Reconceptualising informality in sport participation: Towards understanding (in)formalisation of sport governance

Abstract

The ongoing change in sport participation patterns is discussed often in the context of ‘informal’ sport on the rise and ‘formal’ sport struggling to attract more participants. While studies have revealed both ‘self-organised’ and ‘regulated’ aspects of ‘informal’ sport and indicated complex power relations in its governing processes, the possibly incongruent terms of ‘informal’ and ‘formal’ as modifiers of sport participation have not been fully explored. Drawing on an approach to (in)formality developed in urban studies, we aim to develop an alternative view to (in)formality in sporting contexts with which to better understand the governing processes of sport participation. This aim is better achieved after highlighting the risk of the terms ‘informal’ and ‘formal’, and associated binaries – organised/unorganised (self-organised), regulated/unregulated, and institutionalised/non-institutionalised – that can substantialise in/formality in a particular domain of sporting activities. The alternative view repositions (in)formality as processes rather than categories of participation forms. This perspective can reveal power relations manifested in the negotiation practices that stabilise and destabilise sporting resources, institutions, and even the differentiation between ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ sport itself, which will lead to unequal opportunities for participation.