Just turn up: informal sport and participatory social life in the superdiverse city

该项目探讨了在城市公共空间参与非正式体育活动有助于社会互动和城市包容的程度和方式。在以高度多样化的移民定居和社会不平等为特征的城市中，该项目将研究非正式体育是否以及如何激活公共空间，具有社会联系，并具有健康和福祉影响。2019冠状病毒病危机的经历使人们更加认识到需要无障碍的户外空间进行体育活动和社交生活。该项目将重点关注非正式体育如何利用和重新定义城市空间，作为探索“好城市”的一种手段（Amin 2006）非正式体育，在这里被定义为同伴组织的、非俱乐部或收费的体育，在这种体育中，运动员通常通过“出现”的方式参与，越来越受欢迎，涉及社会和种族多样化的群体，而这些群体往往在俱乐部体育中代表性不足（sport England 2020）。有些类型的非正式运动是大家熟悉的（足球、街头板球），而另一些则相对较新（排球、公园跑和城市步行团体），反映了这种社会参与模式的活力。有迹象表明，社交媒体和移民定居有助于这种活力和非正式体育的扩展（Wise et al, 2018）非正式体育通常发生在日常公共空间，该项目将目光投向健身房和俱乐部的墙壁之外，专注于公园和住宅区设施的体育活动，或“重复使用”的空间，如住宅街道和小巷。随着城市变得更加不平等和异质化，政策越来越重视体育和健康举措，通过当地社区内无障碍的户外活动促进城市人口的包容、福祉和健康（英国公共卫生部2017年；英国体育2020年）。然而，在城市的不同地区，公共空间的使用方式和程度是不一样的。而且，非正式体育的“潜规则”可能会把一些人排除在外，尽管它们会包容其他人。这是一个积极的过程，在这个过程中，户外空间可能被其他被排斥的群体占用，与体育相关的活动可能为他们提供居住和主张城市权利的方式（Aquino等人，2021年）。然而，这一权利可能仍有争议。在此背景下，研究考察了非正式体育参与的增长和排外、线上和线下动态，以及它产生的社会、空间和福祉结果。该项目位于两个比较案例研究城市（谢菲尔德和伦敦），使用了定性方法，结合了社会地图、访谈、参与者观察和数字人种学。该项目围绕四个工作包（WP）进行组织，重点是：非正式体育活动的地域和类型（WP1）；支持和加强非正式体育的社会媒体环境（WP2）；参加不同类型非正式体育的人的做法、互动和经验（工作计划3），以及体育、凝聚力、城市设计和卫生政策行为者对非正式体育的福祉和排斥作用的看法（工作计划4）。该项目将产生学术成果，在体育、健康、包容、超级多样性和城市空间方面作出跨学科贡献。它将与社区和组织合作伙伴一起使用创造性和基于政策的方法，开发以影响为重点的资源和活动，旨在共同吸引更广泛的非学术公众。

The project explores the extent and ways in which participation in informal sport in urban public spaces contribute to social interaction and urban inclusion. In cities characterised by high levels of superdiverse migrant settlement and social inequality the project will examine whether and how informal sport animates public spaces, is socially connective and has health and wellbeing implications. The experience of the Covid-19 crisis has sharpened awareness of the need for accessible outdoor spaces for physical activities and for social life. This project will focus on how informal sport uses and redefines urban space as a means of exploring what makes for the 'good city' (Amin 2006)Informal sport, defined here as peer organised, non-club or fee-based sport, within which players often participate by 'just turning up', is increasingly popular and involves socially and ethnically diverse groups which tend to be under-represented in club-based sport (Sport England 2020). While some types of informal sport are familiar ('jumpers for goal posts' football, street cricket) others are relatively new (volleyball, parkrun and urban walking groups) reflecting the vitality of this mode of social participation. There are indications that social media and migrant settlement contribute to this vitality and the expansion of informal sport (Wise et al 2018)Informal sport typically takes place in everyday public spaces and the project looks outside the walls of the gym and club to focus on sport activities in parks and facilities on housing estates or 'reused' spaces such as residential streets and alleyways. As cities become more unequal and heterogeneous there has been an increased policy emphasis on sport and health initiatives that promote inclusion, wellbeing and the health of urban populations through accessible outdoor activities within local neighbourhoods (Public Health England 2017; Sport England 2020). However, public space is not available in the same way or to the same extent in different parts of cities. And the 'unspoken rules' of informal sport can still exclude some even as they include others. This is an active process in which outdoor spaces may be appropriated by otherwise excluded groups and sport-related activities may provide them with ways of inhabiting and claiming a right to the city (Aquino et al 2021). Nevertheless, this right may still be contested. In this context the research examines the growth and in/exclusionary, on and offline dynamics of informal sports participation and the social, spatial and wellbeing outcomes that it generates. Locating itself in two comparative case study cities, (Sheffield and London), the project uses a mix of qualitative methods combining social mapping, interviews, participant observation and digital ethnography. The project is organised around four Work Packages (WP) which focus on: the geographies and types of informal sport activities (WP1); the social media environments which support and enhance informal sport (WP2); the practices, interactions and experiences of those taking part in different types of informal sport (WP 3) and the perspectives of sport, cohesion, urban design and health policy actors on the wellbeing and in/exclusionary role of informal sport (WP4). The project will generate academic outputs to make interdisciplinary contributions on sport, health, inclusion, superdiversity and urban space. It will use creative and policy-based approaches with community and organisational partners to develop impact focused resources and activities aimed at collaboratively engaging wider non-academic publics.