The will for inclusion : bothering the inclusion/exclusion discourses of sport

Worldwide, governments extol the virtues of sport for the benefit of the individual and society. Indeed, for many, participation in sport provides pleasure, a sense of achievement, companionship, identity, health outcomes, income etc. but there is more to sport than this. Sport is an embodied cultural practice that is invested with several interrelated biopolitical purposes beyond individual fulfilment, such as health promotion, social cohesion, and nation-building. The discourses of sport, often articulating assumptions about sport's inherent worthiness, permeate contemporary societies such that it is nearly impossible to sit outside the circulation of these discourses. Schools, families, community organisations, businesses, then media, government policies and associated services are all invested in the idea that the population should participate in sport. Thus, there is an enduring and omnipotent belief that non-participants, those 'excluded' from sport engagement for whatever reasons, should become participants such that they are 'included'. Given this will for inclusion, we suggest that one is never fully excluded from the discourses of sport, although some individuals might be excluded from the practices of sport. This is the first position we take in this chapter. Our second position, following from the first, is that inclusion and exclusion discourses of sport are not a binary; that is, in practice, children and young people move across a spectrum of engagement that may take them to a point of non-participation from the sporting practice (but not from the discourses). We suggest that this spectrum of engagement involves the circulation of power between the young people and the sporting contexts in which they are included/excluded. Thus, data are presented following two themes: choosing exclusion, where children and young people resist sport participation and being excluded, where children and young people are 'othered' in sporting contexts resulting in them becoming non-participants. Regardless of the level of engagement, we conclude that most children and young people in developed countries operate within the discourses of sport though not necessarily through physical engagement.