Running as a resource of hope? Voices from Eldoret

Abstract

There is a continuing debate about East African running success. Few studies have considered wealth as a key motivation behind wanting to run. This article focuses upon the motivations of Kenyan women who choose to participate in professional running and the impact on them, their families and wider communities. Much of the fieldwork for this study took place in and around the town of Eldoret. It encourages researchers interested in sport in Africa to develop a political economy approach to running and to critically evaluate the claims made for sport as a resource of hope. [L'entreprenariat en tant que ressource d'espoir? Des voix s'élèvent depuis Eldoret.] Il y a un débat qui se poursuit au sujet du succès dans l'émergence de l'Afrique de l'Est. Peu d'études ont considéré la richesse comme étant une motivation clé derrière le désir d'entreprendre. Cet article se concentre sur les motivations des femmes kenyanes qui choisissent de participer à la gestion d'entreprise et son impact sur elles, sur leurs familles et sur les communautés plus étendues. Une grande partie du travail sur le terrain et pour cette étude, a eu lieu dans et autour de la ville d'Eldoret. Il encourage les chercheurs qui s'intéressent au sport en Afrique à développer une approche d'économie politique à l'exécution et à l'évaluation critique des demandes formulées pour le sport en tant que ressource d'espoir. Mots-clés: courir au Kenya ; les femmes ; les chances de la vie ; les motivations ; les richesses ; les ressources

Development, Gender and Sport: Theorizing a Feminist Practice of the Capabilities Approach in Sport for Development

“…In broad strokes, the CA has been used in sport studies as a theoretical framework to explore, explain and promote positive social change (if not necessarily development). Jarvie and Sikes (2012), for example, drew on Sen's (1992;1999) comments regarding inequality to suggest that a capability lens may provide insight into the role that sport, and sporting experiences, have in the broader international development context. In turn, and more recently, the CA has been applied to the sub-field of SFD research, which is arguably more specific than social change and characterized by the intentional organization and mobilization of sport to meet development goals like gender empowerment, economic growth and health promotion.…”

Sport, Homelessness, and Capability: Voices from the Street

“…At the same time a small group of researchers have sought to introduce a CA approach to the analysis of sport for development (Darnell and Dao, 2017;Jarvie and Sikes, 2012;Rossi, 2015;Rossi and Jeanes, 2016;Suzuki, 2017;Svensson and Levine, 2017;Sikes and Jarvie, 2014). This body of work consists of a number of themes including: the development of running capabilities as a means of opening up social choices for Kenyan women runners (Jarvie and Sikes, 2012;Sikes and Jarvie, 2014); the idea that a person's capabilities can be improved through micro, meso and macro level social processes involving sport (Suzuki, 2017); advocating for the integration of sport for development and peace (SDP) and arguing that international development studies might be better served by critically deploying Nussbaum's articulation of CA (Darnell and Dao, 2017); suggesting that SDP might be provided with some normative direction if the area utilized a CA approach to frame the practice of SDP (Svensson and Levine, (2017) and finally Rossi (2015) has illustrated CA's utility value in analyzing indigenous sports programmes in Australia. Only a few of these contributions have reflected upon Sen's (2017) more recent intervention.…”

When celebrity athletes are ‘social movement entrepreneurs’: A study of the role of elite runners in run-for-peace events in post-conflict Kenya in 2008

“…Understanding the role of running in peace promotion in Kenya requires some appreciation of the meaning and recent history of running in Kenya more generally. While some of the people interviewed for our study discussed this topic (we report these findings later), it is important to acknowledge that there is a significant body of research focused on running in Kenya, with studies on Kenyan culture and running (Bale and Sang, 1996), the motivations of Kenyan runners (Jarvie and Sikes, 2012), and especially explanations for Kenyan dominance in international running (e.g. Bale and Sang, 1996; Finn, 2012; Onywera et al, 2006; Pitsiladis et al, 2004).…”

“…Although we are not concerned in this paper with explaining the success of Kenyan runners, we would be remiss not to offer at least a cursory outline of the extent to which Kenyan runners have dominated distance running in recent years and the meanings these successes are thought to have for many Kenyans. One of the oft-cited illustrations of this success are performances at the Men’s World Cross Country Championships, where Kenyans were champions every year from 1986 to 2011 except for 2004 and 2005 (Jarvie and Sikes, 2012; Larson, 2007). Since 2000, nine of 13 female Boston Marathon champions have been Kenyan.…”