The intrinsic value of self-organized sport and physical activity: a narrative review

In many populations, much of people's physical activity takes place outside clubs and organized competition, in self-organized forms that participants run themselves, from walking and strength training to skateboarding, parkour, and climbing. Policy and research tend to treat these forms as a residual category and to value them, when at all, for the same instrumental outcomes used to justify organized sport. This narrative review takes a different starting point and asks what is distinctively valuable about physical activity being self-organized. Its central argument is that the worth of these forms is bound up with the self-organizing itself. Because participants govern what they do, the activity directly supports autonomy, the basic psychological need most directly afforded by self-organizing, while mastery on one's own terms, self-expression and identity, meaning, and belonging are supported more variably. These qualities give the activity its intrinsic value, the worth it has as it is experienced, as distinct from the utility value used to justify public spending on it. Self-organization affords these qualities without guaranteeing them; whether they are realized depends on the character of the setting, the social relations within it, and the participant's access and social position. Autonomy and the immediate rewards of moving characterize the category broadly, while identity, meaning, and belonging are most fully realized in its social, scene-based forms. Drawing on research in physical activity, self-determination theory, the sociology of sport, and the philosophy of sport, the review synthesizes the evidence for each quality and distinguishes intrinsic value from intrinsic motivation. It then sets out why this value matters beyond the individual: self-organized physical activity is widespread, reaches people the organized system does not, and supports the motivation associated with lifelong participation. Evidence that qualifies the account is also weighed, including findings that participation reflects existing social position and that institutionalizing self-organized settings can erode their value. Recognizing this intrinsic value has implications for how the activity is provided for, measured, and prioritized, including provision that preserves autonomy rather than eroding it through formalization.