Social Capital of Sports for Barcelona Citizens with a Disability at Municipal Sports Centres

Abstract

The objective of this article is to present the most significant ideas from a study conducted in 2015 by the Ethos Chair (Ramon Llull University). The base of this study were 70 interviews to men and women, aged between 16 and 65 years, with some kind of disability (mental disorder, physical disability, sensory disability –hearing impairment and visual impairment– or intellectual disability). Its qualitative nature allowed us to get to know subject’s perception of the impact of physical exercise on their level of social inclusion. Indeed, the point was to identify whether people with a disability can obtain moral and social benefits from their sports activity. Our research was inspired by the programme “Sport Includes” of the Barcelona Sports Institute. This proposal was developed in order to guarantee the human rights of people with a disability so that they have equal opportunities to practice sport as the other citizens. Its purpose is to make physical activity closer to all the groups in the city of Barcelona, with the aim of achieving a “normalized, inclusive, and healthy” society, watching over the needs of groups at risk of social exclusion.