From acceleration to resonance: reimagining Norwegian youth sport in a rapidly changing world

This paper explores how social acceleration is reshaping the structures, experiences, and meanings of youth sport in Norway. Drawing on Hartmut Rosa’s relational sociology, we examine how the intensification of training, professionalisation, and commercialisation reflects broader societal dynamics that increasingly prioritise optimisation, standardisation, and control. Through three illustrative case examples: (a) the institutional growth of sport schools; (b) the marketisation of youth football; and (c) the transformation of young athletes’ temporal and lived experiences, we examine how these changes contribute to emotional detachment, burnout, and a growing misalignment between sport institutions and the developmental needs and interests of young people. In response, we introduce Rosa’s concept of resonance as a diagnostic and normative framework. This perspective foregrounds relational, affective, and embodied engagement. Resonance, we argue, offers a compelling alternative to dominant acceleration logics, providing a conceptual anchor for youth sport policies, coach education, and institutional design. We conclude by outlining how resonance-based approaches can help reimagining youth sports as a more inclusive, sustainable, and meaningful practice—one that supports young athletes not just as performers, but as human beings moving and transforming through sport.