The bridge as playground: Organizing sport in public space

Abstract

This article deals with sport activities of youths on public playgrounds in the Netherlands and the organizing practices they are engaged in. In the evaluation of the social value of sport the metaphor of the bridge is widely used. Predominantly the bridge stands for ideals of connection and social inclusion through sport, while processes of separation and exclusion remain underexposed. In this article, I will argue that the real places where sport is organized are not functioning as bridges but as heterotopia. That is, sport sites are places of contrast and alternate orderings. I will use data from an ethnographic study of sport on public playgrounds in disadvantaged urban neighborhoods to make the argument that organizing sport is about (1) defining space, (2) playing with different orders, (3) making internal differences, and (4) contesting external boundaries.