Sport, migration, and gender in the neoliberal age / edited by Niko Besnier, Domenica Gisella Calabrò, and Daniel Guinness.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Besnier, Niko, editor.

Calabrò, Domenica Gisella, editor.

Guinness, Daniel, 1984- editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sports--Economic aspects--Developing countries.

Sports.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 275 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York, New York : Routledge, [2021]

Summary:

"The intersection of sport, mobility, and gender gives a lens through which this collection of ethnographic chapters explore the effects of neoliberalism on the life projects of athletes in the Global South, examining gender relations, the dynamics of neoliberal sport and the way these redefine social relations. Neoliberalism has reconfigured the sport industries since the 1980s, as sport clubs and federations have now become for-profit businesses, in conjunction with television and sponsoring corporations. Neoliberal sport has had other important effects, which are rarely the object of attention: as the national economies of the Global South have collapsed under pressure from global capital, many young people dream of pursuing a sport career as an escape from poverty. But this elusive future is often located elsewhere, in the wealthy economies of the Global North that are able to support a sport infrastructure. The pursuit of this future has transformed kinship relations, social structures, and the subjectivities of people as they seek to take advantage of new global opportunities. This collection of rich ethnographies from diverse regions of the world, from Ghana to Finland and from China to Fiji, pulls the reader into the lives of young men and women who strive to migrate and break into professional sport to bring economic security to families, villages, and neighbourhoods. It shows that the ideals of neoliberal spread in surprising ways and how athletes' migrations provide a novel angle on the workings of neoliberalism around the world. This book will be of key interest to scholars in Gender Studies, Anthropology, Sport Studies and Migration Studies"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Title Page

Copyright Page

Table of contents

Figures

Contributors

Introduction

1 Sport, migration, and gender in the neoliberal age

Contextualizing global sport migrations

Sport migrations, gender, and social relations

The future is now: new ways of being and relating

Conclusion: sport, migration, and gender in the neoliberal age

Acknowledgements

References

Part I Neoliberal sport and social relations

2 Benevolent hosts, ungrateful guests: African footballers, hospitality and the sports business in Istanbul

African migration to Turkey

Brokerage revisited

Enjoyment or employment?

Benevolent hosts, ungrateful guests

The drama of Turkish multiculturalism

Notes

3 "This is business!": Ethiopian runners in a global marketplace

Two ideologies of "chance"

"Not a single word": The ideology of silent submission and deserving

Chasing chance

Small races, small money

"All Ethiopian females need a male pacemaker"

From conversion to adaptation

4 Labouring athletes, labouring mothers: Ethiopian women athletes' bodies at work

Production and reproduction, public and private

Running between the lines

Ethiopia's place in neoliberal sport

Going "outside"

Labours of love

5 From liberation to neoliberalism: Race, mobility, and masculinity in Caribbean cricket

Mobility and the changing meaning of Caribbean cricket

Trinidad, cricket leagues, and overseas athletes

Guyanese athletes in Trinidad: Material and symbolic possibilities beyond cricket

Foreignness and the valuation of Guyanese in Trinidad

Masculine anxiety and the "stealing" of Trinidadian women.

Guyanese cricketers return home: Aspirations and dreams reassessed

Conclusion: Caribbean cricket at multiple spatial and temporal scales

6 Friendship, respect, and success: Kenyan runners in Japan

Maendeleo: Neoliberal logics and communal worldview

Foundations of respect, friendship, and success

Knowing when to step back

Dreams of success

"Just shut up"

7 Neoliberalism, masculinity, and social mobility in Chinese tennis

State-supported sport and the neoliberal sport sector

The transnational tennis system, social mobility, and gender

Five male professional tennis players

Duelling sports developmental models and masculinities

Note

Part II Reconstituting subjectivities

8 Fijian Rugby wives and the gendering of globally mobile families

Rugby's construction of gendered spaces

The aspirations of rugby "wives"

Christian faith and sinful husbands

Creating new communities in France

Faith from the sidelines

9 The global warrior: Ma¯ori, rugby, and diasporic Indigeneity

Mobile athletes, global warriors, and Indigenous men

Voyages of resistance: Cultural continuity and adaptation

Behind the scene: Resentment and second chances

Loss of human capital

Becoming men

Invisible journeys towards recognition

The precarity of becoming

10 Being "The Best Ever": Contradictions of immobility and aspiration for boxers in Accra, Ghana

Aspiration and fantasy in global sporting industries

Boxing in Accra: Migration and mobility

Constructing masculinities

Masculinity and generosity

Virile masculinity: Giving and getting

Daniel, "T.B.E.".

Aspiration, masculinity, and (im)mobility

11 The dream is to leave: Imagining migration and mobility through sport in Senegal

Sport, hope, and the everyday production of the "future elsewhere"

Stuck in Dakar: An immobile footballer

Wrestling with mobility

"Fake wrestlers," visas, and anciennes gloires

Modou's departure

Athletic migration as entrepreneurial practice

12 "This is a business, not a charity": Football academies, political economy, and masculinity in Cameroon

Cameroon, football, and migration aspirations

"This is a business, not a charity": Buea Young Star FC

Producing "suffering" subjects

From "social development" to near bankruptcy: Unisport Limbe FC

Football academies: Between aspirations and economic transformations

13 Skating on thin ice: Young Finnish male hockey players' hopes in the neoliberal age

Whatever it takes!

Neoliberal configurations on ice

Investing in hockey mobilities: Local, national, and global routes

Hockey mobilities: Moving up, holding on, and moving out

Conclusion: Malleable and mobile hockey hopes

Epilogue

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-429-42327-6

0-429-75150-8

9780429423277

OCLC:

1191456407