Social Resilience, Migrant Integration and Informal Sport in Public Space

• The Australian and Singapore research is lead by Prof. Amanda Wise, A/Prof. Selvaraj Velayutham and Dr Kristine Aquino

The research is investigating the potential of informal team sport to foster social resilience and build social capital among vulnerable new and temporary migrants. In so doing, it will help us understand the everyday settings that shape migrant incorporation into our communities in modern multicultural Australia. It situates informal sport within public space and the built environment to understand the material and institutional resources that shape the social outcomes new migrants might access through social sport. ‘Informal team sport’ is defined as regular or semi-regular sporting participation that occurs in public or semi-public spaces where participants join in on a ‘turn up and play’ basis.

Although games can be competitive there are generally no formal rules, fees or memberships, nor referees. Participation may be neighbourhood based, games are sometimes ethnically bounded while others involve a mixture of backgrounds, and sites are gendered in varied ways. Evidence in Australia suggests that people participating in informal sport now outnumber those in formal amateur club competitions (Australian Sporting Commission2015) yet little is known about informal sporting cultures especially its social benefits to our cities (Jeanes et al., 2019).

We adopt an international comparative approach to gain insight into where Australia is doing well and where it can do better by investigating informal team sport in Sydney and Singapore –cities that receive large intakes of immigrant arrivals, from permanent settlers, refugees and asylum seekers to temporary migrants such as international students and low waged migrant workers. The project will deliver theoretical innovation and policy relevant findings around the connection between inclusive urban environments, social resilience and leisure cultures in diverse cities and the alternative ways vulnerable groups of migrants are incorporated into the wider society.

Just Turn Up: informal sport and social participation in the superdiverse city

ESRC 2022-2024 Team: Sarah Neal (PI), Clare Rishbeth (Co-I University of Sheffield), Bonnie Pang (Co-I University of Bath) and Keith Parry (Co-I Bournemouth University)