Athletes as Agents of Change: An Examination of Shifting Race Relations Within Women’s Netball in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Abstract

This study examines shifting race relations within one of South Africa’s most popular and fastest growing sports—women’s netball. Drawing on political opportunity and collective identity theories as articulated by social movement scholars, this article develops an analytical strategy to elucidate how athletes and sport administrators can serve as agents of social change. This analysis relies on interview, survey, and archival data collected during 1999 and 2000. The findings show that netball athletes and administrators are contributing to nation building in post-apartheid South Africa by constructing new collective identities across historical racial boundaries.

Taking South African sport seriously

“…During the 1990s, four important academic books on South African sport were published by historians Albert Grundlingh, André Odendaal and Burridge Spies (1995), David Black and John Nauright (1997), John Nauright (1998) and Douglas Booth (1998). After 2000, a number of academic books, chapters and ground breaking journal articles appeared primarily but not exclusively published by historians (see Hargreaves 2000;Desai et al 2002;Odendaal 2003;Alegi 2004;Gemmel 2004;Murray and Merrett 2004;Pelak 2005a;2005b;Merrett 2009;Desai 2010 andGrundlingh 2013). The 2010 FIFA World Cup proved to be a catalyst for a number of journal articles, special issues and edited book collections (see in particular Pillay, Tomlinson and Bass 2009; Alegi and Bolsmann 2010;2013;Cottle 2011).…”

Ethnicity, popular democratic movements and labour in Malaysia

“…They may seek to change how power relations were historically structured between opposing groups (e.g. race or class barriers), and develop new ways of relating to each other (Pelak, 2005). Many also invoke social media to negotiate the meaning of their identity with each other as well as with the public (Smith, 2013).…”

A qualitative case study examination of athlete ally using social movement theory.

“…Conversely, in Oregon, LGBT SMOs worked behind closed doors to create policy and influence legislation as the political actors were protagonists to LGBT SMOs. In sport, Pelak (2005) noted the postapartheid peace movement through netball. During apartheid, the African government instituted separate sport federations for Africans, Whites, Coloreds, and Asians (Booth, 1998).…”

“…Athlete Ally demonstrated how their frames existed in the cultural model of the U.S. in an obvious way: sport. Sport is clearly a large part of US culture and has shown to be a prominent vehicle for social change (Kaufman, 2008;Kaufman & Wolff, 2010;Pelak, 2002;Pelak, 2005;Wilson et al, 2015). Using sport as a way to put the social movement into context starts with the founder of the organization: Even when he [Hudson Taylor] talks to athletes, the idea that the key values in sport, he says, are essentially the values that we're arguing for as a social justice movement.…”

“…Finally, Athlete Ally utilizes sport to correspond with the cultural world. Sport being a prominent tool for social change (Kaufman, 2008;Kaufman & Wolff, 2010;Pelak, 2002;Pelak, 2005;Wilson et al, 2015) speaks to sport's cultural importance. As participants noted, sport reaches a large audience and can be utilized to reach a target market that otherwise would be non-responsive to Athlete Ally's frames.…”