We started our seminar with the belief that leisure activities might be potentially good places for youth, including newcomers, to find their way in Flemish society. In organisations such as Burn and Quindo young people can make friends, learn Dutch and come together in an informal way, whilst also building a network. This view is supported in a variety of academic literature: Peperkamp (2017) for example claims that leisure activities are similar to Turner’s ritual: it is a moment where norms, rules and divisions are temporarily absent, the presence of certain symbols (words, images) may allow people to identify with each other. In this view, leisure activities like football, dancing and playing games may enable people from different ethnic backgrounds to come together and feel like they have something in common. This highlights the notion of conviviality- “a concept that prioritises ordinary, daily interactions, through which people may find out that ethnic differences do not matter as much as ‘taste, lifestyles, leisure preferences’" (Gilroy cited in Peperkamp, 2017, p. 10). Furthermore, leisure can be associated with the ideal form of freedom. Autonomy of choice of activity, mobility, time use and the nature of the leisure activity give leisure this freedom characteristic. Apart from this, leisure practices are temporally and spatially bound and linked with gender, class, race, ethnicity, politics and subculture (Wagner & Peeters, 2013, p. 415).
Leisure and space
Leisure involves interactions of people with places in chosen spaces, which are an essential element of leisure. Often, these spaces are public and have a gendered, sexualised and racialised status (Wagner & Peeters, 2013, p. 417). Henderson and Frelke (2000, p. 23) explain the power relations in leisure spaces “individuals interested in leisure cannot ignore the control of space, the segregation of space and the effective exclusion of certain social groups from certain leisure spaces and places at particular times.” Furthermore, Green and Singleton (2006), say that public spaces in Western societies are dominated by white, heterosexual men, whilst other groups are excluded. For example, Deem’s (1986) study of women’s leisure in Milton Keynes (UK) shows the spatial inequity of leisure opportunities for women and men by showing women’s fear of violence and men’s control over women’s leisure activities and male ideas about where women should and should not be permitted to go. Wagner and Peeters (2013, p. 427) add that Moroccan women living in Dutch society consider their fears of violence, the dynamics of religious and cultural acceptance and expectations as incorporated into their involvement in leisure activities. Although leisure activities can create safe spaces of belonging therefore, it is clear that they can also create fear.
Leisure and the sense of belonging
Spracklen and his colleagues (2017, p. 772) consider leisure to be a social activity also for immigrants and diasporic communities. Lundvall and Walseth (2014, p. 7) demonstrate that involvement in sports communities that develop around team sports, is more likely to increase feelings of belonging than involvement in individual sports. They claim that the greater need for reciprocity in team sports explain this, as it involves doing something for someone in return for what he or she does for you during the sport practice. Individuals practicing a team sport, feel a sense of belonging towards the community built around the team as they take part in practices and follow the rules and norms set out by the team. Moreover, Peperkamp points out that in the study of the sense of belonging, it might be better to focus on leisure practices rather than on ethnicity: “[Leisure rituals] need further study, not in order to find out how they influence ethnic identity, but how they influence a sense of belonging in spite of, instead of, or in addition to (ethnic) identity” (2017, p. 10). One of our interviewees for example, views leisure activities as a good way to make people feel welcome and to get to know Belgian culture in a fun way.
The sense of belonging is often challenged when one is a religious or cultural ‘other’ in a given context. Mata-Codesal, Peperkamp and Tiesler (2015, p. 1) add that "migrants leisure activities contribute to self-perception, daily life organisation, multiple embeddedness and sense of belonging". Leisure can create connections and distance, to and with the homeland and the host society. Horolet (2015, p. 6) continues by saying that one of the characteristics of leisure is being a micro-practice of negotiation and constructing one's identity in a (new) environment. Nonetheless, a dilemma of double identities can arise when conflicts between social classes are intertwined with ties to cultural origins and membership of minority groups (Landvill & Walseth, 2014, p. 8). Additionally, the often gendered structure of the family increases challenges for women, “young women must integrate family and day-to-day experiences in their struggle to form their own individual identity" (Landvill & Walseth, 2014, p. 8). Landvill and Walseth (2014, p. 8) conclude in their ethnographic study on migrant women in Nordic countries that young women with diverse backgrounds may participate differently and may expect different outcomes from participating in sports activities, this may lead to different forms and feelings of belongings. During our participant observation we have seen that not all participants visit leisure activities to fully cooperate, some only want to hang around. For them, that is enough to feel at ease while others do actively participate.
