Globalisation, the 'academy' system and the migration of football labour in Ghana and baseball labour in the Dominican Republic
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Ulster
Department Name: Sch of Health Sciences
Abstract
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Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Paul Darby (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Darby P
(2010)
'Go Outside': The History, Economics and Geography of Ghanaian Football Labour Migration
in African Historical Review
Darby P
(2009)
Differing trajectories: football development and patterns of player migration in South Africa and Ghana
in Soccer & Society
Darby P
(2010)
Ethnographie des académies de football au Ghana Entre formation et commercialisation des jeunes joueurs
in Afrique contemporaine
Darby, P
(2014)
International Football Migration and Africa: Feet Drain or Feet Exchange?
in Panorama: Insights into Asian and European Affairs
Darby, P.
(2012)
Gain Versus Drains: Football Academies and the Export of Highly Skilled Ghanaian Football Labour
in The Brown Journal of World Affairs
Maguire, Joseph; Falcous, Mark
(2010)
Sport and Migration: Borders, Boundaries and Crossings
Nienke Van Der Meij (Author)
(2012)
The football academy system and internal migration of football talents in Ghana : opportunities and challenges
Paul Darby (Author)
(2011)
Future of African sports : economic development, migration and media
Paul Darby (author)
(2009)
Ghanaian football labour migration to Europe : preliminary observations
| Description | The findings of the project are both empirical and theoretical. The outputs to date have focused on addressing a series of predominantly empirical questions. Historical trends in the migration of Ghanaian football labour have been charted. The geographical patterning of these migrations have been accounted for. The push/pull dynamics underpinning these patterns have been uncovered with a focus on explaining the ways in which local conditions (social, economic, cultural, football related) have given rise to a pervasive desire on the part of aspiring professional football players to leave Ghana. The experiences of recruits to academies have also been outlined. The published outputs have also analysed the emergence of a 'system' of football academies in Ghana and this reveals considerable diversity in the types of academies that exist in the country. These range from foreign (European) owned; Ghanaian owned; philanthropic/charitable foundations; ad hoc, improvised academies that operate in Ghanaian football's 'informal economy'. The impact of academies on Ghanaian football and society has also been explored, revealing heterogeneous impacts. This empirical work has laid the foundations for a series of more theoretically oriented publications that are in preparation and planned. The empirical findings emerging from the project have been placed in an interdisciplinary theoretical framework (sociology of development/economic geography) that fuses Global Value Chain and Global Production Network (GPN) analyses of globalisation. The value of such an approach is both heuristic and analytical. It allows the structural features of football labour production in Ghana to be detailed, outlines the local, national and international contexts within which these features are embedded and maps the geography of the trade and how labour is distributed within the global football industry. Analytically, this approach avoids monolithic conceptualisations of power seen in many approaches to globalisation and offers significant promise in accounting for the ways in which the trade is both extractive, serving the interests of entities based in the developed world and at the same time, allows value to be accrued to a range of actors and stakeholders located in the developing world. The GPN approach to governance is particularly important in this latter regard and applied to the trade in Ghanaian football labour, it helps to demonstrate that power relations between local Ghanaian interests and global or at least European, sports entities are complex, multi-directional and manifest themselves in heterogeneous ways. This is not to suggest that Ghanaian football actors compete on an equal footing with their European counterparts and indeed, the power calculus within the trade in football labour remains skewed in favour of the latter. However, the insertion of Ghanaian's into key labour producing nodes in the trade and the emergence of ethical approaches to producing prospective football exports is evidence of less asymmetrical globalisation. The project findings also reveal similarities in the functioning of academies in Dominican baseball and Ghanaian football and in the transit of sports labour to the United States and Europe more generally. In our separate work on Dominican baseball and Ghanaian football academies, Klein and I are both employing the theoretical framework outlined above. The project will elicit comparative co-authored output in the near future. |
| Exploitation Route | It is anticipated that the findings of the project will continue to be publicly disseminated via the media and will continue to inform the development goals of the Right to Dream Academy and the Tamale Utrecht Football Academy. It is possible that the research may also contribute to or inform policy in terms of the regulation of football academies and/or sports labour igration more generally. The project has been useful in deepening public awareness and understanding of the migration of Ghanaian (and African) football labour to Europe. Selected findings of the project have been publicly disseminated through a number of media channels including Der Spiegel International (Germany), 6 April 2010: BBC World Service (UK), January 2010; NBC Sports (US), 2 December 2009; Radio 2000 (South Africa), 18 November 2009; Africa Past and Present podcast (US), 11 March 2009; Radio 4 (UK), 13 January 2008. This project was not aimed at making policy based interventions/impacts on sports labour migration. However, it has the capacity to influence and impact upon the production and distribution of football labour in the Ghanaian context. For example, in January 2011 I was invited to join the European Growth Forum of a prominent Ghanaian football academy (Right to Dream). This academy is a registered charity (No. 1108821) and seeks to use football to empower underprivileged children. The growth forum (and my contribution) is oriented around building on the developmental impact and reach of the academy in Ghana. Aspects of my published work and discussions with staff have also informed the philosophy of a recently established academy in Northern Ghana (Tamale Utrecht Football Academy). |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Healthcare,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Description | Beyond scientific impacts, the project has had a broader social impact by deepening public awareness and understanding of the migration of Ghanaian (and African) football labour to Europe. Selected findings of the project have been publicly disseminated through a number of international media channels including: BBC Radio 4 (UK), 29 May 2011; NBC Sports (US), 5 July 2010; Der Spiegel International (Germany), 6 April 2010: BBC World Service (UK), January 2010; NBC Sports (US), 2 December 2009; Radio 2000 (South Africa), 18 November 2009; Africa Past and Present podcast (US), 11 March 2009; Radio 4 (UK), 13 January 2008. This project was not aimed at making policy based interventions/impacts on sports labour migration. However, in the application, it was noted that it had the potential to influence broader, on-going debates on the role of academies in sports labour migration. It remains to be seen whether the published work emanating from this study (and that planned) will influence international policy around sports related migration. However, it has the capacity to influence and impact upon the production and distribution of football labour in the Ghanaian context. For example, in January 2011 I was invited to join the European Growth Forum of a prominent Ghanaian football academy (Right to Dream). This academy is a registered charity (No. 1108821) and seeks to use football to empower underprivileged children. The growth forum (and my contribution) is oriented around building on the developmental impact and reach of the academy in Ghana. Aspects of my published work and discussions with staff have also informed the philosophy of a recently established academy in Northern Ghana (Tamale Utrecht Football Academy). |
| Sector | Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism |
| Impact Types | Cultural |
| Description | Ghanaian football labour migration : historical, economic and geographic dynamics |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Presented at an 'Africa and global sport' seminar. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Producing African football "commodities" : the case of Ghana |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Invited paper presented at International Conference on Globalization, Migration and Development: The Role of Football from a Transnational Perspective |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |