The aim of this collaborative project with Swedish school-age educare (SAEC) teachers was to understand and develop teaching, focusing on games, physical activities, and outdoor excursions. Children's insufficient physical activity is a societal problem, and because most Swedish students age 6 to 9 are enrolled in SAEC, this can be a critical educational arena. The concept of powerful knowledge is used to emphasize knowledge that can help students handle contemporary and future challenges, operationalized here by using a typology of roles students are invited to enter by doing activities. The findings show that some roles are more frequent than others, often connected to voluntariness, free time, and teachers' relational approach. The findings also show that in the transformation of teaching, the how question seem more of a dilemma to the SAEC teachers than the what and why questions. We argue that SAEC teaching offers great possibilities to combine different student roles in a way that is more likely to connect knowledge about games, physical activities, and outdoor excursions to their own or others' lives and society. At the same time, teachers experience great challenges in how to teach in a way that meets the specific goals of SAEC education.

Målsättningen med Innebandy Flex är att sänka trösklarna och öka tillgängligheten för att skapa ett livslångt intresse för innebandy. Syftet med rapporten var att undersöka om Innebandy Flex med förenklade regler och mer flexibla träningsformer kan bidra till en inkluderande och tillgänglig idrottsaktivitet. Rapporten presenterar resultat från en studie som undersökt Innebandy Flex inom skola och förening.

Deltagarna som ingick i undersökningen var indelade i två urvalsgrupper. Den ena urvalsgruppen var låg- och mellanstadieelever och lärare på en grundskola i Värmland. Den andra urvalsgruppen var spelare och ledare som var aktiva i en innebandyförening i Värmland där de spelar Innebandy Flex. För att förstå relationen mellan deltagarnas upplevelser och spelets faktiska situationer användes fokusgruppsintervjuer och videoobservationer. Därutöver gjordes en individuell intervju med en lärare och en gemensam intervju med föreningens sportchef och Innebandy Flex-ansvarig.

Innebandy Flex gav spelarna mer tid med bollen, vilket underlättade bollkontroll och delaktighet, särskilt för nybörjare. Men krävde samtidigt spelförståelse för att utnyttjas fullt ut. Spelet präglades av lägre tempo och mindre fysisk kontakt än traditionell innebandy. Det skapade ett mer strukturerat och organiserat spel men kunde bidra till minskad rörelse och intensitet.

Innebandy Flex i föreningen framstod som en lågtröskelverksamhet som möjliggjorde deltagande oavsett ålder, erfarenhet eller fysisk nivå. Den kravlösa strukturen, där spelare kunde komma och gå utan närvarokrav eller ekonomiska krav, ökade tillgängligheten för att spela innebandy.  Resultatet visade att implementeringen av Innebandy Flex i föreningen krävde att föreningens ledning såg värdet av verksamheten och hade en vilja att det skulle vara en del av den ordinarie verksamheten. Det krävde att föreningen var tydlig med och hade uthållighet i grundkonceptet om flexibilitet, låga trösklar och ett inkluderande förhållningssätt så att personer med varierande erfarenhet av innebandy kunde delta.

Resultatet visade att Innebandy Flex kan vara en inkluderande och anpassad idrottsaktivitet i skolan. När elever ges ökat tidsutrymme och under spelet, förbättras deras upplevelse av kontroll och kompetens, vilket i sin tur kan främja både engagemang och upplevd kompetens. För att eleverna ska förstå och kunna tillämpa Innebandy Flex bör det sker vid flera tillfällen. Genom att organisera undervisningen i en serie lektioner kan eleverna lära sig och skapa ett intresse för att spela innebandy. För att Innebandy Flex ska fungera är det viktigt att tänka på elevernas erfarenhet av innebandy. Därför är det viktigt att justera spelets svårighetsgrad baserat på gruppens behov och förmåga.

Vad rapporten visar är att när olika aktörer inom idrotten delar en gemensam vision är alternativa och nya former av idrott möjlig. Det är inte spelarna som behöver förändras utan spelet och organisationen förändras för att tillgängliggöra idrotten för fler. Det är en strategi som kan nå fler än att erbjuda mer av samma för att locka de som redan valt bort eller valts bort i idrotten. Med flexibla regler och flexibel organisation kan innebandy göras tillgänglig för fler genom Innebandy Flex.

In this chapter, we discuss masculinity in relation to Swedish sports for children with refugee backgrounds. Specifically, we explore how the structure of sports shapes the distinct conditions for their athletic endeavours, including the traits associated with masculinity, which are perceived favourably in sports because they align with the physical and mental norms of male athletes, thereby reinforcing hegemonic masculinity. Moreover, we aim to show that perspectives valorising masculinity can frame children with refugee backgrounds as passive athletes who lack agency. Thus, we discuss two refinements of inclusivity in sports for children with refugee backgrounds in terms of (a) stereotyped notions of gender and refugees and (b) substantial links between desired masculinity and expectations of a perfect match with the Swedish sports system. 

