IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/socinc/v5y2017i2p130-140.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A New Model for Inclusive Sports? An Evaluation of Participants’ Experiences of Mixed Ability Rugby

Author

Listed:
  • Martino Corazza

    (International Mixed Ability Sports, UK)

  • Jen Dyer

    (Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds, UK)

Abstract

Sport has been recognised as a potential catalyst for social inclusion. The Mixed Ability Model represents an innovative approach to inclusive sport by encouraging disabled and non-disabled players to interact in a mainstream club environment. However, research around the impacts of the Model is currently lacking. This paper aims to contribute empirical data to this gap by evaluating participants’ experiences of Mixed Ability Rugby and highlighting implications for future initiatives. Primary qualitative data were collected within two Mixed Ability Rugby teams in the UK and Italy through online questionnaires and focus groups. Data were analysed using Simplican et al.’s (2015) model of social inclusion. Data show that Mixed Ability Rugby has significant potential for achieving inclusionary outcomes. Positive social impacts, reported by all participants, regardless of (dis)ability, include enhanced social networks, an increase in social capital, personal development and fundamental perception shifts. Factors relevant to the Mixed Ability Model are identified that enhance these impacts and inclusionary outcomes. The mainstream setting was reportedly the most important, with further aspects including a supportive club environment and promotion of self-advocacy. A ‘Wheel of Inclusion’ is developed that provides a useful basis for evaluating current inclusive sport initiatives and for designing new ones.

