Abstract
This study was designed to clarify how a “comprehensive community sports club” (referred to as sports club hereafter) was established by explanation and persuasion through conversations during the fostering phases. Fieldwork and the collection of conversation data was performed at 14 meetings held during the period from April 9, 2003 to November 6, 2003, in “A” district of Kiryu city in Gunma prefecture. The fieldnotes used can be described as sketches with simultaneous notes inserted. The conversation data collected were transformed into open coding and focused coding, and then analytic categories were selected. As a result, a core category, “justification for the sports club”, and five constituent categories, “preferential use of a public institution”, “superiority over existing sport club”, “making full use of community centers”, “application of members' social positions”, and “conventions of the local inhabitants” were formed. The members who participated in the meetings attempted to justify the establishment of the sports club in this district by discussing and utilizing the above categories.
