Community-Driven Sports Events as a Vehicle for Cultural Sustainability within the Context of Forced Migration: Lessons from the Amsterdam Futsal Tournament

Ramón Spaaij and Hebe Schaillée
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Ramón Spaaij: Institute for Health and Sport, Victoria University, P.O. Box 14428, Melbourne, Victoria 8001, Australia
Hebe Schaillée: Research Unit Sport & Society, Faculty of Physical Education and Physiotherapy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, Brussels 1050, Belgium

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 3, 1-14

Abstract: Participation in sport can act as a means or context for enhancing the social inclusion of migrants and refugees. Research has examined if and how mainstream sport organizations’ practices of engaging newly arrived migrants and refugees are effective in supporting participation in sustainable and culturally appropriate ways. Little is known, however, about the impact of community-driven sports events on sustainable participation by migrants and refugees. This paper examines this question with an analytical focus on community sustainability and the role of culture in sport event sustainability practices. The authors draw on ethnographic fieldwork with the Amsterdam Futsal Tournament (AFT), a sports event organized by Somali diaspora community members, to consider how event organizers and participants seek to promote cultural sustainability in a diaspora sport context. The fieldwork comprised 49 semi-structured interviews, participant observation before, during and after the event, and digital ethnography of event-related social media. The findings show the importance of cultural sustainability as a driver of community-driven sport sustainability practices, but also indicate how this driver is closely linked to addressing organizational and individual sustainability. The analysis demonstrates how the AFT can serve as a catalyst for the expansion of sport and community events among Somali diaspora communities.

Keywords: community sustainability; culture; sport participation; diaspora; refugees; migration; football (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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