Open AccessPedagogies of Sport in Youth Detention: Withholding, Developing, or Just “Busying the Youth”?
Author(s) -
Daniel Roe
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of contemporary ethnography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.592
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1552-5414
pISSN - 0891-2416
DOI - 10.1177/0891241620986844
Subject(s) - situated , ethnography , sociology , punishment (psychology) , pedagogy , criminology , underpinning , economic justice , participatory action research , psychology , gender studies , social psychology , political science , law , civil engineering , artificial intelligence , computer science , anthropology , engineering
This article examines pedagogies of sport in youth detention, drawing on ethnography (primarily participatory observations and interviews) at two all-male youth detention homes in Sweden. Focusing on youths’ experiences situated in discourse and practice, three pedagogies of doing sport in youth detention are described: withholding sport, busying with sport, and sport as developmental community. The young men in this study experienced mixed messages through sport, revealing how rehabilitation through sport was obscured by predominant pedagogies of withholding sport (i.e., punishment or correction) and busying with sport (i.e., containment or filling the time). Yet there were glimpses of another pedagogy, sport as developmental community, and the experiences and pedagogical work underpinning this endeavor are highlighted. This study illustrates how competing functions of youth justice—punishment, containment, and development—are accomplished, and experienced, through (sport) pedagogical practice.