Entrepreneurial Goals: Development and Africapitalism in Ghanaian Soccer Academies (Africa and the Diaspora: History, Politics, Culture) (Hardcover)
The idea that the African private sector will generate economic prosperity and social wealth attracts attention in business and policy circles. Dubinsky’s ethnographic research offers an innovative theoretical approach by assessing three soccer academies through an Africapitalist prism. He demonstrates that these business endeavors realize many of the educational, financial, and community building ambitions of the region, while also exposing the contradictions of for-profit development initiatives that purport to reap collective social benefits.
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.
“Entrepreneurial Goals creates a new body of evidence on the relationship between African sport and society, a field of inquiry of growing significance. The author’s numerous interviews with Ghanaian coaches, staff workers, players, parents, fans, and others shed new light on the everyday operation of soccer training centers and their wider impact.”—Peter Alegi, Michigan State University
“A valuable contribution to the study of African football academies, their economic and educational viability, and their sustainability. Entrepreneurial Goals is also a lively narration of the friction between Africapitalism, development, and the broader economic and social realities of Ghana and Africa in general.”—Gerard Akindes, University of Salford
“A valuable contribution to the study of African football academies, their economic and educational viability, and their sustainability. Entrepreneurial Goals is also a lively narration of the friction between Africapitalism, development, and the broader economic and social realities of Ghana and Africa in general.”—Gerard Akindes, University of Salford