What was the role of sport, and especially the sport of baseball, for Caribbean communities in the Netherlands and the Caribbean in the 20th century? How did baseball bring people together and contribute to a sense of belonging of Dutch Caribbean migrants? And how did the sport and its culture function on a small postcolonial island state, like Curaçao?
In this research project, the social and cultural history of baseball in the Kingdom of the Netherlands takes center stage. Jan Bant analyzes how the sport of baseball has played a role in processes of belonging, as well as in processes of discrimination and exclusion. He also analyzes how baseball players from the Caribbean changed the Netherlands, and if we can speak of a process of 'creolizing' Europe.
This research project is part of the larger project Re/Presenting Europe.