Скачать или смотреть Ladislav Holy Lecture 2022 - Niko Besnier

NIKO BESNIER
University of Amsterdam, La Trobe University

The Sport Industries in the Neoliberal Age
and the Reconfiguration of Future in the Global South

Since the late 1980s, a constellation of social and political dynamics has placed the possibility of a professional career in sport front and center in how young men in the Global South see the future. In most world sports, the hope of a sport career invariably means migrating to the Global North, and migration to pursue a career in sport has emerged as the desirable alternative to migrating to escape poverty. However, the probability of success in this endeavor is infinitesimal: not only do many hopefuls fail to migrate at all, but if they do, they often end up in undesirable locations, where their presence may not be welcome and where they struggle to make ends meet, secure residence documents, and gain the talent recognition they seek. Young men are all too aware of the disproportionate imbalance between possibility and probability, and yet they persevere, raising the question of what motivates them to do so. The answer lies in large-scale structural dynamics that encourage a cruel optimism in the contemporary moment, particularly in the reconfiguration of the self through neoliberalism.