Social and Cultural Constraints on Football Player Development in Stockholm

Influencing Skill, Learning, and Wellbeing

Bibliographic Data

ID5285692
AuthorsJames Vaughan (0000-0002-4584-8940, The University of Queensland, corresponding author), Clifford J Mallett (0000-0003-4843-2083, The University of Queensland), P Potrac (0000-0001-9616-6491, Northumbria University), Carl T Woods (0000-0002-7129-8938, Victoria University), Carl Woods, Mark O''Sullivan, Mark O'Sullivan (0000-0001-6851-6167), Mark O’sullivan (The University of Queensland), Karel Davids (0000-0003-1398-6123, Sheffield Hallam University), Keith Davids
Year2022
Volume4
Pages832111-832111
Publication date2022-05-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFrontiers in Sports and Active Living (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2624-9367 • E-ISSN: 2624-9367
PublisherFrontiers Media SA (PUBLISHER • CH)
DOI10.3389/fspor.2022.832111
PMID35669555
OpenAlexW4280525622
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited78

In this paper, we consider how youth sport and (talent) development environments have adapted to, and are constrained by, social and cultural forces. Empirical evidence from an 18-month ethnographic case study highlights how social and cultural constraints influence the skill development and psychological wellbeing of young football players. We utilized novel ways of knowing (i.e., epistemologies) coupled to ecological frameworks (e.g., the theory of ecological dynamics and the skilled intentionality framework). A transdisciplinary inquiry was used to demonstrate that the values which athletes embody in sports are constrained by the character of the social institutions (sport club, governing body) and the social order (culture) in which they live. The constraining character of an athlete (talent) development environment is captured using ethnographic methods that illuminate a sociocultural value-directedness toward individual competition. The discussion highlights how an emphasis on individual competition overshadows opportunities (e.g., shared, and nested affordances) for collective collaboration in football. Conceptually, we argue that these findings characterize how a dominating sociocultural constraint may negatively influence the skill development, in game performance, and psychological wellbeing (via performance anxiety) of young football players in Stockholm. Viewing cultures and performance environments as embedded complex adaptive systems, with human development as ecological, it becomes clear that microenvironments and embedded relations underpinning athlete development in high performance sports organizations are deeply susceptible to broad cultural trends toward neoliberalism and competitive individualism. Weaving transdisciplinary lines of inquiry, it is clarified how a value directedness toward individual competition may overshadow collective collaboration, not only amplifying socio-cognitive related issues (anxiety, depression, emotional disturbances) but simultaneously limiting perceptual learning, skill development, team coordination and performance at all levels in a sport organization

Competition (biology · Football · Political science · Sociocultural evolution · Sociology · Motivation and Self-Concept in Sports · Physical Education and Pedagogy · Psychology · Sport Psychology and Performance · Ecology

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