Korfball: A Model of Egalitarianism?

Summerfield, Karen; White, Anita

doi:10.1123/ssj.6.2.144

Cited by 17 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Players were often reluctant to think critically about accepted gender norms and on many occasions players would seem uncomfortable when prompted to explain their views, or when encouraged to consider normalised gender discourse. Yet, the findings from this study were more positive regarding equality within korfball, than previous studies displayed (Crum 1988;Thompson and Finnigan 1990;Summerfield and White 1989).…”

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 55%

“…The main catalyst for the development of korfball was a perceived need for a competitive mixed sport that relied on cooperation, where rules were designed to encourage boys and girls to participate on a level playing field, refute violence and form an egalitarian game (Summerfield and White, 1989). Within this context, Korfball offered an innovative and quite radical alternative to single-sex team sports that had been introduced to and developed in, schools around the same time (IKF, 2006).…”

Section: What Is Korfball?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The concept of playing together is a key constituent and the rules make teamwork obligatory (Emmerik, et al undated). During a korfball match two men and two women from one team attack, whilst the other two men and women from that team defend in the opposite section (Summerfield and White 1989). In essence, due to the splitting of the playing area into 2 halves, a four on four 'duel' takes place within each rectangle (Crum 2003).…”

Section: What Is Korfball?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Korfball was developed in 1902 by a Dutch Primary School teacher (IKF, 2006;Summerfield and White, 1989). The main catalyst for the development of korfball was a perceived need for a competitive mixed sport that relied on cooperation, where rules were designed to encourage boys and girls to participate on a level playing field, refute violence and form an egalitarian game (Summerfield and White, 1989).…”

Section: What Is Korfball?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sporting equality and gender neutrality in korfball

Gubby

Wellard

2015

Sport in Society

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This paper explores the extent to which korfball can be considered egalitarian. The intention of this research was to use ethnographic methods to discover the ways in which gender was negotiated, challenged or recreated in a junior korfball setting and examine to what extent korfball provided an opportunity to promote gender egalitarianism. Analysis of the data incorporated a broad Foucauldian lens and subsequently revealed that sex equality was visible to some degree in the junior korfball space. From observations and interviews it was clear that male domination was rarely evident when considering the vocal nature of the game, the physicality and competitiveness of players, or their general ability and skill, yet when interviewed players still constructed gender in traditional ways. Nevertheless, korfball was seen to offer a space where there were possibilities for sporting equality although the influence that the sport had beyond the court was less apparent. 5 key words: Korfball, Equality, Gender, Mixed-sex, Foucault Introduction While general opportunities for women to engage in sport have clearly improved in recent years, it would be difficult to argue that women are treated equally in all aspects of sport, whether at professional or recreational level. However, while claims that sport remains a predominantly male dominated arena are valid, it is still misleading to assume that all men automatically experience sport positively and all women will invariably have negative experiences. Consequently, one of the central issues at the heart of the gender debate (not only in sport) is the continued approach to treating women and men as completely separate and that their experiences will always be different. What is needed is a more nuanced approach that takes into consideration the complex forms of power operating between and around those that take part in any sporting activity. A Foucauldian lens is a useful starting point when investigating complex and multiple relationships of power. Unlike the binary understandings of power relationships often recognised through hegemony (Connell 2005), Foucault (1978: 94) suggests that power is not 'a system of domination exerted by one group over another'. Subsequently, many writers exploring the field of sport have utilised Foucault to investigate the complex power relations and multiple discourses that reside within sport or physical activity. For instance, Markula and Pringle (2006) in their research into rugby in 1 New Zealand highlight the influence of sport on the gendering of bodies where there is a presumption that the discourse of sport aids the production of contemporary gendered identities where 'masculine and feminine bodies are both docile, yet different' (Markula and Pringle, 2006: 100). By acknowledging these complex relationships of power, further insight can be made into why there remains a lack of appeal for sport by girls (and many boys). While it can be argued that there still remains a disparity between boys and girls levels of participation in sport (Ba...

