Abstract
Language barriers and limited formal connections between professional academic associations in Latin American and the rest of the world have hampered knowledge production and distribution on sports as social phenomena in Central and South America and the Caribbean. This fact brought together the editors of this collection in an effort to present research on the policy, organization, and management of sports in Latin America.
As the first English-language collection of articles on sport management in Latin America, the book presents substantial socio-political and historical information about the emergence and organization of sports in a range of Latin American countries. This information is useful for sociology of sport scholars seeking to expand their knowledge of sport on a continent that has been too long ignored in the field’s mainstream literature and in courses offered in the Northern hemisphere. Additionally, good sport management research often takes the form of applied sociology of sport.
The introductory chapter by the editors of Sport in Latin America is a valuable contribution in itself. Like most of the chapter authors, the editors provide readers with the social history needed to put Latin American sports into national, regional, and global perspectives. Each of the editors has a combination of academic and on-the-ground involvement in sports from a management perspective, and each is sensitive to sociological questions and issues. In discussing the place of sports in Latin America, they note that the failure of many national governments to effectively deal with current problems has “raised skepticism over the real value of . . . democratic institutions and, at the same time, [created] adverse sentiments among the population towards the spending (or overspending) governments have made in matters related to sport” (p. 3). The resulting tensions, including those associated with Brazil’s recent sponsorship of sport mega-events, are recognized and discussed in multiple chapters.
Overall, the authors come from an array of academic and management-related backgrounds, including sport management, Latin American Studies, sociology, law, and communications. Twenty of the thirty-two contributors are natives of Latin America, so most of the nineteen chapters provide “insider” perspectives on the connections between sports, society, and culture.
The chapters are grouped in four general sections: (1) the conceptual and analytical frameworks used in sport management research; (2) the connections between governments and sport policies; (3) the governance of sports and hosting events; and (4) the management and business development of football, which dominates the sport landscape in nearly all Latin American countries. The countries receiving direct attention in the chapters include Brazil, Cuba, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Argentina, Peru, and Chile.
Chapters cover multiple issues, including state and private sponsorship of sports, the emergence and sustainability of sport organizations in developing nations, the unique characteristics of management structures and sport policies in specific nations, the influence of the global commercialization of sports on national sport policies, sport labor migration within Latin America and between Latin America the rest of the world, sports and national and social identity, and tensions related to funding priorities, among other issues.
Readers learn that diversity characterizes Latin American cultures and national approaches to the organization and management of sports. There is no uniform model of government policy and support, and sports have been used as vehicles of colonialism and in anti-colonial nation-building projects. For example, football (soccer) was used to manufacture consent during colonization in certain regions and, more recently, has been culturally reincorporated into nation-building processes as people in nearly all Latin American countries seek political autonomy and separation from a colonial past.
A clear theme across the chapters is that sports have been and continue to be used as tools of public policy, and the organization of sports varies depending on policy perspectives and objectives and the resources that can be dedicated to sports. When success in international competitions is given priority, the funding for sport development and elite sports often draws resources away from other programs dedicated to the public good. For example, in his chapter “Public sector and sport development in Brazil,” Claudio M. Rocha notes that Brazil’s recent investment in elite sports is clearly based on the belief “that the performance of its athletes and teams in the sport mega-events has the potential to rebrand the country internationally” (p. 87).
Each of the chapters generally views the organization of sports from the top down through formally organized structures and associated policies and systems of support. This means that there is extensive information on government and NGO policies. Much of this information is descriptive rather than analytical, and critical analyses of sport policies and programs are in short supply.
A first book on sport policy, organization, and management in Latin American cannot cover all topics that many of us would like to see. On the one hand, there is an excellent chapter entitled “Latin American women and leadership in sports” by Rosa López de D’Amico, coordinator of the Research Center of Physical Education at the Universidad Pedagógica Experimental Liberador in Maracay, Venezuela, and longtime activist and advocate for women and girls in sports worldwide. On the other hand, there is no coverage of the ways that feminism is expressed in various countries or the ways that gender and sexual identity are treated in sports. Additionally, issues related to social class are covered only indirectly when funding for mass participation is discussed, and race/ethnicity is not a major topic in the chapters.
Thomas Carter’s chapter on “Labor migration, international politics and the governance of Latin American sport,” ties sport-related labor migration to national immigration policies and the influence of international sport federations and the commercial interests of corporations and other governing bodies in sports. After noting that “Latin America was formed through global migratory processes” (p. 136), he gives examples of how sports and politics merge in regulating the movement of players in and out of Latin American countries.
Overall, the chapters provide excellent coverage of the formal organization of sports but less than I wanted to see on sports played outside of institutionalized structures. Therefore, there is much information on elite sports and no discussions of folk games and general sport participation, which is a characteristic of sport management research generally.
Despite the fact that scholars in the sociology of sport will not find all that they want to know about sports in Latin America, this will be a “go to” source as we seek background information for our discussions of the continental implications of the 2014 FIFA Men’s World Cup and the 2016 Rio Olympic games. Students and instructors in courses on sport policy, global sports, and Latin American studies will benefit by keeping this book handy.
I closed Sport in Latin America wanting more information, despite the publisher’s page limits.For example, it would have been helpful had the editors written a brief afterword in which they identified priorities in a research agenda for future studies of sports and sport management in Latin America. In the meantime, this collection will serve as a good foundation for those undertaking those studies.