In Foreign Fields
The Politics and Experiences of Transnational Sport Migration
This book examines the lives, decisions and challenges faced by transnational sport migrants - those professionals working in the sports industry who cross borders as part of their professional lives.
Despite a great deal of romance surrounding international celebrity athletes, the vast majority of transnational sport migrants - players, journalists, coaches, administrators and medical personnel - toil far away from the limelight. Thomas F. Carter traces their lives, routes and experiences, documenting their travels and travails.
He argues that far from the ease of mobility that celebrity sports stars enjoy, the vast majority of transnational sports migrants make huge sacrifices and labour under political restrictions, often enforced by sport's governing bodies.
Despite a great deal of romance surrounding international celebrity athletes, the vast majority of transnational sport migrants - players, journalists, coaches, administrators and medical personnel - toil far away from the limelight. Thomas F. Carter traces their lives, routes and experiences, documenting their travels and travails.
He argues that far from the ease of mobility that celebrity sports stars enjoy, the vast majority of transnational sports migrants make huge sacrifices and labour under political restrictions, often enforced by sport's governing bodies.
Thomas F. Carter is Principal Lecturer in Anthropology and Sport at the University of Brighton. He is the author of The Quality of Home Runs: The Passion, Politics and Language of Cuban Baseball (Duke University Press, 2008) and In Foreign Fields (Pluto, 2011).
'This is a remarkable book. Combining vivid prose with shrewd analysis, he follows the lives and labour of both elite and lesser-known players' - Simon Coleman, Chancellor Jackman Chaired Professor, University of Toronto, and co-editor of The Discipline of Leisure
'Based on more than a decade of ethnographic research in a wide variety of locations, this book make an enormous contribution to the anthropological study of sport' - Alan Bairner, Professor of Sport and Social Theory at Loughborough University, author of Sport, Nationalism, and Globalization (2001)
'Timely, innovative and provocative' - Noel Dyck, Professor of Social Anthropology at Simon Fraser University and co-editor of Claiming Individuality: The Politics of Cultural Distinction (Pluto, 2006)
Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction: Sowing Transnational Fields
1. Routes and Strategies of Transnational Migration
2. Striding Across Fields of Global Sport
3. Tensions of Sovereignty and Citizenship
4. NEOsport and the Production of Transnational Sport Migrants
5. Family Matters: Negotiating the Risks and Costs of Mobility
6. Illegal Motion: Undocumented Migration and the Production of Illegality
Concluding Remarks: Experiencing the Politics of Transnational Migration
Works Cited
Media Sources
Index
Preface
Introduction: Sowing Transnational Fields
1. Routes and Strategies of Transnational Migration
2. Striding Across Fields of Global Sport
3. Tensions of Sovereignty and Citizenship
4. NEOsport and the Production of Transnational Sport Migrants
5. Family Matters: Negotiating the Risks and Costs of Mobility
6. Illegal Motion: Undocumented Migration and the Production of Illegality
Concluding Remarks: Experiencing the Politics of Transnational Migration
Works Cited
Media Sources
Index
Published by Pluto Press in Jul 2011
eBook ISBN: 9781783713806
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