How has sports influenced Caribbean development?

Answer 1

Historically, sport has been excluded from official and dominant notions of economic

development in the Caribbean. This paper attempts to account for this situation in terms of the

historical roles assigned to sport (1) in the polity as a source of nationalism and regionalism; (2)

in civil society as a conduit of moralism and normalism through the development of 'good'

character through notions of amateurism and the amateur-gentleman; (3) as a source of health

together with (4) the conception of sport as a form of "play" and "recreation" as opposed to work

and (5) the low academic value attached to the study of sport in the education system through

notions of "physical education" and extra-curricula activities. These related factors all represent

the colonial derived received or orthodox view of sport. As a result of this received view, the

present discourse on sport in the Caribbean is largely a pedantic and pathetic one driven primarily

by a quest for excitement and satisfying urges for pride, prestige, symbolic power and illusory

notions of unity that have done little to aid in its total development.