Accessibility to sports facilities for girls with foreign background : A mixed methods study exploring accessibility and experiences within the sports movement in Stockholm and Huddinge municipality

Abstract: The thesis aims to explore accessibility to sports facilities for 10-20-year-old girls with foreign background and their experiences of being a prioritized group, as stated in political sports programs. The participation in sports is low for this group and in Stockholm municipality, where there is a shortage of sports facilities, there are few opportunities to practice. Doing mixed methods, integrating maps made in GIS and interviews, both spatial and spatial-temporal accessibility was explored in order to get a comprehensive understanding of accessibility to sports facilities. By interviewing their coaches, experiences regarding how they are prioritized and what obstacles they face are explored. Further, previous research of accessibility is mainly about proximity and distribution, therefore, I include time as an aspect, using time-geography as an analytical tool to understand the experiences. The result shows time plays an important role, that they don’t feel prioritized and that they experience problems regarding transportation. Furthermore, the thesis discusses the conflict of optimal sports facility use and inclusion, how planning practice can contribute to a more inclusive sports environment and some implications for change.