%0 Journal Article
%T Trying to fit in ¨C Upper secondary school studentsĄ¯ negotiation processes between sports culture and youth culture
%A Lone Friis Thing
%A Stine Frydendal Nielsen
%J International Review for the Sociology of Sport
%@ 1461-7218
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/1012690217725906
%X In this paper we present results concerning how students in a Danish upper secondary school negotiate between sports culture and the prevailing norms of youth culture in a local school context. The study shows that it can be rather difficult for young people to combine sports culture with the local youth culture, because living a healthy and physically active life doesnĄ¯t fit very well with the prevailing norms of youth culture, which involve a dominant social arena characterized by parties and alcohol. By applying the figurational sociology of Norbert Elias, this article shows that being included in a sports figuration can result in exclusion from the youth figuration. Young athletic students are therefore in a constant process of negotiation, where they struggle to fit into both sport and non-sport related contexts, because it is important to belong within both. The study is based on 16 focus group interviews [N=120] conducted over four years in one Danish upper secondary school
%K figurational sociology
%K focus group interviews
%K physical education
%K school-based research
%K sports culture
%K youth culture
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1012690217725906