Societal changes during the last few decades have given rise to the expansion of extended systems in nations across the world. Despite differences regarding age groups and relations to compulsory school, the task of extended education is primarily to provide participants with possibilities to learn general or specific content and foster their' socioemotional and academic development and learning. In Sweden, the great majority of the younger pupils attend extended education in terms of the school-age educare centres (SAEC), where they meet teaching connected to four different central content defined in the curricula, of which one relates to games, physical activities and outdoor excursions. This study aims to explore and understand how outdoor excursions in school-age educare can be understood in terms of human practising. Based on observations and the philosophy of human practising four themes are discussed: meaningful challenges, content to learn, standards of excellence and time.

This paper explores the mobility processes of rural youths in relation to sports. The mobility imperative has its basis in the fact that rural youths must be mobile to gain access to the resources they need to shape their lives and create their own identities. The mobility imperative is analysed as a constellation of interrelated processes in which material inequalities, symbolic hierarchies and entanglements between bodies and places interact in a process that constitutes the mobility of young rural dwellers. This study is based on research conducted in a rural community in Sweden. We conducted interviews with eight individuals and one focus group. The analysis, inspired by biographical interviews framed according to a critical realist perspective, focused on the interviewees' subjective experiences and how broader social structures affected these experiences. The results of the analysis indicate that mobility is an inevitable necessity for sports participation during childhood. The rural sport mobility imperative is an interaction of related processes, such as a limited supply of sports clubs and facilities, limited access to sports activities that are highly valued in contemporary youth culture and an affective conflict in establishing a connection to urban places for sport interactions.

The concept of the Anthropocene highlights humanity'ssignificant influence on climates and ecosystems. If the Anthropocene signifies the decline of nature as weonce knew it, how might this transformation influencethe sporting activities that take place in naturalenvironments? This situation prompts a renegotiationnot only of the future of sport places but also of ourshared history and individuals’ feelings and identities associated with it. Ultimately, these changes influencesports culture and reshape our understanding of what sports mean to us.

Research shows that the conditions for sports have changed and will continue to be affected by climate change (Bernard et al., 2021). For example, winter sports, such as skiing, will be impacted by shorter and less intense winter seasons (Rice et al., 2022). In sport ecology research, there is a growing need for more in depthanalyses and new perspectives to create a better understanding of the connections between sport and the natural environment (McCullough, 2023). In this context, the study of sports places is particularly significant, not only to assess the direct effects of climate change on these areas, but also to explore the broader social and cultural implications.

The aim is to theoretically and empirically deepen the understanding of how the sense of belonging to outdoor places for sport intersects with the environmental and social changes associated with the Anthropocene.

The project is based on a critical realist case study design using historical documentation and three generation interviews. It focuses on three case sites—a ski resort, an equestrian facility, and an outdoor sports facility— that are historically significant to Swedish sports life and now undergoing transformation in the Anthropocene. The project is theoretically based on a sociological and cultural–geographical perspective on place and belonging. 

Climate change affects not only nature but also the cultural practices related to sports, making the project particularly relevant for understanding how these changes manifest in people's everyday lives. Through an approach based on the relationship between the physical environment and people’s thoughts, desires and emotions, the project is expected to contribute to a new perspective on sports in the Anthropocene and provide knowledge on how the Anthropocene affects and changes people’s sense of belonging to outdoor places for sports.

Physically inactive children in rural areas are overlooked in research because of the dominance of urban perspectives focusing on physical activity rather than inactivity. The aim of this article is to examine an emerging collective story of how physically inactive children (aged 9-11 years) in two rural areas experience their relationships with physical activity. Based on praxis-oriented sociocultural theorising, this study focuses on how practical physical activity is understood by rural children as part of their sociocultural environment. Five focus group interviews with 21 physically inactive rural children in western Sweden were conducted. Experiences and behaviours that the children emphasised as central to their inactivity were analysed as sociocultural expressions in a collective story about physical activity. To underline the importance of narratives for behaviour in the sociocultural environment, the collective story is presented through three composite narratives told by three fictional characters: 'Robin, the shy one', 'Kim, the farm kid', and 'Angry Alex'. Characteristic of these inactive rural children is a lack of self-confidence, a lack of meaning, and difficulties in managing social physical activities. Common to the behaviours that follow from the children's experiences is that they are perceived as deviating from what is expected of them in accordance with the cultural story about a physically active child. The analysis shows that the underlying cause is the discrepancy between the children's understanding of physical activity and the understanding conveyed via institutions informed by urban perspectives such as, for example, school. For instance, children view physical activity as part of daily labour at the same time that the school teaches physical activities intended for recreational purposes in spare time. Institutions should make room for more interpretations, including rural ones, of the meaning of physical activity and, thus, contribute to reconstructing the cultural narrative about physical activity.

Sports can help refugees mitigate traumas, connect with others, and learn positive values. In this illustrative comparative study, we compare two sport programs for the acculturation of refugees in the US and Sweden. Our aim is to describe both programs, compare them with the literature, and present suggestions for the field. Hence, we placed the program participants at the center of their acculturation process and used interpretivism to understand their experiences of joining the program and engaging with the sport culture in their countries of resettlement, as well as to account for the benefits they perceived from participation.