Social Capital & Sport Activities : The Care of Post War Belgrade

• Main Author: Evertsson, Ronnie
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Högskolan i Jönköping, Internationella Handelshögskolan 2011
• Subjects: Sports for peace; Peace building; Peacemaking; International Aid; Social Capital; Sustainable Reconciliation; The Open Fun Football Schools
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-16333

”Sustainable reconciliation”, a form of international aid relief program, has been developed and constructed to help populations overcome war trauma, using different activities within art, entertainment and sports.  Theorists claim that if conducted properly, activities such as these, should lead to good social capital, causing higher levels of culture tolerance, gender equality and creativity, as well as better health and life satisfaction. This study has examined how the non-governmental organization, the Cross Cultural Project Association’s relief program, the Open Fun Football Schools has affected its participants in Belgrade, Serbia. A quantitative analysis has been conducted through the means of a multi question survey, to see if certain variables are correlated with the projects influence, “OFFS social capital”. According to the results, the activities did have positive effects on education, culture tolerance, gender equality, creativity, heath and life satisfaction. In addition the social capital influenced by the activities was found to be dependent on participants’ level of culture tolerance, and vice versa. The project is found to set the foundation for good social networking possibilities and create good social capital, all great aspects for the purpose of peace building.