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Abstract
We describe findings from a five-year participatory action research collaboration in predominantly African-American Atlanta neighbourhoods. The historic communities with whom we worked are located next to the 1992 Georgia Dome and the 2017 Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Drawing on interviews and participant observations, we outline the emergence of novel forms of ‘activist play’ that were mobilised to challenge the development of the 2017 stadium. This paper offers examples of local efforts to resist sport mega-development projects in the US South, where contemporary systems of development and displacement emulate the historical and global patterns of colonial infringement.
Acknowledgements
We thank Historic Westside Cultural Arts Center, Mother Moore and Tracy Bates for their leadership, patience and steadfast commitment to organising. The work presented here would not be possible without their partnership.
Notes
1. Jones, “A Level Playing Field?”; Bennett and Spirou, “Political Leadership and Stadium Development.”
2. Our use of ‘sport development’ refers to the building and financing of mega sport complexes, and projects focused on economic development and social and educational improvement that come in their wake. We use the term generally to enter into conversation with scholars of ‘sport for development and peace’ (SDP), also referred to as ‘sport-for-development’, ‘sport in development’ and ‘sport and development’, even as those areas of scholarship are more focused on understanding and critiquing sport programming as a mode of development. However, across both areas of inquiry – the financing and construction of sport stadia or sport-based initiatives to intervene in local economic and social conditions – the ‘policy and promise employ the language of development, [while] the bulk of the funds continue to be invested in sports’ (Kidd, ‘A New Social Movement’). These two sets of activities are entangled and we are offering an account of local efforts to confront part of a complex set of issues bound up with development, sports and ultimately local forms of power. See also: Hayhurst, Kay, and Chawansky, eds., Beyond Sport for Development and Peace.
3. Jones, “A Level Playing Field?”; Scherer et al., “Public Consultation and Stadium Developments.”
4. See, eg: Jones, “A Level Playing Field?”; Bennett and Spirou, “Political Leadership and Stadium Development”; Spaaij, “The Social Impact of Sport.”
5. Crabbe, “Getting to Know You,” 7.
6. Crabbe, “Getting to Know You”; Spaaij, “The Social Impact of Sport.”
7. Darnell and Hayhurst, “Hegemony, Postcolonialism and Sport-for-development.”
8. Darnell and Hayhurst, “Sport for Decolonization”; Darnell and Hayhurst, “De-colonising the Politics and Practice of Sport-for-development.”
9. Darnell and Hayhurst, “De-colonising the Politics and Practice of Sport-for-development.”
10. Mitchell, Colonising Egypt.
11. Jones, “A Level Playing Field?”; Scherer, “Resisting the World-class City”; Thornley, “Urban Regeneration and Sports Stadia.”
12. Sapotichne, “Rhetorical Strategy in Stadium Development Politics”; Scherer et al., “Public Consultation and Stadium Developments”; Scherer et al., “The Uses of an Inner-city Sport-for-development Program.”
13. Darnell, “Playing with Race”; Darnell and Hayhurst, “Hegemony, Postcolonialism and Sport-for-development”; Darnell and Hayhurst, “De-colonising the Politics and Practice of Sport-for-development.”
14. Brown-Nagin, Courage to Dissent, 289.
15. Grady-Willis, Challenging U.S. Apartheid, 114.
16. Bayor, Race and the Shaping of Twentieth-century Atlanta, 256.
17. Bayor, Race and the Shaping of Twentieth-Century Atlanta, 257.
18. Lewin, “Action Research and Minority Problems.”
19. McTaggart, Participatory Action Research; Rapoport, “Three Dilemmas in Action Research,” 3.
20. See: Le Dantec and Fox, “Strangers at the Gate”; Fox and Le Dantec, “Community Historians.”
21. Le Dantec and Fox, “Strangers at the Gate.”
22. Coakley and Pike, Sports in Society.
23. Moore, Interview with Kate Diedrick. A version of this interview was published as ‘System Change and Community Organizing: Mother Moore and Kate Diedrick,’ The Next System Project, December 4, 2015, https://thenextsystem.org/system-change-community-organizing.
24. Bates, Conversation with the authors.
25. Austell, Vine City/Domed Stadium Oral History Recordings.
26. Moore, Interview with Kate Diedrick.
27. On black women and political space, see: Isoke, Urban Black Women and the Politics of Resistance; On intersectional resistance, see: Brooks, Boycotts, Buses, and Passes; Springer, Still Lifting, Still Climbing.
28. Moore, Interview with Kate Diedrick.
29. Collins, Black Feminist Thought, 238.
30. Collins, Black Feminist Thought, 238.
31. Moore, Interview with Kate Diedrick.
32. Moore, Interview with Kate Diedrick.
33. Activist 1, Interview with Kate Diedrick and Tracy Bates.
34. Anonymous Resident 3, Interview with Terry Ross.
35. Jones, “A Level Playing Field?”
36. Moore, Interview with Kate Diedrick.
37. Organizer 1, Personal Correspondence with Kate Diedrick.
38. Anonymous Business Owner, Interview with Chuck Barlow.
39. Anonymous Resident 2, Interview with Kelly Brown.
40. Moore, Interview with Kate Diedrick.
41. Cynthia, Washington Park Neighborhood, Interview with Terry Ross.
42. Invest Atlanta, “Community Benefits Plan”; Leslie, “Plan for Benefits to Falcons Stadium Communities.”
43. Darnell and Hayhurst, “De-colonising the Politics and Practice of Sport-for-development.”
44. Moore, Interview with Kate Diedrick.
45. Leslie, “Plan for Benefits to Falcons Stadium Communities.”
46. Coakley and Souza, “Sport Mega-events.”
47. Darnell and Hayhurst, “Sport for Decolonization,” 189.
48. Scherer et al., “The Uses of an Inner-city Sport-for-development Program.”
49. Darnell and Hayhurst, “Sport for Decolonization.”