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This book tells the story of how participation in a community soccer program helped to facilitate the social inclusion of immigrant youth living on the margins of Global Toronto. The central questions it seeks to answer are: Did sport participation affect the everyday integration experiences of these youth? If so, how, and why? And how were these experiences unique for different genders? To answer these questions, the author chronicles eight years of ethnographic immersion (from 2012 2020) as a community soccer coach in Toronto s marquee immigrant reception site the neighbourhood of St. James Town.
The book reveals how community-based sport participation positively influenced immigrant youth s sense of social inclusion in multicultural Canada. This theory of social inclusion through sport was advanced based on the capacity of the program to facilitate engagement, personal development, bonding and belonging in youth s lives. These forms of inclusion into Canadian society were at times contradictory, contested, and eclectic, but always personal, agentic, and meaningful to youth.
The findings of this investigation will be useful for policy makers and community[1]based practitioners who recognize the importance of positive reception contexts on immigrant integration, and the influence of localized social service provisions therein. The book will also interest scholars working within the international fields of sport-for-development and sport sociology, who have begun exploring how sport programs may impact the integration experiences of immigrant youth living in diverse urban contexts. It also provides up to date and engaging examples for teaching on sport, gender, health, and inclusion in a variety of disciplines.
List of contents
Chapter 1: Welcome to Toronto immigrant (Sporting) Inclusion in Canada s Global City.- Chapter 2: Sport-for-inclusion international Research on Sport Programming for Immigrant Youth Across Western Nations.- Chapter 3: Constructing and Conducting Community Sport Ethnography .- Chapter 4: Daily Engagements With the Local Rec Centre in St. James Town.- Chapter 5: Girls Can t Ball Exclusion, Resistance and Women s Empowerment Through Soccer.- Chapter 6: Social Integration Through Team Sport Multi-level Bonding in the Wellesley-Jarvis Soccer Tribe .- Chapter 7: Concluding Remarks Community Sport and Inclusive Citizenship.
About the author
Greg Yerashotis is Professor of Sport, Gender, Health and Social Inclusion at Trent University, Canada.
Summary
This book tells the story of how participation in a community soccer program helped to facilitate the social inclusion of immigrant youth living on the margins of ‘Global Toronto.’ The central questions it seeks to answer are: Did sport participation affect the everyday integration experiences of these youth? If so, how, and why? And how were these experiences unique for different genders? To answer these questions, the author chronicles eight years of ethnographic immersion (from 2012–2020) as a community soccer coach in Toronto’s marquee immigrant reception site—the neighbourhood of St. James Town.
The book reveals how community-based sport participation positively influenced immigrant youth’s sense of social inclusion in multicultural Canada. This ‘theory of social inclusion through sport’ was advanced based on the capacity of the program to facilitate engagement, personal development, bonding and belonging in youth’s lives. These forms of inclusion into Canadian society were at times contradictory, contested, and eclectic, but always personal, agentic, and meaningful to youth.
The findings of this investigation will be useful for policy makers and community[1]based practitioners who recognize the importance of positive reception contexts on immigrant integration, and the influence of localized social service provisions therein. The book will also interest scholars working within the international fields of sport-for-development and sport sociology, who have begun exploring how sport programs may impact the integration experiences of immigrant youth living in diverse urban contexts. It also provides up to date and engaging examples for teaching on sport, gender, health, and inclusion in a variety of disciplines.
