Abstract
This paper lays out the findings of my doctoral research that I completed while enrolled at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Sport Policy Studies, which is due to appear as a book in Palgrave Macmillan’s Sport and Global Culture series in early 2026. The study used immersive ethnographic methods to chronicle my involvement in sport-based youth development initiatives from 2014- 2020 in urban Toronto. Here I took on the role of a community soccer coach to better investigate if, how and why sport programming was affecting the integration experiences of marginalized youth living in urban Toronto’s marquee immigrant reception site—the neighbourhood of St. James Town. Using this avowedly intersectional community context as a background, my work tells the story of how local immigrant youth used sport in nuanced ways to construct unique senses of inclusion and forms of belonging in a rapidly changing and increasingly globalized world. I focus on one finding in particular: the diverse forms of belonging youth expressed in my research through their sport participation. This included: 1) adolescent boys’ experiences of ‘sport-based urban belonging,’ that resulted from their ongoing involvement in ethno-culturally diverse recreational programs; 2) A more politicized form of belonging young women experienced as part of girls-only soccer programming; and 3) a subcultural/neo-tribal form of belonging that bridged gendered divides, and facilitated a localized multi-generational soccer community.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2025 Special Focus—Global Sports Local Cultures
KEYWORDS
Immigrant Integration; Social Inclusion; Diverse Belongings; Transculturalism
