Vulnerable Groups at Risk for Sport and Social Exclusion

IntroductionThe practice of sport among groups at risk for social exclusion is a problem that has formed part of the Social Science and Sport research agenda in the past few years. In this sense, the production of articles in the national and international environment related to sport as a path or tool for the social inclusion of vulnerable groups or those that at least traditionally have been at the verge of normalized sport participation. In addition, there are already numerous efforts to understand sport, the logic or the context in which such activities can be developed for specific at risk groups such as women, ethnic minorities, prisoners, substance abusers, the homeless or immigrants among others. This study has as its objectives to bring together data from the literature in relation to sport among groups at risk of social exclusion. The researchers seek to understand the experiences of these groups including sport programming, and compile the data to shed light on some of the most socially excluded groups. Results obtained from the analysis instrument Atlas-Ti, brings to light the frameworks used in research studies found in the literature concerning this topic. Finally a research guide on the subject will be developed; a framework detailing the interaction of these groups and sport programs.The present manuscript is structured as detailed. The first section is intended to offer a general analytical framework as emerged from the analysis of the literature review, which highlight matters of interest on the topic of sport and vulnerable groups. The second section describes in detail the existing data from each of the groups. The third section will elaborate conclusions regarding the issues addressed and the findings for each of the groups analyzed, as well as matters on which it would be necessary to develop a deeper level of knowledge to address these groups.MethodTo analyze the scientific output on the subject of sport among groups at risk for exclusion, the researchers identified a total of 60 articles which identified nine social groups at risk of exclusion, namely people with disabilities, youth, substance abusers, women, immigrants, senior citizens, ethnic minorities, prisoners and the homeless. The search was conducted on the SCOPUS and DIALNET databases using the search terms: inclusion, social inclusion, sport, physical activity, integration, disability, addiction, women, immigrants, youth, elderly, third age, ethnic minority, gypsy, prisoners, incarcerated, people without a place to live using the Boolean operator "and", and eliminating the repeating articles. Other articles were found by using the snowball technique from references. We concluded the selection of articles selecting only those related directly to the topic under-study.All articles were analyzed with the instrument Atlas-TI. From the 60 articles analyzed, a total of 343 references with relevant content were extracted. These references gave way for 13 codes or themes of investigation which resulted in eight important "families" as termed by Atlas-Ti program (see Table 1). As visually explained in Table 1, a comprehensive analytical framework was developed listing the families leading to codes, to more clearly explain the results.The logic associated with practicing or not sport has been addressed in the literature. Apparent in the detailed analysis of groups, reasons for sport involvement from different social groups are closely related to aspects of culture and social character and religion and social functions. In this light sport is closely related to behavioral social expectations, such as the head of the family is responsible for the care of family members or household chores.Accordingly, much of the work analyzed for this study has been earmarked for the characterization of sport and specifically, the level of practice such as the frequency and intensity with which it is practiced; sport expressions performed, the different sport disciplines practiced by different groups and finally, the study of sport in the informal sphere also known as "out of control". …