33 research outputs found
Escape to victory: development, youth entrepreneurship and the migration of Ghanaian footballers
This article contributes to contemporary debates over the resourcefulness and entrepreneurialism of young people in the Global South by exploring the relationship between development and the migration of male youth within the football industry. Drawing on fieldwork in Accra, the paper reveals how young Ghanaians attempt to enact development as freedom through spatial mobility. Significantly, this is coupled with an awareness that their desired spatial mobility is difficult to attain, thereby inducing a sense of involuntary immobility. For some male youth, the solution to this predicament is to invest in their sporting bodily capital and become Foucauldian 'entrepreneurs of self' in the form of a professional footballer. Meanwhile for others, the solution to prevailing economic pressures is to embrace financial risk by becoming entrepreneurs in the form of football club owners, and attempting to profit from the movement of players. The interests of these two sets of entrepreneurs coalesce around the fact that the mobility of footballers is crucial to generating a return on their respective investments. It is argued that the construction of young Ghanaians as responsible for their future life chances, and the growing dissonance between aspirations and the ability to migrate, is a key reason why youth are trying to migrate through football. Problematically, this can foster conditions favourable for irregular migration
Better off at home? Rethinking responses to trafficked West African footballers in Europe
The association between the football industry and the trafficking of West African youth has captivated academic, media and political interest. This article uses football trafficking as a case study to think through the broader conception of mobile African male bodies in football migration and trafficking discourses. I contribute to and move beyond existing literature on African football migration by stepping away from structural approaches currently used to conceptualise this migratory process. This is achieved by bringing migrants' subjectivities to the fore, and in doing so I also provide a novel critique of policy responses to irregular football migration. The article draws on data obtained from migrants who left West Africa for Europe, exploring the journeys these would-be footballers took, and their trajectories and circumstances after arrival. The central argument is that existing policy responses frame irregular football migrants as being âbetter off at homeâ. Problematically this creates a tension as for many of these migrants their country of origin is precisely where they do not want to be. Consequently, many remain in destination countries illegally without any means of subsistence
Escape to victory: development, youth entrepreneurship and the migration of Ghanaian footballers
This article contributes to contemporary debates over the resourcefulness and entrepreneurialism of young people in the Global South by exploring the relationship between development and the migration of male youth within the football industry. Drawing on fieldwork in Accra, the paper reveals how young Ghanaians attempt to enact development as freedom through spatial mobility. Significantly, this is coupled with an awareness that their desired spatial mobility is difficult to attain, thereby inducing a sense of involuntary immobility. For some male youth, the solution to this predicament is to invest in their sporting bodily capital and become Foucauldian 'entrepreneurs of self' in the form of a professional footballer. Meanwhile for others, the solution to prevailing economic pressures is to embrace financial risk by becoming entrepreneurs in the form of football club owners, and attempting to profit from the movement of players. The interests of these two sets of entrepreneurs coalesce around the fact that the mobility of footballers is crucial to generating a return on their respective investments. It is argued that the construction of young Ghanaians as responsible for their future life chances, and the growing dissonance between aspirations and the ability to migrate, is a key reason why youth are trying to migrate through football. Problematically, this can foster conditions favourable for irregular migration
You have to try your luck: male Ghanaian youth and the uncertainty of football migration
The
migration
of
male
African
youth
within
the
football
industry,
particularly
cases
involving
human
trafficking,
has
become
a
subject
of
academic
and
political
interest.
This
article
contributes
to
work
on
this
topic
and
to
literature
on
the
agency
of
youth
in
the
urban
Global
South
by
turning
the
academic
gaze
away
from
European
actors
and
settings,
and
towards
their
African
counterparts.
Drawing
upon
research
conducted
in
Ghana,
the
article
reveals
how
youth
perceive
migration
through
football
as
a
solution
to
the
socio-Ââeconomic
uncertainty
and
life
constraints
facing
them
in
neoliberal
Accra.
This
perception
is
tied
to
broader
representations
of
spatial
mobility
as
a
precursor
for
social
mobility.
Youth
attempt
to
achieve
spatial
mobility
through
football
by
âtrying
their
luckâ,
a
form
of
social
navigation
that
is
used
to
mediate
the
uncertainty
associated
with
this
strategy
for
realizing
spatial
change.
