Abstract Sports clubs are often perceived as important mediums for social integration, but the empirical evidence to support this claim is limited. This article sets out to identify individual and organisational characteristics that are conducive to social integration of members and volunteers. Drawing on survey data from 13,000 members and volunteers in ten European countries, an exploratory factor analysis identified three dimensions of social integration. They match the overall conceptual distinction between socio-cultural and socio-affective integration and the sub-division of socio-affective integration into ‘interaction’ and ‘identification’. Multilevel regression analyses examined the relevance of individual-level variables (social background, club affiliation and participation as well as practiced sports activities) and organisational-level variables (management and structural characteristics) for the three dimensions of social integration. Empirical analyses revealed that the individual-level variables, especially affiliation and participation in the sports club (e.g. the number of years connected to the club, the frequency of sports and competition participation, the team/group size as well as volunteering), had explanatory power, while the organisational-level variables (management and structural characteristics) mainly showed weak correlations. With little variation at the country level and relatively consistent results across the three dimensions of social integration, the results indicate that it is mainly the same individual and organisational characteristics that are conducive to social integration in sports clubs.

中文翻译：

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体育俱乐部的社会融合：欧洲背景下的个人和组织因素

摘要 体育俱乐部通常被视为社会融合的重要媒介，但支持这一主张的经验证据是有限的。本文着手确定有利于成员和志愿者社会融合的个人和组织特征。利用来自十个欧洲国家的 13,000 名成员和志愿者的调查数据，探索性因素分析确定了社会融合的三个维度。它们与社会文化和社会情感整合之间的总体概念区别以及社会情感整合细分为“互动”和“认同”相匹配。多层次回归分析检查了个人层次变量（社会背景、俱乐部隶属关系和参与以及实践的体育活动）和组织层面的变量（管理和结构特征），用于社会融合的三个维度。实证分析表明，个人层面的变量，尤其是从属关系和体育俱乐部的参与度（例如与俱乐部相关的年数、体育和比赛参与的频率、团队/团体规模以及志愿服务）具有解释性权力，而组织层面的变量（管理和结构特征）主要表现出弱相关性。国家层面的差异很小，社会融合三个维度的结果相对一致，