Entrepreneurial Goals

Development and Africapitalism in Ghanaian Soccer Academies
Erscheinungsjahr 2022
ISBN: 978-0-299-33560-1
Verlag: University of Wisconsin Press

Buch, Englisch, 192 Seiten, Hardback, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm

Reihe: Africa and the Diaspora: History, Politics, Culture

The idea that the African private sector will generate economic prosperity and social wealth—an objective many governments and foreign charitable organizations have failed to achieve—continues to attract attention in business and policy circles. Yet little research has actually been conducted on Africapitalist endeavors. With the immense popularity of sports and the many aspirations they foster, the successes and shortcomings of soccer academies have kicked their way into the spotlight. Entrepreneurial Goals breaks away from studies that focus on the international relations consequences of soccer ventures, which are often rebuked as extended forms of European colonialism and exploitation of local talent, and instead centers Ghanaian establishments and the opportunities they create for local development within their surrounding communities.

Itamar Dubinsky’s extensive ethnographic research offers an innovative theoretical approach by assessing three institutions—Mandela Soccer Academy, Kumasi Sports Academy, and Unistar Soccer Academy—through an Africapitalist prism. He demonstrates that these business endeavors, when viewed from the perspective of local interests, realize many of the educational, financial, and community building ambitions of the region. This pioneering examination of locally owned academies in Ghana reflects Dubinsky’s aim of illuminating the entrepreneurs and programs whose success passes to participating youth and their families, while also exposing the contradictions of for-profit development initiatives that purport to reap collective social benefits.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Management Unternehmensführung
• Sozialwissenschaften Sport | Tourismus | Freizeit Sport Ballsportarten
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Afrikanische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Why Africapitalism?
- 2 The Emergence of Soccer Academies in Ghana
- 3 Becoming Africapitalists: Mandela Soccer Academy
- 4 Selling Soccer Dreams: Kumasi Sports Academy
- 5 Achieving Sustainability: Unistar Soccer Academy
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index

Über Autor(innen)

Itamar Dubinsky is a visiting assistant professor of history at Oregon State University. His research focuses on sport and development in Africa, specifically in Ghana, and the contemporary and historical intersections of sport and society, culture, politics, and economics.