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Youth and Sport for Development

The Seduction of Football in Liberia

Palgrave Macmillan

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiv
  2. Richie

    • Holly Collison
    Pages 45-53
  3. Becoming Somebody: Escaping from Youthhood

    • Holly Collison
    Pages 127-165
  4. Creating a New Community

    • Holly Collison
    Pages 167-197
  5. The Seduction of Football

    • Holly Collison
    Pages 199-225
  6. Back Matter

    Pages 227-241

About this book

Processes of development concerning reconciliation, rehabilitation and peace-building have become a central theme for global organizations tasked with intervening in broken and divided societies after violent conflicts. What can reunite populations divided by war and violence whilst attempting to build a peaceful civil society? This book considers the impact and value of sport, notably football, towards achieving this goal.

Using extensive fieldwork from Liberia, Collison highlights the multiple and diverse stakeholders and actors aligning themselves with ‘Sport for Development and Peace’ interventions. By unpacking and conceptualising the ambiguous terminology, complex social effects and the lived experience of SDP, this book draw upon participant voices and the author’s own lived experience within SDP to gain symbolic understandings of culture, identity and the formal and informal social structures in which participants and interventions operate.         

Collison identifies that SDP has become fashionable within development agendas but it remains an aspirational image, a notion of seduction, rather than a tested method of reintegration and youth development in post-conflict environments. Youth and Sport for Development questions the assumptions of SDP rhetoric and programs, and traces the effects of football - the favoured vehicle of SDP- on youth in post-conflict Liberia. Examining three core themes: post-conflict development, youth and community, this book centralises the narratives of young football players in Liberia and will appeal to scholars across Anthropology, Sociology, Sports Studies, Politics and Development. 

Authors and Affiliations

  • School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sci, Loughborough University, Leicestershire, United Kingdom

    Holly Collison

About the author

Holly Collison is a Research Associate at Loughborough University, UK. She has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Liberia, West Africa, examining urban youth and the use of football within Sport for Development and Peace projects. Her research interests include sport and international development, cultural studies, youth, notions of community, SDP and social anthropology. She is currently involved in a comparative research project examining the Sport for Development and Peace sector in multiple international locations. 

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access