I am really honoured to have the possibility to read and review this book, especially given the fact that I am actually in Colombia working with the sport for development (SFD) organization Tiempo de Juego. This academic reading and the fact that I am currently being involved in the fieldwork at the same time made me think a lot about social exclusion, sport policies and sport as a tool in SFD programmes. The book provides a very good overview of current research in which sport is considered to be the tool to achieve social and development aims.
The book is very well structured and the authors also openly describe their own biases when talking about their research and their origins as the Global North scholars with work experience from the whole world. In the introduction, three important questions are raised and the authors try to provide answers in the following chapters with conclusion in the final chapter that summarizes the previous and defines possible future research directions.
The opening chapters offer the insight into definition and evolution of the term ‘social exclusion’, the perception about the concept and the analysis of how it has spread around the world. Different approaches and definitions of ‘social exclusion’ are used and discussed. The authors encourage the shift from perceiving exclusion as the problem of the excluded to perceiving it as the problem of those who exclude. I found the discussion (ch. 2, 28–30) about the term ‘social exclusion’ and its transference to the condition of Global South countries very interesting. Authors quote different scholars who say that this transfer is possible, however there are others who say that is it not so easy, and that the conceptualization of social exclusion in the Global South is different from the Global North. Even though, I think that we should stop employing this division of the world, especially with the raising power of BRICS, I have to agree with the authors to a certain point. It is right that processes that lead to social exclusion in the countries of the Global South are not similar to those in the countries of the Global North. Especially, ‘civil and political rights, social recognition and human dignity, violence and personal security and global power relations’ (30) are those defined typical for the Global South countries different from the Global North. On the other side, I would like to argue that we should not put all the so called Global South countries into one box. The issues quoted above might be very different across the whole range of the Global South countries. The same applies to the Global North countries – there are huge differences in terms and processes of social exclusion, e.g. among USA, Eastern/Central, Western and Southern Europe. Therefore I ask: Would not it be useful for our future to stop the use of this Global South and Global North division? It is not mentioned as critique of the reviewed book but as a general guiding principle. I know that it is kind of very challenging question, but I dare to mention it here as it was coming back into my thoughts as I was reading this book. If we still use this division, don′t we just conserve the status quo?
The Chapter 3 comes with the description and historical overview of three different public sport policies (in the UK, Zambia and China). This serves as an insight into different national approaches of the use of sport and different actors involved – governments, municipalities and local and international NGOs. Here again, the authors identify differences between the countries of the Global North (UK) and the Global South (China and Zambia). I would like to mention again that the differences in social and sport policies within the two selected so called Global South countries mentioned in this chapter are also huge from my point of view.
I very much appreciate that the authors try to avoid the Eurocentric perception of the world. However, I think that sometimes there is too much generalization (which on the other hand, I acknowledge, is needed in the academia). It seems to me that taking Zambia as the representative country of the Global South could be misleading as the differences within the countries of the Global South are also considerable.
In the Chapter 4, the attention shifts to the mechanisms of social exclusion within sport. Authors describe the processes that lead to exclusion within sport participation. Here, no explicit connection to the definitions of social exclusion from Chapter 2 is provided. Nevertheless, authors give a very deep analysis of mechanisms of social exclusion broken down into two main domains – structural and sociocultural. I very much appreciate the concrete examples of social exclusion provided in this chapter. The Zambian case (women playing football) is analysed in details and the authors found that some of the problems are similar to those that women have in the Global North. At the conclusion of the chapter, the gender problematics and differences between North and South are discussed. Here, I have to agree with the authors, the North/South division probably still makes sense.
The main body of the whole book (Chapters 5–8) is based on the authors’ own research carried out in different geographical areas covering all continents (except Asia) and tackling various social issues. Authors opt mainly for the qualitative research and also give short overview of the methodologies. Each chapter has an introduction to a specific area of the use of sport and is concluded by challenges and limitations of the case studies provided while concluding critical reflections which, I believe, are creating added academic value to the whole book. I see these final reflections as important linkage between grassroots practice and the academia.
The Chapter 5 tackles the use of sport in connection to mental health problems (UK) and to worklessness (Netherlands). Authors’ most important conclusion is that the use of sport can be successful concerning the personal development and better feeling of the participant but is not contributing to structural changes in the society. The authors come with the idea of ‘exclusive inclusion’ – when participants get out from their social exclusion but only within certain space which is very often shared by the people excluded in the same way. But is not that inherent for such sport programmes? Can the sport programmes achieve even something more? Shall they aim for more? There isn’t any simple answer to that.
The Chapter 6 focuses on the SFD movement. The introduction explains theoretical approaches to the SFD organizations working in the field. Further, it discusses the impacts of the SFD programmes in Brazil (Luta Pela Paz and Vencer) and Zambia (EduSport and Sport in Action). These impacts are mainly seen on individual and community levels as sports establish support networks. However, the structural problems of social exclusion are not addressed. Once more, ‘it is difficult to make a difference beyond the ground’ (121) as noted by one participant in Zambia, ‘Sport makes young people’s experiences of social exclusion more bearable rather than actually addressing aspects of exclusion’ (119). Knowing all the critiques raised by different scholars (e.g. Coalter, Darnell and others), I am asking here if sport can do more? What could be the right way in which SFD NGOs should address these issues? Are they the right actors and do they have tools/knowledge to do so? Isn’t there a gap between academia and grassroots practices? How can we bridge it?
The Chapter 7 represents a deep personal case study of one of the authors (Magee) and his own experience in working with homeless people in the UK and preparing them for the Homeless World Cup. Here, Magee shares his personal filed notes and I find this very profound and human. In his case, the professional FIFA coach encounters the excluded homeless people. It is extraordinary to read what happens and how Magee changes his perception, working culture and becomes a community coach. On p. 135 he concludes that ‘any future coaches working with excluded homeless individuals should receive professional training regarding how to deal with fragile individuals who are either still experiencing or recovering from mental illness or alcohol and substance abuse.’ The chapter makes me raise other questions, related to sport and development: Should all football coaches have the ‘community’ focus in their training curricula? Would it help to improve football itself?
The Chapter 8 focuses on creating inclusive sport communities for people with disabilities (UK) and for culturally and linguistically different groups (Australia). These two case studies describe the changes within the communities without the need of any external interfering power or intervention (e.g. Northern donor agency). The chapter builds upon the theories of community development and their application within the sport praxis. It nicely shows that changes are possible if they come from the bottom and are initiated by the participants themselves. Both cases are described in such a positive way that I had to ask myself: Was it really so easy to change the sport clubs culture? What were the possible obstacles that the communities had faced during the process? To what extend does the positive narrative of the authors reflect the real process of the community participation in the SFD activities? In order to emphasize the learning from their experience, I would personally appreciate more information in this regard.
Overall, the book structure enables the reader to discover different layers and details of the use of sport in social policies and in tackling development problems and contributes to critical thinking about, as Coalter says, the ‘magic box’ called sport. As you can see in the text above, while the book gives certain answers, it opens on the other hand another box full of difficult questions. Still, the mix of the former and the latter is quite well balanced and keeps the reader involved and interested while provoking questions about the topic from different perspectives.
Faculty of Science, Palacky University, Department of Development Studies, Olomouc,
The Czech Republic
[email protected]
© 2015, Simona Šafaříková
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2015.1093803