The Precarity of Masculinity : : Football, Pentecostalism, and Transnational Aspirations in Cameroon / / Uroš Kovač.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Berghahn Books Complete eBook-Package 2021
• VerfasserIn: Kovač, Uroš,
• Place / Publishing House: New York; , Oxford : : Berghahn Books, , [2022]; ©2022
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (220 p.)
• Other title: Frontmatter --; Contents --; Illustrations --; Preface --; Acknowledgments --; Introduction. Precarity, Spirituality, and Masculinities --; Chapter 1. Dreams of Mobility: Football between Politics, Economy, Spirituality, and Transnational Markets --; Chapter 2. “This Is a Business, Not a Charity”: Political and Moral Economy of Football and the Production of the Suffering Subject --; Chapter 3. Becoming Useful and Humble: Moral Masculinities in Uncertain Times --; Chapter 4. “Tapping the Power”: Ruptures and Continuities in the Spiritual World of Football --; Chapter 5. Anxious Athletes, Spiritual Wives: Football, Pentecostalism, and the Body --; Conclusion. Masculinities, Faith, and the Production of Aspiration --; References --; Index
• Format: Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
• ISBN: 9781789209280; 9783110997675
• DOI: 10.1515/9781789209280
• Access: restricted access
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: Uroš Kovač.

Since the 1990s, an increasing number of young men in Cameroon have aspired to play football as a career and a strategy to migrate abroad. Migration through the sport promises fulfillment of masculine dreams of sports stardom, as well as opportunities to earn a living that have been hollowed out by the country’s long economic stalemate. The aspiring footballers are increasingly turning to Pentecostal Christianity, which allows them to challenge common tropes of young men as stubborn and promiscuous, while also offering a moral and bodily regime that promises success despite the odds. Yet the transnational sports market is tough and unpredictable: it demands disciplined young bodies and introduces new forms of uncertainty. This book unpacks young Cameroonians' football dreams, Pentecostal faith, obligations to provide, and desires to migrate to highlight the precarity of masculinity in structurally adjusted Africa and neoliberal capitalism.