Papers by Greg Yerashotis
This article examines the learning experiences of urbanized immigrant youth who took part in an o... more This article examines the learning experiences of urbanized immigrant youth who took part in an outdoor education component of a Sportfor-Development (SfD) program. Operated through an intersectoral partnership between the City of Toronto and the University of Toronto from 2017-2019, youth spent multiple weekends at the Hart House Farm, a University of Toronto-owned education facility located on the Niagara Escarpment. Drawing from participant-observation and focus group interviews, we analyze if, how, and why participation affected youth at personal, social, and political levels. The findings demonstrate how providing urban youth with access to the outdoors facilitated unique forms of learning based upon their newfound appreciation of the natural world. Not only did the trip teach them how to use outdoor leisure in support of their emotional wellbeing and personal growth, but it also fostered a more critical awareness of environmental justice and sustainability. Based upon these results, the authors call for further examination of how 'outdoor-focused SfD programming' can be marshalled to support more transformative forms of social learning and development in young people.
International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure, 2019
There has been recent academic attention focused on youth geographies. This literature has worked... more There has been recent academic attention focused on youth geographies. This literature has worked to emphasize youth experiences in urban life. Concomitantly, there has been a bourgeoning body of research directed at the evaluation of the sport mega-event as a catalyst of urban-spatial reform that has questioned the role of sport in the design of socially-equitable and environmentally-sustainable cities. In this paper, we examine the intersection between geographies of youth and the sport mega-event. Specifically, through a qualitative document analysis of relevant sport mega-event documentation, we compare and contrast written material with a thematic analysis of qualitative data collected with a small sample of newcomer youth in Toronto, Canada. Ultimately, we aim to explore the manner in which event-linked development priorities (and associated ideologies) manifest transnational (elite) representations of space through sport, and in turn, reconstruct urbanspatial fantasies of citizenship in the supposed diverse and inclusive Bhostĉ ontext. Our qualitative data demonstrate the extent to which the everyday places of newcomer youth, so filled with their own hope for the future, are most readily experienced as a perpetual negotiation between strategic exclusion and repressive inclusion-or the future otherwise envisioned for them.
Youth in Toronto tell their stories about sport – Insights from a participatory approach to research
International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure , 2019
There has been recent academic attention focused on youth geographies. This literature has worked... more There has been recent academic attention focused on youth geographies. This literature has worked to emphasize youth experiences in urban life. Concomitantly, there has been a bourgeoning body of research directed at the evaluation of the sport mega-event as a catalyst of urban-spatial reform that has questioned the role of sport in the design of socially-equitable and environmentally-sustainable cities. In this paper, we examine the intersection between geographies of youth and the sport mega-event. Specifically, through a qualitative document analysis of relevant sport mega-event documentation, we compare and contrast written material with a thematic analysis of qualitative data collected with a small sample of newcomer youth in Toronto, Canada. Ultimately, we aim to explore the manner in which event-linked development priorities (and associated ideologies) manifest transnational (elite) representations of space through sport, and in turn, reconstruct urbanspatial fantasies of citizenship in the supposed diverse and inclusive Bhostĉ ontext. Our qualitative data demonstrate the extent to which the everyday places of newcomer youth, so filled with their own hope for the future, are most readily experienced as a perpetual negotiation between strategic exclusion and repressive inclusion-or the future otherwise envisioned for them.
In this article, we conducted a critical discourse analysis of three Canadian corporations that u... more In this article, we conducted a critical discourse analysis of three Canadian corporations that used sport-for-youth-development (SYD) to fulfill part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR). Although the use of SYD has become an increasingly larger component of corporations' CSR, there is a dearth of scholarship examining advertising texts produced by corporations, particularly by corporations other than Nike. This article directly addresses this lack, contributing to the growing body of critical examinations of corporate presentations of SYD in the Canadian context. We examined four televised commercials to describe the discursive strategies used by the corporations to authorize a particular notion of SYD. Specifically, we examined how the semiotic choices in the commercials signified key discourses related to SYD and how these elements were used to attempt to educate viewers on specific truths about childhood and youth sport. We were also interested in the underlying assumptions of these constructions and the power relationships underpinning them. Analysis of the three corporations' texts revealed stark contradictions, difficulties, and tensions in their uses of SYD in televised commercials. We found that although the commercials presented some positive constructions of SYD, we argue that they predominantly produce and rely on several dominant discourses about youth sport, including: sport is a place of universal inclusivity, and sport has inherently " magical " qualities capable of providing all young people with contexts for positive youth development. We further argue that these CSR campaigns mirror the values of Canadian nationalism and construct SYD in a limited individualistic, consumerist manner that closely aligns with the ideologies of neoliberalism. These findings are important for researchers, educators, and SYD program developers, and we encourage other researchers to examine SYD in corporations' CSR campaigns.
Thesis Chapters by Greg Yerashotis
This dissertation explores if, how, and why participation in a community-based soccer program aff... more This dissertation explores if, how, and why participation in a community-based soccer program affected the lives of marginalized immigrant youth in global Toronto. Situated in one of Canada's most prominent ethnic communities (St. James Town), the researcher chronicles six years of immersive ethnographic fieldwork as a community soccer coach supervising a public intra-sectoral program partnership between a local community recreation centre and a high school. Emergent data was analyzed using a transdisciplinary theoretical approach based upon Affect philosophy's permeation through diverse fields of social science literature, ranging from (im)migration/urban sociology, post-structural feminism, and post-subcultural youth studies. A Theory of Social Inclusion Through Sport was next advanced that was grounded in the program's capacity to engage, develop, and integrate local youth in a manner that also facilitated diverse forms of belonging. Though 'subjective' (socio-emotional) aspects of inclusion were found to emerge from participation, findings regarding more 'objective' (socio-structural) components remained ambiguous. While engagement in programming made youth feel mostly included in their everyday lives, the localized character of their experiences limited community sport's ability to
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Papers by Greg Yerashotis
Thesis Chapters by Greg Yerashotis