Sport-for-development and the struggle for subaltern voices to be recognised: a response to Manley, Morgan and Atkinson

ABSTRACT

In their article entitled, ‘Mzungu!’: implications of identity, role formation and programme delivery in the sport for development movement, published in volume 8(3) of this journal, Manley, Morgan and Atkinson focus on constructions of volunteer identities using Goffman’s dramaturgical analysis of social interactions. Their empirical work is based on an international volunteering placement within the sport-for-development (SfD) sector in Zambia. The authors highlight social interactions between UK student volunteers and host country social actors as encounters that influence volunteer identity, role formation or identity disruption. We offer a response to their article with particular attention to critiquing the knowledge production and programme development approaches employed to undertake research among economically marginalised communities. We draw on postcolonial theory and Long’s actor-oriented approach to capture of alternative narratives in SfD research. To support our critical response to the limited application of the dramaturgical perspective by Manley et al., we further apply four of Goffman’s perspectives to analyse social establishments. By so doing, we bring to the fore social processes within which the agency of local social actors is neglected by Manley et al. Instead, the authors state their sampling limitations. We argue that it is the responsibility of privileged intellectuals in global North institutions to reach out to subaltern voices rather than resorting to stating limitations of sampling techniques. Such limitations simply extend the marginalisation of global South voices and exacerbate asymmetrical powers which enable those with resources to undertake SfD research to define the ‘other’.

KEYWORDS:

• Sport-for-development
• subaltern voice
• hegemony
• student volunteer
• dramaturgical perspective
• identity
• social interaction

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Ms Clare Barrell of UK Sport without whom this response would not have been possible. It is her that first brought the article by Manley, Morgan and Atkinson to the attention of the first author and she provided support during undertaking of the IDEALS evaluation. We would also like to thank the journal editors for their support throughout the review process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. We adopt sport-for-development (SfD) over development through sport (DtS), sport in development (SiD) and sport for social change (SfSC) to achieve consistency and given how renowned this terminology is among development agencies advocacy and policy documents.

2. International Inspiration (IN) is a UK charity that uses the power of sport to involve, inspire and impact young people around the world. It was established in 2013 after the merger of International Inspiration Foundation (IIF) and UK Sport’s International Development through Sport (IDS).

3. Notions of power in development are underpinned by access to resources and dependency of resource-poor communities on those with power. In the use of vertical and horizontal social interactions among stakeholders, we place those with resources as vertical partners and networks of recipient communities as horizontal partners.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Davies Banda

​Davies Banda is an academic based at University of Edinburgh's Moray House School of Education. His research areas of interest are sport policy, corporate social responsibility and international development.

Matthew Holmes

​Matthew Holmes is doctoral researcher at the University of Edinburgh. He conducts social scientific research on the use of sport to meet international development goals.