Challenges of organising leisure activities
Hemingway (in Spracklen et al, 2017, p. 874) claims that leisure brings people with common purposes into communicative interaction, although it should be mentioned that some will find themselves excluded as noted by Spracklen and colleagues (2017, p. 874). Leisure spaces have the potential to act as a space where a feeling of belonging can be created but at the same time they can have the effect of differentiating and distinguishing certain groups from culturally constructed others. Leisure spaces, are also shaped by power relations concerning the inclusivity and exclusivity of those spaces (Spracklen et al., 2017, p. 875). Lundvall and Walseth (2014, p. 3) summarise that the feeling of belonging does not automatically arise from participation in leisure practices alone, the feeling of being a fully worthy participant and being fully accepted for who you are is crucial to creating this feeling. Having said this, spaces where sports are practiced, for example may offer a place where self-identity and embodied capacities can be built, feelings of belonging can be increased. Lundvall and Walseth (2014, p. 3) also confirm that sports activities may diminish or intensify feelings of difference or belonging.
"Leisure is the perfect starting point to discover the world."
Leisure is a place where young people "learn Dutch a lot more, make new friends, and learn how to integrate in a very easy and playful way". The interviewees of our supporting actor OKAN-MijnLeuven all agreed that, leisure activities are a fun way to find one’s way into Belgian society. For example, Bruno claims: "recreation is the easiest way to integrate into a society. But also the easiest way to learn a language because you are doing it without even noticing it. It is also way more fun to do it that way." For Ken, integration does not mean that those who arrive in Belgium must feel only Belgian and lose part of their own cultural identity. Integration in his eyes means that they feel welcome and keep their cultural personality. Bruno adds that leisure activities can also be a moment of escaping reality and make young people feel like they are 16 years old and not have to think of responsibilities back home, helping parents or taking care of siblings. At leisure activities the youth can be themselves, have fun and play. Furthermore, through leisure activities connections that build networks can be made easily. Two young people might not speak the same language but you know they both like the activity they are attending, on this Mohamed says: "Maybe you do not speak the same language but you love football so the next thing is Ronaldo, Messi and then you are gone." It is explained that as a social worker you build bridges and people can use those bridges to build their own bridges that will form networks. The difficulty is to find common ground and leisure activities are a way of doing that. Finding common grounds is a way to build bridges that form networks. Bruno adds:
"Participating in a leisure network in a city or village is eventually participating in the local society. When you can play football, you meet new friends, you see that they are going to the Chiro and they talk good about it. So you decide to join. […] So I think that leisure is the perfect starting point to discover the world."
We saw these ideas reflected amongst viewpoints of the organisers at the central actors. Broos noted that for him radio is one way to achieve these goals, others he said, may offer football or dancing, but by offering a ‘space’ for an activity networks can be created and a sense of belonging, or a feeling of being ‘rooted’ to a place can be established. The organisers of Burn meanwhile explained that they started offering urban arts to the youth of Leuven because they were missing this in their own youth and they thought it was important to offer them. During all these kind of activities, the non-Dutch speakers and Dutch speakers can get to know each other, which can lead to a more multicultural and pleasant society.
The academic literature as well as our interviewees clearly see leisure activities as a good manner to create a sense of belonging. It is clear though that sport clubs or leisure organisations and teams have to invest as much as the participant to give the participant the sense of being welcome and even then, the structure and mentality of clubs can create obstacles that hinder the process.