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Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 55%

Section: What Is Korfball?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: What Is Korfball?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: What Is Korfball?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sporting equality and gender neutrality in korfball

Gubby

Wellard

2015

Sport in Society

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“…Moreover, while several scholars remain optimistic about the value of female success over male opponents in this respect, there is evidence that even these performances can be rationalized away, subsumed within dismissive or infantilizing discourse that neutralizes their subversive impact (Wachs 2005). Indeed, many sex-integrated sports that espouse the rhetoric of equality and egalitarianism, like floorball, korfball, roller derby, surfing, skydiving and snowboarding, very often in practice reproduce male dominance with respect to their organization, leadership, behavioural etiquette and differentiated styles of participation (see Booth 2002;Laurendeau and Sharara 2008;Summerfield and White 1989;Thorpe 2005; see also Comley; Larneby; Gubby and Wellard; Pavlidis and Connor -all this volume). …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The promises and pitfalls of sex integration in sport and physical culture

et al. 2015

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Scholars working in the academic field of sport studies have long debated the relationship between modern sport and gender (e.g. Hargreaves 1994; Hargreaves and Anderson 2014;Lenskyj 1986;Messner 2002). Within this body of work, modern sport forms -along with a great diversity of related activities, including dance, fitness training and physical education -have consistently been shown to carry meanings relative to the structures of gender prevailing in the wider social settings within which they take place, with patterns of participation and consumption clearly mapping onto gendered ideals. However, rather than simply mirroring such social norms, research suggests that many sporting practices were invented or have been purposefully developed in order to train young men and women in socially approved gender behaviours to begin with (Cahn 1994;Hargreaves 1994;Theberge 2000). Thus, much of contemporary physical culture finds its roots in the process which scholars describe as the 'social construction of gender'; in other words, doing sports and other activities in gender-differentiated ways has long been a means of producing and maintaining difference in the lives of men and women, girls and boys.Considering that such gender patterns are almost always implicated in structures of power (Lenskyj 1990;Roth and Basow 2004), then this purposeful division of the sexes becomes an important topic for scholars interested in the (re)production of inequality. For instance, feminist researchers have consistently argued that the institution of competitive sport has played a key role in symbolically validating male privilege (Messner 1988;Theberge 2000). Despite the fact that not all men enjoy participating in sports, the abilities of the male athlete nevertheless lend ideological support to the notion that 'real' men are brave, competitive, disciplined and physically strong -qualities highly valued and often associated with positions of power in wider social life. Concurrently, the exclusion of women from many high-profile sporting competitions throughout much of the twentieth century preserved sport as a symbolic space for celebrating men's embodiment of these 'masculine' virtues, while the tendency to stigmatize and ridicule female athletes when they did enter the 'male' sporting arena helped prevent them from effectively challenging the legitimacy of men's symbolic ownership of sport and its requisite qualities. 1While this historical narrative of sport as a 'male preserve' (Dunning 1986) has appeared widely throughout the vast body of scholarship on gender and physical culture, so too has there been a consistent fascination with the possibility for challenging or subverting male privilege within these exact same sites where it is otherwise seen to be produced and maintained. Principally, these arguments arise from research on women's participation in a range of sports and related activities. Here, there is compelling evidence of the potential for individual women to feel 'empowered' through the embodied experiences sport pr...

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Can korfball facilitate mixed-PE in the UK? The perspectives of junior korfball players

Gubby

2018

Sport, Education and Society

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Korfball was invented in a mixed Primary School in Amsterdam in the early 1900s (IKF, 2006;Summerfield and White, 1989). The main catalyst for the development of korfball was a need for a competitive mixed sport that relied on cooperation and meant boys and girls could participate on a level playing field (Summerfield and White, 1989). Previous research into gender in physical education (PE) has found that young people gain gender-related understandings

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Korfball: A Model of Egalitarianism?

Cited by 17 publications

References 2 publications

Sporting equality and gender neutrality in korfball

Sporting equality and gender neutrality in korfball

The promises and pitfalls of sex integration in sport and physical culture

Can korfball facilitate mixed-PE in the UK? The perspectives of junior korfball players

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