Analysing the Process of Social Transformation for Social Inclusion through Sport: A Japanese Case

This paper examines how sport can contribute to transforming social structure so as to promote social inclusion. Drawing on the case study of a football-based homeless assistance programme in Japan, it attempts to theorise the process in which a sport-based programme enlarge not only the life chances of those who are severely excluded, but also its own organisational capacity to achieve that goal through interacting and networking with general public as well as similar organisations. This process is explained by referring to social theories such as Amartya Sen’s capability approach, Anthony Giddens’ structuration theory, and institutional as well as ecological approaches to organisational studies. The focal point of analysis is the organisational trajectory of Nobushi Japan, a football programme provided primarily for the vendors of the Big Issue Japan. While the programme was launched a decade ago so as to enter a team to the Homeless World Cup, it now domestically organises its own football tournament called the Diversity Cup, which connects a range of organisations trying to promote social inclusion for a variety of vulnerable people. Through this tournament, the model of social inclusion programme using football and other sporting activities has started to spread across the participating organisations. The paper is based on three years of consultancy and participant observation with Nobushi Japan, as well as semi-structured interviews with ten other organisations using sport to promote social inclusion, of which majority participate in the Diversity Cup. The paper concludes with some implications as to how a certain approach to social innovation gain legitimacy, and thus an organisational field is formed, resulting in gradual transformation of social structure.