Marginalized gender, marginalized sports–an ethnographic study of SportsClass students’ future aspirations in elite sports

Abstract

This paper explores how different processes of marginalization play out in the context of SportsClasses, a new educational programme in Denmark that attempts to democratize access to elite sports. The paper is based on an ethnographic study carried out in a SportsClass from 2013 to 2015. Using Kanter’s ideas about marginality and tokenism, along with Bourdieu’s concepts of field, habitus and capitals I discuss aspirations of female athletes and those of athletes in marginalized sports. I argue that marginality of one’s gender and sport can each independently contribute to one’s sense of what is (im)possible for a career in sports and that, without taking into account such marginalization, programmes like the SportsClasses may ultimately fail in their attempts at equal access to talent development.