Work

Beyond the pitch: A study of Dutch Caribbean diasporic belonging through baseball and softball narratives in the Netherlands

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: This article examines how the baseball/softball field serves as a site for negotiating belonging among the Dutch Caribbean diaspora in the Netherlands. Drawing on a postcolonial framework and cultural studies, it showcases how Dutch Caribbean club members negotiate questions of identity, home, and belonging within the continental Dutch baseball and softball communities. Using a narrative analysis of 12 interviews and participant observations throughout July and September of 2024, across three different clubs in the Netherlands, the study shows that the baseball field is neither a space of standardized integration nor utopic diasporic homemaking, but rather a postcolonial contact zone where practices of belonging are negotiated through remembrance and quiet acts of support, even as structural inequalities endure. This study contributes to the scholarship of sport, diaspora, and belonging by centering the lived experiences of Dutch Caribbean sporting communities within a broader postcolonial Dutch context.

Source: International Review for the Sociology of Sport

DOI: 10.1177/10126902261492718

Authors: Lis Camelia, Arne van Lienden, Jacco van Sterkenburg, Manou Anselma, Agnes Elling

Institutions: Erasmus University Rotterdam, Mulier Institute

Language: English

Topic: Diaspora, migration, transnational identity

Subfield: Demography

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,650