EXCEPTIONAL LIFE COURSES LIFE COURSES EXCEPTIONAL The aim of this book is to understand those complex life course mechanisms and processes that have led 78 athletes and 29 young artists to success in 2000s Finland. Besides the successful athletes, the researchers look into the dropout of 18 particularly promising athletes. Furthermore, the research sheds light on the particular challenges faced by athletes with a multicultural background. The majority of the interviewed athletes and artists had been born and raised in Finland; hence the study’s perspective is predominantly domestic. Many of the athletes had continued their careers abroad after having reached the top, yet the essential events of their life courses are located in Finland. The vast international literature on career research of athletes, used along with the research data itself, complements the domestic perspective. As to the artists, the researchers have mainly drawn upon domestic research knowledge. In this study, the life courses of athletes and artists are reviewed in parallel. Consequently, the reader enjoys a broad insight into the growth and development of Finnish elite athletes in the late 20th and early 21st century Finland. The same applies to the young successful artists, whose life phases are studied from childhood until the present. This study is unique in the Salasuo & Piispa Huhta international context, as the researchers were able to reach an exceptionally large number of the best Finnish athletes and artists of different fields. ISBN 978-952-7175-03-3 ISSN 1799-9219 UDK: 316, 7.07, 796 Tiede Exceptional Life Courses Elite Athletes and Successful Artists in 2000s Finland Exceptional Life Courses Elite Athletes and Successful Artists in 2000s Finland MIKKO SALASUO, MIKKO PIISPA & HELENA HUHTA Finnish Youth Research Network/ Finnish Youth Research Society Internet publications 97 finnish youth research society finnish youth research network Cover: Katja Tiilikka Layout: Tanja Konttinen Translation: Minna Kalajoki © Finnish Youth Research Society and authors 2016. Finnish Youth Research Society, Finnish Youth Research Network Publications 177, internet publications 97 ISBN 978-952-7175-03-3 ISSN 1799-9219 ISBN (PDF) 978-952-7175-04-0 ISSN (PDF) 1799-9227 Unigrafia, Helsinki Orders: [email protected] The Finnish Youth Research Society Asemapäällikönkatu 7 00520 Helsinki http://www.nuorisotutkimusseura.fi Contents Preface 9 Introduction 11 Interview data 18 Exploring the phases and the choices of the life course 25 I Family and social networks 31 1 Sport and exercise in the athletes’ childhood 33 Family table and sport relationship 35 Intergenerational transmission of the sport relationship 39 Sport and exercise in the family’s parenting practices 44 Siblings as significant others 46 Self-accomplished sport relationship 51 2 Social capital and the social networks of artists 55 Transmission of family capitals 55 Art and culture homes 57 Culturally inclined homes 59 Non-cultural homes 62 Family’s economic status 63 Siblings 64 Extended family 65 Groups of friends and sociability in childhood 66 Mentors and role models 68 Art education and teachers in the comprehensive school 69 Social relationships during education and professional career 70 Excursion: gender in the interviews 73 II Society and culture, time and place 75 3 Children of the rapidly transforming Finland and its sport and exercise culture 77 Growth environments of athletes, in time and place 78 Changes in the growth environments of sport 86 Excursion: the lack of societal discourse in the interviews 88 4 Artists and the societal and cultural landscape 91 Urban and rural growth environments for artisthood 92 The turning point of the 1990’s and the contemporary society 96 Generational reflections in ”new Finland” 99 III Agency and transitions 103 5 Transitions and turning points, agency and choices 105 Normative transitions in the athlete’s career 106 Initiation to deliberate practice and the sampling phase 109 Transition to the development phase and the development phase 127 Athlete agency 148 Average actualization of the sports career 159 6 Artists’ choices and goals 162 Vocation? 162 Realization of artisthood 166 Education as transition 169 Life steering during professional career 172 What can you steer by yourself, after all? 177 7 Artist and the zeitgeist – artisthood in the 21st century Finland 179 Professional insecurity 180 Increasing commercialism, entertainment and ‘the selling of self’ 184 Relationship to work and (artistic) identity 188 The role of chance 190 Excursion: comparison to athletes 191 IV Micro data in sport: dropout and multicultural athletes 193 8 Dropout athletes 195 Perspective: a historical note to the dropping out debate 195 Dropping out on the verge of mastery 197 Dropping out as a transition of the life course 199 Retired athletes and those thinking of discontinuation 210 To finish with and after the finishing line 211 9 On multicultural athletes 214 Family capitals and the big transition 217 Social networks outside the family 222 Agency of a multicultural athlete 