Through
illustrating
why
youth
want
to
be
spatially
mobile
and
how
they
attempt
to
do
so
through
football,
this
article
demonstrates
why
studies
of
African
football
migration
need
to
engage
better
with
how
conditions
inside
the
football
industry
interact
with
those
beyond
it
A social negotiation of hope: male West African youth, âwaithoodâ and the pursuit of social becoming through football
This paper examines the present-day perception among boys and young men in
West Africa that migration through football offers a way to achieve social standing
and improve oneâs life chances. More specifically, we use the case of aspirant young
Ghanaian footballers as a lens to qualify recent conceptualizations of African youth,
such as âwaithoodâ, which have a tendency to overlook the multifarious attempts and
visions of young people on the continent to overcome social immobility. Drawing on
various and long-term ethnographic fieldwork among footballers in urban southern
Ghana between 2010 and 2016, we argue that young peopleâs efforts to make it
abroad and âbecome a somebodyâ through football is not merely an individual
fantasy; it is rather a social negotiation of hope. It is this collective practice among a
large cohort of young males â realistic or not â which qualifies conceptualizations of
youth transitions such as âwaithoodâ. By this, we highlight how examining the
contemporary fusion of sport with a desire to migrate furthers our understandings of
social mobility for West African youth, and extends literature on the strategies used
by young people in the region as they try to bypass the structural barriers blocking
their path to âbecoming a somebodyâ
Reforming a university during political transformation: a case study of Yangon University in Myanmar
Since 2010, Myanmar has been transitioning from an authoritarian military regime towards a parliamentary democracy. Several education policies have been launched as part of this political transformation process, including the reform of Myanmarâs flagship higher education institution, Yangon University. This article investigates the reform of Yangon University. Through so doing, we examine a key node in Myanmarâs higher education system, and contribute to academic debates over higher education reforms in countries undergoing political transformations. The article draws on qualitative data obtained from stakeholders involved in the reform of Yangon University, and uses Arnhold et al.âs âeducational reconstruction frameworkâ to conceptualize the reform process. It is argued that while improvements have been made to the physical infrastructure, there has been a failure to consider the ideological and psychological reconstruction of the university, which staff and students alike deem essential to transforming long standing authoritarian practices, and creating a constructive learning environment
Migration, housing and attachment in urban gold mining settlements
Mining settlements are typically portrayed as either consisting of purpose-built housing constructed by mining companies to house their workers, or as temporary makeshift shelters built by miners working informally and inhabited by male migrants who live dangerously and develop little attachment to these places. This paper contributes to these debates on the social and material dynamics occurring in mining settlements, focussing on those with urban rather than rural characteristics, by highlighting how misconceived these archetypal portrayals are in the Ghanaian context. Drawing on qualitative data collected in three mining settlements, we explore who is moving to and living in the mining towns, who is building houses, and how attachments to place develop socio-temporally. Through doing so, the paper provides original insights on the heterogenous nature of mining settlements, which are
found to be home to a wide range of people engaged in diverse activities. Mining settlements and their attendant social dynamics are shown to evolve in differing ways, depending on the type of mining taking place and the length of time the mines have been in operation. Significantly, we
illustrate how contrary to popular understandings of incomers to mining settlements as nomadic opportunists, migrants often aspire to build their own houses and establish a family, which promotes their attachment to these settlements and their desire to remain. These insights further scholarship on the social and material configuration of mining settlements and feed into the revival of interest in small and intermediate urban settlements
Youth in motion: spatialising youth movement(s) in the social sciences
âYouth in Motion: Spatialising Youth Movement(s) in the Social Sciencesâ was a one-day interdisciplinary
workshop convened by the University College London (UCL) Youth Geographies
Research Group on Thursday 16 June 2011. The workshop attracted an international audience
with participants from institutions in France, Finland, Italy, Canada and Australia, as well as
around the UK. Although all attendees worked with youth in an academic context, many were
also experienced youth work practitioners. Our primary objective was to provide an opportunity
for social scientists working with youth in a diverse range of disciplinary contexts to consider how
research accommodates the notion of movement(s) when exploring the spaces, places and everyday
experiences of young lives. In this brief report, we aim to present some of the key themes that
emerged over the course of the workshop and connect these with recent work asking âwhere
next?â for geographical research with youth..
Spatial and social transformations in a secondary city: the role of mobility in Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana
Existing research on urban Ghana mainly focuses on processes occurring within the countryâs major cities, thereby reproducing a trend within the social sciences to overlook the role of intermediate and secondary cities. This paper aims to address this shortcoming by exploring spatial and social transformations in Sekondi-Takoradi, one of Ghanaâs secondary cities and the metropolitan area serving the regionâs emerging rubber industries as well as the countryâs oil and gas economy. Using qualitative interviews conducted with residents in five of the cityâs neighbourhoods, and a modified version of Kaufmannâs typology of mobility, we examine migration into Sekondi-Takoradi, residential mobility within the city, and the daily mobility of the cityâs residents. The paper highlights how these diverse forms of mobility interact with processes taking place both within and outside Sekondi-Takoradi, most notably influencing and being influenced by livelihood strategies. It is argued that the city and its hinterlands can best be envisaged as a mobile networked whole, rather than consisting of disconnected and compartmentalised locales. The paper thus contributes to broader debates on how mobility shapes urbanisation by providing new empirical data
on events unfolding in Africaâs secondary cities, and extends existing research by providing a counter narrative to literature that examines the city and its surrounding rural areas separately
The divergence between acceptability of municipal services and urbanization in developing countries: insights from Accra and Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana
In most developing countries, the provision of municipal services and infrastructure invariably fails to match the pace and demands of urbanization. The outcome is often increased informality due to improper
planning, official bureaucratic barriers, and perhaps, insufficient and shrinking public resources, which then makes leveraging private capital for public service provision imperative. Drawing on in-depth qualitative
fieldwork in two Ghanaian cities this paper aims to extend literature on the divergence between service provision and urbanization in developing countries. More specifically, it attempts to qualify recent macro-level data
indicating that access to water, sanitation and electricity services in Accra and Sekondi-Takoradi are improving substantively. Contrary to dominant policy narratives circulating in Ghana, we illustrate how the acceptability of key municipal services within urban settings is often inadequate, and how acceptability is tied to spatial and temporal factors. We then identify and
examine the reasons underpinning these variations. Through exploring residentsâ perceptions of key services, and examining critically the possibility and feasibility of meeting urban service needs through
leveraging private resources, this paper contributes to broader academic debates over urban service provision, while also feeding into contemporary policy discussions concerning how to achieve several of the SDGs by 2030