Nature science is often the key point of studies concerning participation of sport. Studies like these are often initiated, because results through these kind of research projects can be measured easily and give objective results. These kinds of studies and the results of them are of great value in society because they for example can help prevent health diseases. One of the problems with these kind of studies is a lack of human science, which focuses on social dimensions concerning participation of sport including the fellowships which are created through this.

The purpose of this study is to clarify how a research project regarding exercise by handball is un-derstood by participants and which possibilities the participants are able to achieve other than physiological changes through their participation in the research project. We have been associated with a research project at Centre for Team Sport and Health (University of Copenhagen), where we followed a group of participants from late February until late April. Through our connection to this project we have been researching the potential changes of the participants through their participation in the research project. Our interest in this study has been to clarify the changes of the participants through the following methodical approaches: semi structured interview, non-participant directly observations and analysis of documents. The study has a social constructivist approach and a theoretical perspective with Etienne Wenger and his social theory of learning, where we have used the theoretical concepts Communities of Practice, Negotiation of Meaning and Legitimate Peripheral Participation.

Firstly we analyzed if we can say that a Community of Practice is present in the research project that we have been a part of. On the basis of the first analysis we made the rest of our analytic work. Subsequently we analyzed the negotiation of meaning of the participants. At first we analyzed their negotiation of meaning according to the beginning of their participation in the research project. Af-terwards we analyzed the change in their negotiation of meaning through the period. Lastly we ana-lyzed the positions of the participants in the Community of Practice and the change of their positions from the early state of their participation period to the end of the participation period.

Based on a theoretical demarcation we conclude through our analysis that a Community of Practice is present in the research project. In this Community of Practice the participants primarily negotiate their meaning in accordance to the potential physical developments which they can achieve through their participation in the research project. Especially in the end of the period we can conclude that the participants focused on the relational interactions which are established through their participation. Furthermore we can conclude that there is a correlation between the participants’ physical capacity and their negotiation of meaning in accordance to the social relations which arise through the participation in the research project.