224 Racism encountered by multicultural athletes 225 Excursion: national feeling and representing Finland 227 Conclusions 230 References 238 Appendix 1: interviewed athletes 264 Appendix 2: interviewed artists 268 Appendix 3: interview questions for athletes 269 Appendix 4: interview questions for artists 272 EXCEPTIONAL LIFE COURSES. ELITE ATHLETES AND SUCCESSFUL ARTISTS IN 2000S FINLAND. Preface This publication is the completion of a substantial research project. In the three books in Finnish of the project, launched in 2012, the life courses of Finnish elite athletes and successful young artists have been comprehensively discussed. The aim has been to understand those complex life course mechanisms and processes that have led 78 athletes and 29 young artists to success. Besides the successful athletes, the researchers looked into the dropout of 18 particularly promising athletes. In addition, 20 multicultural athletes were studied to highlight the challenges arising from a multicultural background. This publication is based on the two peer-reviewed books published during this project. Most surveyed athletes and artists had been born and raised in Finland, hence the study’s perspective is predominantly domestic. Many of them had continued their careers abroad after having reached the top, yet the essential events of their life courses are located in Finland. The vast international research knowledge used along with the research data itself has, to a great extent, complemented the domestic perspective. In addition, the researchers have thoroughly reviewed international research literature on elite athlete development, leading to a unique dual view in the study, a combination of domestic and international. On the contrary, as to the artists, the researchers have mainly drawn upon domestic research knowledge. This is firstly due to a large amount of domestic research on artists and, secondly, to the fact that artists’ life courses are mainly connected to domestic labour markets. In this study, the life courses of athletes and artists are reviewed in parallel. Consequently, the reader enjoys a broad insight into the growth and development of Finnish elite athletes in the late 20th and early 21st century Finland. The same applies to young successful artists whose life phases are studied from childhood until present. This study is unique in the international context as the researchers were able to reach an exceptionally large number of the best Finnish athletes and artists of different fields. The name of the pu- blication refers to the unusual life course choices and phases of the athletes and artists but, at the same time, the study dismantles the genius and hero myths typical to these fields of life. After all, the athletes and artists have grown up in the very same society with the rest of us, and there is nothing supernatural or mystical behind their success, quite the contrary. The researchers Mikko Salasuo, Mikko Piispa and Helena Huhta would like to warmly thank Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture and its Division of Sport for the funding of the project, and the Finnish Youth Research Network for the inspiring work environment. Their thanks are extended to Minna Kalajoki who had the tremendous task of translating the publication into English. 9 EXCEPTIONAL LIFE COURSES. ELITE ATHLETES AND SUCCESSFUL ARTISTS IN 2000S FINLAND. Introduction Finland is a sparsely populated and little known country in the northeast corner of Europe. Frequent names on the lists of internationally best known Finns include Jean Sibelius, Jari Litmanen, Tove Jansson and Kimi Räikkönen – artists and athletes. Arts and sport have played an important role in building up the international image of Finland. At the same time, they have been the essential building blocks in the construction of national identity. During the past 30 years, globalisation, information technology, the global economic system, collapse of the welfare state and the end of the Cold War, among others, have shaped the world in many ways. The role of the nation state has changed and the great national narratives do not, to the extent they did in the past, determine the self-percep- tion of individuals anymore. Arts and sport still play an important role in the Finnish society which is very different from that of, for example, the 1930’s or 1970’s Finland. Many traditional concepts have been challenged and new generations interpret the world from their own perspectives. At the crossroads of past and present, we are negotiating the meanings to be given to what has been lived, experienced and seen. The resulting interpretations are a combination of the past, present and future. An individual’s life is realized in a certain historical time, place and setting. Different social networks have a significant impact on the life course of an individual. Family, relatives, friends and peers constitute ‘webs of significance’ (cf. Geertz 1973) by which every individual builds up a relationship to the surrounding society and its structures (Elder et al. 2004; Elder & Shanahan 2006).