into Nordic civil society. For participants, fans and politicians alike, sport appears to have an important role to play in the success or failure of the integration of migrant groups.4 Unsuccessful integration of foreign players can lead to xenophobic feelings, where the „foreigner‟ is seen as an intruder that pollutes the close social cohesion on a sports team or in a club. It is therefore also relevant to gather more knowledge about the civil integration processes that are connected with sports labour migration. 1 From 1990 to 2007 the numbers of participants in Danish and Norwegian girls‟ and women‟s football have doubled from 31,000 to 60,344 and from 50,000 to 97,958, respectively. In Sweden the number of female footballers increased in the same period by more than 100,000 participants from 32,753 to 136,026 (Weigelt and Kanoh 2006). There has also been a steady growth of female participants in Finland and Iceland although the absolute numbers are lower; namely 22,364 and 5,400 respectively (http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/afdeveloping/women/93/77/21/ factsheets.pdf). 2 (Ottesen 1989, Brus & Trangbæk 2003, Grønkjær & Olsen 2007, Hjelm & Olofsson 2003, Hjelm 2004, Fasting 2003, Skogvang 2006, 2007, Skille 2008, Eliasson 2009). 3 (Meinander & Mangan 1998, Ibsen 2002, Andersson & Carlsson 2009, Seippel 2010). 4 (Agergaard & Sørensen 2009, Hognestad 2009). With regard to existing research, immigration into Scandinavia women‟s football is a completely new study area. The cross-disciplinary field of research in sports labour migration has focused almost entirely on male athletes in internationally renowned sports disciplines such as (men‟s) football and primarily this has looked at migration to English-speaking societies.5 In Scandinavia there is an almost complete lack of literature on football labour migration, and so far there are no published studies focusing on female footballers‟ migration.6 By taking up immigration into Scandinavian women‟s football as a research topic we will contribute to sports studies as well as social sciences by adding to the growing international literature on the development of women‟s football,7 as well as studies of women‟s migration.8 More broadly, we aim to contribute to a social scientific understanding of organizational transition in the sport system by exploring sports labour migration as a meeting of the voluntary organization model of the Nordic countries and global development processes in sports. Aim and problem formulation The project aims to develop knowledge about the ways in which immigration of female football players (in conjunction with globalization, professionalization and commercialization processes) creates new challenges and opportunities for the Nordic civil society model of sports. To be more specific we will inquire into the challenges that develop, when the local and global, voluntarism and professionalism, idealism and commercialism, and different perceptions of civil integration meet. Given the fact that women‟s football does not have the same resources as men‟s football we might have the chance to identify new hybrid forms of organization that will provide football governing bodies and club managers with alternatives to a simple transition from a civil society to a market-based model of organization. Forms that bear on the civil society model and at the same time may serve as models for the future development of Nordic sports clubs which according to current sports policy should be enabled to participate in the global development of sport, as well as address welfare society issues such as physical inactivity and social differentiation. 5 (Maguire and Stead 1998, Stead and Maguire 2000a, 2000b, Maguire and Pearton 2000a, 2000b, Lanfranchi and Taylor 2001, Magee and Sugden 2002, McGovern 2002, Darby 2005, 2007, Molnar 2006, Poli and Ravanel 2005, Poli 2006, Taylor 2006, Dietschy 2006, Darby et. al. 2007, Tiesler and Coelho 2007, Cornelissen and Solberg 2007, Molnar and Maguire 2008). 6 (Skogvang 2008, Eliason 2009, Agergaard & Botelho forthcoming). 7 (Lopez 1997, Pfister et al. 1998, Caudwell 2002, 2003, Harris 2005, 2007, Scraton et al. 1999, 2005, 2008, Williams 2007). 8 (Simon & Brettell 1986, Pedraza 1991, Zlotnik 1995, Lenz and Schwenken 2003, Kofman 2005, Donato et al. 2006). This project will consist of three studies. First of all, a macro-level study will research the ways in which immigration into Danish, Norwegian and Swedish women‟s football has developed in conjunction with broader processes of globalization, professionalization and commercialization. Secondly, a meso-study will explore the ways in which women‟s football clubs negotiate between a local and global orientation, voluntarism and professionalism, idealism and commercialism. And finally a micro-study will focus on the agents (club representatives and migrant players) and their approach to the civil integration challenge. Altogether these studies will lead us to understand the changing conditions facing national football governing bodies, local clubs and club members alike and help us identify emerging models and strategies that react to this development. The three studies will be described in more detail below following a brief overview of the theoretical framework and design of the project. Theoretical framework As already mentioned the project is founded on literature about the development of women‟s football as well as women‟s migration. Here we will concentrate on the broader theoretical frame; namely theories relating to the Nordic civil society model on the one hand and the concepts of globalization, professionalization and commercialization in sport on the other. The civil society concept is developed in contrast to models of society, which have focused only on the state or the market, and has been used to characterize the basis of so-called voluntary organizations of people.9 The expression a „Nordic civil society model of sports‟ is an analytical construct since there have been few empirical studies to define the model in more detail; either by relating the model to sports systems outside of the Nordic countries (which may disclose a number of overlaps) or by describing the similarities and differences between the ways sports are organized in the different Nordic countries.10 The general characteristics of voluntary sport organizations have been described and summarized as: Voluntariness, independence from the state and market, and democratic decision-structures, so distinguishing them from the professionalization processes in sports.11 However, empirical studies are yet to be made of the ways in which aspects of the voluntary organization manifest themselves in specific sports clubs and may be developed to meet new sporting demands. 9 (Pestoff 1996, 1998, 2009). 10 (Meinander & Mangan 1998, Ibsen 2002, Gammelsæter 2009). 11 (Ibsen 1992, Seippel 2002, Norberg 2003, Seippel 2010). Perspectives on globalization in sports have ranged from the so-called cultural imperialist view of sport as a diffusion of a global monoculture to the counter-point stressing the diversity of local responses to globalization processes in sports.12 A step away from this dichotomous discussion, whether globalization makes the world of sports more homogeneous or heterogenous, is taken with the concept of glocalization stressing the interdependencies and hybrid forms of sports organizations that develop in the meeting between local conditions and global structures.13 The development of professionalization in sports has been described in Nordic countries as an increase in the number of athletes and club managers who take up sport as a job.14 Latterly the concept has come to mean not only the employment in itself but also the processes whereby club activities and administration are organized according to a market-oriented rationality.15 Related to this development is the concept of commercialization defined as the process by which transactions are based