Fan culture and social inclusion of people with disabilities
Brief description:
Even in those cases where children, adolescents and adults with disabilities are well integrated in school and at work, their participation in society is often much less successful outside these formal settings. When it comes to leisure activities, there are only a few situations in which one can speak of successful inclusion. One way to overcome existing barriers is to engage in certain hobbies together. Due to its popularity, football has a particularly high potential to serve as a connecting link. This applies not only to the active practice of the sport, but also to the interest in it. Even people with intellectual impairments can usually acquire sufficient knowledge about their favourite club, team and league to be able to hold a conversation with other people on this basis. Wearing clothes with the club's emblem in public and attending public viewing events or stadium games creates many opportunities for direct interaction.
The aim of our project is to explore the lives of fans with disabilities and, based on their experiences, to find ways of making the best use of football's potential in order to implement the idea of inclusion in leisure activities more effectively than before. In cooperation with various clubs from different leagues in Germany and England, we conduct detailed discussions with disabled supporters who, because of their sense of belonging to a particular club, also feel that they are part of a larger group of people in the middle of society.
Project partners:
Prof. Dr Stephen Macdonald (University of Sunderland)
Prof. Dr. Kris Southby (Leeds Beckett University)
Ongoing qualification work:
Dr. Carsten Klöpfer (habilitation)
Selected literature:
Grünke, M., Ropohl, B. & Semmling, H. (2016). Facilitating social inclusion of young adults with learning disorders through football fandom. Insights into Learning Disabilities, 13, 103-115.
Grünke, M., Southy, K. & Macdonald, S. (2018). Fostering social inclusion of people with learning disabilities through football fandom. Paper presented at the annual conference of the British Educational Research Association in Newcastle, UK (September 11-13).
Hagen, T., Klöpfer, C., Müller, C., Staffen, D. & Grünke, M. (2017). Jugendliche mit dem Förderschwerpunkt Lernen, die sich in der Inklusion wohl fühlen: Was schätzen sie an ihrem schulischen Umfeld? Zeitschrift für Heilpädagogik, 68, 275-293.