Eén voetbalclub voor iedereen

The gap between poorly educated and highly educated people is a long lasting ongoing debate in which scholars have come to different conclusions ranging from a widening of this gap to shrinking of it. In this thesis, various members of amateur soccer clubs have been interviewed, as both poorly educated and highly educated people frequent such places. Using in-depth interviews as a research method, I investigated the social networks of poorly educated and highly educated people in a small local Dutch community who frequent or have frequented amateur soccer clubs in order to examine the nature of the contacts between the two concerning groups and what factors influence these contacts. Sports clubs in general are regarded as places that connect people regardless of their education level, and respondents in most cases did not experience any gap between themselves and others regarding their education level. However, the results also strongly depend on local and cultural factors. In general, the cultural and education level gap is more often felt among people living in large cities.