Understanding society through sport
Purpose
Sport provides a platform for smaller or emerging countries to engage with more established powers, both in competition and in the realm of international politics. Soccer, specifically, has long served as a tool of international diplomacy.
Michelle Sikes is co-editing and contributing to a forthcoming book that explores how leaders in the Global South have strategically used soccer to assert and enhance their influence on the global stage. The trend of emerging powers leveraging sport to enhance their international standing is evident in recent men’s World Cups hosts, including South Africa, the first African nation to host the tournament, which used the 2010 event to rebrand itself in the post-apartheid era.
Background
Sikes specializes in the history of international sport, using sport as a lens to examine broader political, economic, and cultural dynamics, including race, gender and class. Her book Kenya's Running Women: A History (Michigan State University Press, December 2023) traces the evolving relationship between gender and sport and offers insights into how perceptions of women in athletics have shifted over time.
"Sport is for more than a contained physical competition. It is a cultural, political and transformative force that leaders in the Global South have harnessed to advance their goals."
Impact
The upcoming book on soccer and diplomacy will shed light on how nations outside Europe's traditional football powerhouses have used sport to assert their global presence. By challenging dominant narratives that have often overlooked the role of the sport in the Global South, this work will offer fresh insights into the impact of soccer on world history and events. Scholars, diplomats, and sports leaders alike will better understand how soccer has been leveraged around the world to achieve political and economic goals.
Project Details
Sikes’s work requires extensive analysis of archival materials, including government documents, letters, advertisements, maps, and charts. Her research frequently takes her to archives in nations such as Kenya and the UK that house essential records, while also conducting interviews and immersing herself in regions that offer valuable context for her writing and analysis.
For her book Kenya’s Running Women, she lived in the Great Rift Valley, one of the world’s premier distance running hubs, where she trained alongside elite runners and interviewed the trailblazing women who formed the pioneer generation of female athletes competing internationally at the Olympics, Commonwealth Games and other major events.
Collaborators
Co-editors: Michelle Sikes, Associate Professor of Kinesiology and African Studies, Penn State, and Heather L. Dichter, Associate Professor of Sport Management and Sport History, De Montfort University