Community, identity and contested notions of place: a study of Haitian recreational soccer players in the Dominican Republic

Abstract

Soccer is a sport not commonly associated with the Dominican Republic given the positioning of baseball as the national game. Yet, for some migrant groups in the country, such as those from Haiti, soccer plays an important part in their lives. Haitians have used soccer as a way to unite their communities and establish a sense of place. This paper assesses how these Haitian migrants use the game as a means of creating a community and developing a common focal point. Through participant observations and semi-structured interviews, this work may help us construct new understandings of the ways in which migrants use sport to assimilate to new surroundings and retain links to home.

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Notes

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21. Ibid., 4.

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38. Bale, Landscapes of Modern Sport.

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42. Relph, ‘Sense of Place’.

43. Adams, Hoelscher, and Till, Textures of Place.

44. Carter, Dyer, and Sharma, ‘Dis-placed Voices’; Cresswell, Place; Gaffney, Temples of the Earthbound Gods.

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53. Howard, Coloring the Nation.

54. Ibid.

55. Ibid., 33.

56. Ibid.

57. Goodwin, Global studies.

58. Augelli, ‘Nationalization of Dominican Borderlands’.

59. Howard, Coloring the Nation.

60. Ibid.

61. Ibid., 156.

62. Goodwin, Global studies.

63. Schiller and Fouron, ‘The Blood Remains Haitian’.

64. MacClancy, Sport, Identity and Ethnicity, 2.

65. Howard, Coloring the Nation.

66. Klein, ‘Progressive Ethnocentrism’.

67. Edensor, National Identity, Popular Culture and Everyday Life.

68. Howard, Coloring the Nation.

69. Wise, 'Maintaining Dominican Identity'.

70. Baller, ‘Transforming Urban Landscapes’.

71. Jenkins, Social Identity.

72. Harris and Parker, Sport and Social Identities.

73. Rose, ‘Place and Identity’.

74. MacClancy, Sport, Identity and Ethnicity.