What is Informal Sport? Negotiating Contemporary Sporting Forms

Abstract

As traditional sport participation stagnates or declines, flexible informal sporting forms are increasingly a focus for those with a vested interest in maximising participation in sport and physical activity. This study critiques existing definitions of informal sport as overly binary, largely unhelpful, and conceptually diffuse. We propose a more nuanced understanding of informal sport that explores participant proximity to the negotiation of practices that come to shape the sporting experience and therefore levels of (in)formality. Drawing on qualitative data from three Australian case studies, we examine how participants negotiate key features of their sporting experience, such as affiliation, environment, scheduling, competition, rules, social relations, and dress. Findings reveal that informal sport is characterised by participants’ proximity to the negotiation of these features, challenging the binary formal-informal distinction. Understanding sport as a spectrum of negotiated practices and decision-making, provides a useful framework for understanding (in)formality. A sport sector that pays attention to the types of negotiations people want to have some control over, whilst negotiating other elements on their behalf, will be well positioned to respond effectively to the changing nature of sport.