Suggested Citation

  • Martino Corazza & Jen Dyer, 2017. "A New Model for Inclusive Sports? An Evaluation of Participants’ Experiences of Mixed Ability Rugby," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(2), pages 130-140.
  • Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v:5:y:2017:i:2:p:130-140
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/908
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. S. Darcy & H. Maxwell & M. Edwards & J. Onyx & S. Sherker, 2014. "More than a sport and volunteer organisation: Investigating social capital development in a sporting organisation," Sport Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 395-406, October.
    2. Edwards, Michael B., 2015. "The role of sport in community capacity building: An examination of sport for development research and practice," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 6-19.
    3. Michael B. Edwards, 2015. "The role of sport in community capacity building: An examination of sport for development research and practice," Sport Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 6-19, January.
    4. Kyle A. Rich & Laura Misener & Dan Dubeau, 2015. "“Community Cup, We Are a Big Family”: Examining Social Inclusion and Acculturation of Newcomers to Canada through a Participatory Sport Event," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 3(3), pages 129-141.
    5. Lyras, Alexis & Welty Peachey, Jon, 2011. "Integrating sport-for-development theory and praxis," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 311-326.
    6. Roger Levermore, 2010. "for Development Through Sport: examining its potential and limitations," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(2), pages 223-241.
    7. James Skinner & Dwight H. Zakus & Jacqui Cowell, 2008. "Development through Sport: Building Social Capital in Disadvantaged Communities," Sport Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(3), pages 253-275, September.
    8. Darcy, S. & Maxwell, H. & Edwards, M. & Onyx, J. & Sherker, S., 2014. "More than a sport and volunteer organisation: Investigating social capital development in a sporting organisation," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 395-406.
    9. Skinner, James & Zakus, Dwight H. & Cowell, Jacqui, 2008. "Development through Sport: Building Social Capital in Disadvantaged Communities," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 253-275, November.
    10. Kim Wickman, 2015. "Experiences and Perceptions of Young Adults with Physical Disabilities on Sports," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 3(3), pages 39-50.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jen Dyer & Rachel Sandford, 2023. "‘Just Another Outing in a Boat’: Findings from the Evaluation of the Mixed Ability Sport Development Programme," Disabilities, MDPI, vol. 3(3), pages 1-17, July.
    2. Chiara D'Angelo & Chiara Corvino & Eloisa Cianci & Caterina Gozzoli, 2020. "Sport for Vulnerable Youth: The Role of Multi-Professional Groups in Sustaining Intersectoral Collaboration," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(3), pages 129-138.
    3. Reinhard Haudenhuyse, 2017. "Introduction to the Issue “Sport for Social Inclusion: Questioning Policy, Practice and Research”," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(2), pages 85-90.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Schulenkorf, Nico, 2017. "Managing sport-for-development: Reflections and outlook," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 243-251.
    2. Jones, Gareth J. & Edwards, Michael B. & Bocarro, Jason N. & Bunds, Kyle S. & Smith, Jordan W., 2018. "Leveraging community sport organizations to promote community capacity: Strategic outcomes, challenges, and theoretical considerations," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 279-292.
    3. Jones, Gareth J. & Edwards, Michael B. & Bocarro, Jason N. & Svensson, Per G. & Misener, Katie, 2020. "A community capacity building approach to sport-based youth development," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 563-575.
    4. Edwards, Michael B. & Rowe, Katie, 2019. "Managing sport for health: An introduction to the special issue," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 1-4.
    5. Edwards, Michael B., 2015. "The role of sport in community capacity building: An examination of sport for development research and practice," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 6-19.
    6. Harris, Kevin & Adams, Andrew, 2016. "Power and discourse in the politics of evidence in sport for development," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 97-106.
    7. Mathieu Marlier & Bram Constandt & Cleo Schyvinck & Thomas De Bock & Mathieu Winand & Annick Willem, 2020. "Bridge over Troubled Water: Linking Capacities of Sport and Non-Sport Organizations," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(3), pages 139-151.
    8. Bruening, Jennifer E. & Peachey, Jon Welty & Evanovich, Justin M. & Fuller, Rhema D. & Murty, Cassandra J. Coble & Percy, Vernon E. & Silverstein, Lauren A. & Chung, Michael, 2015. "Managing sport for social change: The effects of intentional design and structure in a sport-based service learning initiative," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 69-85.
    9. Batty, Rachel J. & Gee, Sarah, 2019. "Fast food, fizz, and funding: Balancing the scales of regional sport organisation sponsorship," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 167-179.
    10. Dowling, Mathew & Edwards, Jonathon & Washington, Marvin, 2014. "Understanding the concept of professionalisation in sport management research," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 520-529.
    11. Welty Peachey, Jon & Cohen, Adam & Shin, Nari & Fusaro, Bruno, 2018. "Challenges and strategies of building and sustaining inter-organizational partnerships in sport for development and peace," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 160-175.
    12. Welty Peachey, Jon & Borland, John & Lobpries, Jami & Cohen, Adam, 2015. "Managing impact: Leveraging sacred spaces and community celebration to maximize social capital at a sport-for-development event," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 86-98.
    13. Schulenkorf, Nico & Siefken, Katja, 2019. "Managing sport-for-development and healthy lifestyles: The sport-for-health model," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 96-107.
    14. Ali, Maged & Azab, Nahed & Sorour, M. Karim & Dora, Manoj, 2019. "Integration v. polarisation among social media users: Perspectives through social capital theory on the recent Egyptian political landscape," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 461-473.
    15. Matthew Walker & Stephen Hills & Bob Heere, 2017. "Evaluating a Socially Responsible Employment Program: Beneficiary Impacts and Stakeholder Perceptions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 143(1), pages 53-70, June.
    16. Kuang-Hua Hu & Fu-Hsiang Chen & Gwo-Hshiung Tzeng, 2016. "Evaluating the Improvement of Sustainability of Sports Industry Policy Based on MADM," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-21, June.
    17. Hanna Nałęcz & Łukasz Skrok & Dawid Majcherek & Elżbieta Biernat, 2020. "Through Sport to Innovation: Sustainable Socio-Economic Development in European Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-16, December.
    18. Ying Yan & Abdol Aziz Shahraki, 2023. "Exploring the Mutual Relationships between Public Space and Social Satisfaction with Case Studies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-15, May.
    19. Ho Fai Chan & David A. Savage & Benno Torgler, 2021. "Sport as a Behavioral Economics Lab," CREMA Working Paper Series 2021-20, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    20. Lock, Daniel & Filo, Kevin & Kunkel, Thilo & Skinner, James, 2013. "Thinking about the same things differently: Examining perceptions of a non-profit community sport organisation," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 438-450.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v:5:y:2017:i:2:p:130-140. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.