More than one way to play: The use of sport in international development/

Abstract (English)

Sport is increasingly used by the United Nations and national governments as a tool for "development" though the question of what and/or who is being developed is often left to be an assumed given. International development often focuses on marginalized and vulnerable populations and this paper ethnographicalluy explores one such case on the Pacific Coast of Colombia. The paper considers indigenous leaders willingness and desire to invite an NGO into their community to provide values-based sporting activities alongside the NGO officials whose own practices and values push them to persuade community leaders, members, and program participants to be part of this program. These questions and the ethnography that accompanies them are but one example from a multi-sited ethnographic project that has taken the author to various locations around the world over the past eight years in which sport-for-development projects are delivered to marginalized and vulnerable populations. This paper focuses on one case study regarding marginalized and indigenous responses to "modern" sport being introduced into communities and the repercussions and ramifications that seemingly innocuous children's play can have on larger questions of community, independence and identity.